One report I was certain had been planted was a rumor that the president’s first action under these powers would be to declare a week-long tax holiday to stimulate the economy, the third time that rumor had surfaced at a convenient moment. But this time it might prove true. Throughout American political history, bribery has always proved to be an effective strategy. Money is a good argument.

I read and reread the research and the stories being posted by other outlets and listened to the instant analysis. Howie and I discussed it. Then I sat down to stake out the editorial position for the Pro. As always happened, when I was ready, the ideas that had been born, nurtured, and developed deep in my subconscious suddenly popped onto my screen to be honed into a coherent column. The writing process has always been beyond my understanding. Maybe other people work differently, but for me the keys seem to form a bridge between my subconscious and the finished page, passing completely over most conscious thought. To be honest, there are times I’m surprised and delighted (or dismayed) to read what I was thinking.

I wrote:

Like millions of Americans on election day, I voted for Ian Wrightman to become president of the United States. I did so because I believed this country was locked in an untenable political gridlock. It was my hope that a moderate, independent leader might find a way to bring us together. But I was wrong. President Wrightman’s request for a congressional declaration of war against international terrorism is the most dangerous reach for dictatorial powers in my lifetime. If we truly value those principles on which this nation was founded, Congress must reject this effort …

The words just poured out of me, flowing onto the screen. At times I felt like Lucy and Ethel on that assembly line, the words coming so fast I barely had time to discard the bad ones. Whatever trust or hopes I once had in the administration had disappeared one bloody night in Detroit, I wrote. “It is my firm belief that legalized murder was committed that night and the administration has lied blatantly about it.” I wanted to reveal my hospital visit from Dick and Francis and the existence of the National Secrets Act, but Howie talked me down. Live to fight and all that rah-rah.

The remainder of the column outlined the consequences of a declaration of war. Short form: It would allow the president to unilaterally suspend the Bill of Rights. I concluded:

This declaration would grant to the president emergency powers to enforce his desires on all of our lives, stripping from us the protections of our basic freedoms. Would you have granted those powers to Trump? Not me. So why would we grant them to anyone in this situation? These powers would give to the federal government the right to compel federal and local law enforcement agencies and the military to enforce any and all of its decrees, no matter how outrageous they might be. This is how dictatorships are born.

Sinclair Lewis warned us in his pre–World War II classic novel, It Can’t Happen Here, that if we are to survive as a great nation, we must zealously protect our fundamental rights. It is with great sadness that all these years later it is necessary to repeat that warning, and to sound the alarm: It can happen here.