“Even if he’s convicted?” Raju asked.
“Even if he’s convicted,” Cramer said.
And with that recent exchange between a reporter and a Republican primary voter, I came to the conclusion that many Americans have truly gone off the deep end. You, dear reader, of course know the context of the quoted exchange. A supporter of Donald Trump calmly stated that on Election Day in November 2024, he will vote for Donald Trump for President of the United States even if a jury has convicted him of a felony prior to Election Day.
And that is not the end of the shock to my system. I recently watched a news show in which voters in Pennsylvania were asked what they would do if given a choice of four years of a presidency of Joe Biden based on Democracy or 4 years of a dictatorship led by Donald Trump. These voters opted for Trump.
Yes; that is right. Actual American citizens said they would be fine if Donald Trump led our nation as a dictator. It seems that there are many Americans who would prefer that things get done based upon one man’s rulings and orders.
I have written extensively since 2015 about what I continue to believe is the the most dangerous person to ever grace the halls of power in America. Yes, he is unfit for office. Yes, he appears to live and breathe facism, authoritarianism and totalitarianism. But at the end of the day, given the institutions that make up America, Donald Trump has never been able to do what he wants in the absence of millions of people who appear to be psychologically susceptible to the man’s rantings.
And so the question for all of is: what do WE want when it comes to a leader (singular) or leaders (plural)?
The folks from Pennslyvania who actually said they want a dictator revealed to all of us the underlying rationale for voting for Donald Trump. They associate policies with Trump. They say he’ll get things done and that this trait is the most important thing, not his character. In other words, these voters are really saying the following. If O.J. Simpson, as of December 2021, a fully free man, no longer under parole supervision, decided to run for President of the United States, and in doing so, freely admitted that he murdered his ex-wife and her friend, but then disclosed his ideas for America and those ideas resonated with voters, he would be acceptable to these voters as someone who will receive their vote.
These voters only care about results, not process. They would be happy to have Putin as their leader as long as he gives them the life they want. They and their neighbors would have to hope and pray that this one decision-maker, all-powerful and in the absence of the checks and balances of a legislative body or a judiciary, would not turn on them and suddenly impose policies that ruin their lives. These voters apparently do not care that once they accept dictatorship, they have no way to say “you’re fired.”
What we are now hearing from die-hard Trump supporters is further evidence that millions of otherwise decent Americans have unwittingly joined a cult led by a man who truly does not care about them. In so doing, they are no longer able or willing to accept or defend American Democracy.
It is important to understand that on a surface level, there is something attractive about a dictator or authoritarian leader of a community or nation. After all, our language includes the phrase “benevolent dictator.” This type of leader is defined as one who has absolute, unchecked power, but chooses to use that power to benefit the greatest number of people, as opposed to only his supporters and himself.
The United States of America came into existence in order to be free of dictatorship and authoritarian rule. In fighting a war to gain such independence, our Founders understood that rule by one person could yield policies that benefit the population. But the Founders realized that one person rule could not be trusted. And thus a Constitutional Republic grounded in democratic decision-making was born.
The fatal flaw for the Trump supporter is their placement of trust in their hero. When a group of people are so enamored with one man’s apparent interest in them, one man’s BS about what he can and will do to make their lives better, they ignore the possibility that perhaps he cannot and should not be trusted. They ignore what other folks see; that Donald Trump is a con artist whose life has been spent in service of himself and no one else.
Of course, there is another fatal flaw in the Trump supporter and that is character. Is the character of a person more important than the policies he or she proposes? It is nothing short of amazing that for many the answer is no.
And so here we are in 2024, an election year. And the fundamental question facing the United States of America is whether or not its people care about Democracy. Donald Trump is openly running for the Office of President of the United States on the Dictatorship Platform. Does he have enough voters among the citizens of the United States who want a dictatorship? God help us all.