Ray Mariano: Abraham Lincoln warned us this day would come

Throughout our nation’s history, America has faced challenges from outsiders who wanted to destroy our democracy. Each one failed.

In 1941, Emperor Hirohito sent 140 Japanese bombers escorted by 43 fighter aircraft to attack Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt rallied the country and the world, and the enemy was defeated.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda sent four coordinated terrorist attacks to strike fear in the hearts of Americans. This was not the first attempt to terrorize our country by Islamic extremists, nor was it the last. Bin Laden is dead and al-Qaeda is a shell of what it once was.

Others like the Soviet Union and leaders like Nikita Khrushchev have threatened to destroy our country and way of life. The Soviet Union no longer exists.

With each threat, Americans have banded together and often led the world in defense of democracy. The American experiment has been equal to all challenges.

But today our country faces a more sinister threat.

Abraham Lincoln’s warning

In 1838, more than two decades before the start of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln warned that the greatest threat to America would not come from a foreign enemy but from within. In a speech titled “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” Lincoln said that “all the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined…with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio…”

Lincoln went on to warn about the danger posed by mobs that illegally take matters into their own hands and people who ignore the nation’s laws and courts. That, he argued, could ultimately destroy our country. “As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

Lincoln also anticipated the danger and the inevitability of a man determined to take power, to become a tyrant, and use political power to satisfy his own ends. “(That man) thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible (he) will have it…Is it unreasonable that some man…would spring up among us?”

When that time comes, Lincoln told his listeners of the single path to saving American democracy. “And when such one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs.”

The challenge from within

Today, America faces its greatest challenge since the Civil War — a challenge that Lincoln had anticipated. America faces a challenge from within that is led by a former president who seeks power for his own selfish ends.

Put aside all of the criminal and despicable things that Donald Trump did before he became president. Forget that he cheated workers and contractors while he built his empire. Forget that he was convicted of stealing from his own charity and that he swindled unsuspecting students out of their hard-earned money with a phony university. Forget that he has been found liable for sexual abuse and accused by many others of worse.

Forget, just for now, the tax-dodge schemes and the payment of hush money to a playmate and a porn star. Forget all of it.

Even forget all of the thousands of independently documented lies that he told to the American people while he was president. Forget, how he ridiculed groups of people, cozied up to white nationalists, referred to other countries as s---holes and denigrated anyone and everyone who disagreed with him.

Forget how he fell in love with a murderous dictator and how he bent the knee in fealty to Putin. And forget how he lowered America’s standing in the world.

Forget the 34 felony charges that Trump faces in New York and the 40 criminal counts he faces in Florida.

Forget all of the things that made Donald Trump a despicable human being and one of the worst presidents in the history of our country. Focus on only one thing — how Trump tried and continues to try to destroy our democracy and our democratic institutions as outlined in the sweeping four-count federal indictment relative to his effort to fraudulently overturn the 2020 election.

In an effort to retain power, Trump lied to the nation, threatened state and federal leaders, and conspired with others to fraudulently discard certified election results. And when all of that failed he summoned a mob.

Now, in an effort to avoid prison and to regain the power of the presidency, Trump is seeking the Republican nomination for president — and he will most likely get it.

Today America is facing the challenge that Abraham Lincoln anticipated almost 200 years ago. A tyrant has emerged whose only desire is to serve himself. Through deceit and lawlessness, the tyrant has caused people to stand against their own government and mobs of people to storm our nation’s Capitol in an effort to fraudulently retain the power of the presidency.

Fortunately, there were good people, both Republicans and Democrats, who put their country first. They stood against Trump’s lawlessness and treachery. They resisted threats and suffered ridicule, and some were forced from office. Because of them our nation’s institutions held.

Still, knowing all of this, millions of Americans follow this criminal and support his efforts to regain power fully aware of his intentions to bend our laws and institutions to his will.

The question now is will America rise to the challenge facing our democracy? Will Americans be, as Lincoln said, “united with each other, attached to the government and laws”? Or will we “die by suicide”?

Email Raymond V. Mariano at rmariano.telegram@gmail.com. He served four terms as mayor of Worcester and previously served on the City Council and School Committee. He grew up in Great Brook Valley and holds degrees from Worcester State College and Clark University. He was most recently executive director of the Worcester Housing Authority. His column appears weekly in the Sunday Telegram.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Raymond Mariano column on Abraham Lincoln foreseeing Donald Trump