It sometimes seems like a bad dream–an America governed by a deeply corrupt cohort of incompetents and fools, led by a President who is clearly insane. Not simply criminal and stupid, but quite obviously untethered to reality, and currently busy waging a senseless war and destroying the world economy.
I remember Watergate, and while Nixon may well have been as malevolent as Trump, he was a lot smarter. He understood how government worked, and the geopolitical context within which the country existed. Most importantly, when his corruption became public, Republicans in Congress withdrew their support and told him to resign.
What happened to America in the years between Nixon and Trump? What has led Congress and the Supreme Court to enable, rather than restrain, consistent lawbreaking from the executive branch? What brought us here–and how do we extricate ourselves from the downward spiral?
Last October, Paul Krugman addressed that first question, noting the degeneration between then and now. After all, Nixon, who “was a piker by comparison to Donald Trump,” had been repudiated by his own party.
Not only is Donald Trump a wannabe dictator, surely the worst person on multiple dimensions ever to occupy the White House, but he made his intentions clear in the January 6th insurrection and his promises of retribution if re-elected. But unlike Nixon, Trump is backed by a Republican party that has become so extreme, so unwilling to acknowledge that opposition is even legitimate that none of his actions matter. Today’s Republicans show no hesitation whatsoever in adopting the Führerprinzip, the “leader principle”, in which Trump’s diktats override all written law and democratic norms.
How did we get here? How did we go from a time of substantial overlap between the parties–an overlap that allowed Democrats and Republicans to work together on many problems– to today’s polarization? Krugman reminds us that much of that former “bipartisanship” and overlap was on economic issues, and attributable to the fact that the South still voted Democratic. The Dixiecrats, “politicians who were economically conservative and anti-civil rights” caucused with the Democrats. “Since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, that faction has switched parties.”
Indeed, that racist faction now dominates the GOP, which–as I have frequently noted–looks much more like a White Christian nationalist cult than a traditional political party. And evidently, taking the country back to a time when straight White Christian males dominated is more important to that cult than economic prosperity and competent governance. The centrist, bipartisan bloc that forced Nixon out no longer exists.
Data shared by Krugman and others traces the result of the Dixiecrats’ move into the Republican camp, a move that left the Democratic Party dominated by Northern Democrats who–despite Republican allegations–remained ideologically pretty much where Democrats had been since 1950. Meanwhile, Republicans have moved very far to the right.
These changes have produced asymmetric polarization. While the de-Dixiecratted Democratic Party broadly looks like a center-left European party, the GOP doesn’t look like the European center right. Instead it looks like Germany’s AfD or Hungary’s Fidesz, extremist parties with a clear authoritarian streak.
Krugman acknowledges Trump’s personal depravity, but says that it’s the nature of today’s GOP that is responsible for the decline of American democracy.
The transformation of the GOP can be attributed to a number of things: extreme income inequality, the power of the plutocracy, the “left-behind” areas of the country, the ability of people to live in curated realities thanks to the Internet…all of these factors have contributed, but above all is the racism that has always been America’s original sin. Whatever the relative contribution of these causes, I agree with Krugman that the threat we face is much bigger than Trump and his clown show of an administration, and it won’t be magically cured by his departure–fervently desirable as that departure is.
I don’t have any “cure-all” for what we need to do once these venal and despicable people are ousted, but I have become convinced that repair of our republic needs to begin with an American version of the Nuremberg trials. It isn’t enough to defeat the GOP at the polls, as critical as that is. We need a full, public display of what this administration has done–a display that even the propaganda sites cannot obscure. The sheer extent of the wrongdoing has operated to mask much of the corruption, venality and bigotry. Nuremberg-like trials offer us a roadmap, a place to begin what will be a difficult recovery.
It helped Germany, and it can help us.
I don’t have a “cure all” either, Sheila, because I find myself torn between two views of what has brought us to this low point as a country.
The first view is that our form of government with all of its laws, regulations, and particularly its Constitution has proven itself incapable of withstanding a form of organized tyranny. The second view is the shocking revelation that the majority of my fellow citizens do not have the moral core to their lives that would lead them to reject a lying, cheating, raping, child abusing, warmonger as their president.
Is it our system of government or the people? Either way… my heart is breaking.
If our nearly 250-year-old “experiment” is cheered on by a 34-count felon and pedophile shielded by a whole political party of pedo protectors—including the country’s top lawyer—then it’s safe to say we’ve completely nailed the whole governing thing, right?
Oh, and let’s not forget our beloved pedophile president, who kicked off an illegal war to keep the media too distracted to hold anyone accountable for all that fun stuff like mass murder and kidnapping. But hey, as long as people are busy scratching their heads over Easter eggs, who cares about the thousands of missing body parts at Zorro Farm, right?
And hats off to the Christian-Zionists for happily sacrificing their young leader for waking up last year, all while keeping their heads buried in the fairy tale version of reality that’s being force-fed to our kids. But don’t worry, the political class is on it, making sure we stay glued to the latest TV shows instead of pesky little things like murder, crime, or global theft. Keep watching, folks!
p.s. I think the masses like the fairy tale version peddled by the owners,
After this morning’s post by HCR, I hope we will get “The Epstein Trials”.
Don’t forget the egregious Citizens United “decision” by the idiot Scalia, Roberts, et. al. They kicked the chocks out from the wheels of abject corruption and allowed the money to buy the government.
BTW, the surgery was successful; my wonderful doctor stood on her feet for 9 hours to remove my cancer of the thyroid. I’ll only have half a voice left, but a lot of motive to contribute something worthwhile from now on. NINE hours … I wish we had more politicians doing that for the good of the country instead of for their won pocket books.
weve come to this because we hired,(elected) on bot schemes,corp lawyers and corp hacks into the govermment since 1978,ALEC esque.this madman who has become the fool to the worlds sane leaders,(most of em)..this is corprate menace at its worst. there is no president in America right now,only a corp menace.theres the game called project 2025,again,another corp menace. now we have a front row seat on why you dont (after the fact)allow corp lawyers and corp hacks to run anything above a playskool toy.. imagine,they also control your retirement funds too.. im basically outta work in trucking. first time ever in a 48 year career. ive weathered bushes and reagans crashes,and many a other economic downturn. but this one also is putting hundreds of owner/operators outta buisness. small buisness trucking are closing doors, one just quit paying their drivers,and they owe them a paycheck. (local)..the fact the fuel costs are not being absorbed in real time to rates to ship. you lock in prior to hauling,and your,screwed when it ships and fuel has jumped 20% overnite. we work on the edge of costs/operation all the time. the big investor owned enities have clout to over ride costs we dont. dont take for granted were padding your butt for free. and were not in your way,were trying to make your lives better,many times at little profit.
Love Sheila’s callout of the “curated reality” of the internet as a key cause.
Wonderful news, Vernon! Keep on keeping on!
The Civil Rights Act. Reagan. Scalia. GWB. Right after Lincoln, the old GOP, which was new at the time, showed its bigoted self clearly, and has never not been bigoted ever since.
We certainly do need Nuremberg style trials, no “nice” pardons as per Pres. Ford. Had Nixon been brought to trial, the precedent might have taught Reagan that traitorous acts would not be tolerated, and so on.
Congratulations Vernon – I am glad you got a good result 🙂
A question – Will the world court at some point file war crimes charges for all the senseless murders carried out by the current executives in our federal government?
Will we turn over the murderers to them? Or is that justice only for small countries?
Having , now, read HCR’s piece for today, I repeat my contention that we have, to thank McConnell, “bigly” for being where we are now. Despite all the long history of the bigotry, etc. of the GOP, his efforts to avoid Trump’s impeachment(s) have “Horror” written all over them!
Close to all REPUBLICANS are bought & paid for.
And most DEMOCRATES also. When it costs TO many millions to get a seat in our government. THIS IS HOW IT HAPPENS. those WITH THE MOST MONEY buy them.
Take money out of politics, & dump Trump.
Todd, I’m happy to know that your surgery was a success. Get your rest and take good care of yourself. As long as you can type you only need half of your voice to make an impact.
I clearly remember LBJ saying, after signing the Civil Rights Act, “We have lost the South for a generation.” By 1968, the South was gone. Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi Alabama and Georgia voted for George Wallace. Yes, they returned briefly to vote for a Southerner. It was a short, uncomfortable reunion that wouldn’t have happened if Carter had been from Michigan and Ford from Georgia.
Vernon and Todd sorry for the confusion. I’m old and senile and facing two surgeries myself. I’m a little distracted. Again, sorry.
Congratulations, Vernon! And obviously with only half a voice your talented fingers on your keyboard are still speaking for that intelligent mind of yours. Can’t keep a good man down!
“Where Do We Go From Here?” This morning I returned to Barack Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope”; still believing the solution is for both parties to return to the table to work out solutions to our problems and where to go. The dark underbelly of antisemitism and racism has been given a voice and lies are now the accepted policy regarding what should be the celebration of 250 years of a working experiment in democracy and is instead a globally spreading war with Dastardly Duo of Trump and Netanyahu now beginning to splinter. Where do THEY go from here?
“Nuremberg-like trials offer us a roadmap, a place to begin what will be a difficult recovery.”
That is getting ahead of ourselves; I had already considered enacting the House UnAmerican Activities Committee then realized it is the House that is UnAmerican and will not attempt to convict its own members. We have to end the criminal control of all three upper branches of government by finding officials with the authority to impeach the entire sitting administration to put them on trial. Germany had to go outside of their country to form the panel of judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys for the Nuremberg Trial to take action. Where do we go as a nation today to seek justice for the list of national and global victims of the Trump administration when our allies refuse to join him in his war and Iran is attacking neutral counties where Americans and our allies used to be safe?