Legendary television and film producer Norman Lear hopes voters send Donald Trump to a humiliating defeat.
The 94-year-old Lear -- who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude -- said he's disturbed by Trump's apparent contempt for America's constitutional system of government in an essay published Wednesday in The Hollywood Reporter.
"Bless the comedians who make a joke of The Donald and earn our laughter, but Trump’s lack of respect for the Constitution is no joke," Lear wrote. "Threatening to jail his political opponent is no joke. And potentially inciting post-election violence by insisting he can’t lose unless the election is stolen from his followers, is no joke."
Lear said constitutional agreements are a natural part of U.S. politics -- but Trump had proposed blatantly unconstitutional policies such as banning Muslims by religion, undermining First Amendment protections with loosened libel laws and ending birthright citizenship.
"These are the sounds and behavior of a dictator, folks, not the president of a free society," Lear warned.
There's only one way to ensure constitutional government survived, wrote the founder of People for the American Way.
"It’s not enough to think about denying Trump 270 votes in the electoral college," Lear wrote. "It is why we need to defeat him, to beat his ass so soundly that his dangerous message is thoroughly discredited and for all time."
