Many Australians have taken the time to evaluate the state of our nation, especially when we compare it with our rich and powerful ally, the USA. We have managed to somehow avoid the utter chaos and devastation, which they have endured now, for close to ten years, ever since Donald Trump descended from ‘on-high’ and offered himself as his country’s saviour.
Notwithstanding his hopeless handling of the pandemic, and his appalling record of flawed governance, he ran again in 2020 and was soundly defeated. Of course he had telegraphed that he would not accept a loss, but as the result became clear he tried to actually overturn the election, and attempted to stage a coup.
Like just about every single thing he has ever attempted during a long life, it turned out badly. Several police officers were killed or injured, his Vice President was close to being murdered by the mob, and Trump left the White House disgraced and derided.
Weighing up the later harm he would cause, not arresting and jailing him was a major fail, and he is not yet finished with American voters. As the 2026 mid-term elections slowly come into view, the threat Trump poses is more extreme than last time – he is President now, and no matter what the result of the mid-terms, he will still be President after the results are in.
He also has the levers of power in his hands. He has mostly captured and tamed the mainstream media. He has the power of the ‘bully pulpit’, a phrase penned by Theodore Roosevelt, and which means “a conspicuous position that provides an opportunity to speak out and be listened to.”
It is not for us to diagnose Trump’s mental health state, but his actions must be evaluated as either dangerous or not, and if we use the example of the January 6 coup attempt, the combination of Trump’s willingness to lie outright, and the volatile nature of his more feral supporters, then his questioning of the honesty of elections in America is already setting the country up for another attempt to control the outcome of the mid-terms.
If, as hoped, the Republicans lose control of both houses, or even one, expect all hell to break loose. It is astounding that more of the political class do not acknowledge the peril facing their country and its democracy.
Trump and his administration, with the willing assistance of his Republican governors and functionaries around the country, are already attempting to subvert the electoral process by gerrymandering the electoral maps.
If that does not work sufficiently, then Trump himself is priming the supporter base to mobilise and to overturn the results, if they are unfavourable.
He is already throwing out hints about rigged elections. He thinks the California election for Governor is taking “too long”. He has already flagged his intention to suppress the vote, by promising to eradicate voter fraud, although evidence suggests voter fraud is barely even attempted.
The SAVE Act would require all Americans to prove their citizenship with documentation unavailable to millions and upend the way every American citizen registers to vote. It requires ID with documented proof that the holder is an American citizen, before they can register to vote.
Many American citizens do not hold such documents, but they are relatively simple to acquire, with some cash and some forethought. Of course the majority of Republicans are better placed to produce such documentation.
It has become accepted fact that minorities, the poor, and those who live in cities and who need no driving licence to function will struggle to qualify. Those people also mostly vote Democrat, so by raising the bar to register merely disenfranchises them.
The SAVE Act was one of the first bills proposed in Trump’s secong term, but it was unable to pass the Senate. A new version of the Act was passed by the House in 2026, but it too will not pass the Senate. It does however tell us a lot about Trump and his team, and the inability to consider leaving the vote to the voters. Trump cannot face losing, anything.
Voter suppression is an ancient, and honoured tradition in America, and it threatens to continue today. Since 1870, when the 15th Amendment was passed, all men (later broadened to include women) were guaranteed the right to vote.
This included men of all races, and specifically former slaves. Southern states, still smarting from their loss in the Civil War, immediately set about limiting black access to the vote. These methods included a poll tax, which charged a fee to lodge a vote. Poor whites could gain an exemption from paying the fee, but not poor blacks.
Literacy tests were also routinely applied, with many more black Americans being excluded than white Americans. This often related to the level of education achieved by black Americans, which was in most cases inferior, if it was even available.
But in other cases, the tests applied were selective, with African-Americans often receiving more difficult tests. These measures were gradually phased out during the 1960s, but not before they had disenfranchised generations of otherwise entitled voters.
More recently the Republican Party has refined its methods, to suit the times. In Florida, for example, until recently convicted felons were ineligible to vote. Many with similar names to felons were wrongly purged from the electoral rolls.
That law was reversed in 2018, but the Republican State Government managed to circumvent the intention of the statute, known as Amendment 4, by making restoration of the right to vote almost impossible.
In the election of 2000, George W Bush won the country by less than a thousand votes, while convicted felons, and some of those with similar names, were purged from the electoral rolls. Convicted felons were, by a huge margin, more likely to be black, and to vote Democrat.
Although the election last year was not decided by a tiny number of votes, Florida voted for Trump. As many as 1.4 million voters were eligible to be restored to the rolls, but only 300,000 were allowed to register. That is 1.1 million voters disenfranchised. That could have made a difference to the result.
I would also keep in mind the movement to eventually repeal the 19th Amendment. That amendment extended the vote to women, and it is currently under attack by many of the more rabid evangelical Christians, including Pete Hegseth, who are intent on sending women back to the kitchen. You never know how demented this administration can be, and with Trump in charge, God only knows!
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