Literally and figuratively, Mallory McMorrow of Michigan threw the book at former Republican president Donald Trump at the Democratic National convention in Chicago last week. Thump! It bumped atop the lectern on the podium when she slammed it down.
McMorrow, a state senator from Oakland County, made her point with the oversized prop that represented the so-called “Project 2025” — plotted by Trump’s supporters.
She said the right-wing blueprint for extreme change in government could turn Trump into a dictator if the former President is elected over the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, on Nov. 5.
“If Donald Trump gets back into the White House he’s going to fire civil servants, like intelligence officers, engineers, and even federal prosecutors, if he decides that they don’t serve his personal agenda,” McMorrow said. “They’re talking about replacing the entire federal government with an army of loyalists who answer only to Donald Trump.”
McMorrow was one of several, high-profile Michigan women to make prominent appearances at the festive, four-day event. The major purpose, of course, was the nomination of Harris — the second-ever woman atop the ticket — to replace the retiring President Joe Biden.
In harmony with that, the convention spotlighted elected women officials in their prime who are still rising in popularity. And, because Michigan is one of at least a half-dozen “swing states,” it made sense that several from the Great Lakes State would take the stage.
Most prominent was Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who wore a silver pin that showed Michigan’s two peninsulas. Among the others were Elissa Slotkin, a U.S. Representative from Michigan running to replace the retiring U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow; and Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general.
“In Lansing, they call me ‘Gov,’” Whitmer said. “But, in Detroit, they call me ‘Big Gretch.’”
She recalled a casual diss when Trump was president.
“Donald Trump called me ‘That woman from Michigan,’” Whitmer said.
Then she theatrically brushed her left shoulder with her right hand as if to dismiss the remark like so much dandruff.
“Being a woman from the state of Michigan is a badge of honor,” Whitmer continued. “Like women across America, we G.S.D. — get stuff done.”
More specific about policy was Nessel, who is gay and married and wary of both Trump’s proven misogyny and the kangaroo Supreme Court. During his four years, Trump packed the court with three religious fundamentalists who helped destroy a woman’s constitutional right to choose abortion.
In addition, the longest-serving justice — the gifted grifter, Clarence Thomas — also has threatened the constitutional right to gay marriage. “I’ve got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the Supreme Court,” Nessel said. “You can pry this wedding band from my cold, gay hand.”
As for Slotkin, she is in a close race against Republican Mike Rogers, a former Congressman from West Michigan. She blistered Trump on foreign affairs and for his self-centered patriotism. Specifically, she blamed Trump for a retreat by the U.S. from global leadership.
“The choice in America is stark: America retreating from the world, or leading the world,” said Slotkin, who served in the Central Intelligence Agency during the Iraq war. “Trump wants to take us backward. He admires dictators — a lot. He treats our friends as adversaries and our adversaries as friends.”
Among Trump’s “friends” are the dictators of Russia, China, and North Korea. He has treated the nations of NATO as shirt-tail relatives, moochers, and sponges of little use to him. On stage, Trump sometimes hugs the American flag, even when denouncing the state of the nation.
“Do not give an inch to pretenders who wrap themselves in the flag but spit in the faces of freedoms it represents,” Slotkin said. “. . . America doesn’t follow. We do not retreat. We are the damn United States of America. We lead!”
The motivating undercurrent for the blue team is the debate over abortion, which the Court ruled was a “states rights” question to be decided like human slavery was in the 19th Century, back when women couldn’t vote. This was another reason to feature Michigan’s female elected officials.
Unlike some states, Michigan reacted to the 2022 Dobbs ruling by approving a state ballot proposition that made abortion legal in the state constitution. Trump is trying to dismiss the issue now after bragging that his SCOTUS appointments resulted in the radical Dobbs decision.
Ever since Biden bowed out in July, Trump has lost his footing, raging off kilter in speeches and posts with personal insults of Harris and many others. He visited cops in Howell last week to read in a monotone a grim speech attacking immigrants as rapists and murderers.
Trump will make at least two more appearances this week in this state. He likely will continue his same, old pitch that he made when he first ran against Hillary Clinton in 2016: That immigrants are a threat to native “patriots” in a zero-sum world.
Don’t assume his tired lies have no traction or effect. Trump gained national recognition for — among other things — falsely claiming President Barack Obama was not really born American and by hosting a fake “reality” show on TV.
But his political career now seems like a fading reality show, a tired act, mired in reruns, dropping in the ratings, with viewers channel-surfing for something new and better.
Despite his desire to separate himself from “Project 2025,” everyone knows it was written by his more “intellectual” supporters, including scholars from Hillsdale College and Michigan State. Some of the authors are angling for jobs in a second Trump regime.
So McMorrow — and others — issued a warning that rang all week through the convention hall.
“Under Project 2025, Donald Trump would be able to weaponize the Department of Justice to go after political opponents,” she said. “He could even turn the FBI into his own, personal police force. That is not how it works in America!”
Her last quotation flips the script on Trump’s constant whining that Democrats use “lawfare” to punish rivals like Trump, a sex creep who has been convicted of 34 financial felonies for trying to cover up a hush-money payment to a sex-film actress with whom he once copulated.
Should Harris win, Trump will face more trials in more courts and the possibility of prison. Keep in mind that no animal fights back like a cornered, wounded beast and this is what Trump has become.
In his desperation, it is not out of the question that Trump’s proven sexism and racism might take a dark turn, at least rhetorically, against a biracial, female opponent. Many MAGA followers are gun groomers filled with right-wing propaganda and resentment. Watch out if he loses.
Should Trump win, it would be good to remember the lyrics to the song “The Snake” that Trump used to gleefully recite at his campaign rallies: “You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.”
