(Editor's Note: The following column does not constitute an endorsement for any political party, or political candidate, on the part of Newsmax.)
In 2016, Donald Trump was accused of being a spy for Russia's government.
Democrats insisted Mr. Trump plotted with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton.
This plot was so secret, even the Russians had no idea what they actually did.
In 2020, a laptop surfaced containing pictures of Hunter Biden cavorting with illicit women and inhaling recreational pharmaceuticals. Fifty-one intelligence members dismissed Hunter's laptop as "Russian disinformation," despite Mr. Biden admitting to engaging in such behaviors.
Social media laptop stories were censored until after papa Joe Biden was elected.
2024 brings even more preposterous nonsense.
If elected again, Trump will rule as a dictator. Democrats demand Biden be reelected to thwart Trump and "save democracy."
Trump is the furthest thing from a dictator, but ignoring the accusation would be a mistake.
Craziness about Trump being Russian President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin plant engulfed the Trump presidency's first two years.
The Trump-as-dictator narrative must be immediately shredded to restore focus to Biden's abysmal record.
Any Trump dictatorship would be relatively short-lived.
Queen Elizabeth ruled for 70 years, but she had a multidecade head start. At 77, Trump would have to rule until age 148 to top her.
Abraham lived until 175, but even a healthy Trump will be gone long before the 22nd century.
Dictators rule iron-fisted. "Apprentice" bluster aside, in reality Trump dislikes firing people. He stated in multiple interviews that firing someone makes him uncomfortable.
His feud with Rosie O'Donnell began when she attacked him for giving an employee who erred a second chance.
At the Trump Organization, he delegates and often defers to trusted experts.
His instincts carry weight but he frequently relies on his accountants, attorneys, and other seasoned professionals.
Dictators seize control by drastically expanding government power and reducing citizens' power. President Trump's policies did the polar opposite.
He limited government power and expanded individual freedoms.
Dictators raise taxes and hoard money to fund actions voters reject.
Trump returned money to citizens through one of America's largest ever tax cuts.
Dictators disarm the populace through gun control and eventually confiscation.
Trump mostly defended the Second Amendment.
His lone black mark, a bump stock ban, was overturned by pro-gun judges he appointed.
Dictators use unelected state agency bureaucrats to circumvent the Constitution and legislative process. Biden's administrative agencies have wreaked havoc on small business owners and individual liberties.
Trump's Supreme Court justices quietly gut the administrative state.
Dictators force people to buy government products people dislike, harming businesses and crushing free enterprise.
Trump seeks to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and electric vehicle (EV) mandates that have decimated health care and automobile companies, respectively.
The Biden administration has pushed various alphabet soup initiatives from diversity, equity, and inclusion to environmental and social governance to critical race theory. DEI, ESG, and CRT programs have devastated businesses and public schools.
Trump vows to repeal them all.
Dictators defy judicial orders.
Former President Barack Obama frequently ignored judicial orders and the constitutional process. He unilaterally amended the ACA over 40 times.
Without legal authority, he created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Biden has ignored judicial orders to give unauthorized student loan bailouts. Biden refuses to enforce laws he dislikes, including immigration laws.
Trump obeys judicial orders.
He may rant and rave at judges who rule against him on various legal matters, but then he calmly files his appeals.
He works within the system.
When the U.S. Supreme Court twice rejected his plan to ban immigration from seven hostile nations, Trump went back to the drawing board and got his third attempt successfully enacted.
Ignoring the evidence, many Democrats insist an unconstrained second-term Trump would pursue absolute power.
Yet the same institutional forces preventing this in his first term would do so again.
Military generals and diplomats repeatedly slow-walked some Trump orders, occasionally defying him outright.
The bureaucracy itself leans liberal, often making it impossible for a GOP leader to get a post office named after him, much less national control.
Through the Second Amendment, Trump enabled the citizenry at the expense of any hypothetical autocratic desires.
The Second Amendment's very purpose is for private citizens to protect themselves from their own government turning inward against them.
Smart dictators do not arm their potential opposition.
Dictators support other dictators through solidarity or weakness.
Trump has been far stronger than Biden on standing up for democracies Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine against dictatorial aggressors Iran, China, and Russia.
The overall evidence is clear. Biden crossed the line from bad governance to the verge of dictatorial actions.
A Trump second term, like his first, would bring America a competent chief executive and a poor excuse for a dictator.
Eric Golub is a comedian, author and retired stockbrokerage and oil professional living in Los Angeles. His interests include football, politics, Judaism, the stock market, and Angela Lansbury’s “Murder, She Wrote.” He has written for the Jewish Journal, The Daily Caller, and Breitbart's Big Hollywood. Read more of Eric Golub's reports — here.