Finally! Can We Jettison this Clown? - Then Repair our Democracy?

 Tuesday is a huge fork in the road.

We might continue this self-destructive experiment with a “president” who cares nothing for law, ethics, tolerance, democracy, or honor (including honorable military service). He ignores the nation’s interest, if it conflicts at all with his.

Most Republican leaders have jettisoned ethics, convictions, and independence to cater to his whims. Somewhat understandably. He’s attacked his own appointees for letting some vestige of ethics impede their slavish obedience. Think Attorney-General Senator Jeff Sessions, first U.S. Senator to endorse Trump in 2016, who had to recuse himself from pretending to investigate his boss. Trump insulted him repeatedly, then fired him.

Sessions’s eventual replacement, far-right William Barr, has lied repeatedly for Trump. By misleadingly “summarizing” the Mueller Report before it was made public, Barr conned people into believing it “whitewashed” Trump; Barr tried to have the U.S. Justice Department defend Mr. Trump in a personal lawsuit by a woman Trump allegedly raped; and federal prosecutors, in an unprecedented move, tried to un-convict Trumpist Michael Flynn, who had pled guilty to perjury. Now Trump wants Barr to investigate Biden. Investigating political adversaries to help the Leader is for dictatorships. It’s not done here. So far, Barr hasn’t done it. Despite all Barr’s dishonest actions to help Trump, Trump is publicly scolding him like a misbehaving dog.

But Mr. Trump is a distraction from the very real issues we face.

The pandemic is one. As we experience record numbers of COVID-19 infections, far beyond what we’d seen, Trump is proclaiming we’re past it. His science officer recently listed “ending the pandemic” as one of Trump’s top accomplishments. The U.S. suffers infections and deaths at a disproportionate rate, as 4% of the world population experiencing more than 20% of the world’s pandemic dead. Trump offers no colorable explanation for our poor record. His poor record.

We’re already seeing global warming’s effects. Ask the military how it’s tryuing to adjust. In Florida, Iowa, and a few other spots, even Republicans are deeply concerned. We’re past being able to prevent warming, but can try to mitigate the damage. Doing so, while balancing that urgent work with economic and other problems, will require creative solutions and bipartisan political will. Trump thinks warming is another hoax.

Maintaining our best possible position among the world’s nations is another significant but complex issue. The increased international respect that Barack Obama brought us is gone, but this problem isn’t just Trump. We’ve been the preeminent nation since World War II; in my youth we were 6% of the world’s population and had about 60% of its goods. That would have changed under any leadership. The problem has been to maintain the best position we can, remaining an influential world leader. But we can and should be one of the most influential nations. That work can resume after Trump, but was never going to be simple.

Political differences (larger or smaller government, how much to protect consumers or the environment) aside, Trump and his Republican enablers threaten our democracy. Of all the traditional safeguards – separation of powers, Supreme Court, FBI, the congressionally-created Inspectors General, the free press, the State Department, objective government scientists, the rule of law – can you name one Trump hasn’t attacked and significantly weakened?

I believe we will stumble out of the woods in the right direction. I believe we will choose decency, fairness, and competence. But I’ll be sweating it out.

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[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 1 November 2020, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper’s website and KRWG’s website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG and KTRAL-LP (http://www.lccommunityradio.org/), and will be available on demand on KRWG’s site. ]

[We should never imagine that Trump is our sole problem; and I share concerns that, Trump or no Trump, our democracy is not as fair or democratic as so many believe it to be; but Trump’s weakening of the safeguards our parents depended on, and his inability or unwillingness to recognize boundaries created by law, ethics, or common humanity, are extreme and dangerous, particularly when so many aid and abet him. I recommend the book How Democracies Die, which is not about Mr. Trump and rarely if ever mentions him; and a recent piece, to which I’ve lost the URL, looks at the last four years through the eyes of a national security export whose career has involved examining other countries’ governments’ levels of actual democracy. She runs through all the standard red flags – the leader’s lack of respect for law, the subservience to him of other officials, and several others she would normally review in assessing a country, and concludes that if she saw conduct similar to Trump’s in some other country she’d report that democracy was in trouble there.]