I quite enjoyed the opening paragraph of Jon Huer’s opinion piece in the Daily Hampshire Gazette predicting that fascism is on our immediate horizon [”On our last Independence Day,” July 1]. Particularly amusing was his humorous and deliberately hyperbolic description of a future July 4 where we all eat “MAGA-dogs” and wash them down with “Proud Boys beer,” all in honor of our “Great Leader.” Though the word “Trump” never appeared once throughout the entire piece, we can only assume he was the hero of the story.

The humor in the column ended with that first paragraph, but the hyperbole about fascism and autocracy continued. It fit a pattern we’ve all heard and seen in print lately: grand claims that Trump will end democracy, but followed by little further explanation of how. Perhaps it’s falsely assumed that we’ve all already come to that conclusion, hence an explanation isn’t necessary. But it all reads like some kind of doomsday political thriller that never gets to the plot.

There are plenty of checks and balances in place to prevent a president from ending democracy in this country. First of all, implementing an autocracy would require the military. While the Oath of Enlistment mentions following the orders of the president, it also cites the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which states that all lawful orders must be obeyed; the commander in chief ordering troops to drastically violate the Constitution would be an unlawful order. There is no indication that the military would violate those oaths for Trump.

For an autocrat to assume power, Congress would have to give up its own. Good luck getting most of those personalities to do that; power is their most cherished possession. The political landscape of Congress is diverse, with many competing interests, and it naturally resists centralized power. Even if Republicans controlled both houses, it’s silly to think they’d all collectively hand over the reins. Many of them also fancy themselves president one day, and they’d rather wait four years for the chance than an autocrat’s lifetime.

The Supreme Court would need to make drastic rulings to establish an autocrat’s power, also giving up their own. While that certainly wouldn’t be unprecedented in the history of fascism, we have to realistically question if that would happen here, no matter how many conservative justices there are. That Trump-stacked court has already rejected several lawsuits and appeals challenging 2020 election results, so they seem committed to constitutional law more than to Trump.

The executive branch itself is composed of an enormous and bloated bureaucracy that resists change. It’s mostly made up of good people who take public service seriously. Not to mention, lots of them are lifers who don’t want their jobs nor their well-established workplace cultures to be disrupted. The federal bureaucracy has a complicated and rather cumbersome regulatory framework with well-established processes and procedures, and all of that combined creates a bureaucratic inertia that resists quick, drastic changes. And we already saw how hard some of the most powerful executive branch agencies leaned into resisting Trump in his first term.

Jan. 6 is usually front and center in claims that American democracy is about to end, when a bunch of largely unemployable idiots comprising 0.0006% of our population stormed the Capitol. Yes, they do belong in prison. But were they really on the cusp of ending democracy that day? I don’t believe that. There have always been politically charged radical buffoons in this country, but historically they’ve been relatively fragmented.

The main difference with the Jan. 6 mob is that they had Twitter and Facebook to find like-minded individuals. If there was a real threat of it all crumbling down that day, a lot more than 2,000 people would have busted into the Capitol.

If these doomsayers are so certain that Trump will end democracy, they might better concern themselves with what ought to be done about the pickle Democrats voluntarily marched themselves right into by backing Joe Biden for a second term. His debate performance likely ended those chances, and Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for him being on that stage.

Those who truly fear Trump should start with that issue, and start fast. Last I heard, none of our congressional delegation has yet called for Biden to step down, so people might want to start making phone calls.

Lastly, real democracy has been slowly suffocating ever since the Supreme Court’s People’s United decision, which solidified control of our elected national government by the very wealthy few. While a constitutional amendment could correct that decision, neither Republicans nor Democrats seem to have any stomach to derail that gravy train. We should all call our elected officials and address that. I know I have.

So the next time someone tells you Trump is going to “end democracy,” ask them how. If you agree that he will, ask yourself the same question. Will he be good for the country? Certainly not if you value its overall morale for the next four years. But are we about to be squirting mustard on Trumpweenies and shotgunning cans of Fascist Lite? Despite all the shouting and hand-wringing from the evangelists of the coming apocalypse, probably not.

As a postscript, let me say that I very much dislike Trump, and that I won’t be voting for him. I’m a staunch independent, not a conservative. I’m not a fascist, either. You’re supposed to qualify yourself like that at the beginning of a piece like this (“I’m a lifelong liberal, but …”), but I figured I’d just get to the point.

Brian Cooper lives in Sunderland.