The Dynamics of the Regime.


President Donald Trump greets visitors touring the White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 7, 2017. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

President Donald Trump greets visitors touring the White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 7, 2017. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

The Trump administration’s agenda has started to solidify a month and a half after his inauguration. ThinkProgress checked in with scholars on authoritarianism to see how that agenda it’s taking shape. For people who have devoted their lives to studying anti-democratic movements, recent White House actions are more disturbing than ever.

[…] Trump’s language has spread not just to the media, but to supporters in politics. Take a recent tweet from Rep. Steve King (R-IA) where he claimed leakers needed to be ‘purged’:

@RealDonaldTrump needs to purge Leftists from executive branch before disloyal, illegal & treasonist acts sink us.

Cas Mudde, an associate professor at the University of Georgia, and author of Populism, A Very Short Introduction: This is a great example of how the U.S. far right has become emboldened and more visible. Steve King has been a radical right voice in the U.S. House of Representatives for years and years. He started normalizing radical right politicians from Europe years ago, with Louis Gohmert and Michele Bachmann, meeting, among others, with [Dutch right-wing nationalist] Geert Wilders in 2015 and 2016, with [French right-wing nationalist] Marine Le Pen in 2016 and 2017, and with [German right-wing nationalist] Frauke Petry in 2016.

While the meetings were public, King seemed aware he was part of a fringe within the GOP that supported these parties. Now, as one can see in this tweet, King clearly feels Trump is on the same page. Like David Duke and other long-standing U.S. far right activists and politicians, they believe their time is now, and they call upon Trump to do what they have only dreamed off in the past decades. It again shows that Trump is not “alien” to the GOP. Not only does the majority of the GOP base support him, and most of his “controversial” policies, but many GOP members of Congress, particularly in the House, were always closer to him than to Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell.

This goes for all the Religious Reich, right wing pundits, and far right conspiracy theorists, too. They finally have the audience they have craved, with a power to back it up. There might be a minor disagreement here or there, but they will continue to back the Regime in order to get things they have dreamed about for decades.

Berman: It’s one thing to say leakers are bad or government employees shouldn’t be leaking classified information, but these kinds of terms or concepts — purging, enemies — are very dangerous. Again it’s a sign of no longer seeing yourself as a national community engaged with fellow citizens, but in a zero sum struggle going on here — and people opposed to you are not just different politically but enemies. It makes democracy impossible to function and a social consensus impossible to achieve.

Trump’s power is in his rhetoric — and not just policy — which is incredibly divisive. He’s creating problems, and the rhetoric itself makes it impossible to do what democracy requires: compromise and consensus.

Ben Ghiat: The tone of King’s Tweet — get them before they can wreck us — conveys this cornered feeling — and what might transpire.

Trump’s policies are messages aimed at the people of the United States. They say what kind of country, society, and culture his administration wants.

This one sentence ^ is one that apologists for Trump supporters need to take on board, stat. Most Trump supporters are not dismayed, they are happy with the way things are going. They are filled with bile and rage, bloated with a sense of entitlement, and they want other people to suffer.

Berman: The revised ban … claims to be something that keeps terrorists out of the U.S., even though there is empirically no evidence that it does that. But it speaks to his base and says, “Look, I did what I promised.”

[On undocumented immigrants] Trump is saying, “I’m enforcing the law.” Which is technically true, but he’s doing it in a way that is speaking to his base and breaking up families, which is very, very cruel. He’s doubling down, and it’s very attractive to a lot of people. It’s very powerful for lots of people who think politicians make promises they don’t keep.

Yes. Yes, it is. Anyone who takes 10 minutes here or there to read comments following the slightest criticism of the Regime will see just how much Trump supporters are in love with this.

I think what’s most worrying to me is the divisiveness that Trump is using to whip up his base and solidify support among true believers. He’s not winning anybody on the other side, and this is really problematic. Rolling back Obamacare is bad and banning people is a bad thing. It’s not entirely different from what we expected from other conservatives, but it’s really proven to be way, way, way different than with other candidates. And way more dangerous for democracy is this rhetoric, alternative facts, and inability to reach compromises with the other side of aisle. It’s truly pernicious, and what he’s managed in a couple months is really frightening.

Ben Ghiat: The separation of families and the further empowerment of ICE are unnecessary, cruel, and intimidating — and that is exactly their point. Causing human suffering and demoralization was built into this administration and emphasized in Trump’s dark inaugural address. They also show allies their commitment to the agenda of state racism. I see the setting up of immigrants as targets to be deported as part of a racist population management scheme which has [Chief Strategist Steve] Bannon as its mastermind, but plenty of help from the GOP.

We really aren’t all that far from concentration camps. A lot of people on the left insist this is hyperbole, no, it wouldn’t ever get that bad, checks and balances, all that. Well, all that hasn’t worked at all so far, has it? A lot people on the left said it could never reach the point it has, insisting on their rose-coloured glasses. “It won’t come to that.” It has come to that, and it’s going to get worse.

Mudde: As should have been clear to anyone watching President Trump’s joint session speech, he hasn’t changed. Yes, he read a speech from the teleprompter without going on rants, but every time he talked about the need to come together and not divide the nation, he pointed his hand in the direction of the Democrats. Moreover, despite the pandering to congressional Republicans — in terms of deregulation and overturning Obama legislation, particularly Obamacare — let there be no mistake that this was a Bannon-[Stephen] Miller speech.

The only topic of discussion after the speech, at least for liberals, should have been VOICE, i.e. the new federal program for Victims of Immigrant Crime Enforcement that he announced. This is an incredible example of nativist politics, distinguishing victims not on the basis of the crime or damage they have suffered, but the ethnicity/legal status of the perpetrator. It obviously serves the purpose to identify “immigrants” — not just undocumented ones — with crime and crime with immigrants.

The fact that self-appointed liberal spokesmen like Van Jones and Bill Maher hailed this speech for its presidentialism shows just how shallow and self-centered their opposition is. He didn’t go after “us,” so it was a good speech. In other words, for me, the main story of the last week was not anything Trump did, but the deep desire among conservatives and liberals to normalize Trump.

The sheer amount of people intent on normalising Trump and the Regime is terrifying in and of itself. I understand the desire, the constant onslaught of corruption and evil is difficult to deal with. Heads get filled with anxiety and depression, shoulders hunched and knotted with the weight of stress. There comes a point where the desire to just sink into denial is overwhelmingly welcome. Regardless, we can’t afford ourselves the narcotic of normalisation, we must all stand, as firm and bright torches blazing in the dark, lighting the way we must go.

Full story at Think Progress.

Comments

  1. Kengi says

    And way more dangerous for democracy is this rhetoric, alternative facts, and inability to reach compromises with the other side of aisle. It’s truly pernicious, and what he’s managed in a couple months is really frightening.

    Decades worth of progress is being erased in a matter of weeks. Civil rights progress from the 60’s and environmental progress from the 70’s, all being wiped out before my eyes. I can’t believe how fragile a lifetime worth of progress could be. There’s no hope for BLM law enforcement reform now, it will be a fight just to restore voting rights for minorities to where they were. No hope for slowing climate change when it will be a fight just to prevent the rivers from burning again. And the list goes on.

    An entire fucking lifetime of work and progress swirling down the shitter in no time at all.

  2. says

    Kengi:

    Decades worth of progress is being erased in a matter of weeks. Civil rights progress from the 60’s and environmental progress from the 70’s, all being wiped out before my eyes. I can’t believe how fragile a lifetime worth of progress could be. There’s no hope for BLM law enforcement reform now, it will be a fight just to restore voting rights for minorities to where they were. No hope for slowing climate change when it will be a fight just to prevent the rivers from burning again. And the list goes on.

    I know. I know exactly how you are feeling. And it’s getting worse by the bloody day. Pruitt has been mouthing off about how carbon emission is perfectly okay, nothing to do with climate change, and the horrific coastal bubble is about to pop, and holy fuck, is that ever going to be a mess. Trump & co are gutting the coast guard and FEMA, too, so there won’t be any competent disaster response, and and and and.

  3. says

    Caine@#4:
    the horrific coastal bubble is about to pop, and holy fuck, is that ever going to be a mess

    The nuclear winter will offset the ice shelf melt. Yuge!

  4. says

    The nuclear winter will offset the ice shelf melt. Yuge!

    Might be the only thing which would work. This is the depth of fucked-upness though -- the whole world is going to pay for this fucking regime being in power. This is in no way restricted to just us.

    The coastal bubble is also going to wreak a near insane havoc on the economy. I can hardly wait to see the solution to that one.

  5. Kengi says

    I can hardly wait to see the solution to that one.

    Since they will soon run out of taxes on the poor and middle class, I’m guessing forced labor will be the solution. They will start with current convicts and ramp up with massive increases in private prisons and incarceration, using it for the forced labor since that’s currently legal under our constitution.

    In other words, bring back slavery. Jeff Sessions can easily get behind and organize that.

  6. says

    The coastal bubble is also going to wreak a near insane havoc on the economy. I can hardly wait to see the solution to that one.

    If anything can get the US to spend less $$ on defense, that’d be it.
    The rest of the world should dance. We’re going to be so busy keeping New York City from looking like Venice that we won’t have time to make cities elsewhere look like the surface of the moon.

  7. says

    Kengi@#7:
    Since they will soon run out of taxes on the poor and middle class, I’m guessing forced labor will be the solution

    The US will dissolve into internal warfare, first. Which might be OK. Southerners, STFU, Sherman’s coming back and we’ll sell Texas back to Mexico to help pay for the wall.

  8. Pierce R. Butler says

    Does anyone know why the Clinton portrait didn’t disappear in January along with the Oval Office blue drapes?

    The sheer amount of people intent on normalising Trump and the Regime is terrifying in and of itself.

    A casual friend recently informed me of how he was trying to enjoy life by not following the news at all. Three or four times in less than five minutes, he informed me of this. Even the non-political are scared shitless.

  9. EnlightenmentLiberal says

    Since they will soon run out of taxes on the poor and middle class, I’m guessing forced labor will be the solution.

    They’re already on it.

    See private prisons. Also, especially please read this:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-robinson/the-shocking-finding-from-the-doj-ferguson_b_6858388.html

    The war on drugs is great for extracting money and labor from young black men, and keeping them as a perpetual underclass. Ferguson just upped the ante, and used petty traffic law enforcement to do the same thing. Ferguson was a virtual slave plantation in the modern day in America.

  10. Kengi says

    They’re already on it.

    Yeah, that’s why I brought it up. It’s been happening since Reconstruction, which is why the 13th Amendment was written to say “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” It was crafted that way as a compromise to the South specifically to allow slavery to continue in the US, and it has in some form, ever since.

    I figure the conservatives will now ramp it up to ever greater levels, kind of like FDR’s CCC, TVA, etc, but with convict labor. That seems the logical way they would handle large public works projects needed when cities begin to flood without taxing the rich.

  11. says

    Kengi:

    Yeah, that’s why I brought it up. It’s been happening since Reconstruction

    Yes, part and parcel of the bigotry written into the very foundation of our government. I’m always a bit boggled when people act if this is shockingly new behaviour.

  12. EnlightenmentLiberal says

    To Caine
    Agreed. This country has had a despicable track record on human rights, inside and outside the boundaries of the country, since it’s creation, and beforehand too. Chomsky does an excellent job cataloging a lot of it. I wish more people knew about it. I wish our schools were better about teaching the atrocities and genocides that this country has done.

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