This past year, Trump’s antics have alternately mystified and outraged most of the world, with the GOP alternately lambasting and then kissing up to our dear Leader. But looking beyond the political sideshows of 2017, a Trumpian GOP is becoming ever more clear about its end-game. Whether by explicit intent, or the happy coincidence of like minds, the outline of their preferred world looks suspiciously like the wet dream of autocrats and kleptocrats:
- judicial and law enforcement functions of the government co-opted by the executive;
- legislative and regulatory functions of the government co-opted by private commercial interests;
- investigatory functions bent exclusively to the political needs of those in power;
- a press that is either outright propaganda, under sustained attack by the government itself, or completely neutered in its ability to reach people with facts and an independent voice.
It’s not a done deal, yet. But the bow of the proverbial ocean liner is slowly coming about on a new heading, and even supposed GOP stalwarts are showing their fatigue in fighting the Trumpian onslaught. It’s why famed Russian chess player and dissident Gary Kasparov is ringing alarm bells:
“Democratic govt is based on institutions. If someone is attacking those institutions instead of strengthening them, it’s time to pick a side. Rule of law or by strongman? Rule of institutions or of tribe? The history of making the wrong choice here is clear.”
The newly Trumpified GOP, day by day, is making small but deliberate steps toward the wrong choice.
In America, we are supposed to be protected by the “rule of law.” But increasingly, under total GOP control, it’s beginning to feel like America is ruled by the rulers of law — those who pervert the law for use as a political and economic weapon. Damn the facts; exalt the executive; shoot the messenger; prosecute your opponents. Lie. Cheat. Then harvest your gains without any viable opposition to stand in your way.
In one case, the biggest one, America should have its foot so far up Russia’s behind right now that when Putin smiles all you see is Uncle Sam’s toenails. But rather than pursue the facts, Congressional Republicans are not only running interference for Trump, they are actively attacking (with intent to destroy) the reputation of America’s foremost law enforcement organization—one of the main pillars of the “rule of law” in this country. From the partisan subversion of Devin Nunes to the irresponsible “treason” rhetoric of Trey Gowdy, Louie Gomert, Peter King, Hannity and dozens of others, the goal is clear: destroy the reputation of, and ultimately de-fang the FBI. And it’s quite possible that they will win that battle.
Unless of course, the FBI can be bent to your political will: to muddy the waters, Jeff Sessions is reportedly considering a re-launch of the DOJ investigation into debunked charges against Hillary Clinton related to Uranium One. At the same time, many right-wing voices are calling for a special counsel to investigate the Russia special counsel (after a voluntary disclosure about an internal disciplinary action by the Republican leader of that probe against a Democratic member of his team). Others are calling for a sweeping investigation of the entire Obama-era justice department. Hysterical demands based on fabrication, propaganda, debunked rumor, distraction, and false accusation.
Meanwhile, big business appears to be coming to heel, to get their thirty pieces of silver. In the most recent example, AT&T is sucking up to The Leader by publicly praising the GOP tax deal, most likely with the hope of unblocking its acquisition of Time Warner. GOP leaders have publicly admitted that the tax plan is payback for donors who threatened to stop giving, as well as an effort to destroy the ACA – giving lie to politicians’ “middle class” talking points. This, as lobbyists take over the EPA and dismantle its oversight functions. A telecom lobbyist at the FCC dismantles “net neutrality” rules. An avowed opponent of the CFPB grabs control, despite statutory restrictions against such a move – the power grab at CFPB is particularly galling as it is so clearly against the law, but it was upheld by (you guessed it!) one of Trump’s judicial appointees.
And on the judicial front, The Leader and his allies openly nominate candidates unanimously deemed “unqualified” to arbitrate the most serious cases before the nation’s courts — cases with wide-ranging and long-term consequences for the “rule of law.” Why these people? Because they are ideologically suited, in their ignorance of legal precedent and process, to betraying the law in favor of their sponsors. This, after literally stealing a Supreme Court seat from the previous president, who nominated a moderate conservative jurist.
Three “unqualified” nominees may have withdrawn their nominations, but one more (Steve Grasz) was appointed. And one who withdrew (Petersen), still felt he was entitled to be a judge simply based on “two decades of public service.” Blaming his demise on “political realities,” rather than his own complete ignorance about the most basic operations of a courtroom.
Meanwhile at the department of education, Sec. DeVos (a fierce privatization advocate, whose family by her own admission is the largest source of soft-money donations to the Republican Party) takes a hatchet to public schools; removes protections and recourse for students defrauded by for-profit colleges; supports private evangelical schools that proselytize to create “God’s Kingdom”; even enabling Scientology schools to receive public funds for teaching the ravings of L. Ron Hubbard.
We can’t even get into Rex Tillerson gutting the State Department as it would take up too much space. But surely it leaves the U.S. weaker in the world, even as we are under mounting pressure to check the ambitions of the Saudis, Iranians, North Koreans, Russians and Chinese. It puts ever more diplomatic control in the hands, and in the mouth, of a raving Executive.
Our Future in Authoritarian Land
With the increasingly strident authoritarian leanings of the GOP, we are seeing what America would look like if they got their way: a country where power is seated nearly entirely with the person of the Executive; the Executive grabs power wherever and whenever it suits him, immune to accountability; the Executive is protected by a phalanx of like-minded politicians bent on destroying the “administrative state” and its protections for the rest of us; law enforcement and investigatory functions bent to their will, or publicly destroyed.
How is this different from say, Bill Clinton being protected by Democrats during the Lewinsky scandal? For one thing that scandal was not a national security scandal. That did not involve an attack from a foreign power, which successfully corrupted America’s presidential election. That scandal also didn’t include foreign government’s effectively bribing the president by supporting his private commercial interests, a violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause. Not to mention a sitting president using his office to promote his private businesses. Or a government agency (the GSA) bending to the will of the Executive by allowing him to violate the terms of his lease without consequence, as Trump has done with his D.C. hotel.
More important, no other scandal included dozens of national security disclosure violations by the President’s staff. None included a paid foreign agent acting the America’s highest-ranking national security official. No other scandal, save Watergate, included the President attacking, smearing and attempting to co-opt the entire investigatory capability of the FBI to squelch the probe. Or spouting fabricated attacks on the voting process with lies about “voter fraud” – in an attempt to undermine trust in our electoral institutions and solidify support for his ability to ignore the rule of law. (”See, they’re trying to get me!”)
The list goes on and on. This administration is very different from the kind of run-of-the-mill corruption and glad-hanging that gets ferreted out from time to time in any government – even the best and most effective governments.
Team Trump has graduated from assaulting institutional norms, to assaulting the institutions themselves and their ability to deliver on the promise one nation under the rule of law.
With one small step at a time, and with GOP backing, America moves to a place where currying favor with The Leader and his allies is the best, and potentially the only way to obtain policy, judicial, economic or investigatory redress. The public good is entirely entrusted to private interests (even a secret spy network that reports only to The Leader!), with no checks or balances on their power, and no recourse if they fail: citizens losing all recourse to courtroom justice against private commercial interests thanks in part to mandatory terms-of-service that require you to give up those rights, or worse, the government outright taking those rights away from you (e.g., the Senate overturned a CFPB rule allowing class-action lawsuits against banks).
It’s a very scary, corporate-strongman kind of vision for America. Sounds almost too scary to be true. And it’s not true, yet.
But the most extreme wing of the GOP, now in firm control of the Party of Trump, is pulling hard in that direction. We see it every day, in ways big and small. From school policy, to healthcare policy, to foreign policy, to consumer protections, to environmental policies, to the trend of businesses “self-regulating,” to a fanatical belief in the morality of markets, to the squelching and sanctioning of science, to corporations treated like people and people treated like an after-thought.
It’s a coordinated effort at remaking the entire American enterprise. The rule of law replaced by rulers of law. Powerful, monied leaders with unassailable control of the levers of economic and legal justice – defining how justice is defined and dispensed. Here it would be appropriate to quote Russian Gary Kasparov in detail:
Trump has dedicated himself to attacking defining American institutions: electoral system, free press, separation of powers, law enforcement.
Every one of these moves has been under the cover of the autocratic attack on the objective truth. Lying constantly while attacking his targets for lying, for "fake news", for treasonous behavior.
The escalation of rhetoric to dictatorial extremes has a numbing effect. Terms like "enemies of the people", "coup" and "treason". When actual enemies [and] real treason are exposed, they've already been used up, discredited.
It also requires stronger doses each time to achieve the same impact, the distraction, the clicks, the outrage. The media reaction of amplifying each time more than the last makes it worse.
We chose wrong and failed democracy in Russia. We failed by choosing a man, even a decent man, Yeltsin, over strong democratic institutions. We paid for it with Putin, and are still paying for it, as is everyone else.
Even if you like Trump, or tolerate him for what you think he can do for you or your cause, you are choosing against those American institutions. If you think they are broken, fix them, don't help Trump destroy them. Choose.