Just 4 short years ago, I was deciding whether to vote for Hillary Clinton or Trump.

I was going back and forth to Washington fighting to prevent additional passage of little-known legislation undermining my business and thousands of other small and medium-sized companies. Like most insidious bills slipped into legislation, the public to this day is unaware of how much those bills and others like them have damaged rights we previously took for granted.

At that time, I was so disillusioned to see how for years, Corporate America had literally been systematically, and effectively buying off Congress. I was interested in anyone — Republican, Democrat, Rastafarian or Vegetarian — who would most shake up the system.

And Donald Trump appeared to be that man.

Someone who came from outside of Washington.

Someone using his own money to fund his campaign.

And someone who couldn’t give a damn about what The Powers That Be thought.

The fact that I had loved The Apprentice in its first years didn’t hurt. I had learned from Trump something that has stood me well to this day:

Never let the experts sway you from your vision.

While that is a marvelous business tenet for any young entrepreneur to learn, it has become one of a multitude of toxic elements now undermining our democracy.

Indeed, to this day, while most of my anti-Trump friends get furious when I say it, I believe what has enabled Trump to do so many of the things he has done, is exactly his double-edged gift —

his singleness of purpose —

an attribute of the most successful businesspeople, athletes, artists, politicians and luminaries from every field of endeavor.

Where the attribute begins to crack, however, is when it comes to running a country.

Particularly a democratic one.

Particularly one named the United States of America.

Whereas any business — including small and large companies — can be thought of as a mini-dictatorship, promoting the values, ideas, interests and fortunes of those who created it, a country is not a business.

Nor is the United States a dictatorship.

As 2020 Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson beautifully said:

“There are many leaders who look at this country like a business.
I look at it like a family.”

And indeed, what finally made me vote for Hillary was Trump’s Take No Prisoners style, as well as the multiple allegations then surfacing about him:

From his Russian connections, to the Access Hollywood tapes, to his vilifying of everyone from women, to blacks, to Latinos, to Arabs . . .

and anyone who slighted him in any way.

However, like President Obama, I sincerely believed, as distasteful as Trump’s election tactics were, he would rise to the occasion once in office.

How wrong Obama was.

How wrong I was.

Not only did the vilifying continue, it amplified.

As did the trampling over everything held sacred to our values:

Tolerance of others, the right to vote, freedom of the press, racial equality, fair play, preservation of the Constitution . . .

The list seems endless.

But unlike many, I never thought of Trump as random or unintelligent.

To this day, I think of him as a type of genius.

Indeed, he doesn’t seem to read or care about science, facts or history —

other than suggestions his phrases Make America Great Again and Fake News may have been taken from similar sentiments Hitler used in Germany.

And yes, Trump speaks on a 5th grade level (I believe purposefully, as you will read).

And yes, his rambling speech and seemingly random actions have made many suspect him of having a form of dementia

But I took care of a mom with Alzheimer’s for 14 years. And Trump is not impaired.

As Biden clearly is neither.

Trump is absolutely purposeful.

And even purposeful in the simplicity of his seemingly childish messaging:

“Lock her up.”

“Build the wall.”

“Fake news.”

Just as alarming, is how he won over enough of the population in 2016

— and could potentially do so again in 2020 —

if we democracy-loving Americans don’t get our act together.

Trump’s Playbook

Trump’s game is simple.

And it’s been devastatingly effective.

One of his most crushing moves yet has been his adaptation of Hitler’s Third Reich’s coining of the phrase Fake News. ¹

With that, Trump put every media outlet on the defensive.

With that, he made Fox News the most popular news source on television . . . and made many of its shows (with a few notable exceptions) the mouthpiece of his personal agenda.

But most devastating of all, Trump has gotten his core followers — as well as potential followers — to doubt the word of anyone else . . .

but him.

Hitler did the same.

Mussolini also.

Mao, as well.

As do all dictators and dictators-in-the-making.

The fact that Trump has made, as of July 13, 2020, more than 20,000 false or misleading claims, ² shows how desensitized we have become to each additional drop in the endless stream.

Trump’s supporters would deny that fact by saying The Washington Post is responsible for the documentation. And despite that Trump’s half-truths and outright lies are there in plain English for anyone who cares to read, it doesn’t mean a thing if you religiously believe one single source . . .

Trump . . .

and believe, as that hypnotic leader would have you believe, that every other source than him is Fake News.

Partridges in a Pear Tree

Besides the Fake News gambit and the simplicity of his language toappeal to the common citizen, Trump has incorporated one other extraordinarily genius ploy:

He knows how to issue Partridges in a Pear Tree.

To win over Christians, despite flagrant extra-marital affairs withPlayboy models and porn stars, he became the most pious anti-abortion activist in the country.

To win over Jews, he moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — thus supporting Israel’s right of annexation.

To win over the wealthy, he gave them a $2 trillion tax break.

To win over the most powerful lobby in Washington and their millions of members, he became a fanatic supporter of gun rights and the NRA.

To win over the lower middle class and large segments of white America, he spoke in simple terms that inflamed their fears and made it seem like he was the only protector/answer to those concoctions (“Mexicans are drug dealers, criminals and rapists,” etc.)

To win over millions of conspiracy theorists, he became the greatest one of all time – The Conspiracy Theorist In Chief. His fantastical creation of a Deep State sowed more toxic seeds that only he and his henchmen could be trusted.In so doing, he undermined his very own State Department, Justice Department and Diplomatic Corp — the very Balance of Power so delicately called for by our Constitution.

And finally, to win over the Republican members in the House and Senate, he became the staunchest supporter of conservative values they have ever had . . . despite the fact that Trump was a registered Democrat for many years of his life, even as recently as 2008. ³

Trump's political party affiliation has changed numerous times. He registered as a Republican in Manhattan in 1987, switched to the Reform Party in 1999, the Democratic Party in 2001, and back to the Republican Party in 2009. — PolitiFact

Stop The Takedown!

So what can we do?

What do the majority of Americans do who now recognize

— though largely are afraid to admit even to themselves —

that if Trump wins re-election and maintains a majority alliance in the Senate, the United States will no longer be a true democracy.

Meaning, it will be a democracy in name only.

It will be a Pseudo-Democracy.

It will be what academics have termed an Illiberal Democracy. ⁴

Like Russia, Hungary, the Philippines, Bulgaria, Turkey, Serbia and Honduras, to name a few. ^{5 6}

In these Pseudo-Democracies, they do have so-called elections . . .

and yet the ruling party repeatedly wins.

This is accomplished by that party’s use of censorship, corruption, intimidation and violence against journalists and those engaged inpeaceful protest — and often toward those attempting to vote against the ruling party.

Is this any different than Trump’s strategy? —

• Attempting to stop mail-in voting (which, despite Trump’s repeated claims, has throughout our country’s history had almost zero evidence of fraud).
• Using his dubious appointees to slow down the post office’s handling of all mail.
• Encouraging violence against his adversaries (“Lock her up,” “Knock the crap out of them,” ⁷ “I’d like to punch him in the face.” ⁸ )
• Sending a never-ending stream of tweets and remarks vilifying the press and anyone saying anything that threatens his positions.
• Creating multiple roadblocks for a fair census in order to underfund key programs for immigrants, blacks and Latinos, and to shrink their districts’ voting power through gerrymandering.
• Reducing voting locations, particularly in rural minority communities, where he knows often more than 90% of the vote would be against him. ⁹

Indeed, right now, despite Trump’s best efforts — many of which have been sadly effective given the rubber-stamping by the Senate and multiple Fox News programs — Trump is nevertheless being thwarted . . .

enough where, by all of us calling this Takedown of Democracy exactly that

— A TAKEDOWN —

Trump can still lose re-election.

But if he doesn’t . . .

After 4 more years of law-changes, gerrymandering, Russia’s help swaying all elections, and Supreme Court decisions skewering ever more toward rubberstamping Trump’s authoritarian policies . . .

nearly every one of the checks and balances our Founding Fathers so carefully crafted into our Constitution will be compromised or gone.

Trump is already unabashedly putting forth the slogan “Twelve more years,” promoting a change in the Constitution to allow him to remain as de facto President for Life — something Congress intentionally sought to prevent with 8-year term limits. ¹⁰

Is there any doubt whether Trump, with a majority in the Senate, would go the final steps in this march toward Authoritarian rule?

How We Stop The Takedown

It’s simple.

And given the virality of the internet and social media, it’s more doable than any time in history.

We get every voter of conscience (Republican, Independent and Democrat), to look at what so many of us — myself for a long time included — have been in fear of admitting to ourselves:

That if the election goes the wrong way, we will no longer be living in a democracy.

Trump, hand-in-hand with the U.S. Senate and the shows miming him on Fox News, will have in less than 2 presidential terms, dismantled the key checks and balances that have protected our freedom since the ratification of our Constitution in 1789.

He will have taken down our democracy . . .

That’s to say, our country will be a Pseudo-Democracy.

It will have an Authoritarian leader and a puppet government who only pretend that the press, our rights and our elections are democratic, and that we are free.

And yet, until November 3,

WE STILL ARE!

And with enough awareness on the part of our fellow Americans, after November 3,

WE STILL WILL BE FREE!

While we can’t force everyone to stop voting for Trump — as Trump is trying his best to do with those voting against him — we can make our fellow Americans aware of exactly how high the stakes are:

What Trump is doing to our country, beyond the illusion created by many Fox News shows and the Senate.

This paper has been written precisely for making this knowledge Easy-to-Read, Easy-to-Understand and Easy-to-Pass-Along to everyone you can.

And that’s why we’re beginning a group called Republican And Democrat Friends . . . RADfriends.org

Republican And Democrat Friends
RADfriends.org

Hand in hand, united together, Republicans and Democrats as Friends, in real conversation, hold the key to Our Continued Democracy.

And the good news is, the solution we share as a United Country, is nothing novel.

It’s such a simple one . . .

one that will make you and me as much of an American Champion as was Paul Revere, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King, Jr. . . .

especially when the stakes are as high as they’ve ever been for the continuation of our Democratic Republic.

That solution is to VOTE!

And to vote NOW, knowing Trump is doing everything possible to prevent many votes from ever getting counted.

And for those who, until now, have contemplated voting for Trump, as I did in 2016 . . .

to be open to at least the possibility of changing your vote to Joe Biden.

It’s your decision, of course.

This is (at least for the time being), still America.

Just consider, as millions of other Americans have, whether indeed your highest and noblest principles are being lived up to, or trampled upon, by Trump and the current Senate majority.

Becoming a 2 For 1

And here’s even better news!

If you’ve been undecided or reluctantly in favor of Trump, your single vote will actually be worth 2 VOTES!

That means, if you were going to vote for Trump but simply abstain from voting for either him or Biden, that’s 1 less vote for Trump.

However, if you were going to vote for Trump but now vote for the Continuation of Our Democracy via a vote for Biden, your vote will mathematically have switched the equation against Trump by 2 VOTES.

Be Independent-Minded!

Amazingly, guess who the largest political group is in the United States?

Democrats or Republicans?

The answer: NEITHER.

The largest political voting segment is INDEPENDENTS.

Per May 2020 polling by Gallup, 40% of American voters identified as Independent, 25% as Republican, and 31% as Democrat. ^{11 12}

I personally am an Independent.

Why?

Because if the Democrats ever had a candidate like Trump, I wouldn’t want any allegiance on my part to prevent me from clearly and emphatically supporting the Republican candidate.

Just as I am now voting against Trump . . .

which is to say, for the Continuation of Our Democracy.

Join the Movement

Lifelong and ardent Republicans are doing the same as you now have the opportunity to do in becoming a legacy-maker to your children, your family and your country.

From Wikipedia, here are just a few of the more than 200 listed well-known Republicans already in the noble and high-minded Movement you are joining. ^{13 14} These clear-eyed luminaries are opposing Trump, Stopping the Takeover, and thus supporting the Continuation of Our Democracy.

REPUBLICANS OPPOSING TRUMP
AND/OR SUPPORTING BIDEN