Donald Trumps presidency has been every bit asamateurishand chaotic and ridiculous as his campaign was. As time has elapsedmany of those who were terrified at first have come to view the president as aclown who is in way over his head. Utter uncertainty prevailed duringthe months between Trumps election in Novemberand his January inauguration,andmany were genuinely concerned thatTrump would quickly become a tyrant once in office, using the power of the presidency to go after his enemies and silence his critics.
It has now been nearly five months since Trump became president, and the full-blown panic that was in the air earlier this year haswaned. Trump has yet to impose martial law, imprison his critics or crack down on the free press. In fact, the Trump administration has been positively incompetent. The White House has been plagued by major policy setbacks and political scandals, and the presidents most notable executive orders have been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Trump and his team seem to have entered Washington without a clue as to how things work, and the dealmaker-in-chief has made no deals whatsoever on Capitol Hill. President Trump has also made some embarrassing and costlyblunders himself usually in the form of tweeting late at night while his babysitters are in bed. (Case in point: The presidents recent tweets on the travel ban will likely damage his efforts to restore it.)
It is understandable, then, that many have come to view Trump and his presidency as more of an embarrassing joke than an existential threat to our democracy. The president seemstoo great a foolto pose a real threat to the republic.
This notion was recentlyaddressed by Russian journalist Masha Gessen inacolumn for the New York Times,in which she argues thatTrumps Incompetence Wont Save Our Democracy, and looks back at some of historys most successful tyrantsto make her point:
A careful reading of contemporary accounts will show that both Hitler and Stalin struck many of their countrymen as men of limited ability, education and imagination and, indeed, as being incompetent in government and military leadership. Contrary to popular wisdom, they are not political savants, possessed of one extraordinary talent that brings them to power. It is the blunt instrument of reassuring ignorance that propels their rise in a frighteningly complex world.
Gessen also notes that Vladimir Putin, whom she has interviewed and written extensively about and who is perceived by many as a cunning political genius is a poorly educated, under-informed, incurious man whose ambition is vastly out of proportion to his understanding of the world. (This seems to be a perfectly apt description of Trump as well even if the American presidents ignorance of the world seems to be in a class of its own.) Gessen concludes that it is Trumps insistence on simplicity that makes him want to rule like an autocrat, and that militant incompetence and autocracy are not in opposition: They are two sides of a coin.
This is an important point that should dissuade people from underestimating Trump after his rockystart. After all, most people underestimatedthe billionaire throughout his campaign for many of the same reasons, and he had the last laugh. Though the Trump administrations incompetencehas been something to behold, this shouldnt detract from the very real authoritarian leaningsthat the president has displayed.
Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey because of his investigation into Russias interference in the electionwas the clearest sign yet that the president has no respect for the rule of law or the separation of powers. But the presidents authoritarian tendencies have been apparent from day one whether it be inlabelingthe press the enemy of the people, attacking federal judges who rule against his policies, or describingthe constitutional system of checks and balances is archaic and a bad thing for the country.
Of course, there has also been a great deal of unhelpful hysteria coming from certainliberals.Aparanoid style of politics has taken hold of many Democrats, andTrump critics have becomeincreasingly ready to believe conspiracy theories and fake newsparticularlywhen it comes to Russia or to embracefar-fetched theoriesabout how the Trump administrationsfailures are really part of a master plan.
In an article for the Guardian last month, leftist author Corey Robincriticized liberals for this hysteria and credulity, andpointedoutthat Trump hasnt even attemptedto fill the vast majority of positions in the executive branch since becoming president. Its a strange kind of authoritarian who fails, as the first order of business, to seize control of the state apparatus, observes Robin, who goes on to blast liberalsfor taking the presidents words (or, in many cases, tweets) far too seriously. Trump has always thought his words were more real than reality. Hes always believed his own bullshit. Its time his liberal critics stopped believing it too, he writes.
Robin makes a valid point, and it is certainly time forliberals tobrush up on their critical thinking skills. That doesnt mean we should stop taking Trumps authoritarian threatsseriously. And just because the Trump administration has been an incompetentmess until now doesnt mean that the danger isnt real. Trump has yet toimprison his political opponentsor crack down on the media or impose martial law in Chicago, buthe hasthreatened to do suchthings, which is dangerous in and of itself.
Trump is no mastermind, and he has little understandingof how the government works. In the long run, the big donors who have come to dominate American politics over the past 40 years probably pose a greater hazard to democracy than Donald Trump.But any leader who breaks as many democratic norms as our president has over the past few months mustbe regarded as a legitimatethreat to democracy, no matter how ludicroushe appears while doing it.
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Yes, Donald Trump is an incompetent buffoon but he's still a major threat to democracy - Salon