Donald's Chronicles Numero 2: Fixing Democracy

In my blog from December titled Donald's Chronicles Numero 1, I suggested that he might declare a state of emergency and use the military to build a wall between the US and Mexico. Today he said just that. Bruce Ackerman, in today's New York Times, says that he thinks that the idea of declaring an emergency and using the military to build the wall is illegal. However, his final paragraph sums up the situation best:

What this all adds up to is a potential crisis much graver than whatever immigration emergencies the president has in mind: A legally ignorant president forcing our troops to choose between his commands and the rule of law in a petty political struggle over a domestic political question.

Trump needs military support in order to act against the wishes of the Congress. Having military support puts him, and us, one step closer to a fascist regime in which the military is used to enforce the will of our elected president.

Repairing our democratic institutions is on the agenda of both Democrats and Republicans. In the New York Times recently incoming Senator Romney from Utah said about Donald Trump:

“I do not intend to comment on every tweet or fault,” he wrote. “But I will speak out against significant statements or actions that are divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions.”

Romney and several other Republicans are beginning to break with Trump by not supporting his ridiculously ill-informed agenda. Senators Collins of Maine, Tillis of North Carolina and Gardner of New Jersey have all called for an end to the shut down putting pressure on the non-participating Senate Majority Leader and generally anti-democratic power maniac Mitch McConnell to begin doing his job. The first act of the Democratic led House of Representatives was to introduce HR. 1, the For the People Act, would put into law provision to regulate elections and expand democratic freedoms. The bill's chief sponsor, Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., said in a speech introducing the bill of many Americans "They feel left out and locked out from their own democracy."

Both Democrats and some Republicans are beginning to put our democracy ahead of political power in the form of autocracy. It is clear to everyone that our President does not respect democracy and that he is attempting to become an autocrat, much like the other world leaders he praises, Putin, Kim Jong-Un, Erdogan and the most recent murderer, Mohammed bin Salman. The signs of autocracy according to Levitsky and Ziblatt are:

1. Rejecting or showing weak commitment to democratic rules.
2. Denying the legitimacy of political opponents.
3. Encouraging or tolerating violence.
4. A readiness to stifle or limit civil liberties of opponents, including media

Trump has demonstrated all these signs. It is time to speak up and stifle his attempts to turn America into an autocratic state. It is also time to tell the other members of the his party, the Republican party, that they need to act to maintain our democracy even if it means a loss of power. Forget Newt Gingrich. In the Atlantic profile of him recently he analogized humans to a pride of lions, living a kill or be killed life. The problem is that a pride of lions never built cities and lived together in large groups. A little cooperation is needed to pull this off.

Are we beginning to see some movement across the aisles of the hall of Congress? Are we beginning to see a little cooperation between opposing parties? We need this coming together of the leaders of our two Parties as friendly opponents rather than blood enemies. We need our elected leader to take Levitsky's advice and begin, once again, to use forbearance and tolerance of each other, to use good information and not Trump's nonsense, and to come to reasonable compromises that are the heart of a democratic government.

Trump's progress toward autocracy a reflection of his personality without reference to anyone having done it before. I'm guessing here, obviously, but I suspect that the Donald knows nothing about Mussolini, Tito, or Stalin, nor about how they became the fascist rulers of their respective countries. He is simply following his own trajectory driven by his school yard bully personality. Are the Republicans happy with this? Is Mitch McConnell ready to give up the rule of law and fair elections to hold on to the power his party yields to him and follow Trump into repeating the error of fascist rule? Mitch, are you ready to go down with Donald's ship?

It has been years since I knew a family that was terrorized by an out-of-control child. But I did know one. The adolescent became the ruler of the house by threatening all kinds of aberrant behavior like running away, killing himself, and other serious actions usually involving drugs. The parents caved in to this and catered to his every whim. In the end, he failed to finish school, had some minor scrapes with the law and caused his parents untold personal grief and regret that they had not acted more like parents rather than failing the courage to be in charge. How difficult it must be for the negotiators of the governmental shutdown to be catering to the whims of our child-president, especially those who have successfully parented like Pelosi. Her experience with her own children and grand children should help her deal with Donald. She was a good choice for Speaker.