Facing Down the Abyss: The Urgent Call to Defend American Democracy

Edit: I wrote this blog before the attempted Trump assassination or Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race. My conclusion, however, remains the same.

I use this blog for material that I find difficult to publish in the various venues I freelance for, so the topics I choose for Tech Broiler are much more personal, and the posts here are much more infrequent. This topic has been weighing on me for quite some time, but I haven't figured out the right way to communicate it until now.

I avoid engaging in political discussions on social media platforms like Facebook, X, Mastodon, and Bluesky. In my experience, these discussions tend to be unproductive as people are often unwilling to consider different perspectives. The individuals I interact with have firm beliefs and are set in their decisions, including who they will vote for in the next presidential election.

Logic, facts, and reality often have little influence in these conversations, as they are primarily driven by deeply rooted belief systems and distorted perceptions of reality, which can be found on both extremes of the political spectrum.

As an independent thinker, I find extremism distasteful. As an American Jew, I currently feel betrayed by both the extreme left and the extreme right. This is a different or adjacent subject to this blog, but I thought I would put that out there for context.

This is who I am as a person; my views can’t be easily put in a box as strictly “Liberal” or “Conservative“ or “Centrist,” they originate from ideologies of all of these political perspectives.

I don't spend much time discussing this publicly because I am a technology and food writer who enjoys talking about iPhones and pizzas, and I prefer to stay in my lane. I also prefer not to be pressed on it in private conversation, even with my own family.

But today, I'm leaving my lane because it is that important.

After watching the debate between Biden and Trump on June 27, I've realized a few things.

Let’s begin with our sitting president. I have always had realistic expectations of Biden. He's not the type to excel in reciting facts, figures, and policy details from crammed preparation.

Instead, his strength is when he speaks from the heart and comes across as a genuinely decent guy. However, his age is starting to show, especially when he's on camera. There's loads of speculation about whether he might be showing early signs of dementia. Still, I've seen people his age in much worse cognitive condition in South Florida, where we have a large elderly population.

He does well when speaking off the cuff, but he falls short when forced to be a walking policy encyclopedia. He's been known for making gaffes and struggling with speech and has had a stutter for decades. Despite all this, he's still someone I'd enjoy having a beer and burger with.

Trump is an entirely different kind of politician. He is skilled at using media to spread short, easily digestible messages that his supporters love, even though these messages often contain lies and inaccuracies. He can deliver prepared speeches and memorize his sound bites perfectly, even if the content is entirely wrong or mainly lies. He’s a modern-day master of delivering MAGA propaganda.

But strange and unintelligible things often come out when he speaks off the cuff. Is Trump suffering from dementia? I'm not a professional psychologist, but Trump's behavior is concerning no matter what DSM-V-TR diagnosis you might consider.

I prefer whatever Biden has to offer over Trump, including whatever cognitive impairment that exists, any day of the week.

The outcome could have been better. Biden performed poorly, and the Democratic party is now scrambling to find a way to control the damage, which may include introducing a replacement candidate.

While it was uncomfortable to watch, the debate and each candidate's performance have changed absolutely nothing for most of us regarding our votes. But it may have changed those sitting on the fence or those unaccounted folks who haven’t been showing up to vote in the last several elections. It could mean all the difference in the world in a tight race.

Our realization of the seriousness of the matter at hand became readily apparent when the Supreme Court decided that Trump, now a 34-count convicted felon in NY State with trials pending in Florida, Georgia, and the Federal courts, is now immune from prosecution for any acts taken in an official capacity while he was president. 

I am not a constitutional lawyer, but reading Justice Sotomayor’s dissent on this decision was particularly chilling. In effect, this ruling makes a president immune to anything he does while in office; he can weaponize the Justice Department and throw anyone he wants in jail, or worse, he can make policies that hurt millions and millions of people. We are seeing parallels to the Enabling Act that the German government passed in 1933 that allowed Adolf Hitler to become a supreme dictator and gave us the horrors of World War 2 and the Holocaust.

I don’t have to go into long detail about all the groups of people that will suffer under another Trump presidency, nor am I going to list every hot-button issue on which he will choose to change our country’s sociopolitical landscape permanently.

Those are well documented. 

The ramifications for our democracy are scary if you look at things like the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 which serves as a public blueprint for a second Trump term. If he is elected again, we may never see the end of a Trump presidency; it will be the end of the American experiment as we know it; there will be a never-ending Trump and MAGA dynastical regime in the United States like a banana republic or Putin’s Russia, the only difference is we have 333 million people.

Between now and the 2024 Presidential Election, Trump will not go to jail for the hush money trial, the Florida federal documents case, the Georgia fake electors case, or the January 6 case. He’s been slow-walked through the legal system, and now the Supreme Court has made it much more complicated to convict him of anything.

No help is coming from the Justice League of America or the Avengers.

Additionally, skilled individuals with nothing to lose that are often fantasized about, such as Jack Reacher or Liam Neeson in "Taken," will not appear out of nowhere and save us, like in a bad Netflix movie. There is no Christopher Walken “Johnny” ready to sacrifice his life like in "The Dead Zone" either—sorry, folks. (Edit: well, I guess someone tried.)

Similarly, Biden is not going to use his newfound immunity to take out Trump with a drone strike or send black ops mercenaries to do the job. Even though I wish he would, it's not going to happen.

Short of an act of God or natural human frailties (you’d think Trump’s diet and health alone would be cause for concern at his age), nothing like the above is going to stop Trump from being elected as our next president. 

Here’s what will stop him: do your civic duty as an American citizen on November 5 and vote Democrat across the board. 

If that was your plan all along, great. But if you are one of those "on the fence" people or "why should I even show up, my vote doesn’t count" people, or "neither choice is good, I’m going to sit this out," or "I feel like I am being forced to vote for someone I don’t want" people, I beg you to reconsider. Do whatever it takes to show up at that polling station; stay there all night if you have to. It’s that important.

This is not merely a choice between two candidates—it's a pivotal decision to preserve our democracy or plunge into an irreversible abyss. The stakes couldn't be higher. Imagining the consequences of a descent—civil unrest, enduring division, and a dismantled democratic foundation—is daunting but necessary. We must act decisively. 

On November 5, your vote has the power to avert disaster and reaffirm our commitment to democracy. It's a simple yet profound choice: to step back from the brink or to risk falling forever. Let’s choose wisely and participate fully, recognizing that our collective action now will determine the future of our nation.