It’s Either Trump or Democracy
By: Braeden Condon
The 2016 Presidential Election sparked my initial interest in politics. Before that year, I just echoed what my Republican family had said in conversations around the dinner table. However, with a new interest in politics, I set out on my own for a new political identity, one that I made throughout my own research and beliefs.
During 2016, a businessman and reality star was making waves in the Republican party. He said what supposedly came to his mind, and quite often exhibited a lack of filter. People loved it. After decades, if not centuries, of buttoned-up politicians using their inside voice, it was nice to have someone say what everyone was supposedly thinking. In the late stages of the Republican primary, the competition was between the outsider and Ted Cruz, a tea party politician with a severe likability problem. Because I personally disliked Ted Cruz, and I had yet to leave the Republican party, I supported the outsider candidate.
Throughout the general election, many people expected that Hillary Clinton, the bureaucrat, the fossil, and the status quo, would win election in a landslide. The economy was improving, the current president was popular, and the opposition was seen as outrageous and offensive. When Donald Trump became president of the United States, that expectation dissipated.
There are many people who hated President Donald Trump from the minute he descended down the golden escalator to announce his candidacy. However, a majority of America was willing to give him a chance, including his eventual successor. Even though my ideology pulled me away from the Republicans as a whole, I was willing to give him a chance as well.
The first major realization I had of the danger that President Trump presented was in Charlottesville. After hundreds of white supremacists marched on the streets chanting pure bile and showing their true, awful nature, hundreds of others united in opposition to this racist movement. After violence broke out, a young woman in the opposition was killed by a white supremacist. When there was a bipartisan call for President Trump to denounce these nationalists, many of which had supported Trump’s campaign, Trump stalled. Eventually, his response that there were “very fine people on both sides” came too little, too late, and many were disgusted. This was the event that led Joe Biden to plan his 2020 campaign. It was also a low point in President Trump’s approval ratings. However, he got through the controversy, and the horror was pushed to the back of the mind.
The next great blow to President Trump was during his impeachment. In a phone call, President Trump allegedly engaged in a quid pro quo with the Ukrainian government: if President Zelenskyy began an investigation into Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, he would continue to provide support. When it was leaked to the press, many of Trump’s supporters directed more irritation at the whistleblower than President Trump himself. When the impeachment trial began, President Trump refused to testify. In the Senate hearing, there were no witnesses, and the vote was finished as swift as possible, as it quickly turned into a political debate rather than a debate of ethics. Notice how in many of the defenses of President Trump, especially in the Senate, President Trump was exonerated by how the House conducted their investigation, not the actions the President himself took.
The last major blow was also related to the Presidential election. Despite multiple efforts to stifle mail-in votes and cause chaos in the Presidential election, Biden won. He did not win by a landslide, but he won decisively. Even so, President Trump continued to claim voter fraud, using often debunked conspiracies to further his case. No major voter fraud has been found (the only instances that have been were in support of Trump). In about 60 court cases filed, President Trump won only one, which mandated that observers be allowed to step closer to the poll workers. When forced to speak under oath, no evidence or claim of voter fraud could be substantiated.
Even so, President Trump continues to be a plague on democracy. He continues to push his conspiracies, and they are getting more dangerous. He could have stopped at so many points, but actively chose not to. When the media called the election? No. After states certified their votes? No. After the Electoral College certified the election? No. When Congress met to verify the Electoral College vote? It doesn’t appear so.
Even the week before the events of January 6, President Trump had actively tried to overturn the election. In a leaked call with the Georgia Secretary of State, President Trump asked that just enough votes be “found” to flip the state’s electoral votes red.
In the span of twenty-four hours, President Trump had caused more damage to democracy than his past four predecessors did in their entire time in office. He demanded that Senate Republicans betray the will of the people. He demanded that Mike Pence use powers, powers that he doesn’t even have, to overturn the election. He demanded that anyone who was a true supporter of him act out against this election.
Think back to January 6. Last month, he planned a “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington D.C. and called his supporters to come. As his supporters anxiously waited for their leader’s words, there were several opening acts fanning the flames of insurrection. Rudy Giuliani, his lawyer, called for “trial by combat.” His son, Donald Jr., told supporters to pressure Republicans who certified the election’s results. In the culminating speech to his supporters, Trump announced that the election was rigged, and that he would never concede. They could not save their country with weakness, he argued, and they must show strength. He then told his most loyal supporters to march on the Capitol.
In less than an hour, the Capitol was under siege, gunshots were fired, property was damaged, and dozens of Trump supporters attempted the first legitimate putsch in American history. As of writing this, one person has died.
I argued with a close friend over whether or not President Trump incited this violence. I said yes. He constantly refused to accept a decisive electoral loss. He organized this rally. He told his supporters to never concede and to go to the Capitol building. He is directly responsible for this. In the few tweets he made, he asked for peaceful protest, but did not demand that they leave the capitol building. In one tweet, which Twitter later took down, he said that “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away." In a widely-panned video, he told these terrorists that he loved them. This is a man who has no intention to stop the violence, not if it would deny him his victory. Although he eventually threw his supporters under the bus, he did not claim responsibility for what he did, and may never do so.
In the meantime, I must give credit to those who have spoken out against him, no matter how small it may seem. Majority Leader McConnell, as well as most Senate Republicans agreed to certify the election. Mike Pence refused to violate the Constitution. 10 House Republicans, including Liz Cheney, voted in favor of impeachment, with some Republican Senators likely to support removal as well. Democrats have fought him the whole way.
What scares me is those willing to keep fighting with him. 14 Senate Republicans and over 100 House Republicans challenged the results. Many more have rejected impeachment for inciting insurrection. Hundreds of Conservative Media figures have continued to support Trump. Some of my friends continue to support Trump.
There’s a phrase known as “moving the goalpost,” to keep shifting the criteria of a process, of your opinion on something. Most people in America fall victim to this inconsistency, I do it sometimes. However, Trump has made moving the goalpost an art. The man is infallible to so many people. Despite everything he did, he won over 74 million votes. People were willing to storm the Capitol building for him. Politicians were willing to pander to him. Although it would be the right thing to do at this point, I doubt he would resign over this. That is sad.
I don’t want there to be a misconception that I hate Trump and everything he does just because he’s Trump. He has many ups and downs for me. I like the USMCA and the Abraham Accords. I think the First Step Act is a good first step. However, I have never heard anybody ask how the economy was doing under President James Buchanan. I don’t think anybody has argued how little black unemployment there was under Jefferson Davis. Any good that President Trump may have done is outweighed by the damage he has inflicted upon our democracy.
In the ongoing impeachment process, many of those opposed of impeachment have argued that the process would only further divide the nation. Unfortunately, President Trump has already done enough to do so, and refusing to hold him accountable for actively fomenting division, especially through his illegal incitement of insurrection, would only solidify the divide of the nation and the idea that you can attempt a coup if your side doesn’t win.
There’s a picture going around, and it is put somewhere in this article, that shows Trump supporters lowering the American flag to replace with a Trump flag. I think that is fitting. Up to this point, I could understand why people supported President Trump – lower taxes, conservative judges, a Washington outsider. It is so easy to see President Trump as a champion if you ignore his flaws. It’s so easy to forgive him if you believe he wants what’s best for the country. However, it is clear that he is willing to irreparably divide the country if it benefits his own political career, and his supporters have agreed. Many have called for the ending of the impeachment process, and for America to reconcile with disaffected Trump supporters. I think this is possible, but they would need to make the first step, because Trump supporters in D.C. have made it clear – from here on out, you either stand with the United States of America, or you stand with President Trump.