“The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose.” – Barack Obama

By Glen Reaux

In light of Donald Trump’s recent deployment of his Gestapo to Portland and Chicago, when the constitutional violations of his actions are examined, “a clear and present danger becomes apparent.”  The danger stems from enemies to our democracy, both foreign and domestic such as Donald Trump, and the ongoing activities designed to prevent a free and open election.  Until the 2016 presidential election, never had a candidate openly declared that he would not accept the results of the election.  However, on Sunday, July 19th, Donald Trump once again assured the American people that he would challenge the results of the upcoming election if he were to lose.   Although it could be said that Al Gore and John Kerry could have provided legitimate arguments that they had been cheated out of their respective bids for the presidency, both men accepted the results.  Despite the evidence which suggested that the elections may have been corrupted, both Kerry and Gore graciously accepted defeat just as many others that came before them.  They did this to show the people that the system works, to give them faith in the system.  Then came 2016 and Donald Trump happened.  In July of 2016, Trump called upon Russia to hack Hilary Clinton’s emails.  Following that unprecedented display of treason, during an October 19, 2016, broadcast presidential debate against Hilary Clinton, Trump, when asked if he would accept the results of the election stated that he would only accept the results if he was the winner.  Fast forward to 2019, the intelligence community has provided proof that Russia helped Trump win and they will interfere in the 2020 election to help him again.  Trump has corrupted the Justice Department, Republicans in the Senate are proactively blocking all attempts to secure our elections from the Russians and on June 13^th of 2019, Trump issued an open invitation to all foreign powers that might want to interfere in our election.  As of August 18, 2019, Trump trailed at least 5 Democrats in the polls including Joe Biden who has consistently led Trump by as much as 15 points or more since June.  Considering these circumstances, including Trump’s refusal to accept election results which represent the will of the people, one must realize that “The Greatest Threat to American Democracy is the 2020 Presidential Election.”  Whether Trump wins or loses this election is a pivotal point in our grand American experiment.  To assure its survival, voting is not an option.  COVID-19 or not, it is mandatory.

Obviously, pondering the aforementioned situation is an exercise in meditative thought that most Americans never imagined undertaking.  But, once the question is examined, it becomes obvious that the answer may pose an existential threat to our very way of life.  Undoubtedly, few have ever considered that the results of an American presidential election could pose a clear and present danger to our democracy.  Regardless of who wins, the 2020 election and the events leading up to it may cost us our democracy.

Throughout this country’s history, gerrymandering, and voter suppression have always existed. However, voter suppression, voter intimidation, and institutionalized racism in the form of Jim Crow laws have always been used as weapons by white supremacists against black people and other ethnic minorities.  Add to that white terrorism by the KKK and other racist organizations and individuals that have brutalized, lynched and murdered African-Americans to prevent them from voting.  The end result is not free and open elections.  This has created a government not by the people and not for the people.  By denying these non-white citizens the right to vote, white people have effectively maintained control of the government, the economy, and the nation’s non-white ethnic population.  Prior to the 2016 elections, America had seen a decline in these atrocities.  For more than 50 years, the courts have stepped in to protect the voting rights of the downtrodden in an attempt to prevent disenfranchisement and guarantee that the American democracy stood tall.  But, the Trump Republican Party does not believe in our constitution or our democracy.

Prior to Trump, all of this began to change in the year 2000 when a Republican-controlled Supreme Court stepped in to stop the counting of ballots in the state of Florida giving the presidency to Republican George W. Bush.  The Court effectively told the people of Florida “your vote does not count, because it won’t be counted.”

This Supreme Court Ruling started a trend of disenfranchisement towards all American citizens who were not Republicans, including white people.  The subsequent Bush years saw a rise in gerrymandering and voter suppression  perpetrated upon an unsuspecting public by the Republicans in national, state and local elections.  It was during the Bush-era that reports began to surface on the possibility that whites could lose control of the country due to the increase of ethnic minority populations and the declining birth rate of white Americans.  Shortly afterward, the Republican Party’s worst nightmare came true with the election of Barack Obama, the country’s first African-American president.  This historical event changed the Republican view of just who would have the right to vote.  Regardless of race, if you were not a Republican, your ability to vote was considered to be a threat to America and you would be denied.  In furtherance of their new ideology, in 2013, the Republican-controlled, Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act ^{1} reversing decades of progress made by non-white Americans.  The significance of this ruling is that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act no longer applies to many jurisdictions in the United States.  As a result, redistricting plans and other changes in voting laws, such as voter identification requirements, need not be approved before they take effect.  Part of this ruling had a significant impact which would lead to a wave of new gerrymandering initiatives by Republican lawmakers across the nation.

This ruling signaled to white Americans that the days of a new Jim Crow had arrived.  Only under this new Jim Crow, even whites would be denied their constitutional right to vote thus presenting a clear and present danger to our constitutional democracy.

Since the country was founded, gerrymandering has been practiced by political parties in power, including both Democrats and Republicans.  Gerrymandering according to Webster: “manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class” or “achieve (a result) by manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency.”

Gerrymander in the past has been used to deny African-Americans and other ethnic minorities Congressional representation.  However, whenever affected groups or political parties felt that they were unfairly impacted by gerrymandering, the cases were settled in the courts which at times issued rulings that forced the redrawing of Congressional district lines to redress the grievances.  The Supreme Court has always played a prominent role in settling gerrymandering disputes, especially over the past 50 years.  The Court has decided cases relating to population, race, legislatures vs. commissions and cases relating to partisanship.  A detailed list of cases ^{2} which includes summaries, impacts and significance of the rulings can be found on the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) website.

Despite its long history of performing its constitutional duties as the third co-equal branch of government, under the Trump administration and Republican control, the Supreme Court now poses a clear and present danger to our democracy.

On June 27, 2019, less than two months ago, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that will possibly deny millions of Americans their right to vote in the upcoming 2020 election. The Supreme Court ruling will have a significant and long-term effect on elections and legislatures across the country.  By a vote of 5-4, strictly along partisan lines, the Republican justices ruled that courts should stay out of disputes over partisan gerrymandering.  Partisan gerrymandering is allegations that redistricting maps were drawn to favor one political party at another’s expense.  According to Republican Chief Justice Roberts, “The practice of partisan gerrymandering may be distasteful… but it is a problem that politicians and the political process, rather than courts, should solve.”  In essence, this means that the party in power gets to draw the Congressional districts and effectively weed out all voters that do not agree with their ideology.  In other words, the party in power not the constitution will determine who has the right to vote in elections.  In a democracy, the country is run by the voting populace.  With the help of the Russians, the current party in power is the Republican Party.  This ruling is one of the factors that make “America’s Greatest Threat to Democracy the 2020 Election.”

Justice Elena Kagan dissented, in an opinion that was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Kagan reading from the bench emphasized that the Supreme Court had refused for “the first time ever” to “remedy a constitutional violation because it thinks the task is beyond judicial capabilities.” Kagan further stated that the “partisan gerrymanders in these cases deprived citizens of the most fundamental of their constitutional rights.”  The gerrymanders “debased and dishonored our democracy, turning upside-down the core American idea that all governmental power derives from the people.”  Kagan cautioned, if left unchecked, “gerrymanders like the ones here may irreparably damage our system of government.”  Kagan cited a North Carolina case where Republicans won 9 of 12 Congressional seats (75%) although they had only won 50% of the vote.

Donald Trump, as of June 10^th has told 10,796 lies and the count continues to rise on a minute-by-minute basis.  This is proof that he is not just dishonest, he is dangerous.  Instead of upholding his oath to “defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” at every occasion he has defied the constitution thus becoming a domestic enemy of the constitution and its citizens.  He poses a clear and present danger to this country and is another reason why America’s biggest threat to democracy may be the 2020 election.

According to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the FBI and the rest of the intelligence community, Russia will interfere in the 2020 presidential election.  And, judging from Trump’s behavior, he is Putin’s little, female, lapdog in heat.  Trump has sided with Putin on every issue, over his own intelligence community and all of America’s allies.  Some may refer to Trump as Putin’s Manchurian Candidate.  Truth-be-told, unlike a Manchurian Candidate, without the aid of chemically induced hypnosis, Trump has openly praised and embraced Putin at every opportunity.  To aid Trump, Putin constructed an infrastructure of Republican lawmakers in both the House and the Senate.  Through oligarchs and the NRA, Putin has contributed more than $47 million to Republicans in Congress ^{3} and they continue to earn their money.

By not allowing any bills to come to the floor, Senate Majority Leader, “Moscow Mitch” McConnell has prevented every attempt made by Democrats to secure our elections.  He was responsible for lifting sanctions against Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska who in return invested $200 million in a venture to open an aluminum factory in Kentucky, Moscow Mitch’s home state.

In January of 2017, three Russian oligarchs and three other individuals with strong ties to Vladimir Putin attended the Trump inauguration.  These six individuals Vekselberg, Mashkevitch, Milner, Blavatnik, Intrater and Shustorovich all contributed $1 million each to the Trump inaugural committee which raised a record-breaking $107 million.  When the Russian dollars funneled to Trump, McConnell and other Republican politicians are totaled; Putin’s investment in the Republican Party and Trump is almost $300 million.  As a reasonable and intelligent American, you must ask the questions:  Can I trust Trump and the Republican who owe Putin so much?  Is the election safe and will I be allowed to vote?  If I vote, will it count? Since Putin has invested $300 million on Republican politicians, tens of millions of dollars on 2016 social media campaigns on behalf of Trump and millions more on military personnel and equipment that conducted election interference and hacking which the intelligence community states has not stopped and will continue in 2020, the only answers that you can arrive at should be frightening.  Once again, Putin has stacked the deck in Trump’s favor and he will help him win again.

If this is unbelievable to you, here are three quotes from the recent Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on Russian Interference in the 2016 Election ^{3}:

1. Michael Daniel, a top cyber-security expert in the Obama Administration testified in 2017 to the committee that: “I would have characterized it at the time as sort of conducting the reconnaissance to do the network mapping, to do the topology mapping so that you could actually understand the network, establish a presence so you could come back later and actually execute an operation.”
2. “Russian military hackers significantly penetrated the election systems in 21 states.”
3. The report states, that by the end of 2018: “Russian cyber actors had successfully penetrated Illinois’s voter registration database, viewed multiple database tables, and accessed up to 200,000 voter registration records.” Hackers were able to take out “an unknown quantity of voter registration data” and “we’re in a position to delete or change voter data,”

Trump, despite the evidence has sided with Putin.

Is the 2020 election safe and secure from Russian hackers? No!  Can you trust Trump? Hell No!

The media has reported repeatedly on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to consider impeaching Donald Trump.  This appears to be a big story.  But an even bigger story is the fact that one of the biggest fears held by speaker Nancy Pelosi is the question:  What happens if Trump loses the election and refuses to relinquish power?  This question terrifies Nancy Pelosi and it should terrify you as well.

Trump has always stated on national television that he will not accept the election results if he does not win.  If Trump claims election fraud which he has claimed before on several occasions, he will not step down.  If one or more Republican Governors or Secretaries of State agree with Trump and refuse to certify their election results, the only recourse for the American people is the courts.  Donald Trump has corrupted and controls the Justice Department.  The Attorney General, William Barr, who was appointed by Trump, is the individual responsible for representing the American people against Trump in the forthcoming legal battles.  Barr has already misled the American people by falsely exonerating Trump of any guilt related to the Mueller investigation.  Barr is Trump’s attorney, not the people’s attorney.  Finally, the constitution does not make any provisions for removing a president that refuses to relinquish power.  Trump has challenged Congress and the “rule of law” in court battles throughout his entire administration.  Our system of government is based upon the “rule-of-law,” honor and patriotism and Trump sees that as a weakness to be exploited for his personal gain.  As this nation’s most dishonorable and unpatriotic president ever, not once has he upheld the constitution or defended any of the laws of the land.  Literally, as a nation, we could be tied up in court for years trying to remove Trump from office. Meanwhile, our democracy will die a slow and agonizing death face-down in the mud of lies, deceit, and treachery.

On Tuesday, November 3, 2020, if Trump loses the election, it is highly possible that he will not leave the office peacefully.  Over the past few months, Trump has resorted to using racism as a featured strategy in his re-election campaign.  White supremacist, white nationalist, members of the KKK and neo-Nazis admire him. Many of them consider him to be the leader of their movements.  Even the recent mass shooter and murderer in El Paso quoted Trump in his manifesto.  Considering these circumstances, is it hard to believe that Trump’s fellow racist will take to the streets with acts of violence.  And, with a Republican-controlled Senate, Supreme Court and Justice Department, Trump may attempt to stage the first American coup d’ e’tat.

So, considering the current clear and present dangers from enemies both foreign and domestic that are now facing this nation, a very valid and even scarier scenario than anyone has ever imagined is America’s Greatest Threat to Democracy is the 2020 Election?”

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Linked Sources and Documentation

1. Shelby County v. Eric Holder
2. Supreme Court gerrymandering cases: http://www.ncsl.org/research/redistricting/redistricting-and-the-supreme-court-the-most-significant-cases.aspx
3. Senate Select Committee Report on Russian election Interference: https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume1.pdf

Copyright © 2019, Glen Reaux, all rights reserved