We’ve been talking about the danger Trump presents to democracy since the day after the election in 2016. But this past week has really brought that concern into high relief.
CNN’s Brian Stelter’s newsletter on Sunday featured the following:
Quoting the watchdog group Freedom House: “Trump has assailed essential institutions and traditions including the separation of powers, a free press, an independent judiciary, the impartial delivery of justice, safeguards against corruption, and most disturbingly, the legitimacy of elections.” With that in mind, consider the headlines of the past week:
— Separation of powers: Trump has been challenging the legislative branch’s power of the purse by diverting Pentagon $$$ to build more border wall.
— Free press: His newest budget proposal would cut funding for PBS, NPR, and the military’s iconic Stars and Stripes newspaper.
— Independent judiciary: Via Twitter he attacked a federal judge, the same woman who will be sentencing his friend Roger Stone.
— Safeguards against corruption: He has been smearing the Ukraine whistleblower and those who testified about the scheme to the House.
— Impartial delivery of justice: Look no further than the DOJ crisis. The NYT’s Sunday front page carried new concerns about political interference.
— Harvard professor Stephen M. Walt has been keeping a “dictator” checklist since 2016. He revisited the list for Foreign Policy mag a few days ago. He wrote that “after impeachment, the president has been passing most of the checkpoints on the way to authoritarianism.”
— The Guardian has an excerpt from the 2018 book “How Democracies Die.”
— This 2016 piece by Vox has aged well: “The rise of American authoritarianism.”
I guess you can say that this is all silly, wine-mom, hysteria if you want. But it strikes me as extremely serious. We’re in a new stage.