Democracy on the Brink

Driven by a desire to retain power and avoid political consequences such as impeachment, Donald Trump is pursuing three measures that could influence the upcoming midterm elections.

Late last month, the No Kings Movement conducted over three thousand large protests in all fifty states. As many as eight million concerned citizens made their voices heard, the largest protest in US history, and everyone was watching. This president and the complicit now sense their end and are rightfully frightened. The much-anticipated November mid-term elections risk sweeping a host of Trump supporters from office and Democrats becoming the majority in the House and Senate. Which risks a presidential impeachment process to follow. A third impeachment of a president has no historical precedent. Then again, there has never been a White House resident like this one.

Trump is actively taking at least three measures to influence these midterm elections in order to avoid this outcome.

(1) The Save America Act.

The most immediate impediment is the ill-named Save America Act, which if made into law will serve as one of the greatest voter suppression actions in the history of our republic. Based on the bill’s current wording, every woman who took her husband’s name at the altar could be denied the vote because the name on her birth certificate is different from the name on her passport or driver’s license. Also, many Americans neither drive nor have ever had a passport. Additionally, the Bipartisan Policy Center says that “…instances of noncitizen voting are rare.” More to the point, citizenship is usually verified at the time of voter registration. So, what is the actual point of the act? Demanding that any person born in America, or a naturalized citizen, provides proof of this sort is a poll tax in all but name. Poll taxes were used extensively in the American south during the wicked days of Jim Crow to suppress the Black vote. Is this where we are headed now?

(2) Suppression of Mail-In Ballots

Although this president recently mailed in his voter’s ballot, he wishes to deny this option to average Americans. He declared on his “Truth Social” site that “ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS…”. He provides no evidence that this is in fact the case. His claim that there is considerable fraud in the current voting system cannot withstand even casual scrutiny. The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) found that the 2024 elections were “the most secure in American history.” The most politically conservative organization in America, the Heritage Foundation, could find no evidence of voter fraud to support this Oval Office’s lies. To quote an old franchise burger TV commercial, “Where’s the beef? If Trump were to be successful in eliminating vote by mail, millions of senior citizens and the disabled could be denied their right to vote.

(3) An “Emergency” to declare Martial Law

This Oval Office declares a trumped-up emergency (pun intended) prior to the mid-terms, and then exercising emergency powers, refuses to hold the elections. Think of the nonexistent ANTIFA red herring. This president decided that the leaderless, amorphous and ill-defined movement warranted the title of a “domestic terrorist organization.” Reuters recently reported that this administration is organizing an international “…summit focused on countering the left-wing movement.” Reuters also reported in the same piece that “Counterterrorism experts argue that it does not exist as an organized entity.” The experts would be correct. The fact is that ANTIFA poses little if any threat to the nation. But don’t be surprised if at some point between now and this coming Autumn this White House claims otherwise.

This president possesses clear authoritarian tendencies. This president is a convicted felon. This president engaged the American military in a war with Iran without Congressional consultation. This president appears to be the most corrupt and self-serving in the history of our nation. This president demonstrated a propensity for the incitement of violence on the 6^th of January Insurrection in 2021. This president has stated clearly that he knows that impeachment hearings will follow any mid-term Democratic Party landslide by a likely plurality of the nation.

Nobody can summon the future. Nobody knows what will happen next. Only one thing is certain. Trump is desperate to cling to power. Based on his history, and if the mid-term elections turn into a Republican rout, expect a violent response from him that makes “January 6” look like a tea party.

Robert Bruce Adolph, an author and qualified Military Strategist, is a retired senior US Army Special Forces soldier. He holds graduate degrees in both National Security Studies & International Affairs and was formally trained as a counterintelligence special agent. Robert also taught university level courses in American Government, US History, and World Politics. Following his retirement from the active military, he joined the UN, subsequently seeing service in Sierra Leone, Yemen, Iraq, Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Indonesia and more, culminating in the role of Chief of the Middle East and North Africa at UN Headquarters in New York. He is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rFounded ule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.