Democracy, the Rule of Law and Competence are Directly Threatened

“Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” -- former president Richard Nixon



For roughly the last 18 months or thereabouts, I've been explicitly arguing that institutions or values like democracy, the rule of law, and civil liberties are under a serious threat by the president and the Trump Party (formerly the GOP).

Attacks on democracy

Attacks on democracy are clear and undeniable in view of Trump Party efforts in a number of states to suppress democratic voters. The president made this strategic goal clear in the last week in comments he made to Fox and Friends about the Trump Party having to block democratic efforts to protect universal voting rights. Salon described that attack on democracy like this: “Trump admits ‘You'd never have a Republican elected in this country again if voting access [was to be] expanded: ‘The things they had in there were crazy,’ Trump said of the voter protection and expansion proposals in the bill. ‘They had things—levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again.’”

The situation could not be clearer. All that the president and his enablers can do is dismiss such criticism as fake news promulgated by Trump opponents, democrats and ‘the enemy of the people’ press. Most of the president’s supporters presumably see it that way for the most part, otherwise one would presume that most of them would no longer be supporters. However, given how authoritarian many conservatives and populists appear to be, maybe that assumption is false. Maybe many or most of the president’s supporters consciously approve of single party rule and want to suppress opposition voting.

Attacks on the rule of law, government accountability and competence

Attacks on the rule of law, government accountability and competence are are clear and undeniable in view of, for example, the president’s efforts to purge the entire federal government of employees who he deems to be disloyal and in how the attorney general is shielding the president from the rule of law. The president is replacing competent employees with corrupt yes-goons who will use federal prerogatives and the law to attack political opponents, while shielding the president. A recent high-profile example of the ongoing purge has surfaced.

Politico reports that the president has fired the intelligence community’s chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson. Atkinson was the federal employee who alerted Congress last September about an “urgent” complaint he received from an intelligence official involving the president’s communications with Ukraine’s president. That set off the House investigations that ended up with impeachment of the president. The president now has his revenge for Atkinson doing exactly what his job required.

Other sources have reported on the president’s vengeance and attendant purge of ‘disloyal’ employees. For example, The Hill writes:

“Recent reports from Axios and Government Executive, and even the words of the president’s own spokesperson on Fox News, confirm that President Trump has tapped a 29-year-old former body man who was fired by then-chief of staff John Kelly to lead a governmentwide effort to purge federal employees who are not sufficiently loyal to the president. All this on the heels of the already-near-total ouster of career officials who testified during the impeachment inquiry. 

These actions will plunge American’s federal government back into a system of prosaic corruption, sleaze and dishonesty. It will make it more difficult – if not impossible – for whistleblowers who have identified waste, fraud or abuse to come forward and inform the American public. And, finally, it will make it intolerably challenging for the federal government to marshal credibility, truth, facts and science to address global or national crises like a pandemic.”

The view that Attorney General William Barr holds that the role of the AG is to protect the president from the rule of law is well known, except of course for people who deny that. So is the president's explicitly stated belief that the role of the AG is to protect the president from the rule of law: “I don't want to get into loyalty, but I will tell you that, I will say this: Holder protected President Obama. Totally protected him. When you look at the things that they did, and Holder protected the president. And I have great respect for that, I'll be honest.”

The president is explicit that he respects an AG who protects a president from the rule of law. And despite his false claim, the president very much wants to ‘get into loyalty’. He wants to get into loyalty with real vengeance in mind.[1] Once again, the situation could not be clearer. All that the president and his enablers can do is dismiss such criticism as fake news promulgated by the president’s opponents, democrats and ‘the enemy of the people’ press. Most of his rank and file supporters presumably see the situation mostly as the president and his enablers falsely tell them it is.

It is reasonable to think that the people who will replace the fired employees will work hard to protect the president, while they will do their jobs when it means attacking political opposition. That is a sign of tyranny and an impotent rule of law.

Conclusion

Given the facts, one can defensibly argue that we are now clearly and quickly moving toward some sort of an incompetent, kleptocratic (corrupt) tyranny-oligarchy, probably tinged with a vengeful Christian moral self-righteousness. I've been making that claim for at least the last 18 months or so. Even during the 2016 campaign, the president’s authoritarian proclivity was quite clear. But early on, the thought was to hope that competent advisors and federal employees would blunt that. That was a false hope. As time passes and evidence continues to accumulate, a belief that America is headed toward a vicious kleptocratic authoritarianism is constantly reinforced.

Democracy, civil liberties and the rule of law are in real jeopardy. Most Trump supporters (~97% ?) are mostly or completely unaware of what is happening right in front of their eyes. Once again, human cognitive biology and social (tribal) behavior is undeniable and on display for all who can see. For those who cannot see, this is literally fake news spread by opponents of the president, the enemy of the people press and/or democrats.


Footnote:
1. The president is clear that he sees vengeance as a way of life. He takes that seriously.