On Friday, Donald Trump delivered a speech to the conservative Christian organization Turning Point Action. He told them that they needed to go out and vote, and if they did, he would ‘fix’ everything and they would never need to vote again: “In four more years it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote again my beautiful Christians….You have to get out and vote. In four years you won’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good (cnn.com)”
‘Fix’ is an interesting word choice, as it has so many different meanings. While it can mean to repair or mend, the word can also mean to spay or castrate, to get even with, and “to influence the actions, outcome, or effect of by improper or illegal methods” (merriam-webster.com).
His meaning is clear. He plans to topple democracy and install himself as dictator.
Believe what he says. 
Unless you are a straight, White, Christian, wealthy male, you will lose most of your civil and human rights—and maybe more. Full dictatorship is what a vote for Donald Trump will get you. Don’t deny it. Don’t stick your head in the sand and hope it doesn’t happen. Don’t believe that it is an exaggeration. Be ready for it, because it’s coming if he wins this election. He just said so.
It took me days to pick myself up off the floor when he was elected in 2016. His election led to myriad health issues for me personally, and horrific fallout for this country. That was simply a precursor. If he wins this time we will long for the Trump of 2016. His plans now? Strip everyone who is not a straight, White, Christian, wealthy male of their civil and human rights. Deport immigrants in record numbers. Impose extreme Christian ‘beliefs’ on everyone. While he says he has nothing to do with Project 2025—the presidential transition plan drawn up by numerous conservatives who served in his administration—he has previously supported many of its tenets. “While the former president said he doesn’t know who is in charge of the initiative, the project’s director, Dans, and associate director, Chretien, were high-ranking officials in his administration. Additionally, Ben Carson, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Trump; John Ratcliffe, former director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration; and Peter Navarro, who served as a top trade adviser to Trump in the White House, are listed as either authors or contributors to the policy agenda” (cbsnews.com).
Many of the document’s chapter authors also served in the Trump administration: Russ Vought, Office of Management and Budget, Chris Miller, former acting Defense Secretary, and Roger Severino, Director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services: “Vought is the policy director for the 2024 Republican National Committee’s platform committee, which adopted the platform at July’s convention. John McEntee, former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office under Trump, is a senior advisor to the Heritage Foundation, and said that the group will ‘integrate a lot of our work’ with the Trump campaign when the official transition efforts are announced in the next few months” (cbsnews.com).
If Trump wins in November, here is a sampling of their plans:
*They want the FDA to rescind its approval of mifepristone, one of the drugs used in medication abortions. If they can’t get that done, they want to severely restrict its use to the seventh week of pregnancy, requiring it to be prescribed in person (you can currently receive the medication through the mail). They also want to enforce the Comstock Act, a law from 1873 that would prohibit sending the pills through the mail (cbsnews.com). Medication abortion accounts for 63% of all abortions in the US (Guttmacher.org).
*They recommend that “the Health and Human Services chief ‘proudly state that men and women are biological realities,’ and that ‘married men and women are the ideal, natural family structure because all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them.’ Further, a program within the Health and Human Services Department should ‘maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family’” (cbsnews.com).
* They believe that “the next administration should ‘treat the participation in any critical race theory or DEI initiative without objecting on constitutional or moral grounds, as per se grounds for termination of employment’” (cbsnews.com). Project 2025 will eliminate Women and Gender Studies programs nationwide. I will no longer be able to teach.
*They also want to complete the border wall and deploy the National Guard to deal with issues at the border related to drug cartels and immigration (cbsnews.com).
When Donald Trump says you won’t have to vote anymore after this election, believe him.
If he wins, he will dismantle US democracy and install himself as our first dictator. How that impacts you depends on who you are.
Please vote like your life depends on it, because it does.
Photos courtesy of Pixabay.
