Frankly, being on our side of the political fence, it can often be easy to find oneself thinking that there is simply no way that Donald J. Trump could ever, in a million years, actually secure a second term in the White House. From our perspective as a sort of an outsider looking in, the man is absolutely riddled with just about every sort of scandal you can imagine at this point. Two different entities are tearing his family company, the Trump Organization, to shreds from the inside out. Multiple investigations regarding his actions leading up to, surrounding, and on that fateful day in January 2021 continue to rage against him. And now, most recently, agents with the FBI quite literally executed a brutal search and seizure warrant raid against his Mar-a-Lago estate turned personal residence, after he stole countless boxes packed full of highly-classified, top-secret government documents from the White House and relocated them to his country club when his presidency ended, only to flat-out lie about turning them all over with the National Archives and Records Administration came a’knockin’.
Seriously, it certainly feels as though if this were literally anyone else, they would be under the jail by now. It makes it extremely hard to even conceive the mere notion of the man being allowed within a good 500 feet of the White House for the rest of his life.
But to be frank, we all know in the pit of our stomachs that it’s not just possible… It’s plausible.
And now, Jonathan Rauch is out with a blood-curdling new op-ed with The Atlantic that gives the American people a truly terrifying glimpse of the dystopian near future we could face if Donald Trump ends up being successful.
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Rauch writes/warns:
Today, however, we can do more than just speculate about how a second Trump term would unfold, because the MAGA movement has been telegraphing its plans in some detail. In a host of ways—including the overt embrace of illiberal foreign leaders; the ruthless behavior of Republican elected officials since the 2020 election; Trump allies’ elaborate scheming, as uncovered by the House’s January 6 committee, to prevent the peaceful transition of power; and Trump’s own actions in the waning weeks of his presidency and now as ex-president—the former president and his allies have laid out their model and their methods.
First, install toadies in key positions. Upon regaining the White House, the president systematically and unabashedly nominates personal loyalists, with or without qualifications, to Senate-confirmed jobs. Assisted by the likes of Johnny McEntee, a White House aide during his first term, and Kash Patel, a Pentagon staffer, he appoints officials willing to purge conscientious civil servants, neutralize or fire inspectors general, and ignore or overturn inconvenient rules.”
But it gets worse still:
In his first term, both of Trump’s attorneys general bowed to him in some respects but stood up to him when it mattered most: Jeff Sessions by recusing himself from the Russia investigation and allowing a special counsel to be appointed; Bill Barr by refusing to endorse Trump’s election lies and seize voting machines. Everyday prosecutions remained in the hands of ordinary prosecutors.
That now changes. Trump immediately installs political operatives to lead DOJ, the FBI, and the intelligence and security agencies. Citing as precedent the Biden Justice Department’s investigations of the January 6 events, the White House orchestrates criminal investigations of dozens of Trump’s political enemies, starting with critics such as the ousted Representative Liz Cheney and whistleblowers such as the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. With or without winning convictions, multipronged investigations and prosecutions bankrupt their targets financially and reputationally, menacing anyone who opposes the White House.”
Rauch concludes his analysis, writing, “At first, the president’s lawlessness seems shocking. Yet soon, as Republicans defend it, the public grows acclimated. To salvage what it can of its authority, the Supreme Court accommodates Trump more than the other way around. It becomes gun-shy about crossing him.”
“And so we arrive: With the courts relegated to advisory status, the rule of law no longer obtains. In other words, America is no longer a liberal democracy, and by this point, there is not much anyone can do about it.”
If that doesn’t chill you to your absolute core, I truly don’t know what will.
Read the full, disturbing piece from Jonathan Rauch with The Atlantic here.
Featured image via Petty Officer 1st Class Dominique A. Pineiro
