To the editor:

Well, one thing Will Newman and I agree on is to be careful what you wish for (Letter: 'Careful what you wish for,' The Post, May 2, 2024 edition). Several weeks ago he wrote an essay on what President Trump supposedly ‘will’ do should he be re-elected. There were many fantastic and unsupported claims that Trump will shoot Army officers who aren’t loyal to him and order the National Guard to kill unruly demonstrators: such claims beg to be referenced.

Mr. Newman aptly says that a dictator is corrupt, ignores the Constitution and laws, and must remain in power. One of the first things a dictator does is take control of the media. “A number of communications detailed in a report by the House Judiciary Committee indicated that officials at the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) helped form a “disinformation” group at Stanford University that worked to “censor” the speech of Americans before the 2020 presidential election.” (‘House Judiciary Committee…’ Brooke Mallory. Nov. 7,2023. OANN.com) The NewsGuard agency received a grant “that totaled $749,387.000 and involved the Dept. of Defense. ..it “plans to further develop the Misinformation Footprints tool and test the effectiveness of the Fingerprints in detecting state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.” (The federalist.com/2023/03/13/newsguard-claims…).

Dictators can’t tolerate freedom of speech, either. In 2022 six Democratic senators and politicians sent letters to all major television and cable media firms telling them to remove conservative news outlets NewsMax, One America News (OAN), and Fox News from their lineups because they peddled ‘misinformation’; of the nine major breaking news stories reported that year, news reporting from OAN - who was dutifully cancelled - was proven to be truthful and correct on all counts. A lawsuit against the Democrat politicians  is underway. (oann.com).

And Big Brother must spy on threats to its narratives. “These documents disprove the FBI’s narrative that the spy operation against Catholics and churches was limited to one field office. These documents should trigger a criminal inquiry into this Biden FBI scandal.” ( Tom Fitton. ‘The Verdict’. March 2024.) Dictators remain in power - whatever it takes. “Nineteen states…allow ballots to be tallied if they are received after Election Day… and [this] can be exploited.” (Associated Press. May 3, 2024.) “ [ten states have been forced to removed] approximately 4.4 million ineligible names from voter roles.” (judicalwatch.org.) Judicial Watch has recently turned their sights on Rhode Island. “[Prosecutor Jack Smith] charged Trump with 32 counts of “willfully” retaining defense information…. Although Special Counsel Robert Hur reported that Biden had willfully retained state secrets in unsecured locations and illegally shared them with a ghostwriter, he concluded that Biden should not be prosecuted for these violations. “ (www. realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/05/02). “The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states cannot disqualify former President Trump from the [presidential election] ballot .’ (SCOTUSblog. Mar. 4, 2024)

I guess it wouldn’t be hard to win an election if you were allowed to eliminate the competition. Yes indeed, Mr. Newman, we need to be careful what we wish for.

Robin Burgess

East Providence