Some readers have charged the Recorder with having a liberal bias. One of the reasons this appears to be the case to me is because I see very few letters or My Turn articles that make a case for Donald Trump’s reelection. So, I have a few questions for supporters of Trump for president.

Are there any readers of this newspaper who are up for telling me why they would vote for Donald Trump in 2024?

This is not a criticism of your choice to vote for the 45th president again. I just would just like to know what it is about Trump that earns your vote. Putting aside the possible verdicts of his upcoming indictments, I want to know what it is that convinces anyone who cares about our democracy to vote for him for a second term.

Is there anyone who can tell me (and other readers) of this newspaper how you can support Trump when, in his campaign video, he is saying “The State Department, the defense bureaucracy, the intelligence services, and all the rest need to be completely overhauled and reconstituted to fire Deep Staters and put America First?”

What is it that I am missing about what Trump would do to make America, if not great again, at least politically healthy again?

I do not disagree that America’s military/industrial complex needs an overhaul. It has run amok as Republican President Eisenhower warned it might. The Department of Defense needs a political and budget recalibration that would shift some defense department funding to domestic programs. I also share concerns and fears about the CIA’s involvement and political collaboration with authoritarian regimes. That said, I don’t know what Trump means when he says “all the rest need to be completely overhauled and reconstituted.” Does all the rest include the IRS, the EPA, Social Security and other agencies and programs as he has intimated in the past? What do you think he’s getting at?

Here’s what I see Trump’s gaggle of lawyers are having to deal with. Is there probable cause to charge Trump with a crime, or in this case, 91 counts of illegal acts within four indictments? Will the prosecutors bringing charges have enough evidence to convict him? Juries will ultimately answer that question. But having watched Trump’s erratic public behavior over the time period covered by the indictments, I think that the U.S. Department of Justice special counsel and the district attorneys in New York and particularly Georgia have pretty solid cases. As Trump supporters, do you feel that these cases are justified under law?

Opinion varies on holding Trump accountable under the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on any officeholder who previously “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from serving as president. Even conservative legal scholars have said this language should disqualify Trump from running in 2024.

Ultimately, the courts will settle the matter … a possibility that is truly scary when I see that this U.S. Supreme Court could be the ultimate decider. Twenty-three years ago, a much less conservative court than today’s SCOTUS put George W. Bush in the White House.

The Supreme Court, whose current ideological leanings are extremely reactionary, has begun a broad national regression on human rights. The United States has become a global outlier on multiple fronts (the only wealthy nation without a universal health care system and number one in firearms per capita, to name just a few. Some of the latest Supreme Court rulings (on abortion, guns and affirmative action) are turning the country into a global pariah.

However, unlike the New York and Florida cases, a conviction in the Georgia RICO indictment will automatically render Trump ineligible to hold public office under the 14th Amendment which bars insurrectionists. The undeniable evidence is so strong including taped telephone conversations of Trump asking Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find another nearly 12,000 votes” after losing the state to President Joe Biden, that a conviction is highly likely. Georgia counted its votes three times before certifying Biden’s win by an 11,779 margin. Raffensperger told President Trump at the time that “we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. We don’t agree that you have won.”

If Trump receives a guilty verdict, he will not be taking office even if he wins the 2024 election.

Here’s my last question. Putting Trump aside for a moment, do you believe the Republican Party (which he has reshaped) is on the right track to make America great again?

“Connecting the Dots” is published every other Saturday in the Recorder. John Bos is also a contributing writer for Green Energy Times. Questions and comments may be sent to john01370@gmail.com.