In April of 1964, President Lyndon Johnson, enjoying the opulence of White House living that a depression era son of rural Texas never could have dreamed of, went skinny dipping in the presidential pool. With aides Dick Goodwin and Bill Moyers, who he had ordered to get buck naked and join him, the man who would reshape American policy toward its poor, and harness his office to usher in historic civil rights laws at great political expense to himself and his party, held forth on power and the presidency:
“Now, some men want power so they can strut around to “Hail to the Chief”; some want it to make money; I wanted power to use it. And I’m going to use it. And use it right if you boys’ll help me.”
Of course, there’s little mystery where LBJ would sort our current POTUS within his observation. And the irony that the same man who deployed his clout for such constructive reordering of US economic and civic priorities would also oversee the disastrous slippery slope of Vietnam is a cautionary tale of the fine line between ambition and hubris. Moreover, the second irony that most of Trump’s core shrilly advocate hobbling Johnson’s signature accomplishments clarifies the dangers of American populism allowed to guide either corrupt or hapless politicians. The point is US Presidential power is like an AR-15; it means everything who’s hands it is in and why it’s there, and should certainly be regulated.
Trump has laid bare how vulnerable our system is to authoritarian challenge. But equally troubling, this administration highlights our vulnerability to sheer incompetence at a time in history we can least afford it. The vaunted checks and balances we idolized in government classes and election night commentaries are fully wanting when enfeebled by a majority party of cowards and co-conspirators. I suppose it is understandable that our founders, brave enough to risk life and fortune for democratic principle, visionary enough to map out blueprints for political pluralism, and idealistic enough to make protecting minority viewpoints a cornerstone of a new nation, would assume wretched indifference to ethics and courage an aberration instead of the rule for future generations of legislators. But here we are, trapped by a system that may be unable to protect itself. We get the governance we deserve and the GOP proclivity for nihilist opportunism has us by the short hairs. We now know how low they can go!
This Presidency offers nothing redeeming. On every front it assaults the public trust and good will. Its supporters are capable of nothing more than basic totalitarian fare of denying damning facts as media lies, while relying fully on a media that lies around the clock. The cynical tribalism of Trump’s Congressional bloc is now such that most won’t grant interviews to anybody but Fox/AM and trot away silent, as if caught red handed, when asked in public near anything about the POTUS. This is a civil war footing. And it is hard to envision such a group abiding the popular will in any way…up to and including an election drubbing.
At some point it will sink in to even the disinterested that the GOP is no longer adherent to democracy’s strictures, and is conspiring in plain sight to refuse to cede power peacefully when rebuffed in November. Moreover, even a cursory review of states dominated by GOP legislatures clarifies overt efforts to undermine electoral laws and procedures, disenfranchising voters without a hint of hesitation. There isn’t one red state immune to this corruption. All are unapologetically working at every level to restrict the vote. Nonexistent past “voter fraud” is expressed as accepted fact across the Fox/AM table when justifying this blatant campaign to suppress, along with established lies about participation by “illegals”, constantly propagated by the White House.
GOP leaders appear ready to fully throw in with a man so incompetent and corrupt that he exhibits no willingness to even accept responsibility for the actions he claims didn’t break any laws. In other words he lies about things he did, but maintains if he did do them, no laws were broken. The Fox isn’t guarding the hen house; it is eating the hens and daring us to try and do something about it because the farmer hates hens to begin with. BC