The Eclipse of American Democracy, Part Three: President Trump

In future posts in this series on how Republicans are unapologetically attacking democratic institutions in America, I'll be focusing on their legal actions. For example, when North Carolina went to draw new boundaries for state congressional districts in 2016, State Representative David Lewis, the Republican who led the redrawing process, said that he proposed "we draw the maps to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats because I do not believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats."

But before we get to gerrymandering, voter suppression and a lot of other fun topics, let's discuss the orange-haired elephant in the room: President Donald Trump. Democratic institutions only survive while people respect them, something our President is unwilling to do. A good summary of the new normal for the leader of the free world was written by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt of the New York Times in December, 2016, before Trump even took office:

"In the campaign, he encouraged violence among supporters; pledged to prosecute Hillary Clinton; threatened legal action against unfriendly media; and suggested that he might not accept the election results.

This anti-democratic behavior has continued since the election. With the false claim that he lost the popular vote because of  "millions of people who voted illegally," Mr. Trump openly challenged the legitimacy of the electoral process. At the same time, he has been remarkably dismissive of United States intelligence agencies’ reports of Russian hacking to tilt the election in his favor.

Mr. Trump is not the first American politician with authoritarian tendencies. (Other notable authoritarians include Gov. Huey Long of Louisiana and Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.) But he is the first in modern American history to be elected president. This is not necessarily because Americans have grown more authoritarian (the United States electorate has always had an authoritarian streak). Rather it’s because the institutional filters that we assumed would protect us from extremists, like the party nomination system and the news media, failed."

When it's easy to enumerate half a dozen different ways that Mr. Trump managed to undermine democracy before he was even inaugurated President, you know we're in trouble. Fast forward a year into Trump's Presidency, here's some observations on what we've seen so far from John Shattuck of the American Prospect. Shattuck points out:

* "Donald Trump has gone beyond previous presidents in attacking the mainstream media, undermining its objectivity, distorting truth, and proliferating falsehoods."

* "The federal judiciary is similarly under attack. Trump has extended his influence over the judiciary by nominating 77 judges in his first year, some of whom are unqualified and ideologically extreme. He has criticized the federal judiciary as an institution and individual judges for failing to support his agenda."

* "The president has sought to derail any investigation of his presidential campaign or his administration in connection with Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and he has lied about his efforts to do so."

* "Trump has appointed family members to sensitive positions, refused to release his tax returns, failed to meet conflict-of-interest standards and mixed government and personal business activities. This has created a growing public perception that the Trump administration is a breeding ground for corruption, favoritism, and further erosion of trust in the political system".

* "Trump has attacked civil society by stirring up racial and religious animosity, stimulating social and cultural division, and undercutting civic activism. His anti-pluralist statements have encouraged extremists, denigrated minorities, discouraged moderates, and increased political polarization.

* "The Trump administration has decimated the professional civil service in many federal departments and agencies, promoting partisanship and undermining morale and efficiency, particularly in the State Department, the CIA, the FBI, the Department of Education, and the Environmental Protection Agency."

- and finally -

* "By repeatedly lying and manipulating factual reality, he has promoted the view that there is no objective truth. By attacking and insulting opponents, he has degraded public discussion of issues and politicized the institutions that are normally seen as nonpartisan guardrails of democracy."

To summarize, last month President Trump told an audience that China’s president, Xi Jinping, was now "president for life," and added: "I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll want to give that a shot someday." Although the New York Times wrote that the remark, "appeared to be in jest," I'm not sure who was laughing.

Tweet