Without a doubt, 2024 promises to be one of the most challenging years in American history as the very survival of our democracy is at stake. The question each of us must ask ourselves is what am I willing to do now to save American democracy?
Donald Trump has clearly stated his authoritarian leanings. His autocratic positions mandate that he must be stopped from regaining the White House or it’s curtains for our democracy. For example:
- He intends to be a dictator on day one if he is elected.[1]
- He expects to use the federal government to punish critics and imprison opponents should he win a second term.[2]
- He plans to create a federal workforce that can be fired by the president at will and must follow his personal whims;[3] and
- He wants to pardon people convicted of federal crimes for their involvement in the January 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol.[4]
Defeating Trump and his autocratic agenda is critical. We cannot wait for Biden and the Democrats to take action. Nor can we count on the courts to find Trump guilty of undermining our democracy. Given Trump’s delaying tactics and the slow-moving legal process, there is at least a fair chance that the courts will not finally settle the ex-president’s legal culpability before November’s election.
It is up to us, the people who still believe in the Constitution, to step up and make sure that voters understand that the survival of our democracy is the central question in this year’s elections.
Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, put it this way:
My hope for 2024 is that the silent majority of Americans who still believe in freedom will stop wallowing in despair and waiting for the worst. Instead, these voters should rise up from their couches, get organized, and start taking action to save democracy now, and not 10 months and one week from now when it will be too late.
There needs to be an active, pro-democracy movement in the United States that is bigger, more visible, and more determined than the MAGA movement that seeks to destroy it. They should be organizing right now, crafting new messages, posting on TikTok, making themselves known, knocking on doors, registering every voter, and talking to—and listening to—millions of disillusioned young people.
We can enter a new year with high hopes, and not existential dread, but we have to remember that hopes only come true through action.[5]
Now is the time for all of us to take action. Write letters to the editor, register voters, connect with disillusioned youth, campaign door-to-door, attend town halls, primary debates, and political rallies, and talk with friends and neighbors.
We must make democracy the issue. If we don’t stop Trump, our voices and our votes will be crushed, and America will be changed forever. We must organize and act now before it’s too late.
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://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/trump-says-hell-be-a-dictator-on-day-one/676247/
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/05/trump-revenge-second-term/
[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/donald-trump-15-most-dangerous-statements/675970/
[4] Ibid.
[5] https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/save-democracy-in-2024
Breaking Big Money's Grip on America 