Democracide and Retribution: The Dual Threats of a Second Trump Presidency

• In Event: Threats to Governance and Legitimacy

Abstract

The January 6, 2021 assault on Congress attempted to overthrow the people’s sovereignty that is constitutionally grounded in Electoral College votes. Although rioters delayed the vote count, when order was restored Vice President Mike Pence reported that Joe Biden won the 2020 election 306 to 232. Donald Trump and close associates recognized his loss, but he and anti-constitutional enablers initiated the planned “The Big Lie,” claiming that Biden had stolen the election. My Kuhnian critique emphasized two crucial exemplary events. When Trump appealed none of 62 court cases found evidence that Biden had cheated. The second event was MAGA Republicans’ systemic metastasizing of the January 6th violence and its propaganda that increasingly threaten our constitutional institutions, democratic governance, and security. I described the January assault and attempts to overturn Biden’s election as American democracide. Building on the 1949 Genocide Convention I defined democracide as killing American constitutionalism “in whole or in part.” Another threat of a second Trump presidency is his avowed intent to use government power not in the interest of seeking truth and administering justice, but vengeance. Trump’s MAGA model reflects the Southern Confederacy’s white supremacy, lawlessness, and violence (cf. W. A. Tidwell, 1988, Come Retribution).

Author

• Thomas E. Reed, Eastern Kentucky University