t took more than a minute for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to finally indict former President Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Despite the evidence against him, Trump supporters on C-Span Washington Journal cling to claims that Trump is being unjustly persecuted by Democrats, that he did nothing wrong, that the real criminals are the Bidens, and that the DOJ has been weaponized against Trump. Of course, I am more than a little disturbed to hear Trump tell his supporters that the DOJ is really after them and that he is just standing in the way, protecting them from this fictional Bogeyman. However, he never provides a coherent reason why the DOJ is after them. And worse, politicians like Kari Lake have the audacity to threaten MAGA protection of Trump on social media while evoking their NRA connections.
In the thick of things, I’m grateful that C-Span bought on an attorney and law professor, Kimberly Wehle to talk about why the January 6th indictment is important for the preservation of our democracy. She explained in detail each of the schemes Trump is accused of implementing to overturn the election. She explained each of the four counts and his actions associated with them. She then asked the listeners to consider whether they want to continue to live in a country designed to rule from the bottom up where we the people select our political leaders through our vote or to live in a country where political leaders decide who wins elections by subverting the vote and overturning elections at will. Trump tried to deny the will of the people so he could remain in power. When Mike Pence refused to fulfil his role in his unconstitutional scheme, Trump sent thousands of his deceived, fearful, and angry supporters to the Capital to “stop the steal” when in fact he was the one trying to steal the 2020 election.
It was disheartening to hear Republicans call in to C-Span and accuse the Constitutional professor of being a communist and a person who hates the country. I’ve noticed that passionate people often resort to name-calling out of frustration. That’s what is happening today among otherwise decent adults: “Democrats are pedophiles”; “Democrats are communists”; “Democrats are baby killers”; “Democrats are trying to destroy the nation”; “Democrats are indoctrinating our children to be gay or transgender” and “Democrats are brainwashed”.
Of course, I’ve done my own fair share of name calling, however I limit my characterization to small groups within the Republican Party who have shown themselves deserving of the labels I’ve attached to them. I often refer to staunch Trump supporters as “cult members” and white Christian nationalists as the “American Taliban”. Staunch Trump supporters demonstrate the same mindset psychologists find in cult members and white Christian nationalists possess the same desire as the Taliban to install a theocracy, imposing their religious beliefs on everyone and robbing certain members of the society of their rights. In my view, these factions within the Republican Party represent an existential threat to minorities and are clearly in opposition to the “no establishment of religion” clause in the Constitution itself.
Despite all evidence, there are political candidates for president, like Vivek Ramaswamy, who defend the indefensible as though it is more important to give a pass to a political candidate than hold him accountable for breaking the law trying to overturn our election. As often happens these days, Republican accusations turn out to be confessions. For example, the whole “stop the steal” mantra is just one case in point. The only one conspiring to steal the election was Trump and the six unindicted (and unnamed for now) co-conspirators according to the indictment.
The deeper point is that Trump supporters really don’t care that he was trying to steal the election because they believe that Trump is trying to “Make America Great” again. And some continue to believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the election was stolen. In their words, they believe that Trump will usher in a White Christian state that will put an end to Black Lives Matter, abortion, LGBTQ rights, and restore some mythical Christian nation run by Trump. It is terrifying to listen to fellow Americans openly and without shame espouse these beliefs. Many are willing to fight another civil war to make this happen and to put Trump back into office. The language of revenge, oppression and violence is scary.
It’s ironic that while they complain that Biden has weaponized the DOJ without actual evidence of interference, Trump openly promises to do just that. If elected, he has promised to use the Justice Department to seek revenge on his political enemies. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that this has become an anti-democratic cult and white supremacist movement that must be stopped at all costs. These are truly dangerous times. It is hard to understand how the polls can be frighteningly close when it comes to a Trump versus Biden election. Some think the economy is pushing people away from Biden and towards Republicans for economic relief. But when have the Republicans ever presided over a great economy?
But this is where we are. We are living in an era when too many Americans can’t find reliable news sources. While I was at the nail salon on the day of the indictment, the owner had Fox News on. After listening for about 15 minutes, a few of us customers railed at the distorted news coverage and I finally asked the owner to turn the channel, explaining to her that Fox wasn’t a reliable source of news. I told her that I would never trust a news broadcast that admitted to lying to its viewers by promoting false stolen election claims and had to pay a large settlement for their lies. Many other Americans stop listening to the news altogether. All it took was for Trump and a few wealthy individuals and corporations to successfully corrupt the news.
Additionally, our current situation can be attributed to Americans failure to understand basic U.S. civics, our Constitution, and history itself. Trump says he loves the uneducated. And that’s because he knows just how easy it is to sow hatred and a fear of others into the hearts and minds of otherwise decent human beings. We are watching how deep rooted that hatred and fear have become and how easily these folks will threaten violence to literally throw away our democratic republic.
The 2024 election will be the most important election of our lifetime. If Trump or even DeSantis wins the office, our country will literally lose the rule of law as well as free and fair elections.