By Brigitte L. Nacos
Incredibly, this morning’s most prominent headline in the New York Times (as in other leading newspapers) did not highlight the most shocking and troubling statement the 45th U.S. president made the previous evening. “I am the chief law enforcement officer,” Donald Trump said shortly after issuing pardons and commutations of sentences to an unruly bunch of corrupt individuals—without the “normal” role of the Justice Department.
Probably without knowing that France’s Louis XIV coined the dubious justification of absolute monarchy with the exclamation “l’etat c’est moi” (“I am the state”), Donald Trump told us basically that only he determines what the law is, who will or will not be charged, tried, found guilty, and serve a sentence.
Last night, President Trump himself confirmed what has been evident for a while: With the help of Attorney-General William Barr as his most faithful protector and the Republican Senate majority and the rest of the GOP as enthusiastic cheerleaders rather than the constitutional check of an out of control executive, Donald Trump is now no longer the president in a system that was designed by our Founding Fathers.
Even before reelection and a second term Trump is bold enough to do away with the appearance of following the U.S. Constitution, the rule of law—not men and the well- established rules of the game.
In reality, in his ascent to dictatorial rule President Trump resembles now the strongman he admires most, Vladimir Putin of Russia.
The most troubling aspect is the absence of any protests from Washington or elsewhere in the country. Aside from the superficial comments by the talking heads in evening and morning shows and their never changing line-up of so-called expert guests, there were no outcries from leading Republicans or Democrats.
And there were no spontaneous protests by regular citizens in defense of their democracy. Instead, it was a day like any other day--for Trump’s supporters and for his opponents.
Add to this an uptick in Trump’s approval ratings of late and the increasingly bloody and completely counterproductive infights between the men and women competing for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party as the stuff that emboldens this president even further.
Sometimes democracy dies in darkness. This time, our democracy spirals downward in bright daylight.
Until is too late?
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