Opinion: Trump is an autocrat who craves power and would be dangerous for our democracy

Our democracy is very precious to us, but it is important to realize that the old human desire to control is present among us, as it always has been. It was represented in the past by the systems of monarchs and autocrats. Our democracy was established by people who were breaking away from an old dominating power and they were determined not to come under any single autocratic ruler, as most people of the world were accustomed to.

A possible presidency of Donald Trump now threatens our democracy and truth itself. Plans have been made and continue to be developed by his followers to centralize much more power in the office of the president. Some have called this the “unitary executive theory.” When he was president, Trump said that the Constitution granted him the “right to do whatever I want.” This is dangerous and foreboding talk. He refuses to acknowledge our system of checks and balances, and the Constitutional limits on what the president can do. Examples of this are his Muslim travel ban, installing a new attorney general to help him overturn the 2020 election, and calling for lethal force against George Floyd protestors.

One indicator of the aspiring autocracy of Trump is his constant attention to whether people are loyal to him personally. Trump gets rid of those he considers disloyal to him, later calling them “snakes” and “traitors.” In 2020, Trump established a new civil service classification called “Schedule F,” which he intended to use to target individual government workers. Civil Service jobs are highly protected in order to prevent political interference, corruption and arbitrary termination. The Schedule F classification was rescinded by President Biben in January 2021, but Trump has said he intends to restore it in order to allow him to fire people throughout the government and replace them with his sycophants. The idea, of course, is for Trump to be able to control the administrative state like he was not able to do before.

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Plans made by those supporting Trump’s bid for future power include repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, which offers $370 billion to clean energy technology, shuttering the Loan Program Office at the Department of Energy, eliminating climate change from the National Security Council agenda, and encouraging allied nations to use fossil fuels. Further weakening of the Department of Energy has been proposed by people who advise fossil fuel companies and minimize the human role in causing climate change. These are ways of weakening efforts to stop climate change.

Some of the plans I mentioned were taken from “Project 2025,” created by the Heritage Foundation to provide the 2024 Republican Party presidential nominee with a personnel and ideology framework. There are other plans put forward, such as those to remove protections from LGBTQ+ people. The main point here is that the conservative Heritage Foundation, in its support for Trump, is promoting a widespread reshaping of the federal government toward a system that consolidates power in the presidency, which encourages the autocratic tendencies of Donald Trump.

When people become fearful of the change they see and experience, they become receptive to the promises of autocrats who claim to fix their problems, as Trump promised to do. This ignores the cooperative way of dealing with problems in a democracy. A democracy can produce just solutions to social and technological problems that confront every society, but an autocrat will favor friends and supporters. We have already seen Trump as an aspiring autocrat attempt to gain and retain power by force. Our democratic system has remained strong, but we must be vigilant in guarding against the age-old human tendency to dominate and control others by force.

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The most dangerous characteristic of Trump as a future leader of the nation is his disregard for truth. I will never forget his announcing loudly and often after the last election that he had won, when it was obviously not true. The fact that he had lost was stated repeatedly by courts and the responsible people in his own administration. “Not being a loser” is an obsession with Trump. This can be extremely dangerous. Surprisingly and tragically, we heard many people confidently repeating his false assertions. Hiding the truth in international affairs and relationships can lead to the suffering and death of many people. In essence, we can say that truth, as well as democracy, are both on the ballot in November 2024.

Rev. Robert L. Montgomery, Ph.D., lives in Black Mountain.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: A Donald Trump presidency would threaten our democracy