Sowers: Trump plans to win ‘by hook or by crook’
Arthur E. Sowers is a resident of Harbeson.
Historically, it is unclear where the phrase, “by hook or by crook,” came from, but everybody knows what it means. As it applies to the 2024 election, there is a recent internet article with the title, “Trump preps catalog of ‘cheating’ claims for potential election loss” (axios.com/2024/09/29/trump-voter-fraud-2024-election). It has a lot of links to other articles, with more parts of his plan to steal the 2024 election by unethical or illegal means, if he doesn’t win it legally. I will call it “Trump’s Catalog.”
Against Donald Trump’s plans to challenge an election outcome unfavorable to him, I am still planning to vote against him. I am still in favor of moderate politicians, regardless of whether they are red or blue. I thank anti-Trump Republicans who see what Trump is doing. And, for all likeminded and moderate people, I would hope they vote and not give up.
In review, Trump said, before the 2020 election, that he was going to challenge the results if he didn’t win. But, immediately after he lost the election, he said Joe Biden caused him to lose. And Trump carried out a massive attack to change the results. However, the internet document titled “Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol” can be downloaded from here: govinfo.gov/app/details/gpo-j6-report/context. It documents how it was really Trump that tried to illegally steal the 2020 election. The political damage he did is incalculable. His conversion of people’s thinking from the “logical” to the “truth-doesn’t-matter mindset” is a real disservice to society.
One of the links in the Trump’s Catalog article brings you to a story that says that more than 100 GOP preemptive lawsuits already have excuses for rejecting election results if Trump loses. That article presents a list of baseless attacks on our 2024 election. There is also a link to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pledging to certify the 2024 election “only if it’s a ‘free, fair and safe election.’” Thus, Johnson certainly created, out of thin air, a brand-new loophole that could be used to interrupt a traditionally ceremonial step in the election protocol. Several other radicalized and extremist Republicans have made public statements that, if they can think up any doubts, they can reject the outcome. In other words, they are waiting for Trump to say the word. Another link is to two old references to Trump saying he would prematurely declare victory in the 2020 election, and he did do that. We should expect the same thing for the 2024 election. This is all consistent with the idea that, if you get everybody to agree to the same lie, then the lie becomes truth.
Another recent article, titled “Heritage Foundation Staffers Flood Federal Agencies With Thousands of Information Requests,” shows that there is a spiteful and desperate effort to throw a wrench into the gearbox of our government, to aid Trump’s effort to establish a fascist state.
Now that we have a corrupt Supreme Court (by giving Trump absolute immunity and making Trump bribe negotiations legal if they are only verbal) and a judicial system that allows for selection of judges for Trump cases that end with a Trump-appointed judge presiding (e.g., Judge Aileen Cannon), any election lawsuits would likely end in Trump’s favor, as many have in the past.
On top of that, Trump said he will jail critics (do internet search on “Trump jail critics” for links). That means goodbye freedom of speech starting in 2025, unless you only say nice things about Trump. I would also expect Trump to establish a “Ministry of Truth” to quash anything in the media he says is “fake news.” Censorship was a big part of totalitarian communist governments, Nazi Germany and even in pseudo-free modern Russia. Do you see where we are headed?
Another article with the title, “Rightwing claim of ‘0% chance’ of fair US election previews effort to undo 2024 result,” is out there and can be easily found by search and is just one of many articles showing that the biased Trumper movement is not even waiting for the election results.
Did you ever hear of Jair Bolsonaro? He was president of Brazil from 2019-23. His personality was just like Trump’s. He lost reelection to a second term and — just like Trump — challenged the election on the grounds that the voting machines were rigged. It was a big dust-up, and Brazil had its own “Jan. 6” protest. It was worse than ours and shut the whole country down. In the end, the Brazilian Supreme Court declared Bolsonaro banned from running for office till 2030 (see Wikipedia article, “Jair Bolsonaro”). So, does Brazil have a better democracy than the USA? After all, look at what Trump did, and he is still on the street.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
