Elaine Harris Spearman Commentary: The US can't afford another round of Trump

“For four years Donald J. Trump inflicted an onslaught of overlapping and interconnected traumas upon the American people targeting anyone he perceived as being an ‘other’ or an enemy. Women were discounted and derided, the sick were dismissed as weak and unworthy of help, immigrants and minorities were demonized and discriminated against and money was elevated above all else. In short, he transformed our country into a macro version of his malignantly dysfunctional family.”

This comes from Mary Trump, the niece of Donald J. Trump, in her 2021 book, “The Reckoning.”

Don’t waste your time discounting her statement and relegating it to jealousy among family members. Although this is true in many cases, even in families that are not so well known, it is not true here.

Mary Trump has achieved in her own right, holding a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, specializing in trauma, and has acknowledged some personal truths in her international No. 1 best seller “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”

She lived the Trump life, growing up painfully aware of how her uncle treated his brother, her father and other family members. I have long said when a person is able to mistreat or abuse a family member, the rest of the people have nothing coming.

Although Donald J. Trump publicly shows some of who he is without hesitation, the manic MAGA crowd would be well served to read true accounts about him to understand the man they are attempting to thrust to the forefront of American democracy.

Reading true accounts by those who have lived, worked and played with a megalomaniac in the making would clearly warn you of the true threat and danger he poses to the American way of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people.

Those who agree with such mean spirited, unprincipled views will suffer with the rest of us and the world. America will not be able to withstand another round of Donald J. Trump.

There is none so blind as those who will not see. A presidential oath involves swearing to uphold the Constitution. Donald J. Trump stated publicly that the “Constitution needs to be terminated.” And replaced with what?

Lawyers take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Anyone who does otherwise should be stripped of the honor to serve as a lawyer, and as president of the United States.

America came dangerously close to what we see in other countries that have dictatorships. At the hands of those who participated in the attempt to overcome a peaceful transition of power, we almost cloned Vladimir Putin. 81 million people and more must surely see our very existence is in jeopardy.

There is no good motive for a person to desperately hold on to power and to continuously seek the same office. Why can’t Republicans see this? A second time around will bring worst disasters than the first go around.

The underlying theme is retribution, get even, make every attempt to overthrow the government and America as we know it. “Land of the free and the home of the brave.”

The former president openly admires Vladimir Putin, the worst kind of dictator. What was to happen to all of the top-secret documents spirited to a golf club in closets, bathrooms and ballrooms. Give some thought to a “war” being started that only the Putin admirer could stop?

What if the rioters who stormed the Capitol had been successful? What would it have meant to American democracy in elections at every level, from local challenges all the way up the ladder to the federal government elections.

Former Attorney General William Barr, who I had little respect for, is finally telling the truth: “Trump knew that he had lost the election and was told there was no election fraud by those around him. He would search until he found a lawyer willing to tell him what he wanted to hear.”

For the former disgraced president to say, “This wasn’t supposed to happen” — his indictment — is a total affront to all law-abiding citizens of this country. It was exactly what should have happened. When evidence exists of crimes being committed, even if white collar, the perpetrator should be held to account. Crimes committed at the highest and lowest levels should be prosecuted.

There exists under American law a proceeding that is instituted and carried on by due process of law, before a competent tribunal for the purpose of determining the guilt or innocence of the person charged with the crime.

A grand jury has spoken. Donald J. Trump should have been treated as he was, like most people alleged to have committed a crime, whether seen or unseen. There are too many complicit people for the behavior exhibited by those in government to be ignored.

A person who inflicts pain and divisiveness upon the American people and the world on a daily basis should be prosecuted, found guilty and removed from the possibility of running this country, and us, into the ground.

The 2,000 people who paid a great sum to worship their golden idol in Montgomery are only a fraction of the whole of our country, thank God.

Elaine Harris Spearman, Esq., a Gadsden native, is an attorney and is the retired legal advisor to the comptroller of the City of St. Louis. The opinions expressed are her own. 

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Columnist Elaine Harris Spearman looks at former President Trump