Well. We’ve arrived at another US election. Is there freedom and democracy on the other side..? Or at least a path that leads back there..?
I wanted to write this before the election is over, to express my anxiety, which has been humming loudly for a couple of weeks now (Yes, I already voted. How about you?).
I wrote earlier posts about this: Entering the Dark Forest (after the 2024 election, anticipating what 2025 would bring), and Inside the Dark Forest (evaluating how that had gone). Yes, of course, these are all partisan political pieces, though I feel like the situation has devolved beyond what I would normally call “politics” to matters of stark moral choices.
The Fears Realized
Things have gone further, and the Forest is indeed very Dark. A large number of “red lines” have been crossed on the way to a full Fascist dictatorship in America. I don’t know at what point I should draw the line: a good argument could be made that we are already there.
In preparing this article, I hurt my heart a lot, just lining up all the horrible things that have already happened. The mind wants to suppress them to protect itself, but it is important that we remember the crimes against humanity, against the people of the United States, and against the world. The level of betrayal and banal cruelty is shocking.
I am a writer, not a journalist, so you can put “alleged” in front of all this, because I’m telling you how I see it, and I’m linking to my main sources, which are Wikipedia articles, for the fully qualified and reviewed versions. But I’m not going to pussyfoot around this, or “both-sides” it. That just wouldn’t be truthful. These are all pretty clear-cut and far beyond the pale of any usual politics. The crimes are so big, it’s almost hard to think of them as crimes. But they are criminal. They violate laws, international treaties, and court orders. Not to mention basic human decency or respect for human rights.
Any formal charges will have to wait, though, for the regime to be deposed, as they have been effectively blocking all the vaunted “checks and balances” we’re supposed to have in place.
Horrors As-Yet Unrealized
Despite many threats by Trump, we have not yet invaded Canada, Greenland, or Cuba. The Regime continues to make these threats, though, and they have taken actions towards these goals. It is clear from many examples, that Trump intends a return to a “spheres of influence” view of the world, in which the USA take imperial control of all of the Americas, primarily through military force, controlling the other countries in the region as vassal states. This view of the world order, promoted largely by Putin’s Russia, would leave Russia to control Europe, and China to control much of Africa and Asia.
Of course, we have already invaded and taken control of Venezuela, in a clear act of aggression. And so far, this appears to have manifested mainly in control of oil fields and the ability to manipulate global fossil fuel markets. The apparently ill-advised attack on Iran, could be seen as a further action in this direction — it’s really the only way it makes any sense, strategically (if indeed it is motivated by malice, rather than stupidity). The USA is indeed a net supplier of oil at this point, so we needn’t worry about an actual shortage domestically — but the market is global, and these actions have served to drive up prices and allow US suppliers to profit immensely (within the USA, this has the effect of yet another way wealth is siphoned from the working poor to idle wealthy investors). It has also provided a pretext for Trump’s pivot to supporting Russia, by allowing them to sell fuel internationally, in violation of sanctions against them over the Ukraine war.
To cover all the past and possible future crimes of this regime, would take an excessive amount of words here, so I’ve only listed a sampling, which would be bad enough, even were these the only offenses.
We Are Having an Election
I don’t think we’re quite beyond the brink, even now, though, because a lot of our government, and critically, the election infrastructure is still pretty much intact. This is largely because the US election infrastructure has always been distributed among the states. I’ve never been more grateful for this fact than now!
That is not to say that it is perfect or fair. It has never been either of those absolutely, and it has been corrupted further by this Regime. But with a strong popular opposition, I do expect the election itself will be pretty normal. I mostly anticipate issues during the “lame duck” period from November 4th (the day after the official election) to January 3rd, when the new Congress is seated. I imagine there will be much rhetoric and many lawsuits.
So, I still think that voting is the most critical duty we have.
The Sobering Hopes
I hate to do this to you, but I have to say that the election is not going to solve all this. This is only a midterm (Congressional) election. We can’t vote Trump out yet. But it is still critical, if we ever want to be able to do that.
We have got to start putting a meaningful check on this regime. And we must repair and reinstall the infrastructure of elections and democracy, so that the 2028 election will still be a free and fair one.
And we have to solve the economic damage and restore essential services. It’s a lot of work to do.
Much has been made in the national press of the run of James Talarico for the US Senate, but from my point of view, his single extra Democratic voice in the Senate is a less significant goal than flipping the Governor’s Mansion in Texas. Gina Hinojosa has been polling neck-in-neck against Greg Abbott. In fact, she’s currently slightly ahead — but within the margin of error. In short she has a good chance if Democrats and Independents get out and vote for her.
Greg Abbott on the other hand, has been a loyal follower of MAGA and Trump, and has been instrumental in the ICE terror campaign (many of the detention centers are in Texas), and hostility on the Mexican border (possibly in violation of Constitutional rules on war powers — the Texas government has used some very dodgy reasoning to claim we’re being “invaded”, though this is a patently ridiculous distortion of the term). And of course, Abbott dutifully implemented the mid-decade redistricting (gerrymandering) plan that Trump demanded.
Removing this weapon from the Regime arsenal would be very helpful in restoring liberal democracy to this country.
Say We Win, What Then..?
If we have a particularly good election result, and Democrats win as many seats as are realistic in both the House and the Senate, as well as some state Governor races in key states, there are some things to hope for.
“Okay, but are you sure we can’t have an impeachment of Trump…?”
Actually, we absolutely can. The House of Representatives can do that, and if Democrats control it, then it could happen. But we have to acknowledge that, unless there’s cooperation from Republicans, a conviction and removal is very unlikely, as that requires a 2/3rds majority in the Senate. The cabinet impeachments are possible, because some of them have raised a lot of ire from Republicans as well as Democrats in Congress, and they are not as subject to reprisals — the Trump Regime has already shown it can abandon Cabinet officials.
Of course, it’s not entirely impossible. It happened with Nixon.
Very likely, there will be a lot of investigations into the abuses and law-breaking by the Trump Regime. It’s essential this happen, if for no other reason than to ensure that records are made and released to the public.
This may also be a way to finally get some movement on the Epstein Files case, which, undoubtedly, implicates Trump (it’s hard to understand the severity of his reaction to them, otherwise).
But I think the most important thing is that they may be able to start forcing prosecutions against excessive force and inhumane detention conditions by Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Border Patrol (BP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which have been acting as secret police for the Trump Regime.
The Supreme Court has become a very serious obstacle to democracy, since seats on the court were essentially stolen by hypocritical manipulation of the approval process by Republican majorities in Congress. Getting around this is tricky, but also essential.
Some small progress might be made: perhaps taking steps to reduce the scope of the court’s power, as has been suggested. The Supreme Court is the least-specified of the three branches of government in the Constitution, so most of the rules around it come from legislation, which of course, Congress controls. Overriding the court will take some doing, though, as the current court has demonstrated that it is not above making partisan and self-interesting rulings to protect its power. Several recent rulings have defied common-sense readings of the laws and Constitutional amendments they claim to be interpreting, and can really only be understood as political actions.
It’s obviously a delicate balance to alter the government this way, but it must be understood that the balance of power has already been disrupted in favor of a “unitary executive” (or “imperial presidency”), which puts far too much power into the singular person of the US President, effectively making him a dictator. This was the primary mission of “Project 2025”, along with installing Christian Nationalism.
Simpler Things
Of course, there are much simpler things that the new Congress might do, such as rolling back the Trump tariff regime. Congress officially controls taxes and spending, and tariffs are a tax. The provisions under which the Executive branch has been imposing tariffs are clearly not really applicable to the circumstances, and only Congressional complicity has allowed them to go into effect.
A Democratic Congress could reverse that, although they will have to play “hard ball” to make anything happen, since they are not really designed to enforce their own laws (that being the intended purpose of the Executive Branch). I do think there is reason to hope, though.
Another good possibility is to shut down the Iran war, with a “War Powers” act, forcing the Regime into a peace deal, even one that effectively leaves the USA as a “loser” in the conflict. This is probably just facing the inevitable. It was an ill-conceived war and losing is probably the only way out for the USA now. There’s no more room to consider might-have-beens about it (we clearly would have been in a better position, had we been able to stop the war or the rejection of the treaty (JCPOA) we had with Iran from the Obama Administration, but that ship has sailed — and sunk in the Strait of Hormuz).
Congress may be able to restore some of the programs that were cut, such as USAID, since these were never formally or legally closed.
The Enthusiasm is There
Fortunately, the people of the USA seem to have finally woken up to the true dangers of the Trump Regime, and I have some cause to hope because of that.
Still a Very Scary Crossing!
The stakes are enormous. The dissension in the country remains high, with dedicated MAGA still around, but also a significant opposition in protest. The polls and the Early Vote turnout are very promising, but a lot of people will need to vote tomorrow (Tuesday, November 3rd) for success to be realized.
I suppose many of my readers will have made up their minds already. I know my little Production Log is not a big platform, but it’s what I’ve got, and I felt the need to write all this out, and before Election Day.
Please, if you’ve got the right to vote in this election, use it! It may seem like a small drop in the bucket, but collectively, it is very important.
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