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Dean Obeidallah: If Trump wins, we can expect to lose the freedoms we hold dear, including press, religion and assembly

Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM's radio's daily program "The Dean Obeidallah Show" and a columnist for The Daily Beast. Follow him @TheDeansreport. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) "If you disrespect the Constitution by threatening to shut down the press when it doesn't say things you like or threaten to throw your opponent in jail or discriminate against people of different faiths -- if you do that before you are elected, then what are you gonna do when you have actual power to do those things?"

Those were the impassioned words of President Barack Obama on Tuesday as he warned us about a Donald Trump presidency. And Obama was right to ring the alarm bell. We need to ask ourselves: would a President Trump try to implement -- via legislation, regulations or executive orders -- his promises to limit freedom of religion, jail political opponents and curtail freedom of the press?

Dean Obeidallah

And if he did, are you satisfied with the idea of Trump transforming our nation from the United States of America into Trumpistan? No, our country would not become Afghanistan. But under a President Trump it would no longer be " the shining city on the hill " with "people of all kinds living in harmony and peace," as Ronald Reagan stated in his 1989 farewell speech.

Instead, it would be a nation ruled by a thin-skinned, egotistical, serial liar who seems to have little respect for our democratic institutions. Now, some might be inclined to dismiss all this as just hyperbolic talk, but they could be making a dangerous mistake given Trump's vindictive nature. He has lashed out against anyone critical of him, from other politicians to the media to "Saturday Night Live," tweeting that the show should be taken off the air when it mocked him in a way he found objectionable.

And, alarmingly, as his long-time friend and surrogate Omarosa boasted in September , if Trump wins, "Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump." That certainly sounds like something a warlord in Afghanistan might demand, not a US President.

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