reflectivepundit

The Last, Best Hope Against Tyranny? A United—not Divided—Democratic Party

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Joe Biden’s late withdrawal from the 2024 presidential campaign and Kamala Harris’s thin defeat by Donald Trump continue to fuel a never-ending stream of critical analyses inside the Democratic Party and, even more so, among mainstream media commentators and reporters. I am not writing here about the right-extreme on- and off-line news and social media outlets that spent years to convinced King Donald’s subjects that Democrats and Liberals are evil-doers. Rather, my focus is on the mainstream liberal and moderate media and the Democratic Party.

While the party that loses an election deserves autopsies of its long- and short-term failures, the commentariat’s obsession with magnifying real and imagined tactical, strategic, ideological, institutional, and generational divisions inside the Democratic Party has gone over the top. And it has taken attention away from the scary words and deeds of the Musk-Trump regime.

Needed now are cool and courageous heads inside the Democratic Party who recognize that the only opposition party is the last, best hope to organize strong, peaceful, and potent protests against the clear and present danger we are facing today.

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) showed the way last weekend, when they drew huge crowds in Colorado and Arizona. Instead of theorizing about the threat of losing democracy, they talked about the butter-and-bread issues that regular, working people are worried about. Health care, social security, the basic standards of living.

But Bernie’s most important words were his appeals to the utility of unity in times of crises.

Forget about dwelling on whether Chuck Schumer should be replaced as minority leader in the U.S. Senate or whether Nancy Pelosi should refrain from running once again in 2026. Such issues are not the most pressing ones now; they can be addressed inside the party and without public spectacle.

If hundreds-of-thousands of people can come together on the streets of Istanbul to protest their autocratic president’s unjustified arrest of a political opponent, the leadership of the Democratic Party can and should be organizing far greater protests on a regular basis along the lines of Bernie’s and AOC’s mass demonstrations last weekend.

Is Today’s America Still a Democracy?

By Brigitte L. Nacos

In his latest column in the New York Times titled “Democracy Is on the Line in Israel and America,” Thomas Friedman wrote, “Are we seeing the slow-motion collapse of the rule of law in the United States and Israel at the same time?”  It is too early to answer that question, but it is no longer too early to ask it.”

I am sure that James Madison, one of the Founding Fathers and the fourth U.S. President, would not merely ask but also answer the two questions Friedman raised in the headline and first paragraph of his commentary—certainly with respect to the United States.

As Madison wrote in Federalist #47,

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

He added that “the preservation of liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.”

Today, President Trump is firmly in charge of the legislative branch while threatening judges who are ruling against the daily abuse of power by the White House and other administration officials.

The Republican majorities in the U.S. House and Senate are not “separate and distinct” but obedient pawns of the president. By willingly and enthusiastically handing over their constitutional powers to the executive, they are abandoning their role as the “first branch of government.”

Unlike the congressional GOP, some members of the judicial branch—judges and prosecutors-- have resisted interference by the president’s eager servants. More recently, the ruling clique has not merely threatened to fight non-compliant judges but disregarded and acted contrary to their rulings. Last weekend, the Homeland Security Department deported alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, although a U.S. judge had blocked the removal. Similarly, a Lebanese professor at Brown University was deported in defiance of a court order to halt her deportation.

The so-called Border Czar Tom Homan, said on FOX News, “I don’t care what judges think…I’m proud to be a part of this administration. We’re not stopping.”

Since the courageous judges do not have the means to enforce their rulings without the assistance of executive departments, the president and his administration are now paralyzing independent judges and rely on loyalists in the judiciary to support their cause.

The triple separation of power designed by the Framers of the Constitution to safeguard liberty and justice--and thus democracy—is crumbling within the first 100 days of Trump’s second term.

 

King Don’s Court Prefers Complicit Reporters

By Brigitte L. Nacos

In the new White House order, the best and brightest political reporters representing the legacy press have lost their advantage to asking questions as part of the so-called press pool which has a limited and rotating number of wire, print, and television reporters. Traditionally, the pool members are selected by the White House Correspondents’ Association and share their first-hand observations with other White House reporters with both sides trusting each other.

All this changed eight days ago, when the White House announced that it would take control of the selection of pool members. Just as far-right online and television channels were regularly called on by Trump’s press secretary in the early weeks of his second term, they now are part and parcel of the press pool during events that allow only a limited number of reporters. This now prominent clique of MAGA courtiers mimics and promotes the narcissistic traits of their idol who strives to be king.

Take last Friday’s “made for television” assault on Ukraine’s president Zelensky by President Trump and his sidekick Vice-President JD Vance. After Trump himself had greeted Zelensky earlier with the loud remark directed towards the press, “He’s all dressed up today…,” a reference to Zelensky’s usual field uniform in support of his forces fighting Russia’s invading army, a pool “journalist,” asked the Ukrainian president, “Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit. Just want to see if…do you own a suit? A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the office.”

As it happened, this White House selected pool member represented a far-right cable channel with a history of conspiracy theories. He played his role to the full satisfaction of those who selected him over reporters who understand the crucial role of the press in a democracy—among them the Associate Press wire service. Note, that no far-right or any other White House reporter has asked Elon Musk during his repeated performances in the Oval Office why he did not wear a suit. Presumably, they all know that President Trump would not like such a question.

Even more shocking was the presence of a man working for the Russian government wire service TASS among pool reporters during the pro-Russian rhetorical assault on Zelensky. The White House claimed later that the guy was not approved for the pool and removed once his presence became known.

That is not credible. Whoever has been in the White House as member of a foreign press outlet knows that nobody without secret service clearance and security checks all along gets near or into the Oval Office. In this case, another pool reporter observed that White House officials, who reviewed reporters’ credential before allowing them to enter the Oval Office, waived the TASS reporter in. Thus, a journalist representing and paid by the Russian government attended the event that a Kremlin spokesperson characterized later as demonstrating that both governments have “coinciding visions.”