THOMPSON: Trump is turning a democracy into a dictatorship

Why aren’t the folks who voted for Donald Trump saying or doing anything as he turns the world’s greatest democracy into the world’s greatest dictatorship? That is more or less a rhetorical question…because the answer seems all-too-obvious.

You’d think that anyone who would throw their shoulders back, look to the heavens and announce loudly in a public forum, “I am a proud Republican!”…might suffer from some curious mental disorder…or perhaps they are going for large-scale ironic humour.

But the truth is – throughout Trump’s more-than-nine-month reign – except for declared wars he has harmed more Americans and people worldwide than any U.S. president in 249 years. This is not opinion…it is fact.

Forget Trump’s bald-faced lies that the economy – everything from employment to inflation to grocery prices – would be better from day one with him as president. Just for the record…it’s day 280…and all are worse.

A recent nationwide Fox News/Beacon Research and Shaw poll found 52 percent of Americans believe Trump has made the economy worse…with 30 percent who believe Trump has made the economy better. 

Really? Who are these 30 percent-folks? Too many to be billionaires. I’m left with guessing they’re really stupid people…you know the kind that would not abandon Trump if he chose to “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody”. Remember, Trump said he could do that when he ran for president in 2016. Remember, too, that he won.

What are we – let’s call ourselves for the sake of argument “reasonable” – left to believe and think about these folks who call themselves Republicans? Can you be a decent human being when you support this despot? I think, not.

Consider Vice President JD Vance’s lies during a nationally televised speech after the Charlie Kirk murder.

“While our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies, it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far-left,” Vance proclaimed. The fact is, every study…every bit of data…proves Right Wing supporters are responsible for three-fourths of all political violence in the past decade.

Here are some more of the hundreds of reasons why a person who continues to support a despot…is no better than the despot.

What Trump did do on day one was grant a full, unconditional pardon to all Jan. 6 insurrectionists, including hundreds convicted of felonies like attacking or killing police officers.

Trump did away with due-process this year for pretty much anyone who, well, isn’t white. He took Kilmar Abrego Garcia off the street and exiled him to a dangerous prison in El Salvador.

Trump has sent military troops into Washington, DC and Los Angeles, CA…unconstitutional and illegal acts. He has hired more U.S. Immigration and Customs agents and flooded cities…arresting and detaining few illegal aliens, but snaring legal immigrants with no criminal records and U.S. citizens by the score. He targets only Democrat-led cities…even though Republican-led cities have the highest crime rates.

What we know about Trump is that he is a bully…and a coward…a regular “Corporal Bone-spurs”. Both the Governor of Illinois and Mayor of Chicago backed Trump down…after he declared his war on crime in Chicago in August.

“I love the smell of deportations in the morning” Trump posted on social media, with a slimmer, younger Trump wearing a Colonel’s uniform in a bizarre take-off on “Apocalypse Now”. Since then…crickets from Trump.

Trump directed 20 percent of the FBI and Homeland Security officers who were working on terrorism to focus on immigration…with little success. Meanwhile, the government’s capabilities to thwart terrorism – foreign and domestic – and the trafficking of children has been diminished.

Trump has made Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs in the federal government illegal. He even removed more than 250 words – including “accessible” and “woman” – from U.S. government-maintained websites.

He threatened to defund public schools, cancel government contracts with companies and grant recipients, and investigated institutions for using DEI programs.

Trump has intimidated both law firms that work for Democrats…and America’s top universities. Both the law firms and universities who fought his illegal actions…backed Trump down.

Trump’s cadre of clowns – Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel – are breaking the law as you read this…acting unconstitutionally to support Trump. Patel – in a book published before becoming FBI Director – named 60 enemies he would go after. None broke a law…they just did something Trump didn’t like.

Of course, the enemies list is bigger now. It’s easier simply in one elastic clause to say target Democrats and Liberals as enemies.

Bondi and Patel are the most incompetent people to ever hold their jobs. They are frightfully unqualified…often not knowing what is protected under the U.S. Constitution and what is not. On top of that, they lie…boy, do they lie.

Freedom of speech is more fantasy than fact under Trump and Republicans. Trump limits free speech…when someone says something negative about him. He threatened both CBS and ABC with pulling licenses…coercing the networks to fire late night critics Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.

Remember, these two aren’t news people…they’re comedians. Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers…next? Trump and his minions are going after these guys because they have millions of viewers. 

But, how long before the state comes to places of employment of ordinary folks to get them fired for what they said? Don’t think it can happen? Don’t be a fool. That’s what dictatorships do…start at the top and work as far down as needed to control what’s said and done.

This isn’t just a slippery slope…it’s a precipice. Trump is using the Federal Communications Commission to suppress free speech on television and cable networks. If the networks do something he deems not in the public interest (an unflattering Trump reference)…Trump can end that network’s ability to broadcast. 

For those who don’t keep track of history in dictatorships…that’s exactly what happened in both Hungary and Turkey. 

American institutions are failing citizens…law firms, universities, courts, governmental departments and corporations…most all cowering under Trump’s and Republican’s threats.

Trump intimates often that he could run for a third term, saying that there are “methods” for doing so. He’s now selling “Trump 2028” merchandise…always grifting…always lying. Of course, dictatorships don’t have elections…at least not real ones.

Perhaps the most disappointing but powerful Trump supporters are members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Five Conservative Right Wing justices have in most instances allowed Trump to take seemingly illegal and unconstitutional actions. These partisan judges have overturned lawful temporary restraining orders of lower courts on technical or procedural grounds…never speaking on the merits of any appealed case.

So, why don’t elected Republicans and those who voted for them do something to stop the rise of autocracy in America? Perhaps, Republicans know democracy won’t allow them the power and control they desire. I do know that history won’t be kind to any of them…not a single Republican. 

I know, too, that long after this despot and his enablers are gone…maybe not any of their brainwashed sons and daughters…but perhaps their grandchildren will look back at their families in shame. 

Not that Republicans care, of course, but – just for the record – you can’t re-write history when you’re gone. Still, that’s little solace…it’s hard to dream about tomorrow when you’re living a nightmare today.

All the while, the future of American democracy – indeed, democracies worldwide – is unraveling before our very eyes.