Only voters can save the country from a second Trump term | Editorial

The winner of November’s presidential election will be decided by a handful of states, including Pennsylvania.

Polls in the Keystone State show the likely rematch between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump is a toss-up. That means every vote will matter. Every nonvoter and third-party voter will also impact the outcome. (See 2016.)

Given the extreme danger of a second Trump term, Gov. Josh Shapiro, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, state House Speaker Joanna McClinton, and surrounding county officials must do everything possible to increase voter registration and turnout.

There is nothing more important they could be doing between now and Election Day.

The same goes for Philadelphia Democratic Party boss Bob Brady, who instead is playing small ball by battling ward leaders.

These are not normal times. And this is not a normal election between candidates debating tax rates or defense spending. In fact, Trump bizarrely claimed last month that if he loses, Pennsylvania will change its name.

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Hence the 911 situation. Or as Ben Bradlee said in All the President’s Men, “Nothing’s riding on this except the, uh, First Amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country.”

Many other pressing issues are also at stake, including climate change, immigration, inflation, abortion rights, Obamacare, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, peace in the Middle East, the future of NATO, support for Ukraine, crime, public education, student loan debt, gay marriage, and affordable housing.

While Biden has not solved every problem, he will not take a wrecking ball to all the above and more. Yes, Biden is old (81), but he’s also decent and honorable and will uphold his sworn oath to support and protect the Constitution.

Trump, on the other hand, called for terminating the Constitution and vowed to become a dictator on Day One. He also fueled an insurrection and tried to overthrow the 2020 election. He’s facing four criminal indictments and has been found liable for rape and fraud. (And, at 77, he’s also old.)

We all witnessed the damage Trump inflicted during his last term.

Trump was instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade. He pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, eliminated more than 100 environmental rules, and thinks climate change is a hoax. He tried to repeal Obamacare and plans to renew those efforts if elected. He failed repeatedly to fix the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. Even the conservative Cato Institute said his “impenetrable” border wall was a failure that gets breached daily.

Trump increased the deficit by nearly $8 trillion and mismanaged the pandemic, causing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. He repeatedly threatened to withdraw the U.S. from NATO and recently renewed similar talk.

Perhaps worst of all, Trump left the country more divided and hate-filled. If elected, Trump and his allies plan to implement much more radical policies that will upend core beliefs in American governance, foreign policy, and the rule of law.

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Plans include using the U.S. Justice Department to go after political enemies, rounding up millions of undocumented immigrants and putting them in camps, dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency to allow for the burning of more fossil fuels, and implementing a 16-week national abortion ban.

Trump has already signaled his foreign policy will be more dangerous and destabilizing than the last time.

He called Vladimir Putin a “genius” for invading Ukraine and said he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that don’t pay their share if reelected.

He said Israel should “finish the problem” in Gaza, where fighting has resulted in thousands of deaths of women and children and a ghastly humanitarian crisis.

Trump plans a massive trade war with China that includes a 60% tariff on imports, and also casually predicts China will invade Taiwan.

That’s just the short list.

Congress, prosecutors, and the courts will not save the country from Trump. It is up to voters.

The narrow voter margin requires all hands on deck. But it will take Shapiro, Parker, and other area officials to mobilize and lead the effort.

Some folks get it. City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas is leading an effort to register more Black men to vote. Other influential Black leaders must join in. This is especially important given the recent alarming drop in Black and brown voter turnout in Philadelphia.

More must be done to motivate and educate all voters who somehow forgot the debacle of Trump’s one term. That means getting creative and using public service announcements and social media to reach voters.

Celebrities with local ties should be recruited to help, including Taylor Swift, Jalen Hurts, Bradley Cooper, Pink, Joel Embiid, M. Night Shyamalan, Tina Fey, Charles Barkley, and Patti LaBelle.

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Area influencers should also be tapped. Young voters helped power Biden’s election in 2020. But many have been fed misinformation on TikTok and appear to be losing interest — even though the stakes are higher.

Local and national Republicans who do not support Trump should be recruited to reach out to independents and moderates in the surrounding suburbs. That includes Tom Ridge, Charlie Dent, Jim Greenwood, and Sandra Schultz Newman, as well as Liz Cheney, Nikki Haley, and Chris Christie.

Stacey Abrams turned Georgia blue by increasing voter registration. The Philadelphia region should follow her lead. Elected officials should have voter registration tables at public events and daily at City Hall, schools, libraries, transit hubs, sports events, and beyond.

Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija wants to make voting more accessible in the county (offering more languages, for instance), and make it easier to fix technical issues with mail-in ballots. Philadelphia and the other surrounding suburban counties should do the same.

Gov. Shapiro created a task force to protect the vote. That’s well and good, but hardly enough.

Pennsylvania and Philadelphia have much to gain if Biden is reelected. And much to lose in the way of federal funding if Trump returns. Likewise, Shapiro and Parker will benefit politically if Biden returns to the White House.

Biden won Pennsylvania by just 80,555 votes in 2020, and Trump won by 44,292 in 2016. With a few thousand votes likely to dictate the future of U.S. democracy, Shapiro should mobilize registration and turnout with the same speed and focus he applied when the I-95 bridge collapsed.

Otherwise, a much bigger calamity awaits.