What Regime Change?
Dear Leading Ladies,
This week’s letter is short but, we think, important.
We have written before about whether or not Trump’s war initiatives in Iran have been calculated to draw our attention away from the Jeffrey Epstein affair and the president’s association with the convicted pedophile and child trafficker.
But what if we’ve had that all wrong? What if the regime change Trump waffles on demanding as a condition of ending the war in Iran is not the regime change that is truly what concerns him most? What if preventing a change in his own regime is what motivates his war mongering most?
It turns out that American voters are loath to vote a president out of office during wartime. Think Madison (1812); Lincoln (1864), FDR (1944), and Nixon (1972).
So, while we have been trying to keep our eye on the Epstein/Trump connection and not let the war distract us, we fear we are being duped by the president’s sly efforts to find a route to a third term.
Lest we start sounding like conspiracy theorists, Trump has lately been encouraging groups to chant “One more term” and displaying Trump 2028 hats. Though the Constitution disallows a third term, a war might provide some workarounds. Particularly if the House and/or Senate don’t flip in November, since a two-thirds vote is needed to change the Constitutional rule on the presidential term limit. Alternatively, change can occur at the state level, through legislative proposals and ratification by 49 states, or constitutional conventions that require majorities or super majorities to pass.
We need to watch closely and act boldly.
Now, more than ever, we need to support candidates who stand against autocracy. And we must vote in November to save our flawed, but promising, democracy.
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team