Every now and then, the cult that runs North Korea trots out an “election” to demonstrate to the world how much support the Kim family has among the people of that imprisoned land. Back in 2014, North Korean “media” reported Kim Jong Un received 100% of the vote, and there were no abstentions. Indeed, the only people who didn’t vote for the current dictator were “those on foreign tour or working in oceans.” Impressive, right? Not so much?

In a more recent “election” for national and provincial assemblies, the hand-picked-by-Kim candidates only got 99.91% of the vote, quite shockingly low by North Korean standards actually. Perhaps they were sending a message, or maybe more than one?

In that most recent voting drama, Kim Jong Un himself did not bother to stand for office, as his grandfather and father always had done. Apparently, he didn’t think it was necessary, once the people had voted for him, to ask them to keep voting again and again. After all, it’s tough to beat 100% of the votes.

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I thought of the Kim dictatorship and its attitude toward voting when I read a recent Colorado Politics article in which we learned at least some of the state GOP leadership doesn’t really see any reason to actually hold a vote to see who will win the Colorado Republican presidential primary. Rather, former Monument Councilwoman Darcy Schoening proposes her fellow Republicans simply declare Donald Trump to be the winner of the Colorado primary, and for the other GOP candidates to drop out. Why bother actually voting when the party has determined who is going to win, eh?

As noted in the story, this is sort of a mirror image of the lawsuit brought by several Republican and independent voters who believe Trump’s actions in and around the insurrection should keep him off the Colorado ballot. If the GOP central committee were to adopt Schoening’s proposal, I suppose Trump would be insulated from any negative outcome of the lawsuit, given that he would be declared the winner before a single vote was cast.

Under the rules of the state GOP, Schoening must get 103 signatures of her fellow committee members, roughly a quarter of the total committee membership, to call a special session that would happen over Zoom. She states she already has roughly half the needed signatures, with “more coming in by the hour.” It is by no means certain that Schoening will be successful, as there are GOPers who think actual voting should take place to pick candidates, but it will be very interesting to see how this all works out.

Clearly the fix is in, or nearly in, for a certain twice-impeached, thrice-married, serial cheater and adulterer to again be the GOP nominee. To even make the ballot in Colorado, a Republican candidate must pay a $40,000 filing fee to the state GOP, which is apparently non-refundable if you drop out. Or you can hold a fundraiser for the state party, and you only have to pay $20,000, as at least a couple of the GOP candidates did. Trump’s campaign has paid the full $40,000. The Colorado GOP has not had a great deal of success fundraising of late, and the fees paid by candidates have made up quite a bit of their total fundraising in recent months.

And since I know you want to know, the Democrats in Colorado charge exactly $0 to be on the ballot. Or, in the words of the Dem state chair, “We can fundraise without shaking people down.”

I’m sure quite a few in the Colorado GOP will oppose the move to declare Trump the winner before any votes are cast. It’s probably a long shot for Schoening’s plan to win out, but as of this writing, at least some of the Colorado GOP leadership, on their central committee, are perfectly willing to discard the actual act of voting for candidates in favor of a Russian/North Korean-style fake election.

That should give everyone pause.

Trump has already indicated he will rule, if elected, with a heavy hand. He even stated that on his first day, he would act as a dictator. Perhaps he was joking, but wow, what kind of a joke is that? And given his previous first day in office and his ongoing rhetoric, he can do a lot of damage on that first day in office.

And even if you accept the “joking” claim, he is on record as stating he seeks to rule through retribution. Posting on his own social media company, he called for terminating “all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” He has made no secret of his planning to attack those he feels are his critics with “investigations” and perhaps even invoking the Insurrection Act against his political enemies, which would allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations (it is not entirely clear if the military would go along with that, so maybe yet another constitutional crisis).

Surely when a demagogue announces his intentions, we should listen and believe him?

And when his minions attempt to eliminate the most basic act in our republic, voting, surely we can see that as a dramatic and powerful indicator of the anti-democratic path far too many Republicans are walking these days.

Stay tuned.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.