Fed

 

Today’s lesson is from the Federalist Papers. Open your textbooks to Federalist 76. Quilled by the recently resurrected Alexander Hamilton, it includes the following:

“It will readily be comprehended, that a man who had himself the sole disposition of offices, would be governed much more by his private inclinations and interests, than when he was bound to submit the propriety of his choice to the discussion and determination of a different and independent body, and that body an entire branch of the legislature. . . . He would be both ashamed and afraid to bring forward candidates who had no other merit than being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure. . .”

That, in a florid nutshell, is the rationale for requiring the Senate to investigate and approve or deny a president’s choices for positions of power. Mr. Hamilton must have had exactly the narcissistic, vengeful, self-promoting Trump in mind. (Wrongly, he presumed a human capability of shame.) Not alone among his colleagues, idiocratic Senator Tuberville (R-Alabama) believes Trump should be allowed anyone he chooses, without pesky, Constitution-mandated interference. 

Aware of human imperfections, the Founders almost had it right. But they seem to have assumed that, in aggregate, senators would not suffer the infirmities we see in Trump. That, tasked with evaluating obviously unqualified and dangerous nominees, senators would place duty to protect and defend the Constitution above all else.

In their defense, Our Fathers were surrounded by and were themselves men of good intention, having risked much to create a new nation. If they foresaw a sociopathic individual like Trump as president, they could not have imagined a Senate majority of them.

We’ve referred to Trumpism as oligarchy, plutocracy, kakistocracy, authoritarianism, dictatorship, all of which apply. We see now that the best description is a Mafia-style protection racket. Pay tribute, you’ll be safe. If not, you’ll regret it. As a flock of tech billionaires and media titans knee-walk to Mar-a-Lago, we see it’s working as intended.

Pre-election, Trump said about Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, “We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal he will spend the rest of his life in prison—as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election.”

He’s made similar threats about media people and their organizations. Zuck caved. Bezos caved. Tim Cook caved. The CEO of the LA Times caved. After ABC News caved over the interpretation of New York’s “penil” code (oops! Was that a typo?), Trump filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register for publishing a poll that turned out to be wrong.

It’s the playbook used by all the world’s dictators of whom Trump is a fanboy: an overt, intentional attack on the First Amendment. Knuckling the press is authoritarianism defined. Seeing mainstream media falling in line like sheep is ominous.

Trump is flaunting his Mafiosical methods like a bludgeon. So is his smarter alter-ego Steve Bannon, who said, last week, “... we’re going to get retribution. [Media] need to learn what populist national power is, on the receiving end. I mean investigations, trials, and their incarceration.”

Retribution for what, one might ask. Exercising the Billed rights of American citizens?

What’s remarkable about such abject capitulation is the communal cowardice. Trump – so far, anyway – hasn’t caused Putinesque defenestration of opponents or death by exploding airplanes. He hasn’t yet – far as we know – poisoned anyone or, like NoKo Kim, sent them before firing squads. These groveling genuflectors are wealthy beyond words. They can afford highest-class lawyers. If they chose to, they could take forceful stands for the Constitution and against Trump’s lawlessness.

Bullies aren’t strong. Trump’s power isn’t internal. In a doom loop of ignorance, arrogance, and weakness, it comes from the pusillanimity and prejudice of his voters, convinced to reject America’s fundamental values; from the certainty of their electeds that those voters will preserve their jobs and cashflow if they, the “leaders,” vote with Trump, and dispose of them if they don’t; from those appointees who’ll do Trump’s bidding; and from Congressional greed and cravenness, knowing his nominees will unleash unrestrained, unconstitutional, government terrorization unknown in North America but afraid to stand against it; while Trump gloats, golfs, and goes AWOL from the responsibilities of office.

Maybe enough Republican senators will remember their obligations of office and reject Trump’s most preposterous picks. While we imagine that unlikely outcome, House Republicans are fine with Trump’s plans to prosecute members of the January 6 Committee for doing their constitutional duty. It’s mass surrender by an entire party to America’s greatest threat since the Civil War.

In control for now, Congressional Republicans are the only ones positioned to preserve our constitutional democracy, but they’re too fearful and selfish to do it. Sadly, “The People” are fine with it. 

Acquitting Themselves Poorly

My next column in The Everett Herald:

Trump’s impeachment will be remembered for establishing that two-hundred-fifty years of Constitutional governance can be erased in three. That the party which elected Abraham Lincoln can choose and excuse a despot wannabe. And that when he behaves predictably -- raging, lying, ignoring the law, encouraging anger and fear and victimization like every successful dictator in history -- that party, when it still had a chance, will look away, cowering.  

Impeachment and Trump have shown that the world’s longest-standing democracy is capable of capitulating to an authoritarian bully. If there’s still time for responsible, forward-looking citizens to take America back from the mob-king, they won’t come from today’s Republican Party. 

Several Republican senators agreed what Trump did was bad. Rubio even admitted it was impeachable. Yet, except for Mitt Romney, they abdicated their responsibility to our nation. Why? Reflected power. Cash. But, mostly, fear. For their careers, of course; and, because Trump is Trump, Trumpists are Trumpists, and Fox is Fox, fearing threats to themselves and their families.  

That’s how dictators gain and maintain power. We saw it, bright as gunfire, dark as blood, during the Senate puppet show, as, out of cameras’ view, Republicans absented themselves from the chamber, leaving their integrity behind.  

Congressional Republicans fear Trump more than the seventy-five-percent of Americans who wanted witnesses and documents brought forth. That’s the power of tyrants to bend people to their will, and it’s how democracies end. Sherrod Brown wrote that many of his Republican colleagues privately admit their fear. As RFK said, “Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle.” 
 
History teaches that, facing autocratic amorality like Trump’s, even democracies may lack the means to stem the tide. Always, though, there are plenty who march to a despot’s rage and vindictiveness; who think they’ll never be its victims, but relish picturing those who will. 

With Mitchly reptilian grins, those recreant Republicans say we should leave it to voters, as if the founders hadn’t created impeachment precisely because they rejected that specious argument. Behind those smirks lie their aces in the hole: voter suppression, voter-roll purges, gerrymandering. Denying funds to protect against helpful foreign interference. Rejecting measures to safeguard voting machines, hacking of which we know Russians have done, and which has been shown to be child’s-play. Literally.  

The case was made beyond denial: Trump tried to extort a vulnerable foreign government into helping him with his reelection. Caught in flagrante delicto, he stonewalled and lied to cover it up. Shutting down further testimony and documents, Senate Republicans made it clear: Trump’s demagoguery works. 

Meanwhile, as his feared “enemies of the people” do their job, more of Trump’s illegality is seeping out. It’s certain there’s plenty more, for it’s always been who Trump is. Republicans still won’t care.  

“Trumpism is a cult,” people say. It’s worse. When cultists drink their leaders’ Kool-Aid, they destroy only themselves. Trumpism is destroying America. If we’re not a nation of laws; if we’ve stopped believing in limited executive power, we’re no longer America. If we accept a “president” who lies wantonly, uses division as a weapon, who convinces his minions they’re the abused ones, whose thirst for vengeance will now be unchecked, we’re approaching the end. 

If enough Americans continue to countenance a man who systematically tears down institutions designed by the framers to preserve freedom from monarchy, whose followers flash weapons as threats, even claim a constitutional right to “kill socialists,” it’s over.  

Senatorial capitulator-in-chief, Susan Collins said he’d “learned from this.” “It was a perfect call,” Trump responded. Proving the point, his State of the Union speech, the opposite of inclusive, was replete with the expected exaggerations, calculated divisiveness, slandering the opposition, claiming undue credit, omissions (Deficits? Climate change? Who cares?), and unregenerate lies. Lindsey Graham’s promise to investigate the Bidens post-acquittal was even more craven. And Rush “Barack the Magic Negro” Limbaugh? Wow.  

To recapture our democratic republic, massive voter turnout -- enough to overwhelm Republican-created obstacles and cowardice -- is the last hope. Liberals must vote for the Democratic nominee even if it’s not their favorite. Remaining conservatives, if any there be, must recognize they can survive Democrats in charge for a while, a more equitable and capitalism-enabling economy, better healthcare, less pollution, lower deficits; even background checks. 

But not the end of Constitutional democracy. They’ll need to outvote those rejoicing in it, to reclaim a fearful, Constitution-abandoning political party. The odds aren’t good. 

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