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If Donald Trump is elected President this November, many fear he will establish one man rule and will bring an end to our Constitutional Republic with its separation of powers, checks and balances, and all our cherished democratic freedoms. I am among those who share this fear.
When we vote on November 5, I think we risk it all: freedom of expression and freedom of the press ("the media, the enemy of the people"), freedom of religion ("integration of Christian values into public policy"—Christian nationalism), freedom of assembly (military intervention at protests), freedom from the arbitrary intrusion of government (restrictions on In vitro fertilization and contraception), free elections (blocked election certifications), and equal rights under the law (presidential immunity, pardon of insurrectionist co-defendants, and trials for political "enemies").
Let's not mince words. One-man-rule is a giant step toward totalitarianism. According to the libertarian Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, totalitarianism means "control over our public and private lives, the elimination of dissent, effective single party rule and a charismatic leader who enforces an official one-party line." The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 lays out the framework for the next Republican administration. Project 2025 definitely poses the risk of concentrating dangerously excessive power in the office of the president and of undermining democratic norms. The Supreme Court's decision in "United States v Trump" grants a sitting president presumptive immunity from prosecution for actions that are "official acts."
So, we have a wannabe dictator. We have a blueprint for total control. And practically speaking, we have a "Stay out of Jail Free Card" for any president to seize total control of our government. "Katy, bar the door."
And that's not the worst of it. If elected, Donald Trump also promises to give the highest priority possible to the threat of nuclear war and totally neglect the threat of climate change. On the one hand, he promises to expand the United States nuclear arsenal and missile defense capabilities and negotiate alone (instead of in collaboration with our allies) with Russia and China to gain favorable terms for the United States. Let our allies fend for themselves.
On the other hand, Trump intends to deregulate environmental protections, promote fossil fuel instead of renewable alternatives, and withdraw from international agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Trump clearly thinks nuclear war is an existential danger to the United States and has repeatedly called climate change "a hoax."
Climate experts do not see things that way. Among other climatologists, James Hansen and Michael Mann have considered climate change to be 'the slow-motion equivalent of nuclear war." They think that both an actual nuclear war and inadequately addressed climate change threaten catastrophic destruction through the destruction of global ecosystems, worldwide stability, and human life. According to them, the biggest difference between nuclear war and global warming is not their effects, but their timing. Nuclear war could happen to those of us alive today. Climate change run rampant might spare us but would decimate our grandchildren or theirs.
In the meantime, the planet gets hotter and hotter. The hottest year in recorded history was 2023. On Sunday, July 21, 2024, just some weeks ago, global temperatures hit the highest level recorded in history. The next day, the world broke that record. These two days from hell followed 12 months that were the hottest ever measured. As columnist Tom Engelhardt has observed, all this heat intensification was breaking records on a summer day when former President Trump was addressing a rally in Phoenix, Arizona where it was 113 degrees. As he reported, "eleven of his listeners were treated right there for heat exhaustion on stretchers hooked to IV bags, while he continued to rail against wind turbines and electric vehicles."
Despite these dire circumstances, during his campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly summarizes his climate policy with words his followers take to heart: "Drill, Baby, Drill." As though it was not enough that we are already doing that today. Despite its incomparable initiatives to promote green energy, the Biden administration has surpassed every other country in the world as it has presided over four years of record-high gas and oil production and exports in United States history.
Trump has let us know he wants to outdo Biden in domestic fossil fuel production even as he undoes all the Biden Administration's environmental protections, increases drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and taps the Alaskan Arctic. With strong support from the 100 Republican Congressmen and 23 Senators who deny the very existence of climate change and the rest who can be counted on going along, he has his eyes set on eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency, ironically established under Republican President Richard Nixon.
It is true that without the cooperation of countries like China, India, Brazil and Russia, the United States alone cannot successfully tackle a potential earth-threatening devastation of uncontrolled climate change. But it is also true that without the leadership of the United States in the battle against global warming, there is no chance of getting these countries to do their indispensable parts.
Englehardt reports that the United Kingdom's climate change website Carbon Brief has predicted that under a second Trump Administration, the United States could well be on a path to reaching an irreversibly calamitous tipping point. The policies of another Trump administration could well weaken the capacity of the nations of the world to keep the worst possible effects of climate change from happening.
Trump's critics have often expressed their horror at the thought of a Donald Trump in charge of the nuclear weapon codes. We should be worried as well that a re-elected Donald Trump will definitely be engaging in world-destroying actions without fully grasping the implications when he gets the chance to open the Pandora's box containing environmental destruction. Sound alarmist? Not if you think climate denialism is "the slow-motion equivalent of nuclear war."
Our descendants will be wondering how we voted when our planet was on the line. They will be asking what we did when, at this critical juncture in human history, there was still time to avert or at least mitigate the destructive threats posed by climate change. What did we do to protect our environment, civilization, and human life? They will want to know if we voted for the continuation of American democracy and of human efforts to address catastrophic dangers of climate change or were we too busy to do so because all we ever thought and talked about was the prices of eggs and gasoline. For our kids' sake, on November 5, vote for democracy and environmental responsibility.
On November 5, don't choose to vote on today's transitory partisan policies over the truly long lasting existential threats to our freedom and to the very life for our planet. Vote for a country in which we will still be free to debate issues like inflation and illegal immigration after the election. Be a genuine patriot and a faithful steward of our environment. Vote to defend America's democracy and to preserve God's green earth. For our kids.
Tim Mannello is a retired hospital system executive and business consultant.