Simple Magic

In his inaugural address as Governor of California in 1967, Ronald Reagan marveled at “the orderly transfer of administrative authority by direction of the people,” extolling it as “the simple magic of the commonplace routine…this continuing fact that the people, by democratic process, can delegate power, and yet retain the custody of it.”

That simple magic has no effect on Donald Trump; democracy to him is just hocus-pocus. Orderly transfer of power is a spell that cannot be cast upon him. And we have to bear this in mind.

Here’s the deal: Trump is never going to leave. Not willingly. Impeached, voted out, term-limited? It doesn’t matter. He plans to stick around, come what may. And to believe otherwise is to engage in a different sort of magical thinking—the kind that will end our republic.

This is not idle speculation on my part, or kooky conspiracy theory. We know there won’t be an orderly, peaceful transition of power this time because there wasn’t an orderly, peaceful transition of power the last time. The only reason Trump left in 2021 is because his J6 coup attempt failed. Basically, we got lucky.

This time is different. Even as he mentally and physically deteriorates, Trump is much more powerful now. His lickspittles at Justice and the FBI protect him. He owns the Supreme Court, which has granted him kingly powers (and will certainly find some bogus excuse to allow him to serve a third term). He has bullied the legacy media into submission. He holds sway in the Senate, and his toady Mike Johnson has effectively dismantled the House. At the White House itself, he’s literally dug in. If he succeeds in subverting the military, as he’s clearly trying to do with our shameful “excursion” into the Middle East, who will be left to serve the eviction notice, much less remove him from the premises? The Senate Sergeant at Arms? The Ulster County Sheriff? Batman?

We The People have to recognize the threat to our democracy, accept that it is real, and come to grips with the urgency. What we need to do is remove Donald Trump from office. We need to throw him out, nonviolently, and never let the disgusting traitor anywhere near the White House ever again. We must consider every nonviolent plan that might work, we must use every peaceable means at our disposal, and we must do it now. The fate of our 249½-year-old democracy depends on it. The longer we wait, the harder it’s going to be to remove him—and he knows this, which is why he started a purposeless war with Iran.

“No generation has fought longer and harder for freedom or paid a higher price than ours. But the fulfillment of our destiny demands more,” Reagan said at the end of that 1967 speech. “Let this day mark the beginning of that fulfillment.”