Time to Get to Work…Freedom Is Worth Fighting For

As predicted, the Trump presidency presents an unprecedented threat to liberal democracy in America. The time for complacency and resignation is over.

Perhaps like many of you, I chose to take a bit of time off from politics, commentary, and the news after the election. It was hard to have been so wrong about so much. And the news has been so bleak that ignoring it has been better for my mental health.

Sticking our heads in the sand to avoid the overwhelming feeling of dread that the Trump presidency is producing, however, is deeply problematic. Indeed, Trump is flooding the zone with outrageous actions to intentionally trigger this reaction. His strategy demoralizes the opposition and gives Trump an aura of invincibility, creating a negative feedback loop that leads to even more demoralization. Trump’s breathtaking outrages—like appointing Matt Gaetz as Attorney General and attempting to outlaw birthright citizenship—are modern examples of Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s memorable concept of “defining deviancy down.” Once you have tried to make a sexual predator the nation’s highest law enforcement officer and erase text from the 14^th Amendment, lesser disgraces—like the illegal firings of a dozen agency inspectors general—do not seem so bad.

Trump’s rapid-fire assault on the pillars of liberal democracy—the rule of law, separation of powers, accountable governance, and an independent media—is indeed overwhelming. But I see weaknesses, some obvious, and some emerging, in the Trump plan to assert absolute power to implement his will.

First, the level of arrogance on display is astounding. Expelling every expert on the staff of the National Security Council from the White House, for example, was unnecessary, foolish, and potentially very dangerous. These newcomers to power are convinced that they have all the right answers. They believe that simply getting rid of the people who disagree with them will make the nation’s and the world’s problems disappear. But having experts on hand helps government officials make informed decisions. Without the experts, big mistakes are going to be made. Once that happens, the bubble of invincibility that now appears to surround Trump will burst.

Second, I predict we will see massive government corruption. MAGA politicos have a well-documented record of using governmental power to enrich themselves. Once unleashed, corruption is hard to control. Opponents of Trump/MAGA need to “follow the money” and expose the grift. Nothing erodes public support of a government more than corruption.

Third, the coalition that Trump has assembled and is bringing into government has lots of cracks. Keeping the crypto-bros, tech billionaires, oil and gas barons, Steve Bannon deep-state conspirators, anti-abortion extremists, mega-budget deficit hawks, anti-science nutjobs, right-wing militias, and other MAGAites on the same page will be nearly impossible. They will all eventually start attacking each other, leaking to the press, and pursuing their own agendas within the government. With lightweights leading many agencies, they will not be able to keep a lid on the bickering. Policy on important public issues will be incoherent.

Fourth, the world is complex and difficult. Trump thinks he has all the solutions, but he does not. Russia is not going to play ball on Ukraine. The Saudis will not agree, as Trump suggested yesterday, to clear the Palestinians out of Gaza. Climate change will continue to unleash catastrophic weather in the United States. I do not want another pandemic, but bird flu is a real threat. Trump blamed the rising egg prices on the Biden administration’s culling of infected poultry flocks. Most experts think the Biden team has done far too little to prevent the spread of this disease. Trump’s gutting of the federal bureaucracy will come back to haunt him—whether in a bird flu outbreak or another crisis.

Fifth, this crowd is going to overreach. A Wall Street Journal poll showed that a majority of voters supported “lite” versions of many of Trump’s policies, ranging from curbing immigration to ending D.E.I. to increasing energy production. But the administration Trump is putting in place is committed to the DEFCON 1 version of his agenda. Why, for example, did Trump’s initial stack of executive orders include rescinding 60-year-old federal rules prohibiting racial discrimination by federal contractors and promoting workforce diversity? The voters may not like “woke,” but they didn’t vote to bring back Bull Connor either.

I am not at all minimizing the crisis we are in. Many individuals and institutions are going to be harmed by this government and its policies. The rule of law is in real jeopardy. The Trump crowd has shown they will ignore laws that get in their way, forcing injured parties to go to court to seek redress. Those inside the government who voice any opposition on policy or legal grounds will be fired. I think the judiciary will rise to the occasion, but this executive lawlessness is deeply damaging, and many of those injured will lack access to any judicial relief. I am very worried about the merger of governmental and corporate power represented by the tech billionaires having front-row seats at the inauguration. When companies that control how most Americans receive information pledge fealty to a political leader, it creates a recipe for authoritarianism. The assault against the federal workforce is appalling. The official rejection of science by our government, whether in public health or climate, will gut our ability to address some of the most serious problems facing our planet. God help us.

After weeks in a self-imposed bunker, I am feeling the fierce urgency of now. The challenge is severe, but all is not lost. Trump has come out of the gate strong and aggressive, which means that those who care about freedom and treasure our democracy need to respond in kind. We need to expose the errors in policy, judgment, and ethics that are inevitably going to occur, reveal the corruption, call out the illegality, and show how the cruelty of this nascent government is harming the citizenry.

This week I listened to one of my favorite commentators, George Packer, talk about how he saw his role as a journalist in this tenuous moment in history. Paraphrasing Yeats, he said that “even if you know that what you do may not matter, you still need to do it and do it well.”

So that is exactly what I intend to do.