I recently had a difficult political conversation with a couple of friends. While usually supporters of Democratic candidates, they emphatically proclaimed that they would not vote for Biden for president next year. But, neither would they support Trump.

My friends indicated that they may not vote for president at all in the coming election. However, if they decided to vote, they were leaning toward Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for president, who is currently polling an impressive 22% in a three-way race with Biden and Trump.[1]

 I argued that not voting or supporting a third-party candidate would help Trump get elected. And a Trump second term would be a disaster for our country. Of course, it’s not a certainty that voting for a third-party candidate like Kennedy or perhaps Sen. Joe Manchin, if he decides to run, would boost Trump’s election chances. But can we take that chance?

In my mind, this is not about Biden’s age or whether or not we agree with some of his policies. What the 2024 election will really be about is whether the United States continues to be a democracy.

Every day Trump tells us loud and clear who he is and how he will rule our country if he regains the White House next year. The Washington Post noted Trump in his Veterans Day speech called his political enemies “vermin” and suggested that they pose a greater threat to the United States than countries such as Russia, China, or North Korea. It reminded the newspaper of dictators Hitler and Mussolini.[2]

The United States would become an authoritarian regime if Trump were elected. Michael Luttig, former conservative federal appeals judge and assistant White House counsel under President Reagan, asserted,  “I am more worried for America today than I was on January 6. … [Trump’s] election would be catastrophic for America’s democracy.”[3]

Here are just a few of what a second Trump presidency would look like:

First, Trump would break down legal restrictions and traditional protections against political interference and give the White House authority to install ideological allies throughout the federal government.[4] He intends to strip tens of thousands of career employees of their civil service protections, which would allow him to fire all government officials he considers disloyal to him and replace them with loyal lackeys.[5]

Second, Trump wants to undertake the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. He would end birthright citizenship, using an executive order that would introduce a legally untested interpretation of the 14th Amendment.[6] His White-nationalist policies would invoke new legal authorities to pursue mass expulsions and enlist the military to help carry them out.[7]

Third, Trump would crack down on gender-affirming care by declaring that hospitals and health care providers that offer transitional hormones or surgery no longer meet federal health and safety standards and will be blocked from receiving federal funds, including Medicaid and Medicare.[8]

Fourth, Trump would ramp up oil drilling on public lands and offer tax breaks to oil, gas, and coal producers. He would roll back Biden administration’s efforts to encourage the adoption of electric cars and reverse proposed new pollution limits. He would exit the Paris Climate Accords, end wind subsidies, and eliminate efficiency regulations imposed and proposed by the Biden administration.[9] Our efforts to fight climate change and save our planet would take a huge step backward.

And fifth, Trump has pledged to terminate the Department of Education. He would push the federal government to give funding preference to states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure and allow the direct election of school principals by parents. He also has said he would cut funding for any school that has a vaccine or mask mandate and will promote prayer in public schools.[10]

There’s much more. But who would stop him? The very conservative Supreme Court majority that he built during his first term? Don’t hold your breath. If you are thinking of not voting for Biden, you better think again. At this point, electing Biden is probably the only way we can be sure to keep Trump out of the White House.

Bruce Berlin

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

---

[1] https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3881

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/12/trump-rally-vermin-political-opponents/

[3] https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-has-big-plans-for-a-second-term-critics-say-they-pose-a-threat-to-democracy-203042124.html

[4] https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/16/politics/trump-agenda-second-term/index.html

[5] https://apnews.com/article/trump-policies-agenda-election-2024-second-term-d656d8f08629a8da14a65c4075545e0f

[6] Ibid.

[7] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/14/trump-mass-deportation-immigration-stephen-miller/

[8] https://apnews.com/article/trump-policies-agenda-election-2024-second-term-d656d8f08629a8da14a65c4075545e0f

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.