Former President Donald Trump presents an unprecedented threat to American civil liberty that could usher in an era of racial violence and political tyranny should he reclaim the White House in 2025, a new analysis of political research shows.
New York Times columnist Thomas Edsall issued Wednesday an extensive but dire warning to the American people in which he begged voters not to make what one expert described to him as a "deal with the devil."
"It is the ordinary, day-to-day life we lead at our kitchen tables and in our bedrooms that is most dangerously threatened by the tyranny that a return of Trump to power would represent," Edsall wrote.
"This is the kind of tyranny that everyone who reads these words should fear most and work hardest to hold at bay."
Edsall's lengthy analysis relies on Trump's spoken and written words, multiple interviews with political scientists and disturbing data about the views his MAGA voters hold.
The columnist warned Trump has already begun to dismantle political protections that might prevent him from carrying out threats that include siccing the military on perceived enemies, aligning himself with dictators whose charm and patriotism he praises, dismantling the civil service and sacrificing American influence abroad by abandoning European allies.
Edsall warned, as was found in a recent University of California-Davis study, that a third of MAGA Republicans expect imminent civil war, that more than half consider political violence justified and nearly three quarters believe white people face discrimination and replacement.
The study states, "assessments by law enforcement experts in violent domestic extremism and prior research, concern about the potential for political violence among MAGA Republicans appears to be justified.”
Jack Balkin, a Yale professor of constitutional law, warned Trump and conservatives have delivered critical blows to each of three protections — White House advisers, the threat of impeachment and the threat of prosecution — that prevent presidential misconduct.
“[Trump] will choose advisers who will not stand up to him,” said Balkin. “Two failed attempts at impeachment and removal during Trump’s first term have demonstrated that impeachment is not a viable remedy."
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The third is threatened by the Supreme Court, Balkin argues, because, "Trump can launder everything through discussions with his close subordinates, especially members of the Justice Department, and claim absolute immunity.”
Edsall condemned what he describes as the extremely myopic view Trump's critics have taken when discussing the political nuances of his political threats.
"Never forget that law can oppress as easily as it can liberate and that it is the content and spirit of our laws and the character of those we entrust with enacting and enforcing them that makes fidelity to law so central to our experiment in self-government," he concluded.
"It's both frightening and disturbing to think that two weeks from now American voters could once again make someone as unhinged and unbridled as Donald Trump the president of the United States."