Monarchy or Republic (if we can keep it)
The U.S. faces mounting concerns over President Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, as he breaks precedent, suppresses dissent, and leverages immigration and insurrection fears for political gain. Democracy’s future is uncertain, B. Jay Cooper argues.
W e are as close to being an authoritarian-led country as much as a Republic can be that close.
Our country was founded as a republic (as a reminder, the definition of republic is: a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.)
As you watch President Trump’s actions, though, it’s obvious he’d prefer being a monarch. For example:
- Under law and precedent, presidents do not send the National Guard into an area without a request from state or local leadership.
- Under law and precedent, presidents do not withhold congressionally passed funds from those it was aimed at helping.
- Under law and precedent, presidents do not withhold research funding from universities as punishment for policies they disagree with, even if they are right.
- Presidents don’t typically pardon those convicted of attacking the Congress and plotting and attempting to carry out an insurrection.
President Trump, though, has done all those things (and more). He also has kidnapped a parade that originally was proposed as a small affair to honor the Army’s birthday and made sure it is celebrating his own birthday. It’s the parade he’s dreamed of holding since he was young.
In our country, dreams (and nightmares) can come true.
Look for Trump to deliver his standard partisan speech attacking his perceived enemies on a day set aside to honor our military and those who honorably served our country and Constitution, not our president.
On January 6, we all watched on television as our Congress was attacked by hundreds of people who wanted to overthrow our government. Not all of them, of course, but a good chunk who later pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes against our country and law enforcement.
President Trump’s reaction – pardon them all, even those who attacked not “just” a symbol of our freedom, but law enforcement who were trying to protect it. Pardoned. Get out of jail free.
Out of jail and standing back and standing by to help their leader when he calls them next.
That call may come at any moment now.
He already has broken precedent and law by sending the National Guard and the Marines into California to quell the protests. Are some of those people paid to stir up trouble? Of course they are, but most are “simply” protesting Trump’s government’s approach to immigration.
That approach is: Set a quota for daily deportations and meet it, no matter the methods or the consequences.
Are Americans upset with our immigration policy. Yes, as they should be.
In fact, the Congress – both parties – agreed on a bill that would have addressed many of the flaws in our system, but that law was stopped in its tracks when Donald J. Trump said: Stop! It doesn’t help my campaign to pass that law and remove a populist issue I can leverage to my advantage.
Thus, the law was not passed. Therefore, our immigration problems grew worse. Now he uses those problems to justify his authoritarian desires.
Want to blame that on Biden? Fine, go for it. Blame doesn’t matter to good politicians – solutions to problems matter. And Biden isn’t president anymore. He’s history.
Trump, though, prefers the issue to the solution: The better to appear populist. The better to serve his goals, not the country’s goals.
The language he and his minions use to describe the protests in California is aimed at one thing: establishing what they think is a case for invoking the Insurrection Act. You don’t even need to listen closely – just pay attention to the words. It’s coming.
Only the courts (may) save us.
Trump threatened that protests at his birthday parade would “be met with very big force.” Protests. That’s part of the fabric of our country, agree with the cause or not, people get to scream, and yell, and march.
They don’t get to grab equipment away from law enforcement and use it to smash windows of the Congress, though. That’s against the law. That may be insurrection. Apparently, a pardonable offense these days.
But that’s what those “tourists” did on Jan. 6 to our Capitol.
Now that Trump has begun to use his powers as commander-in-chief against his own people, what’s to stop him from going even further? He’s already deported people without due process. He’s already paid a foreign leader to house those deported in prisons he couldn’t last until lunch in.
Now, he is deporting illegal immigrants from allied countries and deporting them – but not back to the countries they came from (and who want them) but to Gitmo – without informing our allies where or who they are.
No president has unilaterally invoked the Insurrection Act against a state’s wishes since Lyndon Johnson did to provide protection for civil rights activists in Alabama in 1965.
But Trump did it just the other day. Inserting himself as a tough guy in a protest that covered a few blocks of Los Angeles. Some of those folks, don’t get me wrong, committed crimes and should be punished. Some of them. Some are just citizens standing up for their neighbors.
Our media tends to knee-jerk react to the politics of all this. California’s governor makes a speech to take political advantage of his state’s tragic recent history to leap ahead of the candidates for 2028, they say. Finally, they tell us someone has taken the lead on taking on Trump.
Personally, I don’t dwell on who should run in 2028. I’m simply hoping we have a free election in 2028.
It’s not guaranteed.
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