Donald Trump is an existential threat to our nation

During this long, nerve-wracking presidential election campaign, I have heard many politicians and pundits call Donald Trump an “existential threat” to our freedom.

By this they mean that the behavior, statements, and policies of Trump and his advisors indicate that his election would erode or destroy our democratic form of government and replace it with a dictatorship. Our very existence as a democratic republic is being threatened.

Those in the Trump’s GOP deny this, of course, and call this charge a scare tactic of the Left.

But why has the word “existential,” previously used to describe a group of philosophers known as existentialists, acquired such currency in American political discourse?

It has little to do with the philosophy of Existentialism, popular in the twentieth century and associated with French intellectual literary figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.

Rather, the phrase “existential threat,” when used to describe Donald Trump, simply refers to the belief that the election of Trump could bring our democratic form of government to an end – to the fear that he would ignore our Constitution and replace our republic with a dictatorship.

This fear is based on what Trump has said since 2015 and what he tried to do during his earlier presidency, most notably his attempt to change his 2020 election defeat to a win by encouraging an insurrection at our Capitol on January 6, 2021. The efforts of Trump’s supporters who devised Project 2025 also add to this threat.

So is Donald Trump an “existential threat?”

The three-fold threat to our nation

 Trump’s words and actions are threatening our continued existence as a democratic republic, and there is every reason to think he would carry out his threats to punish enemies since he showed his willingness to do so when previously president. The man who separated children from their parents at the southern border should be believed when he says he will, if reelected, deport millions of illegal immigrants and restrict legal immigration as well.

The man who tried to remove job protection for executive branch civil servants in the final month of his presidency should be taken seriously when he promises retribution to any who have opposed or might oppose him. Trump’s admiration of dictators is supported by his words and actions when dealing with and talking about autocratic leaders like Vladimir Putin of Russia and Victor Orban of Hungary.

So, yes, Trump is an existential threat to American democracy and rule of law, but this threat has two more faces.

The second face of this threat is the Republican party leaders who have tried to secure power by allowing Donald Trump to again become a candidate for president when they could have impeached him after Jan 6.

What has happened to the Republican Party leadership? We know political leaders in all parties are tempted to put power and self-interest ahead of principle. But how did this moral failure lodge itself so quickly and so deeply in the once rational and principled conservative GOP?

And then there are Trump’s MAGA cult supporters, the Americans who have swallowed the lies and disregarded the immoral behavior of a selfish conman. These millions of unswerving fanatic Trumpers are the most serious part of this threefold existential threat to American democracy.

Members of the Trump base willfully ignore the truth about his character and action. Many, sadly, claim to do this for “religious” reasons. Trump, they believe, was chosen by God. This irrational thinking is what makes these people members of a cult.

It is true that there are legitimate reasons why many Americans have felt ignored by political leaders of both major parties in recent decades. Yet, don’t we still have the will and ability to fix our social and economic problems? Can’t we curb capitalist excesses by the rich, create greater equality, and address racial and social issues without destroying our Constitution?

We can begin to answer these questions by voting in the coming election and electing Kamala Harris as president and putting in place a Democratic Congress.

Doing this will not fix all our political, social, and economic problems. It will not end the culture wars or our polarization.

But it will be the beginning of the end of the threefold existential threat posed by Trump, the Republican leadership, and the members of Maga.

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