AS WE CELEBRATE AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, OUR DEMOCRACY IS AT RISK

Update July 11:  Trump has recently said of Project 2025, "I have no idea who is behind it." However, CNN reports that at least 140 people who worked for Trump were involved in Project 2025's creation, including six of Trump's former cabinet secretaries,  his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, his long-time advisory Steven Miller, and several attorneys who represented Trump in election inteference cases.  The project's top architects describe it as a blueprint for a second Trump administration.

By Miriam Raftery

Image: Spirit of '76, painting by A.M. Wilard depicts American Revolutionary War fought to win freedom from British tyranny

July 4, 2024 (San Diego) – Today, we celebrate our nation’s declaration of independence from Britain’s king in 1776. But ironically, America’s democracy is at risk, along with the liberties we cherish.  Constitutional experts warn that like several failed democracies, most notably Germany in the 1930s, the United States now faces the very real threat of becoming an autocracy,  or dictatorship.

The threat is two-fold: first, a document called Project 2025 is a blueprint for converting our democracy to an autocracy and the guidebook for a second Trump term of office. Second, a Supreme Court ruling this week effectively grants Trump, Biden, or any future president king-like authority to break the law without fear of prosecution for crimes.

Steven Levitsky, coauthor of the award-winning, bestselling book How Democracies Die states, “Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders—presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power. Some of these leaders dismantle democracy quickly, as Hitler did in the wake of the 1933 Reichstag fire in Germany. More often, though, democracies erode slowly, in barely visible steps.” He further warns, “This is how elected autocrats subvert democracy—packing and “weaponizing” the courts and other neutral agencies, buying off the media and the private sector (or bullying them into silence), and rewriting the rules of politics to tilt the playing field against opponents. The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism is that democracy’s assassins use the very institutions of democracy—gradually, subtly, and even legally—to kill it.”

The Supreme Court immunity ruling

Justices ruled 6-3 this week to grant presidents and former presidents absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts—even such unthinkable actions as taking bribes or ordering killings of opponents. Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer actually argued that even a president who ordered Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival should have immunity from criminal prosecution.  The deciding votes to allow Trump or future presidents to commit crimes without fear of accountability in court  were cast by three justices appointed by Trump.

The high court also ordered a lower court to determine what constitutes official vs. unofficial acts, meaning Trump’s criminal trials for his efforts to overthrow results of the 2020 election will almost certainly be delayed until after the election—and if elected, he could order the Justice Dept. to halt federal trials and potentially pardon himself even if convicted.

Chief Justice Roberts noted that a president’s unofficial acts would not have immunity and that a president should be able to ”execute the duties of his  office fearlessly and fairly” without fear of prosecution.”  Yet fear of prosecution is precisely what prompted Richard Nixon to resign the presidency and his successor, Gerald Ford, to pardon Nixon for crimes committed as part of the Watergate scandal.   

“In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a blistering dissent of the Supreme Court’s majority decision. She wrote that under the conservative majority’s ruling, a president would be immune even if he “organizes a military coup to hold onto power” or accepts bribes for pardons, or orders the military to murder a rival.

Project 2025, is a 900+ page document created by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing think tanks as a blueprint for a second Trump term of office. Its architects are top Trump campaign officials and former Trump White House appointees, though as controversy grows over Project 2025, Trump has alternately claimed to no nothing about it, or to know of it but not support some of its goals, though he has not elaborated on which of the hundreds of proposals he would--or would not--implement.

The document lists four main aims: restore the family as the centrepiece of American life; dismantle the administrative state; defend the nation’s sovereignty and borders; and secure God-given individual rights to live freely. But behind those broad goals lie strategies to crumble separation of powers and take away Constitutional rights, grant dictator-like powers to a president, and put our democratic form of government in peril.

Project 25 lays out a transition plan for a second Trump term, implementing largely authoritarian goals, including to:

• eliminate Constitutional checks and balances on presidential power;
• fire tens of thousands of civil servants on Trump’s day one, including independent experts who protect public safety and health, then replace them with Trump loyalists who can be fired at will if they don’t do his bidding;
• put the Department of Justice under the president’s control to use law enforcement to punish his enemies;
• eliminate key executive branch departments including the Department of Education and Homeland Security, while overhauling the FBI;
• get rid of church-state separation;
• slash federal funds to combat climate change and deregulating the oil industry;
• abolish the federal reserve;
• Use the military to quell protests;
• cut taxes on the rich;
• cut Social Security and abolish Medicare;
• give immigration agencies more powers and make immigrants pay hefty fees;
• make it harder for women to end even a risky pregnancy;
• Eliminate many terms from federal laws and regulations, such as “diversity, equity, inclusion, gender equality, and reproductive rights.”

Conservative and liberal constitutional experts voice alarm

Back in November 2023, a group of prominent conservative lawyers published an editorial in the New York Times warned that a Trump reelection would pose a “legal emergency” threatening the  U.S. Constitution. The attorneys include retired conservative Judge J.Michael Luttig, attorney George Conway and former Republican

Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, who urged fellow conservative lawyers to fight the “threat” Trump would pose to the Constitution if reelected. They noted that in his first term,Trump tried to implement “unlawful policies” but was thwarted by advisers and attorneys. But other lawyers enabled illegal actions to subvert a peaceful transfer of tower, they noted, calling the matter “a crisis point” and warning that if reelected, Trump has made clear he will only appoint cabinet members and attorneys willing to do as he orders.

“Our country comes first, and our country is in a constitutional emergency,” the conservative legal scholars wrote.

Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law scholar and Dean of the University of California, Berkeley, calls Project 2025 “deeply frightening” and “a significant move to an authoritarian government.”  He told Newsweek this week that the project’s goals are “inconsistent with the structure and goals of the Constitution.”

As for the Supreme court ruling on presidential immunity, Chemerinsky calls it “stunning,” adding, “The Framers deeply distrusted executive power. The Supreme Court’s decision broadly grants the president immunity from criminal prosecution for anything carrying out the president’s powers.”    

Threats of violence

Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts said Wednesday, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” BBC News reported. Roberts made those remarks during the War Room podcast hosted by Trump advisor Steve Bannon. On Friday, Bannon began serving a prison sentence for contempt of Congress,  after he refused to testify about his role or his conversations with President Donald Trump about the violent January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Donald Trump has threatened that there will be a “bloodbath” if he loses the November election, suggesting a repeat of the January 6,2020 capitol attack or worse. He has praised the insurrectionists and promised to pardon and “free” convicted criminals who attacked the Capitol under his encouragement. He has also sought to silence voices of opponents, threatening to prosecute his political opponents, deport protestors exercising free speech rights, and shared videos calling for a “Unified Reich” and violence against journalists.  He also threatened to defund law enforcement agencies and go after law officers who stand in his way.

President Joe Biden has denounced the Supreme Court ruling as a “dangerous precedent” along with efforts to subvert American democracy.

“This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America...no one is above the law, not even the President of the United States,”  said Biden, who pledged not to violate the law despite the newly granted immunity the high court has provided.

His campaign has also set up a webpage warning about Project 2025,including links to news sites documenting much of the material posted there.

What can be done to protect our democracy?

The Supreme Court has largely tied the hands of prosecutors seeking to have juries determine if Trump is guilty of the many criminal counts with which he is charge, including conspiracy to overturn election results and more. With the Supreme Court thwarting efforts of lower courts to hold Trump accountable and Congress conservatives able to block any reform efforts, all three branches of power appear unable or unwilling to take steps to protect American democracy. Already, freedoms cherished by many have been eroded by the Supreme Court,state or federal legislators including voting rights, women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and environmental protections.

Ultimately, voters casting ballots in November may be the only ones with the power to stop the erosion or even destruction of America’s democratic system of government. As we celebrate the founding of our democracy, it is equally important to protect it and assure that it does not end. 

Educating the public on the threats posed to our democracy is another important action--sharing information with friends, neighbors, family members, fellow countrymen and women.

Fault lies in part with corporate-owned and conservative-owned media outlets for suppressing the truth about such threats, while obsessing on Joe Biden’s age and stumbles in his debate performance.  However legitimate such concerns may be, concerns over the future of our democracy should surely merit equal or greater coverage.

It should not be viewed as partisan to warn of a threat to democracy, whether that originates from a foreign power such as Russia or North Korea, from a terror group such as ISIS or Al Qaeda, or from within the United States, whether from leftist bombers or right-wing authoritarians.

Prominent Republicans join key Democrats in fight to protect America from authoritian rule

Back in 1980,  racist Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger won a Democratic Congressional primary in the San Diego region. Some prominent Democratic officials did the honorable thing and  endorsed Metzger’s Republican opponent, Claire Burgener.

Similarly, some prominent Republicans are now putting country over party, endorsing Biden, a Democrat, for President over Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger described Trump as “a direct threat to every fundamental American value” in announcing his endorsement of Biden. “While I certainly don’t agree with President Biden on everything, and I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for president, I know that he will always protect the very thing that makes America the best country in the world: our democracy,”

Michael Steele, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee, also endorsed Biden. To Republican voters,  he says, “The country needs you more than your party does, trust me.” 

Former Trump staffer Sarah Matthews says, “I won’t support someone who refused to participate in a peaceful transfer of power, tried to overthrow a free and fair election, and incited a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol,” Associated Press reports.

Senator Mitt Romney, former Republican presidential nominee, and former Congressional representative Liz Cheney have both said they will not support Trump,though stopped short of endorsing Biden. “We cannot survive torching the Constitution,”said Cheney, the daughter of George W. Bush’s Vice President, Dick Cheney.

Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence,whom the January 6 mob threatened to hang, has this to say: “President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. … I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States … again.”

Political commentator and talk show host David Pakman has prepared a detailed analysis on how Project 2025 threatens our democracy.  .  It states, "At its core, Project 2025 is built on a maximalist interpretation of the unitary executive theory, which posits that the president should have absolute authority over the executive branch. This theory challenges the traditional balance of power between the branches of government, contending that all executive power should be concentrated in the hands of the president, thereby granting them direct control over all federal agencies and their actions."

Protect Democracy has a website, The Authoritarian Playbook, devoted to  helping journalists and others recognize dangers to democracy here and elsewhere.

Congressman Jason Huffman from California has launched a Stop Project 2025 task force. He says of the project, “It's a dystopian plot that’s already in motion to dismantle our democratic institutions, abolish checks and balances, chip away at church-state separation, and impose a far-right agenda that infringes on basic liberties and violates public will.”

He concludes, ““We need a coordinated strategy to save America and stop this coup before it’s too late.”

Patriot Thomas Paine, pamphleteer known as the voice of the American Revolution,sagely concluded: “These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

His words ring as true today as they did when our nation was born.