The short answer to this question is, in the long term, no. However, Donald Trump will have caused significant damage to the United States during this, his second administration. There has been such a failure of the Constitution’s checks and balances that it will take a lot of work to repair the damage. It will be up to the Democrats to return this country to normalcy.
The Republicans had a plan that was years in the making. The Republicans forced their plan through a partisan reconciliation bill, through executive orders, and through executive actions taken without any congressional debate and with tacit approval by the Supreme Court. The Republican plan does not benefit 99% of Americans, and this is a real problem in a democracy.
The Democrats need to develop a plan of their own, and to realize that a moderate approach with bipartisan input will be necessary to accomplish anything while Donald Trump is President. Of course, the real normalization of this country can only happen once the Trump presidency is over due to his veto power, his willingness to ignore the intent of Congress, and his bizarre behavior that threatens peace and stability, both foreign and domestic. It takes 2/3 of both chambers of Congress to vote to override a presidential veto, making bipartisan agreement critical if this is to be done.
The recent “No Kings” demonstrations of 7 million people dwarfed the collective attendance at all of the Trump rallies combined. If one accepts the premise that there were 10 people in agreement for each rally participant, then this means that 80 million Americans support the protests and objections that define the “No Kings” movement. That is a lot of people.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the Republican Party is no longer the party of the working people. Its slick messaging, its bible beating, its flag waving – it has all been a lie, a grand and cynical manipulation.
When given the opportunity to make America great again, the Republican Party pledged fealty to the billionaires who finance its candidates and to a deranged populist would-be king. The Republican Party chose to follow a reactionary playbook called Project 2025, a manifesto of sorts written by a small number of people working through the Heritage Foundation who want to transform our country into something that matches their vision instead of that of the originators of our country and our constitution.
Apparently, this vision involves turning this country into a Christian, anti-science theocracy led by an authoritarian Executive branch that will force its will and concept of morality and ethics upon the American people, all without the benefit of any democratic input from the American people themselves. This is not how a democracy is supposed to work.
Who suffers from this? Pretty much everyone – our poor, our farmers, our research universities, our lawyers, our teachers, our elderly, our long-term undocumented residents, our journalists, as well as anyone who lives in a major city with a Democratic mayor or governor.
Who benefits from this? The very rich, the very large corporations, and the politicians who are paid off by them through dark money donations to PACs.
None of these observations are original or ground-breaking, but they are factual and accepted by an increasing number of people, even by some who supported Donald Trump and the Republican candidates in the last election.
It is important that Americans continue to resist and speak out against the anti-democratic, immoral, and unethical direction that the Trump administration is leading our country. The most certain way of stopping this movement is by voting out its supporters in favor of more democratic-minded candidates.
Rest assured, the Trump administration will do everything in its power to prevent this from happening. As public approval of the Trump administration continues to weaken, it becomes more and more likely that the Democrats will be able to regain control of at least one chamber of the legislative branch of the Federal government. It is even possible that both the Senate and the House of Representatives could end up being controlled by the Democrats following the upcoming mid-term elections.
In order to prevent this from happening, President Trump would certainly like to declare martial law and a national state of emergency, and as a consequence, postpone the mid-term elections and even the subsequent presidential election indefinitely. Martial law means that the military would assume control of governing the states and nation instead of our elected officials.
As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, this means that President Trump would become the principle governing authority of the country, thereby completing his takeover of the United States.
The Insurrection Act of 1807 and the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 theoretically limit the President’s ability to enact martial law. Qualifying conditions for the enactment of martial law include insurrection, riot, and civil unrest.
It is critical, in this next year leading up to the mid-term elections, that those opposed to the actions of President Trump refrain from any actions that could be construed as insurrection, riot, or civil unrest. During this time, the Trump Administration will be praying for the occurrence of any sort of violent activity in order to justify the declaration of martial law. This must be avoided at all costs.
There is no reason to believe that the Supreme Court would not uphold the right of the President to declare martial law if there was any justification, no matter how minor and insignificant, given its support for essentially everything that President Trump has done up to this point. This is despite the clear intention of our founding fathers to prevent the ascendance of a king. So much for constitutional originalism.
The recent non-violent “No Kings” demonstrations, the numerous legal actions being taken in the lower courts, and the speeches given by our elected officials denouncing the actions of President Trump and his administration should serve as examples of non-violent protests that would not justify the declaration of martial law.
Repeated discussions and public debates such as town halls are necessary forums to highlight the financial injustices of the partisan “Big Beautiful Bill” reconciliation act, the monetization of the presidency by Donald Trump in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the heartless deportation of de facto citizens of this country, the creation of an ICE-based secret police force that is not burdened by the limitations of any laws, and the unjustified murder of citizens of other countries in international waters in the name of the United States and its people.
What is even more important is that Democrats and independents create a counter to Project 2025, the blueprint that is being used to force a restructuring of all aspects of American governance and society without consideration of the will of the citizens of the United States.
Project 2029 needs to be developed now to serve as a blueprint to restore the Federal government to a more moderate, bipartisan existence, to lay out a plan to address the income inequality that exists in this country, to reverse decisions made that ignore established science, to revamp our immigration system to be fair and humane yet provide necessary protections, to restore accountability throughout the government by reestablishing the roles of inspector generals, and to preserve clean air and clean water and prevent exploitation of public lands by profit-driven private corporations, to mention only a few of the myriad of other actions made necessary by President Trump and his administration’s anti-democratic, corrupt, and fascist-like approach to governance.
It should be clear that the extremes of both of our political parties have proven to be disastrous for this country. This country needs a return to moderation, bipartisanship, and common sense.
The Republicans have caused great harm by refusing to check the actions of President Trump, and by rights should lose control of Congress based upon their dereliction of duty alone. However, the Democrats need to learn to speak authoritatively about substantive matters and leave the wokeness for another day in order to be seen by American citizens as a competent and better choice.
That may be asking for too much from a political party that is still fighting old battles with old ideas and seems unable to discern what is most important for this country.