The Funeral of American Elections

By Thomas Coffin

After two centuries, our democratic system of electing presidents is being discarded and relegated to the dumpster. Trump recently said, when asked by Time Magazine about possible political violence following the November election, “If we don’t win, you know, it depends.” And Trump Party members will again follow their leader’s suggestion, with insurrection as the remedy for their losses.

Welcome to the funeral of democracy, brought to us by the party that cannot win because it despises that mode of governance and is dedicated to bury it. According to a recent AP news report, one third of the Republicans in Congress supported Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election results. Another study by the States United Democracy Center found that 170 representatives and senators out of 535 lawmakers overall can be categorized as election deniers. As the fall elections nears, two Senate candidates and 17 new House candidates are seeking to join the ranks of the deniers.

In addition, per the report, the RNC under Trump’s direction is making the elections process its top priority. In essence, it is an integral tool in its strategy despite the fact that recounts, audits, and reviews in battleground states all affirmed Biden’s 2020 victory and the judiciary rejected all the dozens of Trump’s lawsuits claiming fraud as unfounded.

The truth is irrelevant to Trump and his followers. Thus, the January 6th insurrection will join Pearl Harbor as a notorious Day of Infamy in American history.

At bottom, the facts don’t matter to those behind the curtain pulling the strings of the puppets on the stage. The end game is the demise of our democracy and Constitution and the transition to totalitarianism and autocracy as the mode of governance. We witnessed this during Trump’s term of office, especially when he was rejected by voters for a second term. Having been rejected, the apparatus is being constructed for suppressing and/or negating by hook or crook any rejection by the people for a second time. Such is gaining momentum among the members of the Party he rules over.

As I have written previously regarding The Heritage Foundation Presidential Transition Project 2025, there is in place a blueprint for a complete makeover of our democracy, from top to bottom, to fulfill an ultra-right-wing goal that mirrors autocratic governance models, not the Constitutional model that has served the American people for over 200 years.

In part, the plan includes terminating all the attorneys serving in our nation’s Department of Justice immediately, and then hiring those who will be loyal to Trump rather than the standard oath to defend and support the Constitution. In essence, such would eliminate the rule of law that defines our nation and would substitute the will of a dictator.

Make no mistake this November. The coming election is the most important in our entire history. We are facing a choice between democracy and the will of the people or dictatorship and the iron fist of tyranny. I am not exaggerating—those are the stakes. Trump has called for the termination of the Constitution and has liberally and literally quoted dictators Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban as condemning Democracy during his remarks at his speeches. We must take Trump at his word, with other top Republican leaders have echoing his statements regarding whether they will accept the election results.

They are signaling us of their intentions. Our response must be to show up and vote. It may be the last time we get to, and we simply cannot afford to sit this one out. Nor can we waste our votes on marginal candidates who have no chance to prevail. We likely won’t get a second chance to preserve and protect our basic rights, which in reality are the winners or losers in this election.

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Thomas Coffin was the keynote speaker at the Blackberry Pie Society’s Political Party in February, 2020 and at Politics and Pie in October, 2022. He is a retired federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon and a former professor at the UO Law School. Thomas retired in 2016 after 24 years on the bench, prior to which he had a career as a federal prosecutor spanning 21 years. He is married with 7 children. The Blackberry Pie Society is pleased to include a collection of his essays on our website. We will post them as they become available.

Posted 5.29.2024