Terry Bracy: The Year of the Snake

Chinese traditions identify 2025 as the year of the malevolent and crafty snake.

Here in the U.S., next year could serve up our own version as the great MAGA Boa slowly tightens its grip around American election laws and traditions to guarantee Trump’s return to the Oval Office — win or lose.

The Republican strategy has been decades in the making, long before the MAGA Crowd slithered into power with the help of the right-wing underground that included white nationalist groups and an Australian billionaire who created Fox News. Establishment Republican figures who let this happen in their desperate search for a majority awoke one Jan. 6 to loudly condemn the madness that threatened their Lives. Like the piano player at the bawdy house, they didn’t know what was going on in MAGAville. Some, like the brave Liz Cheney, have continued to condemn Trump; many have left the Party. But most like the reptilian Bill Barr who loudly condemned Trump’s actions and will vote for him anyway. Perhaps our former Attorney General would vote for Chairman Mao were he on the GOP ballot.

The Republican strategy for Campaign 2024 begins with every effort to suppress the vote. Since the election laws vary by state, conservative legislatures almost uniformly are creating roadblocks to voting practices employed by Democrats by outlawing any method of collecting ballots in central locations, which are convenient to older and working voters. Ballot-by-mail, used in Arizona for decades without abuse, is being discouraged where possible. And the Grand Old Party is in the process of hiring 100,000 lawyers to stand guard in polling places to harass minority voters, particularly in swing states. All aimed at depriving President Biden of the 270 electoral votes needed for reelection.

The next step required by the 12th Amendment would be Presidential election by the House, with each state having one vote. Before that occurs, however, the courts will have to deal with a blizzard of lawsuits brought by the loser, and especially by the MAGA lawyers, who if Trump loses, will claim fraud.

Those suits will follow a well-worn path to Trump-appointed judges who, in turn, will look for any excuse to find in his favor. In fact, the MAGA judicial force is already in motion in Florida, where Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump cheerleader, has stepped in to delay a trial of the former President under the Espionage Act for hoarding national-security documents. That happened after the Supreme Court refused the request by Federal Prosecutor Jack Smith to proceed with a trial on the former President’s coup attempt.

If the vote is close or in dispute in any state, suits heard by lower courts will inevitably end up before a Supreme Court ruled by one of the most conservative majorities in American history. At least two Justices, Alito and Thomas, have made no bones about their political affiliation. The wife of Justice Thomas, Gini, was an active participant in the attempt to overrule the election results to keep Trump in power. During that same period, from the eves of the Alito home flew an upside-down American flag in sympathy of Trump’s coup attempt. This is the Court that is likely in a close race to determine the winner, as it did in the year 2000. All of this was made possible by the craftiest snake in the Senate, Senator Mitch McConnell, who broke every rule and tradition to pack The Court with right-wingers.

The extent to which another Trump term would change America is hard to fathom. And yet he has given us ample warning when, in broad daylight, he asks a meeting of oil executives for a billion dollars in exchange for which he would wipe out many climate change regulations. And also when he boldly signals his fealty to Vladimir Putin and his intention to destroy NATO.

In another era when truth and patriotism reigned, these would be acts of bribery and treason. But alas, Donald Trump is the Great Snake charmer.

The Irish American Joe Biden will need the magic of Saint Patrick to drive the snakes from our precious democracy.

Let’s help him.