Viewpoint: Be leery of aspiring dictators

Jerome Walker

Former President Jimmy Carter turns 100 on October first, and according to his son Chip, is trying to make it to vote in November. Instead of playing golf, he has spent his long retirement building Habitats for Humanity, stamping out tropical diseases, championing peace, and teaching his Sunday School class.

Retirement choices for dictators and wanna-be dictators are more limited and less admirable. Throughout the world, retired dictators often end up in prison or even executed. History professor Timothy Snyder calls this retirement problem “the dictator’s dilemma.”

As Snyder puts it, a wanna-be dictator, “…will do whatever he can to gain power, and once in power will do all that he can to never let it go.” Probably it’s safest for dictators to not retire at all and instead to die of natural causes while still in power. The second best choice might be to flee the country, as Brazil’s ex-President Bolsonaro recently attempted.

America’s wanna-be dictator Donald Trump has called his opponents “vermin” and has threatened to lock them up or worse. This is scary enough, but even scarier is his plea to vote for him “just this once” and his statement that then you may never have to vote again.

Or maybe instead he really meant you won’t ever be able to vote again. When you vote this November, please make sure to choose candidates who want you to continue voting as long as Jimmy Carter has.