Now that Trump is sending actual troops into our streets, the shape of his planned coup d’état is becoming ever clearer.

A critical piece will be an outright armed assault on the polling places during this fall’s election.

Trump’s GOP has already raised $20 million for anti-democracy lawsuits. While claiming the fall election will be “rigged,” Trump’s minions say they’ll raise a 50,000-strong vigilante army to terrorize “suspicious” (i.e., young, non-white, non-millionaire) voters at the polls.

Here’s the premise: 

On November 3, thousands of KKK/Gestapo-style “Trump volunteers” will swarm over the usual long lines in critical swing state/minority-heavy precincts. We’ve seen their neo-Nazi ilk in Charlottesville, among the Proud Boys, etc.

Many will be armed and dressed in military garb. Lacking legal credentials, but likely at gunpoint, they’ll demand ID and other “proof” of voter qualifications. 

Their purpose will be to drive away potential anti-Trump voters and turn the election into chaos.

This country has a long history of organized, violent assault at the polls. In the 1800s, countless black citizens were murdered on election day or just prior because they intended to vote. They were routinely shot or lynched by the Ku Klux Klan and other White Supremacist terrorists.  

Historians often portray the slaughter as random racism. But KKK terror/lynching has been very political, primarily aimed to undermine the black community’s potential power. 

Team Trump clearly intends to do it again this fall.

There’s been an early warning. Last year the gerrymandered Ohio Legislature passed a $1 billion bailout for two dying nuke reactors on Lake Erie. Outraged opponents petitioned for a statewide referendum to overturn the hated rip-off.  

Polls showed a popular vote would bury the bailout while arousing a strong left constituency for the 2020 election. 

But signature gatherers working to get the issue on the ballot were physically assaulted by “blockers” – Trump terrorists. With no police protection, the campaign failed.   

In Ohio 2004, Republican operatives, with state approval, invaded African-American precincts to terrorize voters.  

This year, expect much worse. Trump’s GOP will deploy trained, highly-paid professionals to turn the election to chaos. Except where there may be students, they will NOT be assaulting white precincts.  

Trump screams at Vote by Mail (except in red states, and when he and his family themselves vote). Any ballot cast by anyone who is not a white-millionaire-Republican is considered “fraudulent.” 

GOP operatives are now denying mail-in ballots to citizens of youth and color. Where election-day lines develop, Trump’s thugs (along with the Coronavirus) will prey. It will be a very public lynching.  

To fight back, we must restore to the voter rolls the 16 million citizens Trump has already purged. They must be reached, restored, and made ready to vote.

We must also guarantee that Vote by Mail functions properly. 

All eligible voters must get a ballot well before election day. They should be mailed or walked into election centers far before November 3rd. Election monitors must see that the ballots are properly checked in and protected.  

For voters coming in person to the polls, there must be sufficient numbers of paper ballots available. Election protectors must be there to guard both the voters and the vote counters.

Trained in nonviolence, election protectors need to seriously outnumber Trump’s KKK/Gestapo and be willing to stare down the barrels of their guns. 

Throughout history, in the US and world, countless citizens have been assaulted and murdered for far less than the nonviolent eviction of a demented dictator. 

There are barely five months until election day. There is nothing Trump won’t do to become president for life.

Troops are already in the streets. The coup is in progress. The fall election must be protected.  

What will you do about it?