December 9, 2017
This past week members of Congress have been falling like dominoes, due to transgressions large and small. While Democrats were imposing a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment, Roy Moore’s fervent supporters in Alabama were saying that many parents would have been “proud” for their teenage daughters to date him (Source: Vice News, HBO, 12/9/17). The difference is that preying on women is a feature, not a bug, of patriarchal white supremacy. While we were transfixed by the bizarre tableau of Congressional misdeeds, we may have overlooked ominous signs that we are on the brink of sliding into a full-fledged autocracy.
First, evidencing the consequences of Merrick Garland’s stolen seat, the Supreme Court began the week by ruling, by a 7-2 margin, that Trump’s “revised” travel ban could go forward while the two court challenges made their way through the Ninth and the Fourth Circuits. Next, during Tuesday’s oral arguments in the Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case, the nature of the questions led several observers to predict a 5-4 decision in favor of the bakery’s right to discriminate against LGBT people. Although cases interpreting the Bill of Rights frequently require a balancing act between competing interests, if the court holds that the free exercise of religion renders unlawful discrimination permissible, it has the potential to erase all of the hard won civil rights gained by people of color and LGBT people over the last sixty years. Then, on Thursday, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court granted a stay of the lower court order directing the Executive Branch to turn over internal documents and legal analyses related to the decision to rescind DACA (Source: “Supreme Court lifts order to disclose DACA cancellation records,” by Josh Gersten, Politico.com, 12/8/17).
Taken together, these developments paint a picture of a Supreme Court that will be unduly deferential to the Executive Branch, disregard the importance of transparency in government and will allow professed religious beliefs to trump individual rights. As Trump and a Republican led Congress rush to fill the federal courts with far right ideologues like Brett Talley, who defended the KKK (Source: Trump Judicial Nominee Brett Talley Appears to Have Defended “the first KKK” in Message Board Post,” by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, 11/15/17) or Thomas Farr, who defended North Carolina’s voter suppression law (Source: “Senate Rushing to Confirm Trump Judges Who Back Voter Suppression, “ by Billy Corriher and Michele L. Jawando, Center for American Progress, 11/8/17), we can anticipate a complete abdication of the federal court’s decades’ long role in the protection of individual rights of “discrete and insular minorities,” United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144 (1938). Given this administration’s singular dedication to trampling on the rights of people of color and LGBT people, it is a frightening prospect indeed.
Lastly, while traditional media outlets have been uncovering a steady stream of damaging evidence in Mueller probe in the aftermath of Flynn’s guilty plea last week, those on the right have been peddling an alternate reality. The Washington Post reported that while Trump was being inaugurated, Mike Flynn was texting a business partner that their plan to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East was “good to go,” and that sanctions against Russia for its interference in our elections would be “ripped up,” (Source: “Whistleblower: Flynn texts broached nuclear plan, sanctions,” by Stephen Braun/AP, The Washington Post, 12/6/17).
ABC aired an interview with the fiancée of former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, asserting that he was far from a mere “coffee boy.“ According to his fiancée, Papadopoulos was constantly communicating with high-level Trump campaign officials like Bannon and Flynn and reached out to foreign leaders with the campaign’s knowledge and authorization, (Source: “Papadopoulos Had ‘Blessing’ to Contact World Leaders for Trump Campaign, Fiancée Says,” by Greg Price, Newsweek, 12/8/17).
These stories supported our belief that conclusive proof of Trump’s “high crimes and misdemeanors” was imminent. However, in the alternate universe of right wing media, outlets like Fox News, Breitbart and The New York Post were busily waging a full frontal attack on the Special Counsel’s investigation (Source: “Fox’s Pro-Trump hosts are working overtime to discredit Robert Mueller,” by Brian Stelter, Reliable Sources, CNN.com, 12/8/17). College dropout, Sean Hannity, attacked the integrity of Robert Mueller, the former FBI Director and Marine Corps veteran who earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Vietnam. Trump himself attacked the FBI, stating that its reputation was in “tatters.” This coordinated campaign is clearly designed to inoculate Trump and those in his orbit from the impact of the revelations that they know are coming, and to give Congressional Republicans cover for a refusal to impeach him.
Clearly there is no limit to Trump’s criminality and corruption. Clearly, Congressional Republicans are only accountable to their billionaire patrons, with no concern for the welfare of their constituents. Clearly, for many rank and file Republicans, depravity is no bar to higher office. Clearly, all three share a desire for an authoritarian, theocratic regime. Now is the time to stand up and be a patriot. As historian, Timothy Snyder, explains in his book, “On Tyranny,” “a patriot… wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves. …A patriot says that it could happen here, but that we will stop it.”