Look at these headlines from various major news publications throughout the past week:
“A second Trump term ‘poses a threat to the existence of America as we know it,’ says The Atlantic’s top editor”— CNN.com, Dec. 5
“IF TRUMP WINS: The staff of The Atlantic on the threat a second term poses to American democracy”— The Atlantic, Dec. 4
“Why a Second Trump Presidency May Be More Radical Than His First”— The New York Times, Dec. 4
“A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending”— The Washington Post, Nov. 30
Outside of the mind-numbing repetition, it’s somewhat humorous watching the media actually suppose that a second Trump presidential term is possible. By nature of their convulsive coverage and commentary, we should already know it’s not. They’re currently trying to throw him in prison. Or, they’re trying to keep his name off of state ballots. And when one of the most authoritative voices in Washington preemptively declares a duly elected president “a threat to the existence of America,” how could anyone expect the government he would command in the same city to comply in any way?
They hardly did the first time. Remember the dorky bureaucrat who listened in on a harmless phone call and decided it was time to kick off an impeachment?
Trump doesn’t need to literally be killed in order for his opposition to strangle a second term (though I wouldn’t put it past them). He only needs to see his victory nullified by a bureaucracy that resists and a media that justifies every effort in defiance. Yes, even if it’s deadly. They’ve done it before.
Courts around the country will certainly do the same thing, regardless of any legalities. Democrat federal judges will lock up Trump’s second-term policy orders, with only the most barren attempts at rationalizing the rulings if a superior court concurs, great. If not, what’s an insurgent jurist got to lose by gumming up the gears and buying time for the next phase of obstruction?
They talk about a second term like it’s something everyone should be afraid of, even as national polls show a majority of voters willing to vote for it. “More than anything else, Mr. Trump’s vow to use the Justice Department to wreak vengeance against his adversaries is a naked challenge to democratic values,” wrote The New York Times on Monday. “Building on how he tried to get prosecutors to go after his enemies while in office, it would end the post-Watergate norm of investigative independence from White House political control.”
Whoa! A president using his Justice Department to take down his political opponents? Who would stand for such a thing?! In reality, what they’re warning of is a reckoning for what they’ve done. Understandably, they don’t want that. So they’re laying the groundwork now.
The headlines above are all about the same thing: preparation for assassination, metaphorical or otherwise.
