No One Wants To Be Dictator For A Day

“He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.” This was the comment spoken back during early January 2019 by Crystal Minton and it sums up 100 percent why spome people had voted for Donald Trump and still continue to support him. Minton was working as a prison employee in Florida during the government shutdown at the time.

Aside from the fact that most of the people who hate government actually work for some form of it in one way of the other, just like Ron Swanson, Minton was expecting severe retribution from the Trump Administration. But that’s severe retribution on anyone but them. No, they were the good people who support him. Why would he hurt them? I mean, there’s people who actually think Trump dipped into his own money for the stimulus checks. Other people, I think thought Trump would reward them with money for voting against him. That’s why he was wanting the voter data back in 2017.

It’s impossible to tell how people vote without them telling you. And even then, do you really believe them? They might tell you they’re going to vote one way and then turn around and vote a different way. They’re not elected officials. Their votes aren’t publicly reported. That’s one of the benefits of our voting system is that you can still remain anonymous on how you voted.

In Georgia when I lived there, we used those booths you had to go into to flip small levers next to candidates’ name. In Oklahoma, we have to use paper ballets where he darken a box next to the candidate’s name. The ballot goes into a machine and there is stays until the voting ends at 7 p.m. and they tabulate all the votes. You can’t take pictures of people voting. You can take pictures of people standing in line to vote or to sign their name on the registry. The Oklahoma Press Association used one of my photos of someone signing as an OK way to take a picture. But after that, they are off limits as showing the ballots.

But who would ever believe Trump would play by the rules and obey the law? His comments during a recent interview with Sean Hannity make it sound like he’s going to be a dictator for only one day if re-elected. However, let’s be honest. He wants to be a dictator for life and the Republican Party are more than willing to allow him as long as they stay in power. Yet they should read their history books. Most dictators get rid of their “most loyal” people out of fear they will collude behind their backs to overthrow them. Just ask Nikita Krushnev. That’s why Fidel Castro and Kim Jung-un have gotten ride of their “most loyal” people. And since they’re wanting to ban history books, or change the material present in them, they’re more than likely not to know what happens.

For people who say, “I do my own research,” they seem to be unwilling to accept anything that doesn’t fit their beliefs and rationale. This isn’t like a New York Yankees fan being told to root for the Boston Red Sox in the playoffs when their team doesn’t advance. This is like a New York Yankees fans refusing to watch any other team even during the World Series because theirs isn’t in it. Then the Yankees fans storm a World Series game in hopes of doing violence to the other teams.

Trump supporters are just like them. They’re too pig-headed to realize that not everything is about them. People actually thought when Joe Biden was inaugurated, Trump was going to have him arrested. And that’s why the Republicans in Congress have begun this crazy impeachment inquiry into Biden. I’m not to thrilled with him myself, but given the alternative, I’d rather have in in the White House. I think the Presidency should be a boring position to have where you’re not really happy for the person in charge but you’re just glad the other person didn’t get elected.

Honestly, I don’t think neither Trump nor the Republican Party wanted him to be elected President in 2016. Trump was prepared to use his loss as a way to make more money. And the Republican Party led by then Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Sen. Mitch McConnell were going to spend the first two years of Hillary Clinton’s presidency making it difficult for her to do anything. Their goal was to wear her down and make her a one-term president. They could retake the Presidency in 2020 and have massive wins in the 2018 elections.

And then, it was just about 80,000 voters in a few key swing states that fucked it all up. The Republicans since Jan. 20, 2017 must’ve known there were problems when Trump immediately said he was going to take some time off. They thought if they surrounded him by a good cabinet that included Rex Tillerson and John F. Kelly, they’re wouldn’t be a problem. And there was Vice-President Mike Pence to help out when needed. Trump would eventually become Presidential when the job required him to. But as the old saying goes, “A leopard doesn’t change its spots.” And neither does a man in his mid-70s who’s never really had to be held accountable for much.

But by the 2018 election, it was apparent Trump had become a problem for them. They had managed to get conservative Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, basically denying Barack Obama the will to appoint his own Justice. Then, in a shady deal that didn’t help them. Justice Anthony Kennedy stepped down and Brett Kavanaugh replaced him. And it happened while the MeToo movement was in full swing. This all happened right before the 2018 election. It probably cost the Republicans some votes and elections as well.

The Democrats retook the House of Representatives and even conservatives in Oklahoma were smart enough to pass an initiative that made medical cannabis legal, something that surprised many people including former Gov. Mary Fallin, who like others, expected it to fail so there was no plan in place to implement it. This led to criticism that didn’t make Republicans too happy even in the one of the most conservative states. Kendra Horn, a Democrat was elected to Congress in the Oklahoma City district.

It’s apparent to anyone that the Republican Party may cease to exist if it loses the 2024 election. Most people are jumping to the Libertarian Party. But mainly, the conservative movement has run its course. Most Republicans in the 1940s used it as a way to criticize the New Deal polices of the Franklin Rooslevelt’s presidency. Harry S. Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were mostly center moderates with Truman being a conservative Democrat and Eisenhower a liberal Republican. The biggest threat to America was the spread of communism and socialism.

One of the smartest things Eisenhower did was to help put an end to the Korean War, or Korean Conflict depending on who you talk to. He knew it was pointless to send military troops all the way across the country to fight a civil war in southeast Asia. And while he never got along much with Gen. Douglas MacArthur, he knew he could use the animosity between MacArthure and Truman as a crutch to win over some Americans. Just FYI, Truman and Eisenhower didn’t like each other either and they notoriously snubbed the Trumans on a tea party event that had been set up prior to the inauguration.

Still it was nothing as bad as the intolerable hatred Trump has shown for Obama. I really do think he intends to imprison the Obamas, the Bidens and the Clintons for no other reason than that he can. Project 2025, more or less, instills a fascist authoritarian government. The conservative politicial movement has always been a pipeline to fascism. Once you start denying certain people money and access to programs, it just leads toward denying it for others as well.

Gay marriage could be outlawed and then interracial marraige is outlawed. Abortion is illegal in many states now but some states are looking to punish severely those who get them in other states. Missouri Republicans think women should get the death penalty. And even though it could lead to Kate Cox’s death, Texas doesn’t think she should have an abortion even though it’s a medical emergency. The repeal of Roe v. Wade has cost Republicans many elections and it’s likely they may just decide to repeal voting access and other forms of retributions.

And Trump views a re-election as a time of retribution. Sadly, some Americans are willing to support a President as long as they see people in chains and leg irons. But even most sad is most Americans don’t want to have to have a former President arrested and convicted of criminal activities. This has proven that Americans elected someone for the toppest position in the country who did illegal activity. And while some people will never believe Trump did anything wrong, it doesn’t mean that he didn’t. I mean, people still support O.J. Simpson, Bill Cosby and that one uncle or grandfather who was a child molestor.

This idea of retribution didn’t come suddenly. In many ways, Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan started it with their enemies list and ways to go after people they didn’t like (i.e. non-white people). But they implemented policies they knew even Democrats could get behind which was the case with cannabis and crack cocaine. And even liberals/leftists have something to say about someone sitting at home doing nothing expecting a government hand-out.

No, it wasn’t until George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton (thanks in part to how some people chose to support H. Ross Perot, a third party candidate), they went after Clinton with the election of Newt Gingrich to Speaker of the House. This was also helped by Russ Limbaugh and the rise of talk radio. It was the Republican Party that decided to impeach Clinton over perjury in regards to the affair he had with Monica Lewinksy. It was a shoddy move but all it did was waste government time and money.

And from that moment on, we seem to be tettering on point of no return. We shouldn’t go after political opponents. This type of Good Ole Boy tactics might have worked in the sticks and the boondocks. But on a national level, it was unheard of. You can turn ugly and negative in a political campaign. You can criticize their policies left and right. But going after someone just because they won an elected office was not only scraping the bottom of a barrel, it was digging the crud underneath from underneath the barrel.

I still find it ironic this all started to happen in the years following the end of the Cold War. Politicians spent half a century wanting to keep America from becoming the Soviet Union and they ended up starting on that same path. But there’s hope. The good news is most of the people who still continue to support Trump are older. And polls don’t mean a thing. Who really is answering a phone to take a poll? I’m not saying that all people of an older age support Trump. A lot of them don’t.

As you look around, you can see effects of the Trump Presidency to this day. The Covid-19 Pandemic is still a problem but it’s not as serious as it was three years ago. Trump will always be remembered for the ways his administration dropped the ball and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of lives. And seeing how protests following the murder of George Floyd led to protestors being fired on with tear gas in Washington, D.C. was a black eye for Trump as well.

And the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection coup attempt should be seen as a warning of things to come. Many Republicans in the House and Senate continue to downplay that day and Trump’s comments about being a dictator for a day as a joke. However, they need to think about this – a lot of people who stormed the Capitold didn’t care who was Republicans or Democrats. They were out for blood. And if a few Republicans get killed, that’s collateral damage. That’s why Sen. Markwayne Mullin cowered and why Sen. Josh Hawley ran away. They knew it didn’t matter. They were screwed if they stuck around.

If Project 2025 is implemented, expect more of this. Expect intimidation at the polls. Expect for states to nullify the votes in favor of who and what they want. Republicans are in the minority. They represent less people per population but through gerrymandering have made themselve more powerful. They want control. And as they begin a break before the holidays, they are wanting to begin an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. It accomplishes nothing but to give the President more negative press.

This comes as a jury decided Rudy Giuliani is ordered to pay $148 million in a federal civil trial against poll workers Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. Giuliani was the campaign attorney for Trump as he continued to spread the notion that the 2020 Election was stolen. This led to Moss and Freeman receiving death threats as the jury found him liable for defamation. He’s even said some of his statements were false.

This is what being a loyalist to Trump has proven. Implementing loyalists in positions for which they aren’t qualified will disrupt so many factors. Any logical attorney in the country wouldn’t support Trump and his delusions of grandeur that the election was stolen. Even if they are die-hard conservative Republicans, they know it doesn’t make sense. They know there’s that it’s impossible for there to be fraud on just one ballot office in only a few key states. It’s harder for Trump and Republicans to realize that people in Georgia, Arizona and Michigan all rejected Trump since he won each state in 2016.

A lot can change in four years. And that may be why Republicans are so adamant about Project 2025. A lot can also change in a year too. Just ask the elder Bush who finished 1991 thinking that a re-election was a shoo-in. Polls don’t mean a thing. Also, many Presidents who were easily re-elected had rough years. Not everything can always be mai tais and Yahtzee. You’re going to have a good day and a bad day even during the same week.

Honestly, I’m not supporting of Biden on many issues, mainly with Israel and Gaza. But I’m glad Trump isn’t in office at this time. It’s possible it would be World War III. Only this time, we’d be on the wrong side.

What do you think? Please comment.