By PAUL BLYTHE
Here is what we -- as Florida Democrats and as voters who are committed to the rule of law -- can take away from a New York jury's unanimous decision Thursday to find former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying 34 business records in 2017 to cover up a scheme carried out in 2015 and 2016 to prevent a report of Trump's alleged 2006 sexual tryst with porn star Stormy Daniels from going public before the 2016 election.
No one -- not even a former president -- is above the law. Trump was indicted by a grand jury, received his due process required under the law, and is now a convicted felon.
Even though he is a felon, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.
The only way to stop this felon from becoming president of the United States again is to beat him again at the ballot box.
4. That means this is the choice the nation will face at the ballot box in 2024:
Trump, who grows more unhinged and dangerous by the day as he continues his campaign of blame, revenge and retribution – running to serve only himself with no care for whom or what he hurts in the process.
Or President Joe Biden, who is fighting for freedom and democracy everywhere, lowering costs for American families, and creating more jobs and opportunity for everyone with forward-looking infrastructure packages based on good ol' American know-how -- i.e. science, research and development.
5. That stark choice means the stakes are as high as they get in an American presidential election. The future of our economy, our personal rights and freedoms and, indeed, democracy -- not just ours but those around the world -- are all on the line.
6. And all of the foregoing means that our party's campaign for the next 5 months must be to pound home the following case to the American people:
Donald Trump is running only to serve himself and pardon his crimes.
No one has politicized the legal process more than Trump, who flouted the judicial system throughout his trial, or the Republicans who lined up in court with him. The Republican Party is no longer the party of law and order. It’s Democrats who stand for freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
Trump has told us exactly what he’ll do as President: He’ll be a dictator on day one. And you know he and his minions won’t give it up on day two.
He and his MAGA/Heritage Foundation Republicans are the greatest threat ever to our democracy and freedoms.
He’ll sign a national abortion ban. He’ll target student protesters. He'll run the largest deportation program in history. He'll get rid of America's vaunted professional civil service -- the skeletal system that keeps the government stable from one partisan administration to another -- and replace it with lackeys beholden only to him. He'll weaponize the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to eradicate rules and programs meant to protect diversity in government, schools and public life, much as Gov. Ron DeSantis has targeted Blacks, gays and opposition thinkers in Florida.
He has made quid-pro-quo promises to the very, very rich -- telling oil company execs he will scrap environmental regulations if they give $1 billion to his 2024 election campaign; and strong-arming other rich Republican donors for political contributions of $25 million to $50 million instead of their usual $2- or $3-million with the threat that if he's not elected, his 2017 tax cuts for the super rich will expire in 2025.
Aside from these scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours proposals and threats to his opposition, Trump has offered no policies, no seriously researched plans for dealing with the myriad perils confronting the U.S. and world today. No plan for health care, for affordable housing, for reducing the national debt (which his tax cuts have largely contributed to), for climate change, for peace in Ukraine or the Middle East, or for dealing with China's aggressive attempts at hegemony in the Pacific.
President Biden, meanwhile, is actively fighting to protect democracy on every front; to create jobs and opportunities for every American; and to lower costs for everything from concert tickets to medicine to college education.
Biden has already saved us from many of the ravages of one Trump administration -- restoring the United States' respected standing in the world community; restarting the nation's economy after the depths of the COVID-19 recession; restoring more than 14 million jobs to Americans; and reducing the nation's overall violent crime rate from that of the last year of the Trump administration, when the U.S. murder rate rose 30% – the largest single-year increase in more than a century.
We cannot afford the devastation of another Trump term.
FINAL TAKE-AWAY: While the future is uncertain, these guilty verdicts have not changed our plan. Florida Democrats will continue to work every day to reach voters across the political spectrum – Republican, Democrat or Independent -- who believe in the rule of law and protecting the promise of this country.
If we stick to this plan, come November, voters will reject extremism and return President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris back to the White House.
Many thanks to the Florida Democratic Party Communications Team for the guidance that provided the vast majority of these points.
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