Daily Archives: June 11, 2017

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.

See the original post:

Yes, Donald Trump is an incompetent buffoon but he's still a major threat to democracy - Salon

Virginias Democratic primary on Tuesday is shaping up to be the first real test of liberalism in the Trump era, with both candidates lurching for increasingly leftward policies to position themselves in contrast with President Donald Trump.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam has used TV ads to call Trump a narcissistic maniac. Former Rep. Tom Perriello has proclaimed that Trump is an authoritarian. Both candidates have taken decidedly liberal positions on abortion, guns, criminal justice and college tuition while using Trump bashing as a foundation of their campaigns. While Northam has the support of the Democratic establishment throughout Virginia and Perriello brings a potent Bernie Sanders endorsement to the primary, the simmering question for the winner is how this race to the left in the Democratic primary which may appeal to Northern Virginia Democrats will play across the rest of the state in the general election.

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Virginia's gubernatorial elections often develop into contrasts with a new president, but there's a stark difference between now and how Republican candidate Bob McDonnell handled then-President Barack Obama in 2009. While critical of Obama's economic record, the future governor also regularly praised Obama for supporting school choice, straddling the partisan divide.

The Democrats have felt no need to do the same with the less popular Trump, whose approval rating was at 36 percent in a recent Washington Post-George Mason University poll of Virginia.

Let's prove that Donald Trump's values are not Virginia values, Perriello says in one of his closing television ads. Northam has arguably gone further, using his TV campaign to call Trump a narcissistic maniac though Perriello answered Thursday with an ad of his own calling Trump "authoritarian," and invoking Virginia's motto: "Sic Semper Tyrannis," a shortened version of a Latin phrase meaning "Thus always I bring death to tyrants." Perriello has also lined up Khizr Khan who became famous for his Democratic National Convention speech invoking his son, who died in the Iraq War, and slamming Trump to campaign with him on Monday, the day before the primary.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, the only Democratic member of Virginias congressional delegation to remain neutral in the primary the others have all lined up behind Northam said its unclear whether voters will respond to Perriellos vision of the governorship.

Can Tom ride the anti-Trump wave, which is very strong here in Northern Virginia? Connolly pondered in a recent phone interview. Can he make the case that the governors office should be a platform for the resistance?

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Invoking the resistance comes more naturally to Perriello than it does to Northam. It was former staffers of Perriellos who wrote the Indivisible guides, which have inspired dozens of local liberal-leaning groups that have poked and prodded their members of Congress on Trumps Russia scandals and the GOP health care repeal plan.

Northam, by his own admittance, is less of a firebrand and more unassuming than Perriello. But he has dived headlong into the anti-Trump-themed primary, too, when he unveiled the narcissistic maniac attack on Trump in his stump speech and later in TV ads.

We experienced in 2016 this campaign of Mr. Trumps that was run of fear, bigotry, hatred and a lot of misinformation, Northam said in an April interview. In politics, you tend to react to whats going on around you. Theres been an awakening going on across Virginia, and I suspect across this country. I worry a lot about whats going on in Washington.

Northam, a pediatric neurologist, has defended the narcissistic maniac line as both politically effective and medically appropriate. When Meet the Press host Chuck Todd pressed him on its use recently, Northam didnt back down.

Theres a lot of overlap between psychiatry and neurology, and I would invite the viewers to look up the criteria for narcissism, he said, adding: I think theyll see some familiarity with what theyll see.

The results of the Republican primary have been in less doubt than the Democratic contest, but Trump has made waves in that race nonetheless.

Underdog candidate Corey Stewart, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors chairman, has argued that front-runner Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is less than sincere in his backing of the under-fire Republican.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, by his own admittance, is less of a firebrand and more unassuming than former Rep. Tom Perriello. But he has dived headlong into the anti-Trump-themed primary, too, when he unveiled the narcissistic maniac attack on President Donald Trump in his stump speech and later in TV ads. | AP Photo

Stewart (who was Trumps Virginia campaign chair for much of 2016 but was fired in October) stands next to a smiling Trump in his closing TV ad, while a narrator declares: Corey Stewart supports President Trump. Not Ed Gillespie. In a debate outside Richmond this spring, Stewart attacked Gillespie for criticizing Trump after the release of the Access Hollywood tapes that showed Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women.

Ed was among the first Republicans in the country to kick him when he was down, Stewart said.

Gillespie responded by noting Trump himself apologized for the remarks. Coreys the only one who thinks theyre great comments, he said.

Invoking Trump has not given Stewart much traction; last months Washington Post poll found Gillespie with a lead of 20 percentage points in the primary. A plurality also thought Gillespie was the strongest Trump supporter in the race.

Yet Trumps brand of politics would seem an ill fit with what Gillespie has practiced as a political operative, 2014 Senate candidate and gubernatorial contender. Gillespie repeatedly pledges to be the governor of all Virginians, has released television ads in Spanish and Korean, and has mentioned his familys immigrant roots in web videos. In his 2014 Senate campaign, Gillespie made extensive outreach to Northern Virginia Muslim communities.

Still, Gillespie has largely avoided breaking with Trump. While GOP governors in blue states like Maryland, Vermont and Massachusetts have criticized his handling of the travel ban or his decision to pull out of the Paris agreement on reducing carbon emissions, Gillespie has resisted putting distance between himself and the president.

After an event in Northern Virginia on Wednesday, Gillespie was asked why his campaign ads didnt feature Trump the way his competitors did. His response was 45 seconds long, and he never said the presidents name, while every TV in the state features Northam and Perriello talking about Trump before Tuesday's primary.

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Original post:

Democrats bet on Trump in Virginia governor's race - Politico