Make “death by a thousand cuts” work for you!
Headlines at The New York Times too often soft-pedal stories critical of our would-be dictator. “Fight Like Our Democracy Depends on It” above its May Day Editorial Board offering is refreshingly blunt, even if the text fails to convey five-alarm-fire urgency (gift link):
The first 100 days of President Trump’s second term have done more damage to American democracy than anything else since the demise of Reconstruction. Mr. Trump is attempting to create a presidency unconstrained by Congress or the courts, in which he and his appointees can override written law when they want to. It is precisely the autocratic approach that this nation’s founders sought to prevent when writing the Constitution.
Since it’s been happening in plain sight and in bold headlines since Jaunary 20, it’s nice to see the Gray Lady acknowledge that, left unchecked, Trump 2.0 will go from bad to worse. He’ll pave the way for future presidents, should there be any, “to pursue a similarly unbound approach, in which they use the powers of the federal government to silence critics and reward allies.”
This is fine
So get busy checking him, willya? But heaven forfend you should do it “reflexively or “performatively.” The patriotic response, the Board urges solemnly, is
… to build a coalition of Americans who disagree about many other subjects — who span conservative and progressive, internationalist and isolationist, religious and secular, business-friendly and labor-friendly, pro-immigration and restrictionist, laissez-faire and pro-government, pro-life and pro-choice — yet who believe that these subjects must be decided through democratic debate and constitutional processes rather than the dictates of a single man.
Take a few years to build that coalition and get back to us … if you can from El Salvador.
The Gray Lady outlines a bill of particular, pillars of democracy Trump has attacked:
- Separation of powers
- Due process
- Equal justice under law
- Free speech and freedom of the press
- Government for the people
Except there’s no Declaration to go with it on this May Day.
So y’all do something, the Times urges. Just be “principled” and “effective,” okay?
True, there is no simple way to defend American democracy from him. The founders sought to create so many checks and balances partly because they understood that a president who aspired to be a king might very well succeed. Neither Congress nor the courts have military forces or intelligence agencies at their disposal to enforce their decisions. Only the president does. As a result, our constitutional order depends to a significant degree on the good faith of a president.
If a president acts in bad faith, it requires a sophisticated, multifaceted campaign to restrain him. Other parts of the government, along with civil society and corporate America, must think carefully and rigorously about what to do. That’s especially true when the most powerful alternative — Congress — is prostrate.
Or you could take the the streets en masse or engage in a national strike. Just so long as you’re “sophisticated” and “multifaceted” about it.
This is not fine. But you won’t get that urgency from the Times on this May Day 2025.
Every way and every day that you push back helps. It may not seem like much, but persistence in numbers builds. It undermines the autocrats and weakens their grip. I see no reason that death by a thousand cuts can’t work for us for a change. “Trump’s Already Lost,” Josh Marshall believes. Make it so.
See you downtown.
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