Only in American can the sheer dread and hopelessness of Donald Trump’s inuaguration quickly get replaced with the euphoria and pride of the Women’s March.
The March, which drew millions of protestors all across the globe, is proof that resisting President Trump is possible. Protestors literally took over the world today. They owned the news coverage and the public dialogue. They wielded all the power.
But around 6pm, we got a wake-up call. Sean Spicer, the new press secretary, took to the White House breifing room to berate the press and peddle lies. He combatively lectured the press about their “reckless” reporting of the inaugurations crowds, which were considerably smaller than President Obama’s in 2008. He told the press the new administration would “hold them accountable,” and outrageously claimed Trump drew “the largest inaugural crowd ever.” He took no questions and made no mention of the mass protests occuring just outside the building.
On the campaign trail, these sort of statements were lies. In the White House briefing room, they are propaganda. Plain and simple.
Immediately, the dangerous effects of this behavior were clear. Spicer’s statements quickly took over the news coverage, and it will be no surprise when polls show in a few weeks that a large portion of Americans think the crowd pictures were doctored. (If you don’t think that’s possible, see this: a majority of Republicans think Trump won the popular vote.)
But the danger goes even further. This stunt proves what we’ve been fearing all along: that President Trump is willing to use the power of the presidency to feed his authoritarian desires.
Fortunately, the U.S. is not Russia in many important ways. If President Trump were to deploy tanks or arrest the leaders of the Women’s March, there would be near universal opposition. But what many fail to understand is that if an American president wants to flex his muscles in an authoritarian fashion––and if he has a cabinet around him willing to spread propoganda, create distractions, and distort reality––he can do it relatively easily.
How? It is entirely within the president’s power to, for example, direct the Department of Justice to aggressively investigate his opponents to the point where they’ll shut up and others will be scared away. He can decide to enforce secrecy laws and prosecute journalists who publish stories about national security. He can use his regulatory power to crush companies that oppose him, as he suggested he would do against Amazon. If Congress gets in line, there’s really no limit to where it could lead.
President Trump is chronically insecure (he evidently spent his first day in office concoting theories to explain his small crowds). As the pressure grows, as his policies inevitably fail, as resistance becomes more powerful, his willingness to push the authoritarian envelope will only grow. There’s no other lesson to draw when he’s spreading blatant propoganda on day 1.
Of course, smart people will recognize and resist. There will be protests. But there will also be lies, red-herrings, and clever distortions of the facts. And while Trump will remain in power for four years, it’s hard to imagine how an adequate resistance can be sustained. People get tired. They have jobs and families.
So if the Women’s March is a hallmark example of what we have to look forward to, it is also a reminder that this level of resistance can’t go away. It need not take the form of several million protestors everytime. But there will be no substitute for paying attention, staying informed, and speaking up.