Trump’s two-month presidency has hurt democracy even more than we feared | Opinion
The first two months of the second Trump administration have been far worse than any of us feared it would be. All the earnest concern about how democracy could survive another four years under Trump has proven to be inadequate in dealing with the awful reality that has seemingly worsened by the day, by the hour even. If democracy still survives among us, it does so as a reminder of what should be, of what can be again. In terms of a functioning democracy, one would be hard pressed to make the case that we have one. If one doubts that assertion, if one thinks that anyone who reaches that conclusion is suffering from some form of Trump derangement syndrome, as Trump apologists are quick to charge, consider the following:
In a functioning democracy, a president who issues a nigh universal pardon for all those who participated in the January 6 uprising, on the Orwellian grounds that it is to rectify “the injustice” which those imprisoned have suffered from the previous administration, would have been impeached immediately for such a “high crime.”
In a functioning democracy, a president would not purposely nominate for his cabinet persons who, almost without exception, are not only unqualified but are active threats to undermine the mission of the departments and agencies they are to head.
In a functioning democracy, a president would be unable to leverage the White House in breathtaking ways for personal gain for himself, his family, and his benefactors.
In a functioning democracy, Congress would impeach a president who allowed his chief fundraiser, by ruthlessly slashing the budgets and personnel of the most essential components of the federal government, to imperil the general welfare and security of the American people. And all this carnage as a rationalization for massive tax cuts for the further enrichment of plutocrats.
In a functioning democracy, the Department of Justice and its agencies would not be run by people whose loyalty is primarily to the man who appointed them, not to the Constitution to which they took an oath. People who see their principal charge to be punishing Trump’s enemies and protecting his supporters.
In a functioning democracy, federal agents do not deport persons deemed to be criminals without due process to alien prisons notorious for their barbaric treatment of inmates, with no hope of return.
In a functioning democracy, one does not turn on an ally engaged in defending democracy and align with the aggressor conducting the equivalent of genocidal war by rescinding or threatening to rescind all the sanctions for which your honorable predecessor fought so skillfully to impose upon the Russians.
In a functioning democracy, one does not threaten to withdraw federal funding from universities for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion through curriculum, programs, and other community-building activities.
In a functioning democracy, a president does not threaten the workings of our justice system by attacking judges, prosecutors, and law firms who have raised his ire by seeking to hold him accountable.
In a functioning democracy, the chief executive values the role of inspectors general in monitoring the various departments to ensure that they operate legally, with integrity and within the limits of their missions.
In a functioning democracy, the president’s Defense Secretary does not use non-secure channels to discuss war plans, much less a channel which, in short order, erases any record of the meeting, in compliance with the president’s preference for leaving no evidence behind for opponents to use against him.
One could go on, but the evidence is overwhelming. At best, we are in a malfunctioning democracy that, as it approaches its 250th anniversary, is at the highest risk it has ever known of being put out of existence.
In this hour of extreme peril, there is some consolation that the voices defending and promoting democracy are growing by the day. They know that we cannot wait until Trumpism implodes upon itself. The way this democracy-hating administration is storming ahead on multiple fronts, we do not have that convenience.
This is at last the all-hands-on deck moment. How we respond depends on our abilities, health, position and opportunities. But that we respond in some way is incumbent on all of us who still value democracy. The more people who do act, the better the odds that the right and the truth will matter once more. As a people, it is still in our hands, even at this late hour, to revive democracy and ensure that our government of and by and for the people will, as Lincoln prayed, never “perish from the earth.”
Robert Emmett Curran is a professor of history emeritus at Georgetown University.