Essay submission from my (awesome) Uncle Rod Dow - long time smokejumper and wild-land firefighter, deep thinker, author, patriotic American, and like all of us, aghast at what is happening in our country right now.

Some Clear and Present Dangers

I just finished Craig Unger’s book, House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. We already knew from the GOP Senate Intelligence Committee Final Report and the investigation by Robert Mueller that there had been dozens of connections between Russians and the first Trump campaign, that Putin had openly said he wanted Trump to win, and that a massive social media campaign had been run by the Kremlin in all three elections. Given how close the elections have been, it is likely that those efforts strongly influenced the results.

The book further explains a vast network of mafia connections in Florida, New York, and Long Island, and corroborates statements from two previous KGB agents, Yuri Shvets and Alnur Mussayev, that Trump was recruited as an “asset” (as opposed to an actual agent) and was given the name Krasnov. They say he was a very easy target because of his constant need for compliments as well as his financial situation at the time. Now, given Trump’s penchant for dozens of executive actions that favor Putin (discord within NATO, eliminating USAID, undermining trust in our American institutions, labeling the press as “the enemy of the people,” scrubbing the Voice of America, etc, etc), it’s difficult to assert that he is not at least very friendly to Kremlin designs.

Many of the directives of Trump and Musk over the past weeks have closely followed the outline proposed in Project 2025. The document lays out a carefully designed pathway to an executive branch that has far greater influence in our Republic than the executive has had for 250 years or that the forefathers had in mind when they intentionally made each of the three branches equal in power. Trump claimed during the campaign that he had no connection whatsoever to the Project 2025 blueprint. That was a lie. As soon as the election was over, he put five of its authors into positions of power in the new cabinet. Project 2025 eliminates the independence of the FBI, CIA, and DOJ and makes them directly answerable to the Oval Office, and in many other ways redesigns our American democracy to be subservient to Trump. Hundreds of civil servants who previously were experts at their positions, but independent from political sway, are now asked to prove loyalty to the new administration. It’s not hard to imagine where this is leading.

Trump is now demanding that private law firms accede to his demands. Ivy League universities are punished for their administrative policies. Political enemies have become prey in the courts. At least $40 billion in foreign aid funding that was legislated by Congress has been squashed, an action that will certainly result in millions of deaths from disease and starvation. Tens of thousands of government workers have been fired under the sham explanation, “lack of performance”, and ridiculous claims of savings from waste have been the supposed excuse. Bank assets of Habitat For Humanity were frozen, claiming an investigation into “illegal” activities. The Voice of America was shuttered. The list is long.

So, does any of this indicate that we are headed for autocratic governance as many fear? Few Americans actually know that within the conservative caucus for decades there has been lurking a movement to replace our constitutional republic with Christian Nationalism. Paul Weyrich is now dead, but his dream goes all the way back to the Moral Majority in the 70s. Weyrich is considered the godfather of Christian Nationalism and we are now seeing an Odd Couple’s amalgam of his dream coordinated with influence from the Kremlin. I’m afraid the answer is yes, we are diving head first into a Christian dictatorship.

The daily news is staggering. It’s like history needed some new entertainment. One of the least qualified and most vile humans I’ve ever seen, Donald Trump, an adjudicated rapist, felon, extortionist, fraud, and self-inflated con artist has garnered the assistance of Russian cyber experts, and has become the embodiment of Christian Nationalism. Did I slip on history’s banana peel and fall into a Kafka novel? The stage is set. I will not be surprised if Trump intentionally provokes liberals into demonstrations that will, by design, turn violent. It will be a minor adjustment to declare martial law. Since he already has control of both houses of Congress and the weakest willed Supreme Court in my lifetime, that will pretty much be the end.

Is there still hope? Well . . . yes. Bernie and AOC are out on the road raising awareness to the threat. Many thousands of Republicans are beginning to say, “Wait, making an enemy of Canada? No, this isn’t what I voted for.” GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski and Rep Don Bacon have both voiced dissent. Even though public demonstrations may eventually lead to a Constitutional crisis, that road is our only option. Get out to your nearest HANDS OFF! rally next Saturday and make some noise, peaceful noise, please. I know I will. The last I heard, America is not done yet.

Rod Dow