Opinion: Why a vote for Donald Trump is a vote to weaken free government

On Jan. 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln warned: “Is it unreasonable … to expect, that some man possessed of … genius, coupled with ambition, … will at some time, spring up among us? And when such a one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs.
“Distinction will be his … object, and although he would as willingly … acquire it by doing good as harm; yet, that opportunity being past … he would set boldly to the task of pulling down. …
“Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense. Let those materials be molded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws: and, that we improved to the last; that we remained free to the last.”
Former President Donald Trump has shown unprecedented disregard for the United States Constitution and the people who live under it. After losing a free and fair election, Trump attempted to stay in power by subverting its electoral college clauses, weakening citizens’ devotion to this inspired founding document. Shamelessly manipulating millions of us by perpetuating the myth that he actually won has undermined trust in the legitimacy of our electoral system. These actions are unconscionable in an American leader.
Mesmerized, perhaps, by the quest for power, or a conviction that the ends justify the means, and caught in the deformed and altered reality of someone who neither acknowledges the truth nor can endure it if inconvenient, the Republican Party has installed Donald Trump as its presidential candidate.
This creates a uniquely dangerous moment in American history. The nation is being asked to engage with the usual political debates, platforms, planks and policies — to view and participate in this presidential contest as it would with any other. This is comfortable and tempting; it feels safe. However, it disguises exceptionally dangerous tremors in our national stability.
Pretending all is well ignores the anti-democratic, anti-constitutional and society-dismantling behaviors of one of the two candidates. Worse than masking these aggressive assaults on the foundations of our government, it normalizes them. It is against this normalization that we are being called to fight.
That means that this election must be approached differently from all others, which will require reservoirs of humility, courage and spirit, especially from those who may sympathize with Republican policies as we do. Voters need to remember and be repeatedly reminded that the former president’s words and behaviors have already undermined our Constitutional system. No matter the political normalcy his campaign attempts to convey, a vote for Donald Trump is, by definition, a vote to weaken free and democratic government.
The weighty responsibility to prevent the normalization of presidential behavior inimical to the democracy we revere is now upon us. We can do this, we who understand how much it means to live in a country that provides freedom, the rule of law and stability, by firmly and confidently rejecting the one candidate who broke his oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
As our first and best Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, warned: “it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs.” We must together frustrate the former president’s design and save the Union. We can do this. Our ancestors, the nation and the world are watching.
Chris Stevenson is founder of the Super PAC Virginians Defending the Constitution, former member of the Loudoun County Republican Committee (removed in November 2023 for stating he would not support Donald Trump if he became the nominee) and author of “Letters from an American Husband and Father.”
Annette Lantos Tillemann-Dick was in one of the first classes of women at Yale University. She is a mother of 12 and a homeschooling advocate and has received graduate degrees in journalism and religion from Stanford and Yale. She is currently a small-business owner in Denver, Colorado.