Reflections/Jonathan Gramling
Fascist Takeover
I may sound paranoid by talking about a fascist takeover. But the reality of today’s political climate leads me to feel that it is possible. Never in my wildest dreams would I think this would be possible. After all, it was only about 85 years ago that my dad fought against fascism during World War II and no matter your political persuasion, you still stood up for the U.S. Constitution.
But the moves of the Trump administration show us that this is no longer so.
Last week, Trump declared that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were no longer welcome at the White House because of what he called “Fake News” reporting. What Trump was really tired of was reading about his countless political missteps and unconstitutional actions that get stopped in the courts, not to speak of then endless war with Iran and the increasing gas prices and inflation that are decimating the budgets of everyday Americans. He was tired of reading about how public opinion about him was the lowest it has ever been. So what does Trump do? He shoots the messenger.
Even a high school student who has studied government could see that this move clearly violated the U.S. Constitution. The free press has rights of access. Just about every lawyer and legal scholar were outraged by this action and said it was unconstitutional.
Now Trump has maintained for years that the Biden administration had “weaponized” different governmental institutions to investigate him and prosecute hum. Trump always maintained his innocence. After all, the law is what the king says it is.
Trump frequently telegraphs his intentions by claiming others exhibit the behavior that he intends to pursue. So when he accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing” the Dept. of Justice, everyone should have been putting their armor on for what Trump did to the Dept. of Justice. He weaponized it.
It all began with the Dept. of Justice prosecuting Trump’s perceived enemies, which was essentially anyone who said anything negative about it. It didn’t matter if there was any proof or not. Cases were thrown out of court due to a lack of proof or the DOJ attorneys not being legally in the positions they held. The law means nothing to Trump. It is only a tool to be used to promote his own interests,
So what happened when CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the Trump administration to get their press credentials back due to the blatantly unconstitutional move by Trump? When these news outlets sued Trump in federal court, what did DOJ say? They maintained that Trump was within his rights to block their coverage. Of course a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from preventing the news access.
The U.S. DOJ had sunk to a new low. It revealed itself to be nothing more than a political lackey and puppet to support Trump no matter what the law requires. And it is this type of situation that can lead to fascism.
During the last 6-8 months, Trump has tried every avenue he can for the federal court to take over state and local elections. With the DOJ actions, we know what that would mean: manipulation of voting totals to ensure that the Republicans maintain their majorities in the House and Senate.
Again when Trump claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, he is merely telegraphing that he would fix an election to benefit himself.
Trump has tried to obtain voter information from each state. While they claim it is to purge the voter rolls of people who voted illegally, in reality Trump would be deciding whose votes would be counted.
And then Trump is talking about sending federal agents, including ICE agents, to “monitor” local elections. Yeah sure. They would be assigned to voting stations in perceived Democratic areas and would intimidate voters and seize the ballots if things weren’t going the way that they wanted them to.
The NAACP has filed a suit in federal court to prevent this from happening. In a statement to their members, the NAACP stated:
“On Friday, the NAACP filed a groundbreaking federal lawsuit Against the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to block armed federal agents from intimidating voters at polling locations.
No voter should ever face the threat of armed law enforcement, surveillance, or harassment simply for exercising their constitutional right to vote.
The law is clear: federal agencies have no business policing voter eligibility or stationing armed agents where elections take place.”
I would expect the courts to side with the NAACP. The Trump administration has been testing legal boundaries in terms of simply ignoring court orders. My fear is that in spite of any court ruling, he will declared a national emergency and send the troops anyhow.
Is a fascist takeover coming? I pray not in my lifetime. While I feel I am too old to protest in the streets, these types of actions would bring me out of retirement. Oppose fascism and VOTE!