Democracy, Attacked

On Monday, the twenty-second anniversary of the attacks on 9/11/01, I listened to a podcast in which the speaker remarked on the unity Americans felt that day. When our democracy is threatened, he posited, Americans come together. (Except Trump, whose actions on and after that day should be memorialized along with the attacks.)

The podcast was well-intentioned and, other than the “democracy” proposition, approximately true. The attack was on people, American citizens, mostly, but not our form of government, per se. If threats to democracy brought us together, the Civil War would never have happened and today’s Republican Party would have been relegated to irrelevance, long ago. Add to the equation respect for the rule of law, even laws with which one disagrees, and accepting election results, even those which one finds disappointing, and it’s incontestable.

Begun before Trump but raised stratospherically by and for him, Republican attacks on democracy have become platform-level policy. So much so that Trump is running, specifically, on the ways he’d subvert it if elected. Rather than finding his increasingly projectile, fascist-adjacent ranting abhorrent, supporters’ eyes remain unbatted. 

Actions, we’re told, speak more loudly than words. Based on their willfully anti-democratic actions, the party of patriotism and law and order can no longer claim either; nor, since they “elected” Trump, have they bothered to pretend otherwise. The preceding Civil War reference is appropriate, as many of their party’s leaders are warning of it, while others openly call for it should Trump not be reelected, for any of several democracy-preserving, defeat-demanding reasons.

Osama bin Laden’s attack on the Capitol was thwarted by brave passengers on United Flight 93. Trump’s attack on the Capitol, also thwarted by brave Americans, got further. And, unlike 9/11, 1/6 was aimed directly at democracy.

To his credit, usually wind-fingering Mike Pence, who has zero chance of becoming the Republican nominee, just called out the degradation of his party. Referring to Trumpism’s abandonment of conservatism, he said, “Should the new populism of the right seize and guide our party, the GOP as we have long known it will cease to exist. And the fate of American freedom would be in doubt.”

That party, of course, ceased to exist long ago; and freedom is precisely what the 2024 election will be about. Not Hunter Biden. Not Joe Biden’s or Trump’s age. Not taxes. Not even borders. Freedom. From the authoritarian rule Trump promises, of which his orchestrated “impeachment inquiry” is an example, to cheers at his rallies and silence from Republican “leaders” who should – possibly do – know better. 

There are, in fact, people who know better. Signed by presidential centers of thirteen former presidents from both parties, an extraordinary statement was just released from the George W. Bush Presidential Center, calling for a return to the foundational principles of our democracy. Why now? Because until now, until Trump, it was unnecessary.

The statement stopped short of naming Trumpism explicitly, but the message was clear, and concluded thus: “By signing this statement, we reaffirm our commitment to the principles of democracy undergirding this great nation, protecting our freedom, and respecting our fellow citizens. When united by these convictions, America is stronger as a country and an inspiration for others.” If only.

There’s little doubt Trump will be the Republican nominee, and none that he’d receive millions of votes, from people who love his dictatorial promises to imprison his “enemies” and, as opposed to the fairytale accusations of Joe Biden, actually to weaponize government as an instrument of revenge. Which, as mentioned, he’s doing now, according to reports, personally directing the transparently political, evidence-lacking, un-voted-upon impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Ironically, any forthcoming subpoenas are already invalid, per Trump’s own justice department.  

Despite worrying about the future my grandchildren face, I’m betting there are more Americans who see Trump for the danger he represents than don’t; enough to ensure that the next president will not be him. Also encouraging are electoral outcomes, in various states, in reaction to Republican tactics: proofless impeachments, banning history, criminalizing abortion, teaching Prager U in public schools. If they continue their cynical legislative uselessness, they may lose the House and sink further into minority in the Senate.

As I run out of adequately descriptive words, here are some from Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22, foreshadowing Trump and the ease with which his amoral perfidy took root: “It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, ... arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” 

The flourishing of character-free Trumpism also required decades-long efforts to convince enough voters that knowledge, science, and expertise are bad; and propagandistic media happy to profit by promoting it. In 2024, we must bring it to an end.