Mueller’s investigation found indisputable evidence that Trump’s team cultivated links with the Kremlin and then broke the law to hide those ties from the special counsel. And it’s a fact that Vladimir Putin and his minions interfered in U.S. elections.
Yet, with little chance of repercussions from his party or a loyal Supreme Court, Trump acts with impunity on every front including his latest meeting with Putin. As the world watched, the president of the United States joked to his co-conspirator and murderous friend not to “meddle with our elections, president.” While they chuckled and winked, the world’s axis shifted yet again under the weight of the unfathomable mockery Trump makes each day of the sacred vow he took to uphold our democracy and the values that, until he was president, were held to be worth striving and even dying for.
Now with gerrymandering (aka rigging elections) OK’d by the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority, foreign power-assisted meglomaniacs like Trump have nothing to fear, no matter how egregious their acts. It’s no wonder that Trump dropped his fight to keep his beloved immigration question on the upcoming census, and it’s no coup that one right-wing justice made a show of mock impartiality by voting with the four more liberal justices to protect democratic process. Without any extra rigging needed, Trump and his cronies know they have far less chance of losing future elections due to the influence of people of color, the poor, and other disenfranchised persons even if they’re counted in the census. The court’s decision to allow election theft through gerrymandering coupled with the administration’s acquiescence to and acceptance of sinister, foreign help to win elections minimizes conservative fears of longterm election losses while, quite possibly, signaling the end of our democracy.
If Americans of all stripes don’t stand up to protect our democracy, the checks and balances put in place by our forebears to provide fairness and balance to our government will forever fade into a future where hard right, corporate-backed Republicans might never lose an election and Trump may not have to leave the White House — maybe not even in 2024.
Janice Palma-Glennie is a resident of Kailua-Kona.