Veteran defense attorney Joe Hayden (pictured with Democratic candidate for Ohio Governor Amy Acton) marched in the Civil Rights movement in Alabama with Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, he knows something about the country.

Heading into this year's general election, Hayden sizes up the situation in the USA right now as "more dangerous than the turbulent sixties," as President Donald J. Trump and his handlers "try to change the way we vote."

He trusts - or he hopes - the President's ongoing "Hellacious fraud claims" won't matter ultimately, as Hayden sees the American electorate fighting back so strongly that Trump's efforts to subvert the results won't work.

"The momentum is so strong," said Hayden, also citing legally effective efforts by Democrats and attorney Marc Elias to block President Donald Trump’s anti-mail voting executive order.

More HERE from Democracy Docket:

On Election Day itself, armed men in masks employed by ICE will menace voters at key polling places. Explained Hayden, "They will try to have a law enforcement presence at the polling places, particularly where they believe Hispanics will have some effect. But it will just anger others. People know. They see a president and an administration that is so into power and profit - nobody in history has made as much money on the books as this president."

The tip of the crony iceberg includes Trump judicial picks who refuse to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. "It's going to be worse [than 2020]," Hayden said. "They came in then and cased the joint. They're going to flood the zone with charges of fraud. The best antidote will be a landslide. They will try to deny the results. He will allege fraud. But it won't add up."

Hayden said he applauds Governor Mikie Sherrill for actively investigating what went wrong when the state Division of Motor Vehicles enabled about 6,600 non-citizen voters to participate in elections, a result that did not tip any of those elections. In the 2020 presidential debate, Trump cited an isolated case of candidate fraud in Paterson to make false claims about unjust institutional voting, as though the entire system is swamped by corruption and fraud.

"If a candidate [improperly] rounds up votes, that doesn't mean it's an institutional problem that will taint a whole election," Hayden said. "The governor has appointed [Republican, former Attorney General] Jeff Chiesa to investigate. The facts will be the facts. In any election, you will find a couple of improprieties. In this case, [Trump] will cry foul even if the result is massive against him. My belief is the litigation teams and the street army and the street game will be better than it's ever been."

Hayden remains optimistic about America's future and does not see the Trump era as indicative of a downward and irreversible turn for the country. "There's always backlash, there are always reversals," he said. "I remember in the Civil Rights movement, when the Voting Rights Act passed, there was an act of violence on the other side. Whenever there was something good, there was a counter reaction of violence."

The killing of MLK produced riots.

The election of Barack Obama resulted in Trump.

And so on.

"Cities almost burned down [when King was killed] because people were so frustrated," Hayden recalled. "Obama's election was equally significant. His reelection overcame forces so entrenched, they couldn't handle that kind of change. Everything broke Trump's way. We're a country that has these tensions and change comes grudgingly.

"What I don't want to see on the other side of the election is all of the energy and government go to enervating criminal prosecutions," he added. "We have to deal with affordability and use the best and the brightest to get us right with Europe. You could write investigations for the next ten years but people need help."

Joe Hayden is InsiderNJ's legal analyst.