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December 9, 2024

Talbot Spy

Nonpartisan Education-based News for Talbot County Community

3 Top Story Point of View J.E. Dean

Will Democracy Die on January 20, 2025? By J.E. Dean

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I had a nightmare last night. Shortly after noon, one year from now, Donald J. Trump “suspended” the Constitution. He announced it in his inauguration speech from the west front of the U.S. Capitol, the same location where, a little more than five years earlier, the angry mob Trump summoned to Washington sought to keep him in office after he lost the 2020 election. There was no need for violence this time. With help from RFK, Jr., No Labels, and millions of deluded or lazy voters, Trump won.

Trump’s inauguration speech struck many as a repeat of the gloom and doom he offered in 2017, but this time, there were no ex-presidents to listen to it. The outgoing president, Joe Biden, was already back in Delaware and George W. Bush was in Texas. Trump promised to arrest both “on day one” and “toss them in jail.” Would he?

On the afternoon of January 21, just as Rachel Maddow finished commenting on Trump’s speech, she offered “Breaking News” that federal agents had seized control of The New York Times. Maddow did not have time to finish her report. Moments later MSNBC went off the air. Televisions tuned into the channel now featured a fixed shot of the letters MAGA and a picture of Trump taking his oath of office.

My nightmare continued with my watching FOX News, one of the few news channels still operating. Trump announced the dissolution of the House and Senate in his speech. Democrats had won control of both. Amazingly, as Trump told viewers that, “The Congress has not represented the views of the people for decades,” some members of the now-dissolved Senate were seen clapping, among them Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Josh Hawley (R-MO). Only Hawley had reason to clap. Earlier in the day Trump had appointed him to serve as Attorney General in a social media post that also announced the “disbanding” of the FBI and the firing of all current Department of Justice employees.

Some Democrats immediately started marching towards the White House. Some of them carried signs, “Illegal President” and “Jail Him Now.” These protesters were turned away by horse-mounted park police. Some protesters were shot.

Trump also freed the “January 6 hostages,” some of whom marched in the inaugural parade, which included a model of the scaffold erected at the Capitol in January 2021. The model included a sign, “He should have been hung; now he’ll be jailed.” “He” referred to former Vice President Mike Pence.

Under an order from Trump, National Guard troops started shooting undocumented immigrants attempting to cross the southern border. He also issued an executive order banning all abortions, effective immediately, and mandating death for any doctor performing or assisting, “in any way,” in the procedure. Two reports of doctors being shot were broadcast on Fox by the end of the day.

My nightmare continued with Trump committing U.S. troops to aid Russia in its “pacification” of Ukraine. He also announced that “our friend, Vladimir Putin,” would come to Washington in February as his guest. He promised to hold “the well-known Nazi, Zelensky” accountable. Then Trump predicted that, “We will see him swinging from a noose soon.”

About a week after inauguration day, Trump announced that, via executive order, the U.S. Constitution has been “rescinded.” In its place, Trump promised “a new, efficient, MAGA charter that will Keep America Great for the next 1,000 years.”

I woke up in a sweat after imagining a classroom of children being taught that Trump was the founder of the United States. For a few seconds, I trembled in fear. Then I realized that it was all only a bad dream and that we still have a year before inauguration day 2025. It is not too late to save democracy.

J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, and other subjects.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Letters to Editor

  1. Not sure what this article is really about — but it is hilarious! Is Dean really that paranoid that Trump ends democracy? This is truly TDS — Trump Derangement Syndrome.

    • It isn’t TDS, its DTS, Deranged Trump Syndrome. We have a deranged, power hungry egomaniac who is desperately trying to evade the criminal justice system. He is seeking to take full control of Americans’ constitutional rights and take down the entire US system of government for his own personal benefit and aggrandizement.

      Worse yet, we have a considerable segment of the Republican Party who are willing to toss away 300+ years of American democratic traditions just to hand this nearly 80-year old lunatic all this power and responsibility as if he’s the only Republican capable of leading the country. He believes he is above the law, that he has unlimited power and cannot be convicted of crime(s) because he is/was president. If he shot you on 5th Avenue, he’d be free.

      Trump has alredy demonstrated his disrespect for the American people by trying to overthrow the election of 2020 where he lost decisively. His threats are thus, not idle. We already know he won’t accept the results of the election and declare it was rigged. Again. I believe this time, he’ll try to initiate a general revolt or revolution among his deluded followers since he has attempted to organize one revolt already. Is this what Republicans want? We all know this is what’s coming from this maniac.

      Clearly, many of his former cabinet members and aides have warned publicly of Trump’s danger to the country and his garbled, blithering speeches have become so alarming that Nikki Haley has derided his seriously confused misstatements. Trump is an American catastrophe waiting to happen. He has now resorted to ads claiming he was sent specifcally by God to be president.

      Its one thing for a man to make ridiculous, off the wall claims. But its even worse when so many people believe him. He has made a living off falsehoods for decades. Mr. Dean is right. The 2024 election will be a seminal moment in American history – one way of another. If Trump loses, I believe this deranged loser will call upon his militias to take back America.

      • Just one request: please do not call those ragtag bands of toy soldiers “militias.” Doing so insults all those who have ever worn the uniform of the Guard or reserves.

      • You are absurd. Talk about fear mongering. The march on January 6 was not an insurrection. The videos have shown capitol police waving people into the capital. Trump is 77. Biden is 80 and he is a lunatic and has dementia. If the Dems cheat again and Biden wins our Country and freedom will be destroyed. Trump is trying to save this Country from the Progressive Democrats who are tearing it to pieces. Your reply is way off base. Trump supporters are not deluded. We know Obama is running this Country from the sidelines and will continue to do it if Biden is reelected.

        • Thank you for reading the piece. As you know, we are on different pages. In particular, I must take issue with “Biden is 80 and he is a lunatic and has dementia.”

          Also, how could Donald Trump confuse Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi?

          And thank you for pointing out that Trump is not 78. He is a little over 77.5. I rounded up.

    • I’m glad you liked the piece. It wasn’t meant to be hilarious, but thank you anyway. Also–yes, I do fear that Trump, if elected in November, could end democracy. My fear is based on his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Because Trump has already demonstrated a willingness to seize power after losing an election, it has crossed my mind he could do something like that again. If you want to call my fears “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” that’s okay. I use the same term for people who don’t seem to be troubled by January 6, Trump’s 91 felony charges, and evidence that he is “losing it.” Who confuses Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi?

      In any case, thanks for reading the piece.

      • Thanks for writing it! I think the contrast between Trump supporters and Trump opposers highlights a critical turning point in our country. We must choose between candid assessments of how the country is sliding toward fascist socialism vs. the manufactured chaos of Russian collusion, J6 myths, victimless real estate ventures, meaningless document mishandling, and self-promoting angry liberal prosecutors, and covert government censorship.

        As they say, Democracy Dies in Darkness.

    • Gee, I thought your crew finally abandoned the TDS term. As for paranoia, mine is sparked by the sheer amount of uneducated people still following this ego driven snake oil salesman.

  2. LOL. I have to ask: If you really believe this why are you living in or around Talbot County? Won’t the Nazi Trump voters be coming for you next? After all, the majority voted for him in 2016 and in greater numbers in 2020. They’ve got guns too. No wonder you are having nightmares.

    The only explanation is that the vibrancy in Democrat-run utopia is even LESS appealing.

    Quite a dilemma. I know many, many people like you. On top of that you’ve discovered that EVs won’t run in cold weather, and they will be losing tax subsidies. And other higher food chain stuff like diverse airplanes falling apart. And there’s narrative collapse in Ukraine. And the nasty ankle-biting over whose the bigger victim – Jews or vibrants. And now Trump returning like a recurring nightmare.

    Yes, you could say this is the liberals’ winter of discontent.

    With apologies to W.B. Yeats’ The Second Coming:

    When a vast image out of Spiritus Trumpus 
    Troubles my sight, a waste of Nascar bumper stickers; 
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man, 
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun . . . 

    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Washington to be reborn?

    Then, then will the Eloi self-combust,
    From micro-aggression overload?
     
    Oh the horror, the horror.

  3. If this article had been writted prior to 2016, I would have rejected its premise as ridiculous. Today, it is ridiculous to believe this really couldn’t happen.

    There have always been deluded autocrats like Trump seeking to upend our democratic (small d) form of government in America; what we haven’t had before is an entire major US political party establishment (i.e., Republicans in Congress) and such a substantial portion of the population signing on to belong to cult determined to destroy it.

    The stage is set. If the concepts so many of us value such as democracy, respect for our fellow citizen, and working with competence for the common good are still going to have meaning after January 1st, 2025—we’d better stop worrying about Joe Biden’s age and start unifying our efforts now. As this article notes, time is getting short.

    • Excellent comment. I agree–we better stop worrying about Joe Biden’s age and start unifying our efforts now.

  4. Sorry for Mr. Dean’s nightmare that mirrors a delusional mind or a lack of understanding of the Constitution. Maybe someone should send him a copy.

  5. You addressed two distinct species of voter: the deluded and the lazy. The former will not be dissuaded. The latter can not, or will not, engage in “politics” until that day in November. They show up and vote – as they have for years, if not generations – for whoever has the “R” beside the name. Many, if asked, might simply tell you it is “because my granpap hated That Man in the White House.”

    “But what of Democrats?” you ask. As Will Rogers said, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” And yes, some Democrats will still vote lock-step union or other long-held belief, but in the main it is a party characterized by differences. And immune to a MAGA-like siren song.

    So in November we should ask those long-term voters, as they enter the polling place, are you truly voting for a Republican with real Republican values? Would it be that bad if Democrat were to win? Maybe, just maybe, might that defeat result in the emergence of a more legitimate and centrist Republican next time? One who could draw out more support in the primary? You never know until you try.

    And by the way, Mr. Dean is hardly paranoid.

    • “So in November we should ask those long-term voters, as they enter the polling place, are you truly voting for a Republican with real Republican values?”

      They will vote for Trump because he DOESN’T represent “real” Repub “values.” LOL. They will vote for him because he has been the target of lawfare by corrupt political opponents. They are sick and tired of being told how to vote by people who hate them, and, Commander, they’re telling their sons to stay out of an anti-white male military.

  6. This article is truly ridiculous. Our current facist President Joe Biden has been working full time under the orders of Barach Obama to remove Democracy from our Country. Obama did not get the chance to totally transform America when Hilary lost the election. He is working on it now. All of the Trump indictments boil down to law fare with the intention of eliminating Trump from running. Every new lie bumps his popularity upward. Shame on you for spewing this rhetoric. Your TDS is working overtime.

    • Thank you for your comment. Enough said, except maybe two spell-checking matters. “Barach Obama” should be “Barack Obama.” “Hilary” should be “Hillary.”

      And thank you for reading the piece.

    • Babs,
      Our 2 times indicted Benito Donald, was just hammered with an $83.3 Million judgment for Rape and Defamation.
      Another judgment, is expected for $370 Million, within several weeks for Fraud! Isn’t this what Americans want the World to see as America’s leader?
      This is the leader you support?
      Keep paying his legal fees, there’s more to come!
      BTW,
      Donald appeals every case he loses on your dime.

  7. Most concerning to me is that so many people believe the last election was fraudulent despite all the data showing otherwise and legal claims dismissed. If we lose faith in our laws and judicial system what is left to hold our democracy together? Forget TDS or DTS. What separates us from other forms of government is our justice system and belief in the even handed application. We are well aware it is far from perfect, but has it become so flawed that we no longer have any faith? Seemingly so in which case, no matter one’s party affiliation, we should all be very concerned about our future. Being a bit paranoid might just be healthy.

    • Thank you for your comment. I could not agree more: “What separates us from other forms of government is our justice system and belief in the even-handed application.”

  8. Mr Dean, you think you had a bad dream, we’re living the bad dream every day with this farce of a president in office right now. He is not protecting our country, allowing thousands across the border every day (people from all countries invading our borders). Most are young men, many children being brought in without parents (can you say child trafficking?). He puts these illegals up in hotels, they get food, medical care, etc while our own citizens are living on the street, starving, cold. And these include families that have lost their homes, can’t keep up with the cost of living because as hard as they work, food, housing, utilities cost more than they earn. He gave billions to Ukraine, and a measly $700 to families in Hawaii who lost their homes this past summer. Who else has done this to our society, the government fat cats who have been sitting in Washington for decades becoming millionaires. And you, among others want to keep the same cycle going!
    Let’s look at the big picture! Trump was welcomed as a friend to all of these politicians for many many years, giving money to all of their political campaigns etc. He actually has the inside scoop on what they have been doing and are still doing to the American people. So one day he says “enough”, I’m going to stop these politicians, “the swamp” from cheating the American people. I’m going to give them their country back. (I believe that is what he ran on)?? So he becomes president. For 4 years he fought these politicians that came up with every falsehood they could to stop him from waking the American people up. He was no longer a friend, he was an enemy because he wanted to expose their control over society. How they have taken our freedom away, stolen money from us thru extreme taxation, downgraded our educational system. They didn’t want that exposed. I saw us beginning to prosper when Trump was in office. Gas and food prices lowered, jobs were plentiful, most people were thriving, immigration was more controlled and manageable, there were no wars during his tenure, he visited numerous countries and was welcomed and respected by all the leaders, even N Korea, he was part of the Abraham Accords. The military loved and respected him. Then COVID hit, which was predicted by Bill Gates and Fauci. How did they know? How convenient that it would affect the 2020 election. They (and you) are very afraid of Trump. Why? Because you want to keep the American people suppresssed, enslaved to low paying jobs, not being able to own a home, dumbing down our children, hooked on pharmaceutical drugs, I could go on.
    Your dream is nothing like it will be if Trump is elected. I respectfully think you also have become deranged and delusional from what we have been going through the last 3 years. It doesn’t surprise me, we have no leadership.

    • Thanks for your comment. Please let me take issue with one of your statements: “They (and you) are very afraid of Trump. Why? Because you want to keep the American people suppresssed, enslaved to low paying jobs, not being able to own a home, dumbing down our children, hooked on pharmaceutical drugs, I could go on.”

      Let me say, on the record, that I do not want to keep the American people “suppresssed,” enslaved to low-paying jobs, not being able to own a home, dumbing down our children, or “hooked on pharmaceutical drugs.”

  9. Nobody wants to believe in election interference but our own intelligence officials don’t make it easy:

    “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy…..”

    And who can forget the Biden laptop letter signed by over 50 of the top, most powerful intel officials in Washington :” We are all individuals who devoted significant portions of our lives to national security. Some of us served in senior positions in policy departments and agencies, and some of us served in
    senior positions in the Intelligence Community….”

    So Americans must never question whatever appears on the next page?

    Just saying…….

  10. It is a very hard thing to realize you have been lied to (by the media and by the politicians who appear to be mostly owned by big business) when your identity is political. It creates cognitive dissonance which results in TDS. If you can even bear to ask yourself these questions without instantly disregarding them you may not be suffering from it. Why has no one been charged with insurrection if Jan 6th was an insurrection? Why did our intelligence lie to us about evidence showing the Biden’s receiving millions of dollars from foreign countries right before the election of 2020? Can it be considered a coup that Hilary Clinton (Obama and Biden were privy) lied to the public about Trump colluding with Russia in order to steal the 2016 election? How can an election be ‘the most secure election in history’ when our country was using mass mail in ballots for the first time while also quickly changing election laws in swing states? Why did all 5 swing state stop counting on election night? Why won’t the FBI answer the question of how many feds were present in the crowd on Jan 6th? Do people understand that AI was used to sensor billions of communications before the election in 2020 by picking out certain words and phrases to suppress? Why is our federal government not addressing the open border by changing policy? Trump is a giant distraction (that’s how magic tricks work) from what has become a government too big to sustain its own paychecks without squashing down the people. And we have had enough.

  12. Thanks for your commentary. I truly worry about our very democracy if Trump wins in 2024. I plan on doing what I can to make sure President Biden is re-elected. I never cease to be amazed at the disinformation believed by many. Hard not to call Jan. 6th an insurrection, when we all saw it unfolding on TV.

  13. I am extremely concerned about the radical changes being forced on the American citizens. I do feel we are loosing our country. I can’t understand how so many educated Democrats & liberals can stand behind Biden. He has done more damage to this country than about any other president. He’s got to be the worst. He hates this country. Why haven’t you intelligent people investigated the Great Reset that Biden is allowing to happen, with Obama at his back. What about his horrific withdrawal from Afghanistan? Unforgivable! Please wake up people. Stop this shallow minded, un-informed unstable fear of Trump. You are just spouting juvenile talking points. Do you know how ridiculous you appear by jumping on the popular TDS wagon? You Democrats & liberals seem to believe you hold the high moral ground – You hold so tight to your belief that you are morally superior that you have lost all perspective of what is happening under your feet. Please research what is coming out of WHO & WEF. Really read what they are up to. Stop this childish unstable joy over pounding on Trump. Wake up people. You are happily deranged while your country is being stolen & sold out from under you as we speak.

    • Bridget,
      May I point out that the Courts are pounding Trump in NY, Washington and Georgia. Most cases involve Fraud that Benedict Donald committed. Then, there is the E Jean Carroll rape defamation case that a jury is deliberating on as we speak.
      Your ramblings sound as though they come from The Communist Manifesto!
      Are you a Communist? Maybe you work for a misinformation company. No facts, just innuendo.
      Question
      Why is Trump killing the deal attempting to control the Border and stop aid to Ukraine if he cares about our Country?
      It’s Twice Impeached, Con Man, Benedict Donald, the snake oil salesman who doesn’t care about The Country. His perpetual greed is his only god.
      Keep paying his legal fees.
      BTW
      He can afford to appeal every case he loses, because you are pay his freight.

    • https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/big-questions-answers-robert-p-jones?r=43e3z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwAR27yRBtxVx8DnyvoS2oX5pZcIPR8Xmr82AZeQ9GElqK9iPuum7zl8r_l8k

      To our poor, deluded Trump supporters, the reality of his growing list of convictions by juries of his peers and judges, with the most grave and highly evidenced cases upcoming, is upon you. Jack Smith has Trump boxed in with 730 admissions of guilt and another 130 convictions already in the books for those folks’ assault on the US Capitol. That is the reality that no dreamy, unfounded claims can be relied upon to save Trump in courts of law. Many of the convicted felons already in jail have testified that their acts were inspired by Trump’s calls to stop the verification of the Electoral College results in the 2020 election. No specious protests of unfairness or witch hunts are legitimate when courts demonstrate mountains of prima facie evidence, including video tape of Trump himself igniting the mob.

      Even as Trump’s desperate supporters blather that Joe Biden is the worst president ever, they blindly ignore the Dow at its highest levels ever, interest rates on the way down, unemployment low and getting lower, recession avoided, now a meaningful truce in Gaza and capping the costs of key medications for millions of Americans while passing a massive effort to rebuild our infrastructure nationwide. Now its clear that Trump himself prevented Republicans from compromising on a border refugee agreement by Congress. Trump’s dangerously unamerican efforts to block America’s support of Ukraine’s struggle to fight off Putin’s terrorism is a disgusting reflection of his and his Party’s abandonment of our country’s proud history of defending freedom around the world.

      I trust there are enough truly patriotic Republicans who will stand up to the malevolence and depravity of Trump and his deluded followers, however much they may claim he was sent by God. Their desperation gets deeper by the week as the reality of the law and Trump’s malignant presence contaminates the Republican Party and America’s body politic. This sham of evangelical zealotry in support of Trump is vacuous, as are the feeble defenses slapped against the wall to see what may stick.

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