I Fear for the Future of the USA if We Do Not Vote in Favor of the Rule of Law this Year

The USA has enjoyed a long run of economic success. That is due to many factors, but a very large factor is that the rule of law in the USA was more trustworthy in the USA than elsewhere. That is at risk given how systemically the Republican Party has packed the courts with those from carefully crafted lists of judges supporting extreme judicial activism.

That process has been underway for several decades and those actions have reached a point where the rule of law as we have know it is in great danger. If we allow the even more extreme Republicans that have taken control of the party in the last 6 years to gain the presidency and retain their positions in the USA house and senate I fear the USA will not resemble what we have known in the last 100 years in the next 10 years.

I cannot fathom how anyone seeking political office in the USA that doesn't strongly speak out against someone with the horrendous track record Donald Trump has amassed during his life and the last 8 years can get even 5% of the USA population to consider voting for them. However, the USA public has shown that my beliefs are very different than many, at least it seems about 40% or maybe even more, voters.  I fear we could not only elect him but also those that have not strongly spoken out against his hundreds of violations of criminal, ethical and other abuses against our society.

Details on some of the many abuses (frankly even 5% of which should disqualify anyone from supporting such an individual for any political office and most certainly from the most powerful political office in the USA):

• Read the full Trump indictment on mishandling of classified documents - Evidence of Trump’s Knowledge and Involvement in Retaining Mar-a-Lago Documents 
• Jan. 6 committee’s summary of its final report - Jan. 6 panel sheds light on the 187 minutes Trump went dark during Capitol siege - Jan. 6 committee's final report finds Trump was 'central cause' of attack on U.S. Capitol
• ‘High crimes and misdemeanors': Dems unveil impeachment charges against Trump - The Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry report, annotated
• Republican Liz Cheney calls Trump 'clearly unfit for future office' - Democracy is at stake if Trump is reelected, Liz Cheney warns
• President Trump’s staggering record of uncharged crimes
• A Guide to the Criminal Cases Against Donald Trump
• These are the 10 episodes Mueller investigated for obstruction of justice
• Among 160 years of presidential scandals, Trump stands alone
• New Trump scandal shows the depth of his assault on America’s democratic foundations 
• Trump’s administration can’t clean house because its leader is too soaked in scandal
• 13 Trump Scandals You Forgot About.  Any other year, one of these could have derailed a presidency.
• Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes
• New York jury finds Donald Trump sexually abused E Jean Carroll in civil suit
• ‘The Daily Show’ List of Trump’s Top 100 Scandals Continues
  
• Chris Christie Drops Long List of Misdeeds When Asked If The Trump Family Is Corrupt
• The Shockingly Long List of Corrupt Officials and Political Allies Pardoned by Trump
• A lengthy list of Trump's disastrous business deals
• Trump Organization charged Secret Service as much as $1,185 per night to stay at Trump properties 
• Trump received at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments as president
• Trump paid $2 million judgment for misusing his charity
• Trump University: A Look at an Enduring Education Scandal
• At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. A carpet company. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters. Dozens of bartenders and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs, coast to coast. Real estate brokers who sold his properties. And, ironically, several law firms that once represented him in these suits and others.
• Texas town continues to demand $500,000 from Trump four years after hosting rally
• Ten city governments from Arizona to Pennsylvania say the president’s political committee has failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars that the Trump campaign owes.
• Trump paid little to no federal income taxes over many years as he piled up losses and debt
  

These links added to the original post as new evidence on the depth of the corruption, undermining of democracy, and unfitness for duty are learned:

• 11 damning details in Jack Smith’s new (Oct 2024) brief in the Trump election case
  
• No person has ever posed more of a danger to the United States than the man who served as the 45th President of the United States according to General Mark Milley, the US Army general who Donald Trump appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• The U.S. Army said an employee at Arlington National Cemetery who tried to "ensure adherence" to rules that prohibit political activities at the cemetery "was abruptly pushed aside" by Trump staffers
  
• "Depressed, disgusted and horrified": These lifelong Republicans say they're finally done with Trump
  
• Over 100 Republican National Security Leaders Endorse Vice President Harris
  
• ‘Vengeful’ Trump withheld disaster aid and will do so again, ex-officials warn
  
• Network of Georgia election officials strategizing to undermine 2024 result
  
• The former president spent the weekend spewing dangerous nonsense at a rally. The press spent its weekend polishing it into palatability.

There are an unprecedented number of officials President Trump appointed that have withheld their endorsement of him based on the his abuses.  This is yet another sign of how unfit he is for office and yet some people continue to ignore the incredibly dangerous warning signs. If we don't wake up and take action to support those that will protect the USA from those supporting such an unfit person from taking office we will suffer greatly for our failure.

• List of Former Donald Trump Officials Refusing to Endorse Him

We need everyone that cares about the future of the USA to vote this year for the Democrats that have shown they care about protecting the USA from the dangers we face from political extremists.  We need to make clear with an overwhelming showing at the ballot box that such extremists are not going to be tolerated in the USA.  Only if we do that can we return to the debate about what policies our country should pursue. 

This year the only thing that matters is saving the future of our country.  Then we can have the Republican Party decide to promote those that will first concern themselves with our country, rule of law, democracy and the constitution and then after those things we all agree on they can provide alternative policy options that we can chose from.  Or we can have a new party take over the position the Republican Party used to hold.

If we as a society fail to provide a clear victory to those promoting democracy the rule of law and our constitution the dangers to the USA are enormous.  Those that think just because the USA has survived challenges before we can just not worry that much about the terrifying behavior of those leading the Republican Party the last 10 years are taking a much larger risk than I think they understand.

Unmasking the Anti-Democracy Agenda of Project 2025

Many people just want to hope they can avoid thinking about the dangers we face since in the past we have survived dangerous situations. I think we did survive because enough people cared to confront the difficult challenges they faced and take a stand for what they knew was right, even if that meant going against what was easiest for them in that moment.

From This Life-Long Republican to Another (a post on Reddit)

This isn't about Republicans vs. Democrats. This is about corruption, religious extremism (nationalism), the reputation of the United States on the global stage, and the legitimacy of the Presidential Office and democracy. It's about upholding the Constitution, Woman's Rights, my Daughter's rights, and future Granddaughter's rights. It's about our national security and maintaining our position as the country "you do not fck with." For me, this is about not letting a sick minded narcissist unravel the wisdom of our founding fathers so he can squander the American Empire and our economy... just like he squandered his own father's real estate empire he inherited and drove himself into bankruptcy repeatedly... then defrauded banks along the way with lies about the portfolios value, hiding his tax returns from us all and committing fraud while he slept with a porn star while his pregnant wife sat at home alone, preparing to give birth thinking she was "the only one for him."  ...

The USA Needs to Stop Coddling Those Behaving Abhorrently and Undermining Our Democracy

I am continually shocked and amazed at how far below (what I thought were low expectations) the Republican Party has managed to sink in the last 8 years. And it continually gets worse and more shocking. The country faces an enormous risk if we don't vote out those that have not strongly opposed the actions of the current Republican leadership this year. We need to rebuke their horrible behavior and vote those in power out of office, and keep those out of power today out of power forever.

I cannot imagine voting for a Republican for a long time that doesn't document exactly how their behavior in the last 8 years stood in forceful opposition to the horrible actions by the leaders in the Republican Party all this time.  How did they respond when their party put the country in great danger?  Very few have taken any actions that show any concern for the future of our democracy.

Photo of the White House by John Hunter

The editor of the cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer expressed the reality of the important choice our nation faces this year.

Our Trump reporting upsets some readers, but there aren’t two sides to facts

The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.

This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw, but our eyes don’t deceive. (If leaders began a yearslong campaign today to convince us that the Baltimore bridge did not collapse Tuesday morning, would you ever believe them?) Trust your eyes. Trump on Jan. 6 launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.

The facts involving Trump are crystal clear, and as news people, we cannot pretend otherwise, as unpopular as that might be with a segment of our readers. There aren’t two sides to facts. People who say the earth is flat don’t get space on our platforms. If that offends them, so be it.

As for those who equate Trump and Joe Biden, that’s false equivalency. Biden has done nothing remotely close to the egregious, anti-American acts of Trump. We can debate the success and mindset of our current president, as we have about most presidents in our lifetimes, but Biden was never a threat to our democracy. Trump is. He is unique among all American presidents for his efforts to keep power at any cost. 

We badly need to return to the days when the USA had 2 very flawed political parties; but still parties that at least had standards that would not tolerate the majority of those leading the current Republican Party to have any significant power.  And by that I don't mean 10 or 20 leaders I mean hundreds of the leaders (the USA senators, presidential candidates, members of the USA House of Representatives, state party leaders, state legislators...). Our country is in grave danger. We can't pretend this is just more of the same bad faith behavior by politicians. The previous bad faith actions pale in comparison to what we have seen the last 8 years.

We need those who normally sit out elections to strongly rebuke the current Republicans and force the Republican party to stop allowing those with abhorrent beliefs and that have been destroying the safeguards our society has built and promoted to lead their party. It is shocking that so many USA voters support those politicians.  If we continue to allow them to become more and more extremist in their rhetoric and actions we are placing the future of the USA at great risk.

Please make your voice heard and vote this year. There has not been a more important election since I have been voting. It is extremely important that we stop the decent into chaos and destruction of the rule of law that is being promoted by the Republican Party now.