Bellows Is Right: Use Every Tool Available to Defeat Trump

Kudos to Shenna Bellows! The secretary of state in Maine has done what every Republican would have done in the current situation, were the shoe on the other foot. If the Republicans had the opportunity to disqualify a candidate they consider an immediate threat to the survival of the world, there would be no restraint. When she used her power to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot in Maine, she set an example that hopefully will wake up other Democrats. She runs the elections in Maine—will she have the guts to stand up to a Trump-appointed judge should they overturn her decision?

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution is crystal clear: Donald Trump is not qualified to run for or hold office in the United States. The language is very specific, and if we lived in a nation where fairness was valued, this would not even be a question.

The situation we face now is that the Trump cult is ready, willing, and able to cheat in any and every way to take over power in the United States. It is way past time for the center and the left to use every tool we have available. The hand-wringing and self-recrimination over prosecuting Trump for his many crimes has got to end. Even some on the left have been saying that we have to defeat Trump at the ballot box instead of using his own actions. Should those who attempted to assassinate Hitler have waited until the next election? Oops—there was never going to be another election. Trump is too dangerous to the future of the planet for us to play nice with people who never, ever play nice.

Every one of us who is committed to protecting our ability to speak freely, to welcome immigrants into our country, who believe in a multicultural democracy, had better get out and get voters to oppose Trump.

This current crop of Republicans is already guilty of an amazing array of dirty tricks in order to insure long-term electoral power, and they hope permanent minority rule over all of us. It was not too long ago that the Republicans stole at least one, and some of us believe two, seats on the Supreme Court in a completely immoral, unprecedented, and barely legal manner. This corrupt Supreme Court has stolen voting rights from Black voters by gutting the Voting Rights Act. They have permitted what would be considered outrageous gerrymanders in swing states and pure red states to limit the voting of Black citizens.

There is no legal action to demand more opportunities to vote when cities with a large Black population are stripped of sites, so voters have to stand in line for 8 to 10 hours, while those of us in small towns and suburbs can waltz into the voting site, say howdy to our town clerk, vote, and leave in 10 minutes or less.

In Florida, nearly 65% of the citizens voted in a referendum to restore voting rights to felons. The state has undermined it, with support from Trump appointed criminals (aka judges), by creating a new category of "court fees" that these mostly poor and mostly non-white people are forced to pay in order to vote. The dirty tricks abound—when will we again see the demand that Black voters cite the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to earn the right to the franchise?

The irony that Donald Trump, who used countless tweets and statements to attack Barack Obama's eligibility for the presidency—the "birther" nonsense—has now actually disqualified himself should not be left unstated. Whenever Trump defends his right to be on the ballot, his attacks on Obama should be pulled out from the past, Somebody must have explained the rules to qualify for the presidency to Trump and he decided that, because Barack Obama is not white, that made him unamerican.

The Democrats and the left must be tougher. As 2024 begins, the coalition of those who understand the peril of another Trump term should be organizing poll watchers for every site with non-white voters. We need to be the eyes to the system. Lawyers, or those trained by lawyers, need to be available on call to assist those who are being denied the right to register or to vote.

As terrible as this sounds, we need to be more like our opposition but in a smart way: Trump and his crimes need to not only be called out every day in creative ways. Trump invents stupid names for his opponents; we need to begin inventing some smart ways to call out these guys for who they are. We need to make public Trump's most vile and violent insults every time they come out of his mouth. The corporate media and the court system has given this guy a pass. Almost anyone else would be serving time in prison for the constant death threats to those he dislikes. The press allows the life-long racist Trump to call strong Black women like Fani Willis and Letitia James racists without a direct challenge—a use of the term that is totally bogus, as true racism is part of a system of oppression of the powerless by the powerful. This nonsense needs to be countered whenever it comes out of his hateful mouth with tough talk about real racism.

The fascist movement in the United States has come a very long way in the past 10 years. It is clear that the Kochs and the other oil, gas, and chemical barons have been planning this takeover for a long time—the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation, and lots of other secretive organizations have plowed the ground for a cruel, hateful, and corrupt Donald Trump. Large corporations have basically decided to go along with Trump in exchange for eliminating regulations and taxes. And these corporations largely own the media. So we, every one of us who is committed to protecting our ability to speak freely, to welcome immigrants into our country, who believe in a multicultural democracy, had better get out and get voters to oppose Trump. Because we may never get another chance.