This article is a liberal essay.
“With four years of Trump nearly behind us, Politico Magazine asked a group of smart political and cultural observers to tell us what big, new insight this era has given them about America—and what that insight means for the country’s future. Many were alarmed to discover that our political institutions and norms are more fragile than they thought.” One wrote,
“We’ve learned something important about America’s resistance to an authoritarian takeover. Most republics, even the best of them, have struggled when confronted with a nationalist leader who shows up in bad economic times, blames everything on immigrants and foreigners, and promises to restore greatness. That’s the fate that befell, among others, the Roman, Spanish, German and Russian republics.
“Before Trump, it was widely thought that the written Constitution and its fabled ‘separation of powers’ had spared the United States from a similar fate. But over the past four years, we’ve watched constitutional checks repeatedly fail to control the president, trumped by party loyalty. Congress and the judiciary asserted limited control at best; even impeachment turned out to be just another party-line vote.
“What really mattered, in the end, was a different set of checks, upheld not by a document but by people: namely, the independence of federal prosecutors, the neutrality of the armed forces and the independence of the electoral system. He tried hard, but Trump ultimately couldn’t find a prosecutor to indict Joe Biden and his family. The armed forces declined to embrace Trump’s proposed occupation of liberal cities over the summer. And, finally, when it mattered, election officials, at a distance from the White House, conducted a fair vote.”
(Read article and essay here.) In other words, our freedom, and rule of law, survived because of the ingrained habits of individuals, not institutional or legal structures, which under pressure from Trump’s depradations proved far more fragile than we had heretofore imagined. In short, because of the cultural instincts of people who didn’t go along with what he tried to do.
It was a close call, and disturbingly, almost no one in the Republican Party spoke out against it or tried to stop it, and many aggressively and belligerently supported it. For whatever reason — fear of Trump’s supporters, gaining partisan advantage, or whatever — the entire GOP establishment had no such instincts or reticence, not withstanding they had opposed his hostile takeover of their party. They were a bunch of surrender monkeys (and, dismayingly, most of them were re-elected).
Make no mistake; the 2020 election showed a large swath of Americans are not just ready, but eager, to trash democracy and embrace authoritarianism. Americans are no different than other people; human nature is the same everywhere, and cooperation and democracy aren’t natural tendencies of human nature. In human historical experience, autocracy is the norm, not exception; and it could happen here, and words on paper won’t prevent it.
We have a good thing going for ourselves in this country: Greater peace, prosperity, and freedom than any other people have ever enjoyed. We’re safe in our homes, safe from foreign invaders, and many of us live well (at least compared to the rest of humanity).
But all of this is fragile, and we could lose it if we’re not careful. Not to a foreign enemy, but by tearing it down ourselves, by fighting over petty differences.
There’s really no debate over what Trump is all about. He didn’t just violate norms of decency; he broke the rules of our democratic system, frequently and flagrantly.
Earlier this month, over 73 million Americans — only slightly less than half — voted for more of that. What gives with that? The way I see it, Trump’s supporters are frustrated by not getting their way under the rules of the system, so they’ve rallied behind a rule-defying leader who promises to destroy the system. That’s equivalent to picking up their marbles and going home if they don’t get their way. It’s not unreasonable for the rest of us to look at this as selfish, immature, even childish. We don’t always get our way, either, but we deal with it like grownups.
A commenter on the progressive blog “Crooks and Liars” takes issue with liberals blaming themselves for Trump supporters’ behavior. He says,
“So f*** this facile explanation for why the Republican Party has turned into a nihilistic, conspiracy addled bunch of unAmerican, authoritarian ***holes. It is lazy, intellectual rot and we’ve heard it all before. Trump’s followers are not the poor and downtrodden of America. Those are Democrats. These Republicans are arrogant, middle class, white racists who drive around in monster trucks screaming ‘f*** your feelings’ and worshipping the greatest con-man America has ever produced while praising Jesus as their savior in the same breath.”
That pretty much sums things up, except he left out the gun-waving and threats of “civil war.” He continues,
“There is nothing liberalism did to cause that except to refuse to live in the 19th century and declare themselves to be ‘avowedly with’ the right wing in all their hatreds and resentments. Yes, establishment Democrats, center-left elites, wine-moms and hipsters and whoever else you loathe on the left side of the dial are awful. Old baby boomer liberals like me are awful. Nobody is arguing otherwise.
“But they are not the cause of what’s happened on the right. What happened on the right is the result of a confluence of the long-term resentimmental strain in American life, a corrupt and power mad GOP establishment backed by big money and an unparalleled propaganda network that created an atmosphere allowing Donald Trump to rise to the apotheosis of American politics. There is sickness everywhere in our politics and culture. But blaming the ‘liberal elites’ for the current political atrocity is ridiculous.”
(Read commentary here; caution: NSFW due to profanity.)
I agree Democrats aren’t to blame for the behavior of Republicans; that’s like a boy getting into trouble and then blaming his sister. I’m not talking here about ideological differences or policy disagreements; we can deal with those through our democratic processes.
What we’re having forced on us is a debate about whether to retain democracy or become an autocracy; whether we will be governed or ruled; whether we’ll still get to choose our government or live under the thumb of an autocrat we can’t vote out of power.
It seems we can’t take for granted anymore the idea of being governed with our consent; we currently have a president who wants to rule without our consent, with some of the Republican Party backing him up on that, and the rest of the GOP too cowed or acquiescent to defend the system that keeps us free.
America, or a big chunk of it, isn’t as good a country as we thought it was; nor is our democracy as strong or safe as we assumed. It’s under assault; Trump lost, but Trumpism won’t go away. It’s not motivated by poverty; the people parading in big flag-bedecked pickups and brandishing AR-15 rifles aren’t poor (photos above). Its defining characteristic is immaturity. Perhaps that reflects a breakdown of parenting in our country. These are people who never grew up.
That’s not good. Democracy, to survive, must live within us, not just exist in words on paper. That requires citizens who think and act like adults. Democracy doesn’t do well in kindergartens. And it does look like our country is in danger of turning into a kindergarten.
Our freedom to choose our leaders, and be governed with our consent, survived this time — although just barely. But what about next time? And there likely will be a next time.