Back to politics.

The midterm elections will happen in less than six months, on Tuesday, November 3. Trump’s approval rating is 37%, lower than Joe Biden (49%), Barack Obama (53%), and George W. Bush (56%) at similar points in their respective presidencies. In fact, his approval is lower than any other modern president in the same time frame and is continuing to plummet. While Trump will not be on the ticket, a lot of vulnerable Republicans will be, and most pundits predict that Democrats will win the House and possibly the Senate, despite the last-minute Republican gerrymandering.

Trump has only himself to blame. The ill-conceived war with Iran has put world economies in a tailspin resulting in U.S. gas prices inching closer to $4.50 a gallon and spikes in overall inflation. His middle of the night rants on social media have become more unhinged and less coherent. His attacks on Pope Leo have alienated Catholics and most of the U.S. population. The MAGAs are holding firm but moderate Republicans and Independents are starting to bail. Enough is enough.

Time to breathe easier, right? After the Midterms there is no way that Trump will be able to hold onto the power he has now with a compliant Congress.

Not so fast. November 3, 2026, could well be the Day of Reckoning–the day that democracy dies in the United States of America.

My assessment is spurred by the op ed piece by Thomas Edsall in the May 5 issue of The New York Times. Read Edsall’s essay. Edsall writes about “emergency powers” that are virtually unknown to the public, to most members of Congress and to much of the federal judiciary. These powers — classified as “Presidential Emergency Action Documents” or “PEADs”— allow a single individual to suspend fundamental constitutional rights, detain civilians, seize property, impose martial law and censor communications. They require only a presidential signature. No prior congressional approval is needed. No court reviews them before activation. No statutory mechanism exists for Congress to restrict or terminate these powers once invoked.

PEADs were first created in the 1950s during the Eisenhower presidency to address the potential of nuclear war to create chaos. Yet there is no statutory, constitutional or procedural limit on the number of PEADs a president may create, the subjects they may address, or the scope of authority they may claim. Edsall fears that Trump may use PEADs to hold on to power if he determines that control of Congress will switch to the Democrats.

He also cites Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, issued Sept. 25 last year. The memorandum effectively grants the Department of Justice, the Treasury, the I.R.S. and other federal agencies a license to label “left-wing groups” as “domestic terrorist organizations” and directs the Department of Justice to prosecute them “to the maximum extent permissible by law.” The memorandum claims that “heinous assassinations and other acts of political violence in the United States have dramatically increased in recent years.” These acts, according to Trump, are exclusively linked to liberals, Democrats, and the left. The memo describes these opponents as anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-Christian, who intend to overthrow of the United States government and are extremists on immigration, race and gender. They are hostile toward those who hold traditional American views on family, religion and morality. The memorandum calls on the Joint Terrorism Task Force “to investigate, prosecute and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation designed to suppress lawful political activity or obstruct the rule of law.”

If these actions were to happen, it could result in civil war and the end of democracy in the United States. Edsall does not see the Supreme Court intervening. He and others have observed that the massive deportation centers are much bigger than needed to house undocumented people and have deliberately been designed to accommodate Trump’s political enemies. It is not hard to envision masked ICE thugs rounding up the liberal and radical enemies of Trump and depositing them here.

Edsall is not an extremist or fire breathing leftist. He is only calling strikes and balls as he sees them. But his essay sure got my attention and scares the bejesus out of me. Think how close we came on January 6, 2021, with the assault of the Capitol, urged on by Trump. If Pence had caved, what would have happened?

Friends, it could happen here. No government lasts forever. No country can be Number One indefinitely. The question we should be asking now–and preparing to answer– is what we can do now to prevent this catastrophe from happening six months from now.

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