T.D.S? Hell no.

 The federal indictment of Donald Trump (37 felony charges all told) will result in perhaps the most significant criminal trial in American history. Trump faces 31 counts of retention of classified government documents and associated charges of lying to federal officers, obstruction, etc. This is at the same time he is the leading candidate for the GOP nomination for president in 2024. As I type this, election day 2024 is a mere 505 days in the future. If you thought the 2020 presidential election was contentious, you’ve seen nothing yet.

It seems clear to many that Trump’s desperation to be the nominee and to win now relates to the strength of the case the DOJ has brought. If you have not yet done so, regardless of your political stance, read the indictment in full, then think about what it alleges. The primary purpose of a president is to keep America, its people, and its Constitution safe. The evidence to be presented in court seems to me to be incredibly damning. Yes, I have friends who have accused me of Trump Derangement Syndrome. To you I say, read the indictment. Facts are stubborn things as John Adams noted.

As Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein note in today’s Washington Post, Trump and his lawyers may be assisted in the attempts he will likely make to delay the trial until after election day 2024. That is because the case will be tried under the rules of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) which governs how classified material may be accessed by the defense in such trials. And Trump and his defense team probably realize the high probability that a guilty verdict is staring them in the face. That’s why Trump is desperate either to win reelection (which would either short-circuit such a trial, delay sentencing, or even allow him a chance to “self-pardon”) or bully any Republican candidate other than himself to declare publicly that he/she would pardon Trump upon gaining the Oval Office on 20 January 2025. Trump is loudly proclaiming that any GOP candidate (especially Ron DeSantis) must make that pledge to him.

This provides yet another reason Trump or any other Republican must be kept from being elected president in 2024. That means that those of us who opposed him in 2016 and in 2020 must be ready once more to fight like hell to keep that from happening. The work must begin now. My first piece of advice is to be active and to stay active. The true patriots are not the red-capped white supremacists but those who want the American experiment to continue – and not to watch it scrapped for autocracy. Make sure you are registered to vote and then VOTE in every election that comes up, local, state, and federal. Get others registered and out to vote. Talk to people – family, friends, neighbors. Donate to reasonable candidates (and at the moment, I find it difficult to describe any Republican as a reasonable candidate). Besides monetary donations (yes, we aren’t billionaires but dollars add up from many smaller donations), donate your time for contacting voters as elections approach. Sites such as Postcards to Voters and Vote Forward provide help in contacting voters via mail; I have used them and continue to do so. If you can be a canvasser or volunteer for a phone or text bank, or for a political candidate near you, do so. 

What we will need is another massive turnout like 2020 – even bigger if possible. Don’t fall for Trump’s blatant lie that he “got more votes than any previous president”. He did but Joe Biden got 7 million more votes than the twice-impeached and multiply-indicted Trump. We cannot afford complacency. Our democracy is at stake. Let’s fight like hell.