“The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.” —The Declaration of Independence.
The impending Presidential election does not present an ideal choice to those whose foremost concern is the upkeep of our Republic’s might and liberty. But it does, in my view, present an easy choice.
The history of the incumbent President of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all tending in instinct toward—though not yet mature in execution—the establishment of a capricious tyranny over these States. To show this, let facts be submitted to our beleaguered nation:
He has shown contempt for the freedom of the press, of religion, and of peaceable assembly; and his professed support for free speech extends only to the freedom of his own speech and the speech of those who praise him;
He has openly voiced his desire to remain in office past the term limit imposed by the Constitution of the United States, and he has several times refused to say that he would accept the results of elections in which he is a candidate and commit to a peaceable transfer of power, should he emerge the loser;
He has repeatedly sought the prosecution or imprisonment of his political rivals;
He has inflamed lawless violence, and he has refused to condemn unaccountable militants, but rather called upon them and other irregular forces to wait in readiness to support his claims to power;
He has recklessly pardoned convicted war criminals and intervened in military discipline, and he has asserted an unlawful authority to order soldiers to commit such crimes, while he has displayed rank indifference and contempt toward those who served honorably;
He has, without warning, abandoned allies who have borne the battle against our Union’s foes, and he has extorted others with the sole purpose of gaining undue advantage in his own Presidential election contest;
He has, in brazen violation of the Constitution of the United States, removed funds from the Treasury without an appropriation for such purpose made by law and against the expressed will of Congress;
He has asserted a total authority over the state governments in matters that are reserved by the Constitution to the several States;
He has surrounded himself with an entourage of criminals, and he has fostered an environment of base corruption reaching to the highest levels of government;
He has cavorted with the most ruthless tyrants abroad, and he has preferred their counsel to that of the Government of the United States;
He has propagated outrageous conspiracy theories, which debase our Republic’s political discourses;
He has rendered his party and his administration into empty and sycophantic cults of personality;
He has not comported himself with any dignity, and he has demeaned the office of the President;
He has displayed gross incompetence in the actual practice of governance, he has been indifferent to the suffering of his fellow citizens in natural disasters, and he has recklessly endangered the health of the nation throughout the course of the plague that presently engulfs it;
He has repeatedly shown himself to be cruel and callous in his treatment of his fellow men, and of women especially, and even of small children;
He is, in sum, one of those base demagogues who embrace the dark contradiction of ‘illiberal democracy’ and see election to high public office not as a summons to serve, but as an invitation to rule. As Edmund Burke said of them: “Their liberty is not liberal. Their science is presumptuous ignorance. Their humanity is savage and brutal.”
And as such,
He does not deserve reelection. Indeed, to reward such an attempt at the chaotic establishment of personal rule would be to set our Republic, so dearly won and kept from 1776 until the present day, firmly if not irretrievably on the dim, dusty road to despotism.
Should the people of the several States, in accordance with the method prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, nonetheless choose to reelect Mr. Trump to the Presidency, then so be it. It would be a foolish choice, and I venture to say that all Americans would come to realize that before many years have passed. But a choice it is, and lawful.
If, however, the incumbent President refuses to yield upon defeat, or if he attempts to intervene in the conduct of the election, then his challenger shall be, or of right ought to be, the lawful President of the United States; and unlawful orders given by the incumbent ought rightly to be ignored by all of the officers of government.
Nonetheless,
The preceding argument ought not to be taken as an unqualified endorsement of the opposition party. Contained within its fold are some whose embrace of illiberal democracy is as fulsome as Mr. Trump’s. In the words of Burke:
“They have no respect for the wisdom of others; but they pay it off by a very full measure of confidence in their own. With them it is a sufficient motive to destroy an old scheme of things, because it is an old one. As to the new, they are in no sort of fear with regard to the duration of a building run up in haste; because duration is no object to those who think little or nothing has been done before their time, and who place all their hopes in discovery. They conceive, very systematically, that all things which give perpetuity are mischievous, and therefore they are at inexpiable war with all establishments. They think that government may vary like modes of dress, and with as little ill effect. That there needs no principle of attachment, except a sense of present conveniency, to any constitution of the state. …Their attachment to their country itself, is only so far as it agrees with some of their fleeting projects; it begins and ends with that scheme of polity which falls in with their momentary opinion.”
In due course, as these self-proclaimed revolutionaries, these purveyors of ‘cancel culture’ and ‘critical theory’ who seek to silence all voices but their own, aspire to power, it shall become the duty of all who wish to preserve our Republic to oppose them with the same steadfastness with which we now oppose Mr. Trump.
However,
Mr. Biden is no such menace. He is a decent man, moderate and conciliatory in his instincts, and committed to the perpetuation of our Union’s Constitutional order. Earlier this year, he took on the peddlers of illiberal democracy in his own party, and routed them. Should he go on to rout Mr. Trump in turn, as the best interest of the country demands, we as citizens may place our trust in him as President. He has shown his willingness to approach the task, as Abraham Lincoln once did, with malice toward none and charity for all; and he shall at least attempt, in good faith, to bind up our nation’s wounds.
Therefore,
I intend to vote for Mr. Biden, satisfied in my mind that his accession to the Presidency, though it would likely result in policies which I think are imprudent, is unequivocally the outcome most favorable to the preservation of the Constitution of the United States; and it is my first duty, and that of all citizens, to uphold that Constitution through the exercise of our civic rights. Mr. Biden’s election shall not in itself be enough to ensure our Republic’s future as a free and vigorous Union, but it makes such a bright future possible.
Some will disagree. So, let us, as a nation, bring this contest to decision. It is time to vote; to accept the result once all votes have been counted; and then to turn our attention to whatever events next year brings.