Ballot

"My Ballot" by TalAtlas is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Donald Trump’s “Vigilante” campaign to steal your vote could soon put him in the White House…and land you and Taylor Swift in prison.
 
Mainstream polls now show Kamala Harris slightly ahead in key states.  Most indicate that if the election were held today, Harris/Walz would narrowly win.
 
But they miss a deadly reality: 
 
Nationwide, Trump has deployed thousands of MAGA vigilantes to strip likely Harris voters from the registration rolls.  Thus anti-Trump citizens whose poll numbers bolster Democratic hopes may never get the ballots they need to actually decide the election.
 
In Georgia, MAGA activists have already submitted mega-lists challenging voting rights of hundreds of thousands of suspected (mostly young and of color) Democrats.  The challenges require citizens to appear in person at their local election boards to confirm their identity.  There’s no legal requirement they be notified of their disenfranchisement.  Those who do go to the election boards can be rejected at will by Pro-Trump plants.    
 
This on-going electoral catastrophe is documented in Greg Palast’s terrifying new “Vigilantes Inc.” ( https://palastinvestigativefund.org/vigilantes-2024/ ) now showing on the internet.  
 
Overall these MAGA mega-challenges could easily purge enough Harris supporters from the voter rolls to guarantee a Trump victory, no matter what the polls say.
 
In swing state Georgia and elsewhere, Trumpites are attacking state and local election boards, maximizing fear and chaos.  A pivotal goal is to delay vote counts beyond deadlines for official certification, throwing a final Electoral College outcome into legal limbo, prey again (as in  Florida 2000) to a US Supreme Court defined by autocracy.  
 
Still largely under the media radar, MAGA bullies are interfering with mail-in voting systems already vulnerable under a fragile US Postal Service run by infamous Trump appointee Louis DeJoy.  As drop boxes are eliminated, armed vigilantes prepare to intimidate would-be voters who dare come to the polls in person.  Georgia has made it a felony to provide food or water to citizens waiting in line to vote.  Nationwide, impossible ID and other requirements are decimating the registration rolls, separating public opinion polls from the final vote count.  
 
Much of this is thoroughly examined at weekly Green Grassroots Election Protection zooms ( https://grassrootsep.org/ ) Voting support can be found at https://www.usgrassroots.org/.  
 
But Trump/MAGA brigades, led by the gestapo-minded Steve Bannon, mean to shred this election, rendering moot any perceived popular majorities for Kamala Harris.
 
Also missing is a full comprehension of what Trump wants to do those who oppose him.
 
In the 1970s, Richard Nixon put his perceived opponents on an “enemies list.”  Nixon was a deeply deranged autocrat.  But enough civil liberties safeguards remained in place that those named generally reacted with amusement and even pride.  
 
While the FBI openly assassinated Black Panther activists like Mark Clark and Fred Hampton, established white dissidents saw a place on Nixon’s list as a badge of honor.  A generally liberal Supreme Court, Constitutional limitations on presidential power, civil liberties guarantees, a federal bureaucracy disinclined to domestic fascism and the limits of Nixon’s own psyche left his Enemies List “honorees” generally unscathed.
 
No such guardrails exist for Donald Trump.  The US Supreme Court is now owned by his personal toadies.  Three personally supported the violent “Brooks Brothers Mob” that terrorized the vote counting in Florida 2000 , handing the presidency to George W. Bush.
 
One of them, the “moderate” Chief Justice John Roberts, has since led the charge against Constitutional voting rights and civil liberties.  While stripping the public right to a ballot, Roberts has endorsed the unrestrained power of a Chief Executive—-namely Trump—-to do whatever the hell he wants.
 
Nixon’s wish to imprison or torture those on his Enemies List withered before insurmountable Constitutional and political barriers.  In 2025, Trump’s would not.   
 
Thus The Donald’s twitter scream that “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” should be taken seriously, and not just by her.
 
Trump has already declared his intent to act as a dictator, even if “just for a day.”  
 
Nixon had a “Huston Plan” for destroying American democracy that never took root.  Trump’s fascistic “Agenda 47” and the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” already have.
 
As President, Trump aggressively “investigated” a wide range of opponents.  He and his MAGA minions have long since declared their bloodthirst for “retribution” against those they hate.
 
Seeing itself as divinely ordained, the Trump/Bannon/MAGA juggernaut will be unrestrained in attacking all it deems “unGodly” or “unfit.” 
Why would you think otherwise?
 
So any of you taking ease in poll numbers that now seem to indicate a Harris victory….THINK AGAIN!  A tight margin won’t suffice (Hillary Clinton ’s 3 million edge in 2016 wasn’t enough; 2020’s was more than 7 million).
 
And those of you believing you’d be somehow safe in a Trump/MAGA regime, also better reconsider.
 
Having your passport in order—-to go WHERE?—- might barely delay the inevitable.  
 
But we face an apocalyptic reality avoidable only with an all-out—SUCCESSFUL—campaign to keep these MAGA monsters and their fascist mob forever out of power.
 
Your ballot (even if it’s actually counted) won’t do it alone.  
 
If you haven’t already, the time to get active was yesterday!  
 
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Harvey Wasserman co-hosts Green Grassroots Emergency Election Protection (GREEP) zooms most Mondays at 5pm Eastern.  He co-produces the US Grassroots Hub ( usgrassroots.org )  and wrote THE PEOPLE’S SPIRAL OF US HISTORY.