(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

America is awaiting a call from voters, the election results. It is a reprieve of sorts, much like a governor’s last minute call in an old movie sparing a condemned innocent prisoner from execution. The results of tomorrow’s U.S. election - unlike every other national election for the past 236 years - isn’t about just picking a president.

It is a vote for democracy, or a vote for some authoritarian rule that more closely resembles that of Russia or China or North Korea or Turkey or Hungary. What is playing out south of the Canadian border is as dark as any film noir about an innocent person going to the gallows.

The twist in this political melodrama - unlike a movie about a prisoner awaiting his fate - is that it should never have come this far, the evidence is overwhelming. Those who followed the story of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators didn’t need a law degree to come to a just decision. They simply needed to look and listen, trust their eyes and ears.

Facts are, well, facts. There is no such thing as alternative facts. Indeed, it is a fact that truth is truth, there is no such thing as alternative truths either. And yet, millions of folks - MAGA Republicans - insist otherwise.

In the face of plain, simple facts and truths, Trump co-conspirators - those who support and vote for what historians will long refer to as the worst U.S. president ever - chose to deny what reasonable folks know.

It’s hard to say what each one sees in Trump, but their ignorance is a common trait. So is racism, and unfounded fear, and hatred. Again, trust your eyes and ears, we’ve seen and heard them at Trump rallies. Most are smug in their stupidity, as if it were an enviable trait.

Likely, none of them - including Donald Trump - read Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 165-page Government’s Motion for Immunity Determinations filed last month. So many words, and facts, and truths.

It doesn’t fit the narrative of their parallel universe. Of course, what Trump and his minions call a witch hunt and fake news is neither. But, all the witnesses to Trump’s attempt to overthrow the government are people he chose, high-level aides and political appointees who told the truth. These are the people closest to Trump.

Even those who lie on television or during MAGA rallies - virtually every Republican - know that lying in court means prison time. Trump’s people didn’t lie in court, there was no giant conspiracy, they weren’t paid by the Democrats.

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the Federal District Court in Washington unsealed the 165-page partially-redacted brief with details of the already extensive evidence of how Trump lost the race but attempted nonetheless to cling to power.

You can live in denial all you want, but when your break laws there’s a price to pay. Trump is going to find that out at the advanced age of 78. There are 71 different witnesses - most of them redacted at this point - that populate the prosecution’s brief. It is damning, including the words of the defendant, Donald Trump.

When an aide rushed into the White House dining room off the Oval Office to advise then-President Trump that his vice president, Mike Pence, had to be whisked away to a secure location after a violent crowd of Trump-supporting insurrectionists stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump coldly replied, “So what?”

The purpose of the brief is to persuade Judge Chutkan that the offences charged in the indictment were undertaken in Trump’s private - rather than presidential capacity - and can remain part of the case as it moves forward, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling over the Summer granting presidents broad immunity for official acts.

The brief asserts that there is ample evidence that Trump’s efforts to remain in office signalled the desperation of a losing candidate rather than official presidential acts that would be considered immune from prosecution under the controversial Supreme Court ruling. Smith’s brief is a roadmap to a Trump conviction, and even a casual read of the document illuminates incriminating evidence that would make any competent defence lawyer cringe.

A Trump Campaign operative and co-conspirator in Michigan tried to “create chaos” at a polling centre in Detroit after a batch of election returns favourable to Biden proved legitimate.

“Find a reason it isn’t,” the co-conspirator said to a colleague in Detroit. Then, when the colleague said violence appeared imminent, the co-conspirator advised: “Make them riot” and “Do it!!!”

The more reasonable Trump supporters - maybe one percent - are shying away from him, convinced he is guilty of breaking laws and undermining American democracy. That still leaves more than enough true crazies to once again storm the Capitol.

Remember, the threat isn’t over on election night, the last Trump insurrection happened two months later in an effort to overthrow Electoral College proceedings. This time, the crazies are more organized. They have filed scores of lawsuits in advance of the voting, claiming fraud.

Don’t fret too much. Unlike the last insurrection, Trump isn’t in the White House. Vice President Harris - like Pence - will lead the Electoral College process. A record number of frivolous MAGA lawsuits to create chaos, have led to a record number of court dismissals.

The voice of the American public will be heard tomorrow. It will be a call Americans anxiously await, a reprieve for democracy. But until Jan. 7, when Congress certifies Electoral College votes, democracy remains at risk.

The MAGA insurrectionists might just decide to take matters into their own hands, and with vigilante zeal, execute democracy even after a reprieve from voters.

There will be a lot of sleepless nights for those who want America to continue as a democratic republic, 63 to be exact, between tomorrow’s election and ratification of that vote by Congress on Jan. 7.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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