{"id":14073,"date":"2023-12-14T14:51:40","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T14:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14073"},"modified":"2023-12-14T18:57:10","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T18:57:10","slug":"checks-and-balances-wont-save-us-from-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14073","title":{"rendered":"Checks and Balances Won\u2019t Save Us from Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our institutions have already proved weak.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Mona Charen<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE ALREADY-FORGOTTEN-BUT-NOT-YET-GONE Kevin McCarthy shared some thoughts<\/a> on threats to our democracy with Bob Costa on Face the Nation<\/em>. After affirming that yes, he is endorsing Trump for re-election, and yes, he would love to accept a post in his cabinet, he brushed aside concerns about Trump\u2019s authoritarian or even fascist tendencies. \u201cI don\u2019t see that.\u201d Pressed to justify Trump\u2019s nonstop vows to exact \u201cretribution\u201d on his opponents, McCarthy offered that \u201cWhat President Trump needs to do in this campaign\u2014it needs to be about rebuilding, restoring, renewing America. It can\u2019t be about revenge.\u201d How nice, but that\u2019s 180 degrees divergent from what Trump is doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costa persisted: \u201cHe\u2019s not backing away from his calls for retribution.\u201d McCarthy was unperturbed. \u201cYeah, but remember, you have a check-and-balance system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCarthy isn\u2019t the only one to place exaggerated confidence in institutions to save us from Trump\u2019s lawlessness. Even the supposedly serious conservatives on the Wall Street Journal <\/em>editorial board assure<\/a> readers that \u201cWe think American institutions are strong enough to contain whatever designs Mr. Trump has to abuse presidential power.\u201d The real danger, as the Journal<\/em> editorialists see it, is that \u201chis chaos theory of governance would result in a second term that failed to deliver on his promises and set up the left for huge gains in 2026 and 2028.\u201d So the Journal<\/em> isn\u2019t at all concerned that Trump would follow through on plans to instruct the Justice Department to prosecute his opponents; pardon all of the January 6th rioters, fake electors, and others who helped him attempt to steal the 2020 election; withdraw from NATO; impose a 10 percent tariff on all imports; investigate NBC for treason; and shoot shoplifters on sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This complacency is dangerous. The truth is that institutions don\u2019t uphold themselves. They require constant reinforcement and reaffirmation. They depend upon individuals who are committed to something other than their own narrow self-interest. Our institutions were not strong before Trump took center stage in American life, and they are even weaker now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best possible check on the excesses of any political figure is a strong party that exerts pressure to conform to certain standards. After long patience with his lies during Watergate, a delegation of leading Republican officeholders trooped<\/a> to the White House on August 7, 1974 to inform Richard Nixon that he had lost the support of the GOP. He could choose to endure impeachment or resign. He resigned on August 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though partisan feelings run hot these days, the actual political parties have very little power. They pop off rhetorical fireworks and incite hatred of the other party, but they have lost influence over the direction of their own members. They don\u2019t even have influence over what the party stands for. In 2020, the Republican party\u2014which had produced a platform every four years despite civil war, depression, and two world wars\u2014produced no platform, merely a one-sentence declaration that the party supported \u201cthe President\u2019s America First agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democratic party, also a shadow of its former self (though not as weak as the GOP), could not assemble a delegation of elders\u2014say, in 2022\u2014to approach Joe Biden and suggest that he step aside and groom a younger successor. The party doesn\u2019t have that kind of influence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Republican party were not such a shell, it would have shut down Trump\u2019s dangerous lies about the stolen election on November 3, 2020. Instead, leading office holders \u201chumored<\/a>\u201d him, or worse, reinforced his lies. They knew that to mislead voters about the integrity of the election process was playing with fire\u2014that it could result in instability or violence. But the party failed miserably. Even after the deadly assault on the Capitol on January 6th, 147 Republican representatives and senators voted not to certify Biden\u2019s election. The Republican party as an institution was not a check on an attempted coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only the conscience and courage of a few individuals that kept the United States from plunging into a constitutional crisis. Mike Pence, Rusty Bowers, Brad Raffensperger, Jeff Rosen, Richard Donoghue, and a few others found it within themselves to put country before party. Later, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, and the handful of Republicans who voted to impeach and convict Trump behaved admirably. But they did so in opposition to the institution of the Republican party, not as agents of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few people with the backbone to do the right thing do not make an institution. They don\u2019t comprise a reliable \u201ccheck and balance\u201d\u2014especially when the institution has chosen not to reward but to punish them. Not only have most of those who did the right thing lost their seats, many have had to expend small fortunes for personal security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The institution of the Republican party cannot be relied upon to check Trump in a second term. What would elected Republicans do if he instructed his officials to violate people\u2019s constitutional rights and promised in advance to pardon them? Let\u2019s be realistic. Most Republicans would justify it. The Wall Street Journal<\/em> would probably tsk tsk<\/em> and say the real danger was that Democrats might get the same idea. And if they didn\u2019t, what could they do to stop him? Impeachment is a dead letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the institution of the press? There are probably more excellent journalists working today than any time in history, but the press as an institution is in crisis. Reliable outlets compete for clicks with disinformation sites and malicious liars. Steve Bannon\u2019s \u201cflood-the-zone-with-s\u2014\u201d tactic has worked like a charm. The owner<\/a> of the website that had served as America\u2019s town hall now retweets antisemitic slurs, invites Alex Jones back with open arms, and chats amiably with conspiracy theorist Vivek Ramaswamy. The most-watched cable network had to pay out $787 million in damages to Dominion Voting Systems for knowingly and cynically libeling them. The press is not a check on Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the churches? You would think that if any institution were loyal to something higher than partisanship, it would be the churches. But as Peter Wehner, Tim Alberta, David French, and Russell Moore have shown in painful detail, white Evangelicals have shown themselves to be among the most susceptible to the lure of a would-be authoritarian. The churches are not a check on Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the military? For the most part, the military has held steady, affirming that it has no role in domestic politics. But there are a disturbing number of former officers like Michael Flynn and others who are fully paid-up members of the Trump cult, and it should disturb the sleep of any patriot that all of the living former secretaries of defense felt the need to sign a letter in 2020 affirming<\/a> that the military has no proper role in determining the outcome of America\u2019s elections. Nor is it healthy to have to worry that the military will second guess orders from the commander-in-chief\u2014something that only surfaces when the voters choose someone unhinged for the role. The military might be a check on a clearly illegal order by Trump\u2014say, to obliterate Mexico City in an unprovoked attack\u2014but would not be a check on legal orders, like withdrawing from NATO, calling up troops<\/a> under the Insurrection Act, or abandoning South Korea. The military is only a partial check on Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the courts? The judiciary has been a stalwart check on Trump. From the first rebuffs of the \u201cMuslim ban\u201d in January 2017 to the 60 spurious suits charging election fraud in 2020, the courts have upheld the law and brushed back Trump\u2019s attempts at dictatorial power. Will that hold? Things will be different if Trump is re-elected. He will have learned the importance of putting a toady in the attorney general\u2019s office. And he will spend the bulk of the next 11 months discrediting the entire judicial system in order to vitiate the impact of any guilty verdict. He, along with his GOP enablers, was able to convince tens of millions of Americans that the election was stolen. How many, at the end of this process, will believe that the judicial system is corrupt and rigged?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump already abused the pardon power in his first term to excuse war criminals and his pet supporters. He is practiced at this. So what is to stop him from pardoning himself for any and all depredations of the Constitution, which he has already declared should be \u201cterminated\u201d? What can the courts do against the plenary pardon power? The courts can try, but they are an insufficient check on Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our institutions are weak. The checks and balances, like the impeachment power, have proved toothless. There is only one check on autocracy that remains\u2014the electorate\u2014and with every poll, doubts about that one accumulate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mona Charen<\/a> is The Policy Editor at The Bulwark. Host of Beg to Differ podcast.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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