The United States is about to enter an abyss, and we may never crawl out of it. November 5, 2024, could very well mark America's last legitimate presidential election. I realized something was amiss when Donald Trump announced that his horde of MAGA followers should come and vote for him on election day because they would never have to vote again. I assumed it was an act of absolute bravura, that our former president, with his fake orange coif and curious orange complexion, was crowing to his cronies. Now I'm not so sure.
Trump failed at his first coup attempt in 2021. He had a fake elector scheme that didn't work because his vice president, Mike Pence, in an act of defying Trump, certified the actual count of each individual state.
Still, Trump persisted. He encouraged the Proud Boys and other white supremacists to raid the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to try to hang Mike Pence and bludgeon Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, so that he could continue to reside on Pennsylvania Avenue as the victim of a rigged election. Police officers were maimed in the assault and one would die from his wounds, but the Capitol held. It was Biden who won the presidency and was ratified that night as Congress returned to the Capitol, even though a number of Republicans, in danger of their lives a few hours before, still voted to ratify Trump.
But an aura of "illegitimacy" has surrounded Biden throughout his presidency, and still does. Trump has simply installed a virtual Oval Office at his Mar-a-Largo estate in Palm Beach, Florida. And to most of his followers, he remains the shadow president with orange hair and a brooding, petulant face. It doesn't matter how many times he's indicted, how many classified documents are scattered in the bathrooms and basement at Mar-a-Largo; Trump will never be tried for treason.
Project 2025
Sadly, it's not the Republican Party that created Trump; several of the Founding Fathers did. Though they never offered to "crown" George Washington as their king, they treated him like one. The newly formed American Congress would have gladly allowed Washington – himself a Founding Father – to remain in office for as long as he desired. But he stepped down in 1797 after two terms in office, fearing that if he remained as president it might lead to tyranny. It was the first instance of a peaceful transfer of the awesome power of the president. Trump hopes to subvert this. His not-so-secret wish is to retake the presidency and hold onto the Oval Office for life as America's first dictator.
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