In the nine and a half years since Donald Trump descended his golden escalator, he has come to define American politics for the worse. After announcing he candidacy for President he immediately characterized people coming from Mexico as rapists bringing drugs and crime. Though he did qualify that “some…are good people.” Once elected, his inaugural address painted a bleak picture of “American carnage” that seemed lifted from a dystopian novel. He framed his tough guy persona as the solution, famously stating: “I alone can fix it.”
One can only ratchet up the temperature so far before “very fine people” begin to march on Charlottesville, spewing antisemitism and carrying torches. Before encouraging anti-vax mobs to “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” leads to a foiled plot to kidnap and execute the governor. Before urging the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” and inviting your followers to a “Big protest in D.C. on Jan. 6. Be there, will be wild!” results in a seditious conspiracy to overturn the results of an election. Of course, Trump’s actions preceding the violent mob’s assault on our Capitol would lead to his second impeachment, the resignation of a dozen members of his staff, and a federal criminal indictment in D.C.
And since that time his rhetoric has only grown darker. In 2022 he called for the termination of the Constitution to potentially reinstate himself as President. He joked about the assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband. He referred to America as an “occupied country,” to Aurora Colorado as “invaded and conquered” and to the “bad genes” of migrants. He promised to seek retribution against his critics, at times suggesting the Justice Department or even the military would be used against “the enemy within,” referring to his political opponents. To Donald Trump, Jan. 6 is now “a day of love” and he speaks of those who stormed the Capitol using an inclusive “we.”
It’s really no surprise that his former Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, has called him a “threat to democracy,” or his former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, called him “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person in this country.” His first Defense Secretary, James Mattis, concurred with Milley. His former Chief of Staff, John Kelly, said Trump is “a person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.” In total, half his cabinet, including Vice President Pence—the people that watched him do the job for four years— are not endorsing him.
Trump’s third campaign for President is an intensified version of his first: the world is a scary place, and we need a strongman. But this time, the Supreme Court has said he is immune from prosecution for “official acts.” The adults in the room during his first term have all been replaced with a squad of opportunists and yes men riding his coattails. His allies have published Project 2025, a playbook aimed at consolidating power and edging the United States toward autocracy. We survived the first Trump term, and it ended with a violent mob storming the Capitol. Let’s not risk it again.
This democratic backsliding can only be defeated at the ballot box. I voted early last Saturday, and I voted for Kamala Harris.