Keeping the Republic

Why it is imperative that Donald Trump is indicted for his attempt to overturn the election

I feel like I should not have to write this article. I feel like I should not have to remind informed American citizens and voters about how important it is that our Constitutional Republic is preserved against any threats to its continuing endurance. When asked what the constitutional convention had produced, Benjamin Franklin said “a republic if you can keep it.” The reported indictment of Donald J. Trump today by the Washington D.C. grand jury impaneled by special prosecutor Jack Smith is a necessary and vital step for keeping the Republic

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The framers of our Constitution set up a republican government where the leaders are elected by the people and only govern with the consent of the American people. Every single elected leader, before taking office, takes a very solemn oath to uphold this republican government and the Constitution that establishes it before being sworn into that office. These constitutional protections to our Republic were also strengthened in the 14th amendment that was enacted after the Civil War, which in part prohibits anyone who engages in treason or insurrection against our government from ever being qualified to hold office under the Constitution ever again. This is also necessary, and was the reason why it was enacted, to keep the Republic.

Up until the last transition of the former president to the current president, every other former president has accepted and participated in a peaceful transfer of power at the end of their term to the next duly elected president of the United States. Every other candidate, including incumbent presidents as well as those who are not incumbents, has accepted their election loss and conceded the election to the winner of that election. This has been done out of precedent to respect the will of the people and the constitutional process of electing a president, and to further the goal of building confidence among the American people in the proper functioning of our government and our electoral system. To deliberately undermine this process is arguably an act of treason in and of itself, an act that has been done by no former president in history until we reached the president who was defeated in the 2020 election.

It is a matter of historical fact that Donald J. Trump was the losing candidate in the 2020 presidential election. The January 6th Select Committee has established, beyond a reasonable doubt, by the evidence, that Donald J. Trump knew he had lost the 2020 election to Joseph R. Biden. This is a matter of historical fact at this point and has been proven by the evidence and is contained within the official January 6th report. Therefore, it was incumbent upon Donald J. Trump to recognize the election of Biden, concede that election that he lost, and support and participate in the peaceful transition of power to the next president that had been elected in the November 2020 election.

But Donald J. Trump chose not to take these actions and recognize the election of Biden and participate in this peaceful transition of power as all other defeated incumbents had done in the entirety of American history. Trump attempted many different schemes and methods by which to overturn the election, including the fake electors scheme, the efforts to overturn the election results in individual states such as Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and others, and then in a last desperate act, inspired the Insurrection that occurred on January 6th itself. All of these actions are clearly illegal and unconstitutional, and some of them are believed to be what will be contained in the indictments, when they are unsealed, that special prosecutor Jack Smith has secured from the Washington D.C. grand jury investigating these matters.

What was at stake with what Donald J. Trump tried to do in overturning the 2020 election was a simple matter of not accepting the will of the people and an attempt to remain an office as president beyond the constitutional mandate that was granted to Trump by the voters in the 2016 election. Make no mistake about it, if Trump had succeeded in what he was trying to do, he would have been an unconstitutional unelected president who would have remained an office solely on the basis of his own desire to be president after losing an election. Essentially, we would no longer have a constitutionally elected president but a self-appointed dictatorial president who's only mandate to hold that office was his own choice to illegally and unconstitutionally occupy that office in defiance of our Constitution and the will of the American voters. Even if he were to serve four years and then suggest we will go back to recognizing the duly elected president starting with the 2024 election, Trump will have established the precedent that the president no longer has to be elected by the people, and that an incumbent president can overturn an election result that he doesn't agree with and remain in office as an unelected dictatorial president. As world history shows, once a constitutional government is overturned in favor of a totalitarian regime under the power of an unelected leader, that country will not have constitutional government.

There are clear reasons why this has never happened before in American history and it should not be allowed to ever happen again if we want to remain a Constitutional Republic. It is also very clear under our Constitution and laws, that any president, or any other citizen, who attempts to seize the presidency by any kind of means other than being duly constitutional elected by the Electoral College as prescribed by the Constitution, has engaged in an attempt to overthrow our government and has violated the Constitution and laws. That is why this is the most important prosecution of all of them that Donald J. Trump faces because he attempted to single-handedly overturn our constitutional government. If we desire to keep the Republic, we have no other choice other than to fully prosecute, under the law, this attempt to overturn the 2020 election and our constitutional government.

Some argue that this will be divisive and that our politics are currently two divisive and polarized as it is already and that this could make this condition worse. No one is ignoring this concern, however, if we were to not prosecute someone who attempts to overturn the government because of this concern, the failure to prosecute would not only be political and partisan by its nature, the fact that we do not keep the Republic is far more against the interests of the American people than any concern about how polarized and divisive are current politics are. Our politics has been divisive and polarized this way on other occasions in the in the past in history tells us that this current fever will pass also. But if we did not keep the Republic, that will not pass because we will no longer have a constitutional Republic and live in a relatively free society as we do now. If we fail to hold this ex-president accountable for his attempt to overthrow the government, then this coup attempt will have been simply practice for the next one by either Trump or some other would be dictator in the future. So it is important and it is the only valid choice that can be made at this point is to indict this former president for trying to overturn the 2020 election in order to keep the Republic. Any other choice is not in the interest of the American people in upholding our constitutional form of government.