Nightmare on Constitution Avenue and Ammunition To Fight Back

Independence and Constitution Avenues are parallel streets at the U.S. Capitol. I went to bed early Tuesday night, worried how news outlets were always showing Trump ahead in the electoral vote count. States were being called with 0% of the vote in, or as little as 4%. I had a nightmare after falling asleep as sometimes happens. But a waking nightmare is even worse. Not only did Trump win the electoral vote, but also the popular vote. I never thought that could happen. Those people who voted for him will get what they deserve, and what they asked for. The rest of us will suffer for four years and beyond. Nazi Germany happening right here 85 years later. Trump's American Bund has been put in power. Predictions are the Republicans have a 52 majority in the Senate. Republicans are ahead in called races for the House of Representatives. If the Republicans produce the trifecta of the Presidency, Senate and House, you can kiss democracy goodbye. Sure, there will be occasional wins in the courts when the powers that be, try to do things that are unconstitutional. But there will be ones that the Supreme Court will endorse with their twisted logic. We need to use some of the Republican's tactics. We need to judge shop for liberal judges and districts, just like Republicans keep filing cases in the Texas U.S.District Court where there is only one judge in a division, Matthew Kacsmaryk. File a case there, and you know you're going to get the judge that wanted to ban the abortion drug Mifipristone in the whole United States. Bills have been introduced in the Senate and the House to prevent judge shopping in cases where they would have nationwide effects. But they have gone nowhere so far. So let's use their own tactic against them until we can't. Political action committees don't have to stop collecting money and putting out ads just because the election is over. For every time that Trump steps over the line, opponents can put out ads explaining why it's a bad idea. Every time the Supreme Court has to decide an issue, ads can be put out to recommend the right decision. Things that can be tried are Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's proposal for a binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court as well as the ideas of court expansion and term limits. All of these are on the under the prerogative of Congress. With the loss of the Senate to Republicans, these plans seem doomed to failure. But they have to be tried to keep our spirits up. Democracy dies in darkness, we must continually shine a light on the bad and wrong ideas. Winston Churchill said it best. "We will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender..." Liz Cheney, realizing that Trump had won the election, said that society must hold Trump in check. "Citizens across the country, our courts, members of the press and those serving in our federal, state and local governments must be the guardrails of democracy." Lofty ideals and hopes won't make it happen. Trump will see to that. Trump has promised to put those who oppose him and have opposed him, in the past, in jail, prosecuted, put to death, lose their licenses, have his mob attack them, use law enforcement, National Guard and the military to do his bidding against them. The guardrails are gone, Liz. Unlike the Republicans, we won't file hundreds of lawsuits contesting the validity of the elections in counties, congressional districts and states. Except for the Russian and other bad foreign actors and the bomb threat interference at polling and ballot counting locations, we know it was a free and fair election. We can still fight back against gerrymandering in congessional state and U.S. districts, and state senate voting areas. Republicans have been working the long game to make minority rule possible. It allowed them to get a Supreme Court majority to make decisions that the majority of the population oppose. Increasingly through gerrymandering, Republicans are controlling the governors, state senates and state houses, allowing draconian measures to pass that an informed populace would oppose. Prime example is Florida. Ron DeSantis has an iron fist control of what happens in his state with Republican control of the house and senate. He's behind their six week abortion ban. He signed the bill nicknamed "Don't Say Gay". Punishing Disney for supporting LBGQT+ rights, and opposing the law. A law that prevents school staffers from using preferred pronouns. Removing the requirement for a unanimous jury required for the death penalty. Signed a law that made it possible for him to run for president while he was governor. Concealed guns without a permit. Banned colleges from using state or federal funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The nicknamed Stop Woke Act, barring instruction in schools that teach about racism because it would make individuals feel guilty about their race being white. See how power can be easily abused? Now we're going to see it on a national level. Trump and his Agenda 47 and Project 2025 will be implemented over Democrat objections. People will be aghast when Trump starts following through with his promises and threats and then wonder how they could have elected a Hitler. Trump will start with "the enemy within". Government officials who have opposed or criticized him. Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, Gen. Mark Milley and a list that goes on far too long. Then he'll go after mainstream media, also known as fake news. Specifically he's going to go after Politico to force them to give up their secret source of the leaked release of the Dobbs decision. He'll use the power of the Justice Department to go after every news organization that ever made him look bad. When Trump signs the nationwide abortion ban, red ladies in blue states will realize they have to cope with the lack of health care for everything, as well as gynecological. When Trump starts deporting anyone with a Latino surname, they will ask themselves how they voted for a Hitler carrying out his Holocaust. Black men will be stopped on a massive basis by stop and frisk laws that allow police to do whatever they want without repercussions. George Floyd deaths every day of the week. Only then do they wonder why they voted for Trump. Puerto Ricans will smack themselves in the head for voting for a man who denigrates them and the island of their origin. Even more when he decides they're illegal immigrants, and ships them back to Puerto Rico, even though by law any Puerto Rican born after 1941 is by law a US citizen. The uncommitted will find their cause for the Gazans, Palestinians, and a Palestinian state gone bye, bye. Trump would tell the Israelis to go ahead and use tactical nuclear weapons when he realizes there is no end to a conventional war. Trump will stop aid going to Ukraine, even the amounts that have been authorized by Congress. Elon Musk will turn Starlink off over Ukraine so they can't target Russian positions and equipment. Putin will win. A democracy will die. Russia invades Poland. NATO has to retaliate. Trump causes WWIII with his buddies. Muslims will find themselves in concentration camps with no way out except death or deportation to a country that will kill them for opposing the regime. People who support book bans, as did Hitler, different subjects, same principle, will wonder why their ignorant children can't deal with the real world. Jews will find that while Trump espouses support for Israel, he still wants to kill "Soros" supported prosecutors, judges, lawmakers and organizations. It won't be long before it expands to actual Jews that voted for him as well as the ones who didn't. All women will find themselves designated as baby factories and kitchen help. The backlash that Asian Americans faced when Trump called Covid-19 the China virus will find it's only the beginning of their despair. When it wasn't already bad enough, he called it the Kung-Flu. He even attacked Mitch McConnell's wife, Elaine Chow, as Coco Chow. He's specifically attacked journalists of Chinese ancestry. One group in particular will have found that they made a bad choice voting for Trump. Native Americans. They complain about being ignored by democratic administrations with issues important to their communities. What they will find, however, is that Trump will continue the possibility of federal land grabs. As soon as oil is discovered underneath their land you can bet your bottom dollar he'll put oil companies in charge of the land. Oil and gas pipelines will criss-cross their tribal lands. If lithium is found on a reservation you can bet Trump will let mining companies do whatever they want and destroy the Native American reservation's water supply. Veterans of the US Military will find out that Trump definitely thinks of them as losers and suckers. Helping make Mr. Bone Spurs be Commander in Chief, is a big mistake. He will literally dance on Your grave, like he did it Arlington National Cemetary. For people with disabilities, Trump mocked a disabled reporter and doesn't want wounded veterans around him because they make him look bad. I don't want to give Trump any ideas he doesn't already have, but in Egypt, their identification cards show your chosen religion. Your only choices are Islam, Christianity, Judaism. Evangelicals and Christians of all types will find that their worship of Trump actually is a pact with the devil. Only the devil could break all Ten Commandments and get away with it. His ignorance of the Bible and the lessons it teaches is complete. All minorities will have to live with Trump's racism and "get over it", as Republicans say about gun violence. Trump's legacy will extend far into the future with an injustice system he leaves behind. Trump's only "friends" are white, Anglo-Saxon Christian men. Out of those, only the ones that kneel before him. Everyone else is fair game. Someone smarter than me will find more tools to fight back besides judge shopping and political action committees. Whoever you are, get to work.