We can no longer accept as true that our federal government will oversee fair elections in November. The President’s repeated statements and movements, his attorney general, and GOP leaders have shown that they will not only seek to cheat to secure their “victory,” but will do so in multiple tactics as a component of a large and systematic effort. let go of other Americans and undermine our democracy.

The time has come for those of us who seek to protect and maintain democracy in America, we will not mobilize. We will have to focus on making sure that the effects of these elections constitute the will of the people. And since we can’t accept that we are true with the government to protect our elections, it means we have to organize independent efforts to do so now.

Our efforts deserve to begin with our 4 living former presidents identifying risk, emphasizing that it is real, condemning it, and pronouncing their help for an ordinary national effort to ensure that we have fair choices that our other members deserve. The risk we face is so wonderful that it requires these kinds of demonstrations of determination and unity by former national leaders to shield what is in jeopardy and devote themselves to putting their abundant political weight into identifying, opposing and nullifying the efforts of the president and his allies to manipulate elections or alter results.

There was a time in our history when recommending that a president or party come to borrow a national election would be unthinkable. But that time has passed. Even a superficial examination of the occasions of the past months and years and the public statements of the President, his Attorney General, his cabinet members and control of the Republican Party underscores how genuine this risk is. From Russia to Ukraine, through years of systematic efforts to suppress voters, to the president’s public risks, evidence of the intentions and movements of Donald Trump and his allies is irrefutable.

As we know, Trump has already contacted a foreign government to seek dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden. Since then, Trump has continued to seek help from governments as far away as China and Brazil. The president also publicly presented the concept of postponing the election. Although this is beyond its power, it is a transparent sign of his intention.

More worryingly, Trump has introduced a large public crusade opposed to mail ballots. Over the next week, we have witnessed a “Friday Night Massacre” that has reviewed the U.S. Postal Service’s direction to better respond to Trump’s political goals. These include, as you said, making it harder to vote by mail.

On Thursday, the president told The Fox Business Network that a stumbling point to getting a COVID-19 relief bill is the cash Democrats need for states to pay for the universal mail vote and the postal service delivers what he called “ridiculous” mail. votes at the right time. Trump added: “If we don’t make a deal, it means they don’t get the cash. This means they can’t have a universal postal vote, they just can’t have it.”

In the meantime, postal reports recommend that machines indispensable for immediate processing of mail from primary centers where letters and packages are sorted be removed.

Populist Fools: Trump Weekend Photo Shoot Reveals Dangerous 2020 Strategy

While there is surely no evidence that the mail vote has ever been a source of fraud and, in fact, it has been a safe and proven means of voting for decades, Trump, Attorney General William Barr and other Republicans have warned that it is vulnerable to Array when asked last month through Congress for concrete evidence of the problem , Barr admitted that he had no such evidence. But that didn’t prevent Trump’s daily warnings that the mail vote would lead to a “rigged” election.

Democrats “want $3.5 billion for anything that’s fraudulent,” he said Thursday, before giving two false examples.

This president has flirted too much with authoritarists and authoritarianism, so we see him as more than just an active opponent of an open-minded government, a formula that is in fact through, to and through the people.

The most productive way to counter all those myths is to make sure Trump and the GOP lose widely. But we can’t assume this is the result. And if the election were closed, either for the president or for major senate seats, this kind of crusade can result in stolen results.

This is not a paranoid dystopian scenario. Happens. That’s it now. It happens in broad daylight. And it’s fair to say that no national election in American history has been more threatened with its effects being falsified or distorted than it is.

Election 2020: Call George W. Bush and Al Gore to help us in a Trump-Biden nightmare

That is why we call for ordinary two-component measures to achieve some transparency and fairness. Former presidents can play an important role in paving the way here. A principled audience on its component would have a lot of weight. A high-level national bi-component committee acting as independent observers would be a valuable follow-up. The same goes for state-to-state efforts. Foreign observers deserve to be welcomed. And each of us deserves to adopt the concept of “when you see something, say something” by reporting potential abuses in real time, through your cell phone or other means, both to the powers in position and to the independent observers, adding the news. media.

As citizens, in the end we are guilty of preserving our democracy. We’ll have not to wait for it to be too much to act. American delight is at stake. We will be judged if, seeing a transparent threat, we rise up to defeat it as later generations have done. If we don’t, generations of our young men and grandchildren probably wouldn’t have the same opportunity.

David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) is the host of “Deep State Radio” and CEO of the media and podcasting company of the Rothkopf Group. His most recent book, “Traitor: A History of American Betrayal from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump,” will be in October. Bernard L. Schwartz is the CEO of BLS Investments, former CEO of Loral Corp. and editor of Democracy.