There is no doubt in my mind that with Trump and this election we are facing the most dangerous political moment in our nation’s history. Even when Lincoln won the 1860 election and the Southern States traitorously rebelled sparking a war that killed hundreds of thousands, they still respected the electoral process, Trump is very likely to not.

I chose my description of Trump with care not only top present an image of snarling, biting animal dangerous to approach but with each qualifier signifying a particular aspect that is challenging our electoral process.

Much of the analysis about Trump fighting to remain president seems centered on a very traditional model of political behavior that people who become president and want to remain president do so from political motivations and in his re-election for Trump this is a very minor factor.

Trump is wounded because his life of likely crimes has been dragged into the bright daylight and his vile bigoted personality makes it impossible to ignore. Should trump be removed from office he and his family will face a vast array of criminal investigations. There is already a mountain of testimony from former associates about his criminality and the office of president is the only thing shielding him. To lose the office is very likely to go to prison and so wounded in the manner you should expect that he will have absolutely no limits in what he will attempt to retain the presidency.

Trump is rapid because his own narcissism and idiocy make it impossible for him to manage is problems in a rational and effective manner. The pandemic which had it been managed with even the barest competency could have actually boosted his re-election chances, but because he has never actually solved a difficult challenge but always lied, blustered, and bought he way past them. His fumbling attempts, that may very well succeed, to hamper a free, fair, and open election are the clumsy machinations of someone without any skill, talent, or industry in political life. The sabotage of the Postal Service is blatant and exposes him to greater danger rather than reducing all because he is incapable of acting subtly. He always has to shout the quiet parts out loud.

Trump is cornered because the polls are against him. His popularity never crossed the fifty percent line and only the electoral college gives him a chance at actually winning re-election. What talent his team once possessed has been lost as he purged them for sycophants and co-conspirators. This makes him doubly dangerous because as legitimate victory slips out of his grasp the need for victory, to escape a possible looming lifetime in prison, he will absolutely employ more and more illegitimate methods of holding onto his power and his safety.

We have never confronted a president like this, never faced a man so lacking in decency and morals in our highest office and we must be ready for anything in our compelling needs to remove him from the Resolute Desk.