Is the charge of “President Trump is an authoritarian” over-the-top? Is the charge of “Trump is causing permanent damage to government” shrill? Is the charge of “Trump is threatening the very democracy of the United States” a fever dream? Let us pause to ponder.
It’s clear what Trump thinks. He thinks that if he says something, it is true. He thinks that if he does something, it is the best. He thinks that if someone gets in his way, that person must be punished. He thinks that if there are restraints on his power, they are illegitimate. That’s his side of the ledger. The only thing that distinguishes this thinking from dictatorship is that he doesn’t actually have dictatorial power. Yet.
There are still some restraints. Let’s look at those. The opposing party: Oops, it has no power. His own party: Republicans have made a fair bit of noise strutting and fretting on the political stage about keeping Trump in check, yet most of them, and recently nearly all of them, have collapsed and capitulated. The tax bill they just passed, a burlesque of terrible policy, is opposed by voters and punishing to them. It was opposed by economists who are as ignored as every other scientist in American policy today. Yet a mangled, hastily edited form of it was greenlighted through the Senate in the wee hours of the weekend. How did that come to pass, so to speak? Because the Republican Party has been
involved in a self-corrupting project for some years now, and Trump is merely the somewhat premature fulfillment of the party’s trajectory.
So if you eliminate both parties as possible checks on him, what’s left? Oh yes, “The Institutions!” Where are those heroic institutions when you need them anyway? Turns out a lot of those institutions turn out to be nothing more than norms. Oops. Trump has done away with those! But there are offices and departments, are there not? Uh-oh! Trump has been replacing the PEOPLE in those offices and departments with people who are loyal — to him, not to the institutions. There are the laws, still, aren’t there? Ahem. Laws do not enforce themselves. James Comey was working on law enforcement, and Trump fired him for it. Bam! And he stayed good and fired. Robert S. Mueller III is trying to enforce some laws, too, and people wonder whether he will be fired as well. And if somehow he isn’t fired and presents charges against Trump, then what?
Trump has just floated a breathtaking defense that he can’t be charged with obstructing the laws, because he is in charge of the laws. And who’s to argue? The courts? Have you been watching how fast Trump has been appointing judges? Judges whom he expects to be loyal to him? And if there are grounds for impeachment (which there already are)? Look out. Impeachment is controlled by the House (led by Republicans) and conviction by the Senate (led by Republicans). Will Republicans put American government ahead of their own power? See above.
Yes, this is how close we have danced to the edge. If we can hold out until next November, voters — the last backstop in this roster — may save the day. If voting against Trump isn’t legally redefined as voter fraud before we get there.