Since 2018, I’ve written around 30 essays and poems criticizing Donald Trump. This doesn’t mean I’m a staunch supporter of President Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, but I do believe Trump, a piper leading cultish groupies to a cliff, poses a significant and palpable threat to American well-being. Let’s elucidate.

The slogan MAGA (Make America Great Again) sounds magnetic on the surface, but what exactly is meant by “America” and “Great?” If they refer to strengthening and safeguarding America’s democracy, that’s commendable. However, “MDGA” — “Make Democracy Great Again” — doesn’t have the same harmonious zing. The salient features and fantasias of MAGA is in the stew, particularly in the ingredients outlined by the conservative Heritage Foundation and its “Project 2025” menu, which lays the table for a potential banquet of a Trump presidency. Here are a few salient features of that manifesto:

• Establish a Unitary Executive: Place the entire federal bureaucracy under direct presidential control thus consolidating power in the executive branch.
• Dismantle the Administrative State: Slash budgets, dismember federal agencies, such as the Head Start; agencies such as the Federal Reserve, Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Protection Bureau and Department of Education (requiring teachers to convey “patriotic,” non-critical values).
• Develop a database of ideologically aligned individuals, academies with doctrinal manuals, and replace nonpartisan government employees with graduates and those loyal to the administration especially in, but not limited to, agencies like the Department of Defense, CIA, FBI and Department of Justice.
• Weaken traditional checks and balances in government, including voting rights and policies promoting racial equity.
• Establish authorities with the power to investigate and prosecute those critical of the presidency or its policies.
• Mandate a Christian-based social order: policies rooted in a conservative interpretation of Christianity in schools, families, and public institutions. This includes banning LGBTQ+ representation, Critical Race Theory and teachings that promote abortion or evolution.
• Reject international treaties and agreements that are seen as limiting U.S. sovereignty, including those concerning climate change, global health, UNESCO, World Bank and multi-lateral trade alliances.
• Increase military spending, appoint loyalist generals, and use the military to assist law enforcement in suppressing protests.

Although Trump disingenuously claims not to have read the 900-page 2025 document, many of its themes appear in his incoherent speeches. However, over 140 of his past and current advisers have supported or contributed to the crafting of Project 2025, have, and will continue to exert influence in any Trump presidency.

Why do I worry? Unitarianism is a global blueprint for dictatorships. Throughout history, many dictators have risen to power through elections. Hitler and Mussolini are obvious examples, both of whom were initially funded by wealthy businessmen who believed they could control the men. These choices established “unitary” presidencies with disastrous consequences. Similar patterns can be seen across the globe.

A current example is Kais Saied of Tunisia, who was elected in 2019. Within a year, he declared a permanent state of emergency, dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council, replaced 57 judges, suspended the Constitution, and centralized all power in the presidency. He removed checks and balances, imposed censorship, arrested critics and banned protests. Just a few days ago, President Saied was “re-elected” with 90% of the vote — only 11% of the eligible population voted. His primary opponent was running from prison where Saied had placed him.

Could it happen here? Many Americans may find this scenario far-fetched, but let us not forget our own history. Do you remember Ross Perot and the Tea Party movement which foreshadowed 2025, or Ronald Reagan’s calls for “top-down taxation” and a few similar ‘reforms?’ What about the fear and paranoia of the McCarthy “Red Scare” era in the late 1940s and early 1950s when “Loyalty Review Boards” scrutinized government, business, academia and the entertainment industry (under Reagan); When loyalty oaths were required; When secret investigations and false accusations resulted in the imprisonment of thousands; When the FBI conducted secret burglaries; When books were burned; When educators lost their jobs for presumed disloyalty including the suspected “China Hands.” Owen Lattimore, who McCarthy was famously labeled “the No. 1 spy in America.” Though Lattimore was eventually exonerated, the damage to his career and reputation was irreparable and he was forced into temporary exile.

Even more fearful is a Christian World Order! A Christian Pope to determine our values? What happens to nonbelievers? Do we revert to the Spanish Inquisition of the 16th century? To the Puritanism of the 17th century? Exclusionary laws, church taxes, hangings, blue laws? And lets not forget the religious wars of Europe? Afghanistan has a religious world order.

Let me be clear: I’m not a fervent crusader for Biden or Harris. I’m an advocate of Democracy, the Constitution, and not of a person, party or church. I believe in a government with shared powers, robust checks and balances, an independent judiciary, a nonpartisan bureaucracy, independent of religion and a Congress of members willing to collegially debate differing viewpoints and to compromise. I want a leader who listens to all sides and nudges this sometimes messy, frustrating government and this contentious populous toward a better future for everyone. Not an easy task.

So yes, I believe Donald Trump is an egomaniacal carnival barker, a mendacious repetitive raconteur with little regard for anyone but himself, endlessly self-proclaiming that he’s “the best,” “the smartest” and “incapable of losing.” But he’s also a puppet, perhaps unknowingly, but abetting a march toward a unitary presidency that threatens our Democracy and Constitution. If MAGA is code for this kind of authoritarianism, then I stand firmly opposed — and against candidate Trump.

Hubbard C. Goodrich is a Harpswell resident.