I have been directly and tangentially involved in politics for a long time now, at least 30 years and if you include the time I ran for class president at Chapel Hill High School back in the 80s, well then you do the math. Inspired in large part by the profiles of courage of fierce Black women in North Carolina including my grand and great grandmothers; Godmother, the late Senator Jeanne Lucas (the first Black woman to serve in the North Carolina Senate); and Congresswoman Eva Clayton (the first Black woman from NC to serve in Congress), I also ran in the May 2018 Democratic primary for Congress in North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, challenging a 30-year incumbent. I was the first Black, woman, and Chapel Hill High School graduate to run for a congressional seat in North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District on the Democratic ticket. Needless to say, I fully understand that political campaigns are very much like a war: candidates representing two different parties go into battle against each other with one sole mission in mind—to take out the other candidate and win. And just like in a war, all kinds of weapons and ammunition are used to defeat the opponent and ensure victory. While most political campaigns are relatively amicable, at least in public, behind the scenes all kinds of chicanery and even malicious tactics are devised. Some of the tactics that campaigns employ in order to stack the odds of winning in their favor border on, if not cross the lines of, being menacing, unethical or even criminal, from stealing or removing campaign signs, attempting to besmirch the opponent’s character for example digging up dirt on the opponent uncovering shameful things they may have done in their adolescent or reckless young adult years to acts that spillover to harming others beyond the opponent including voter suppression. The list of what can and has been done by political operatives to shore up a win is endless and there is no low to how far some will go to make sure a political candidate ends up the victor.
In addition to the political
war tactics, and just like in military battles, there are also the spoils of
war. The things that the victor wins or gains. In military battles these spoils
can include any and everything from land acquisition, territory occupation,
economic gains, to even world domination and unbridled global power and
influence. In United States, the past presidential election is a great case to
make my point. I won’t go down the stolen-election conspiracy dark hole but I
will highlight the extraordinary amounts of money that was poured into both
former Vice President Kamala Harris and former
and now president Donald Trump’s campaigns in what is commonly referred
to as a “war chest.” An estimated $1 Billion was raised by the Harris campaign
compared to an estimated $3.8 Billion raised by the Trump campaign. Interestingly
President Trump’s FEC filings are listed under a PAC titled, “Never Surrender,
Inc.,” which supports the main point I wish to make. One of the primary
objectives when embattled in war is exactly that--never surrender, and for
some, that means by any means necessary—win by hook or crook as my grandmother
would say. I will leave it up to the reader to decide if the winner of the 2024
general election—President Trump won by hook or crook. Either way you assess
it, Donald Trump won and became the POTUS and by my assessment, the win was
through tactical maneuvers that had no boundaries or rules of engagement. Political
wars tend to be void of rules of engagement tantamount to International Humanitarian Law or Geneva
Treaty, which limits the harm done to people who are not directly participating
in warfare including principles that distinguish between combatants and
civilians, ensuring military actions are not excessive in relation to the
military advantage gained—a term referred to as proportionality, or acts to
prohibit inhumane treatment or unnecessary suffering.
Aside from the spoils of the political war that Trump won including the outrageous amounts of wealth his family is amassing, what we are seeing a president who is not governing but whose mind is programmed to continue the war until all vestiges of our Democratic Republic are decimated. He is driven by one guiding principle—never surrender, which is similar to the lesson taught to him by his once revered mentor Roy Cohn--never admit defeat and deny, deny, deny. Never surrender power, not even to the supposedly co-equal branches of government—the judicial and legislative branches. Never surrender control not even to the comrades who we will call the Republican party leadership. Never surrender or claim defeat of any kind even through legal sanctions or litigation. And once in power, never give it up.
We are in a perpetual war in the United States whether we believe it or not. It is a war not just against immigrants, people of color, the poor including in rural America which is the bastion of MAGA supporters—but it is also a war with an objective now to change the landscape and infrastructure of our Democratic Republic into one that he has made clear he prefers and aspires to rule—an oligarchy modeled after Russia. My fear is that far too many people who many consider authorities on world affairs are underestimating the stronghold that Putin and Russia’s governing structure has on the mind of President of Trump. We have reduced the actions of the president to basic disdain of others who are not white, male, and uber wealthy. While that kind of ideology may be baked in, it is not what is driving his bulldozing and excavating of America’s longstanding cornerstone institutions. It is his insatiable fixation on becoming and modeling Putin’s regime. He truly does not intend on ever surrendering his power and supreme authority over America and as the late Dr. Maya Angelou said, when people SHOW you who they are, believe them the first time. My fear is despite what President Trump is showing us; there are far too many people who are refusing to believe what they are actually seeing an instead are getting distracted by flashing lights and bouncing balls that are merely a mirage.
