Checking in with Jennifer Rubin, now writing for The Contrarian since her former employer, the Washington Post became essentially nothing more than a Vichy mouthpiece.
We are no longer at a “tipping point” or “an inflection point.” We are no longer “sliding” toward autocracy. Donald Trump no longer “aspires” to be an autocrat. Last week, in case you had any doubt, the Trump regime went full-bore authoritarian. We cannot accurately describe the current United States government as a functional democracy.
Rubin checks off the boxes for events that have occurred within the last two weeks alone, including the wholly unjustified and unnecessary order to deploy federal troops to Portland, Oregon, the politically motivated and frankly absurd indictment of former FBI director James Comey, the firing of a U.S. attorney for “reminding” a Border Patrol chief to abide by a Court Order, the threatening of political attacks on Democrats and so-called “Democrat programs” (such as Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security) following the shutdown of the government, and the broad based assault and smearing of what Trump’s minions declared “domestic terrorist” organizations, namely “left-wing organizations and their donors.” There are many, many others.
There has never been a period in the history of this country that even comes close to what this malignant administration has perpetrated in the last six months. As George Packer, writing for The Atlantic puts it, we have entered a period of "Zombie Democracy' where the population goes through the motions of normality, even as the grip of the autocratic regime tightens.
From Packer's piece in The Atlantic:
It didn’t feel that way this morning, when I took my dog for his usual walk in the park and dew from the grass glittered on my boots in the rising sunlight. It doesn’t feel that way when you’re ordering an iced mocha latte at Starbucks or watching the Patriots lose to the Steelers. The persistent normality of daily life is disorienting, even paralyzing. Yet it’s true.
As Rubin writes:
More fascistic conduct is sure to come. Trump has vowed to bring more blatantly vengeance-fueled prosecutions against other perceived “enemies,” New York Attorney General Tish James and California Sen. Adam Schiff. He surely will threaten other cities with military occupation.
None of these actions are remotely tolerable in a society that calls itself a democracy, and more importantly, one with any pretense to fealty to the rule of law.
None of this is acceptable in a democratic country. A single item would be cause for alarm, and ample grounds for congressional investigation and potential impeachment. The accumulation of so many constitutional violations coupled with the utter passivity of the MAGA-controlled House and Senate and a docile MAGA majority on the Supreme Court means we are not a functioning democracy bound by the rule of law. It’s no use soft-pedaling the extent of the problem, ignoring the suffering inflicted on ordinary Americans, or minimizing the Herculean work that will be needed to repair our system.
Not to worry, however. Since Rubin authored her column, the Trump FDA unexpectedly approved a generic version of mifepristone (colloquially known as “the abortion pill.”). Perhaps they actually followed the science in this case, or perhaps this is an oblique, backhanded acknowledgment that the fewer people unfortunate enough to be born into their planned dystopia, the better.
Or perhaps they realize that their corrupt Supreme Court will concoct a reason to ban it regardless.
Rubin:
None of this is to say Trump’s autocracy is permanent. Lower courts are in open revolt against a lawless Supreme Court majority operating outside jurisprudential norms. Public protest and consumer boycott power have grown exponentially. State and local Democratic leaders (including states’ attorneys general) have kept up the fight against authoritarianism and continue to address real world problems within the bounds of democratic values. Even legacy media outlets have pepped up a bit. Most importantly, elections in New Jersey and Virginia offer the opportunity for decisive rejection of MAGA politics (and for reaffirming support for judges in Pennsylvania who support the rule of law).
The midterms must be viewed as a critical choice for Americans: do we go full-fledged authoritarian by keeping Trump’s enablers in Congress or begin the long trek back to sanity, democracy, and the rule of law?
The reality may be that even securing one house of Congress isn't going stop this, with a complicit and compromised Supreme Court eager to eviscerate the powers of that Congress in furtherance of its own right wing imperative. This coup has been decades in the planning. Its proponents are ruthless, fabulously wealthy, and they do not care one whit for the fate of the vast majority of Americans. Their goal ultimately envisions a closed, totalitarian, two-tiered society essentially made up of privileged rulers and their powerless, cowed serfs.
But we have to start somewhere.
I will be out to dinner this evening but will check back in when possible (and yes, I will be watching the Phillies). Everyone try to have the best possible evening!
