We're on the Brink of an Authoritarian Crisis (Brian Beutler)

[swag]

https://newrepublic.com/article/143984/were-brink-authoritarian-crisis

Excerpt:

. . .

But at the moment there are no reliable sources of accountability. None.

Republicans have given every indication over the course of the past several months that no malfeasance, no matter how naked and severe, will impel them to rein in Trump or impeach him. Outside of Congress, the hope would be that firing Mueller—let alone pardoning the targets of his investigation—would essentially cost Trump control of the Justice Department. George W. Bush nearly lost his DOJ when his senior aides attempted to subvert department protocols to renew an unlawful spying program. Nixon, in the Saturday Night Massacre, had to fire DOJ leaders one after one until he found an appointee—Solicitor General Robert Bork—who would dismiss the Watergate counsel.

We unfortunately cannot count on any similar blowback here. By unmanning the attorney general to the newspaper of record, Trump raised speculation that Sessions would resign, but Sessions is living his best life destroying minority communities at the moment, so resigning is the farthest thing from his mind. “I have the honor of serving as attorney general,” he said on Thursday. “It’s something that goes beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself. We love this job. We love this department.”

Sessions’s deputy, Rod Rosenstein, isn’t as obviously invested in the Trump presidency as his boss is. But Rosenstein was complicit in Comey’s firing. He resisted pressure to appoint a special counsel for more than a week after Trump fired Comey, and only relented after Comey seemingly forced his hand. More recently, Rosenstein appeared on Fox News and issued a less-than-full-throated defense of the special counsel investigation that he oversees. “At the Department of Justice, we judge by results,” he said, “and so my view about that is, we’ll see if they do the right thing.”

Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Chris Wray, lacks the obvious baggage that Sessions and, to a lesser extent, Rosenstein carry. But he is Trump’s handpicked Comey replacement. And, as Trump made clear to the Times, he sees no meaningful impediment to coopting federal law enforcement agencies and their leaders. “I could have ended that whole [investigation] just by saying—they say it can’t be obstruction because you can say: ‘It’s ended. It’s over. Period,” Trump said, adding, “The F.B.I. person really reports directly to the president of the United States.”

Should Trump fire Mueller, with the tacit assent of Republicans in Congress and the DOJ leadership, there will be little recourse. It is feasible (though difficult) to imagine a GOP House and Senate passing an independent counsel statute to restore Mueller to his job; it is nearly impossible to imagine them doing so by veto-proof margins. And should Trump pardon himself and his inner circle, it is dispiritingly easy to imagine Republicans reprising their familiar refrain: The president’s power to pardon is beyond question.

If this crisis unfolds as depicted here, the country’s final hope for avoiding a terminal slide into authoritarianism would be the midterm election, contesting control of a historically gerrymandered House of Representatives. That election is 16 months away. Between now and then, Trump’s DOJ and his sham election-integrity commission will seek to disenfranchise as many Democratic voters as possible, while the president himself beseeches further foreign interference aimed at Democratic candidates. Absent the necessary sweep, everything Trump will have done to degrade our system for his own enrichment and protection will have been ratified, and a point of no return will have been crossed.

[Catmusicfan]

1. For The New Republic to write this is chilling and eye opening.

[swag]

2. Beutler is very good. I recall him from his TPM days. Glad TNR took him on.

[Pachamama]

9. Eye opening - yes.....Chilling that the New Republic writes this....no....Chilling would be actually

...if the National Review were to write this....



We all saw this coming....the New Republic is merely summarizing it...

[flibbitygiblets]

3. IF all that happened, do you really think the American people will just shrug and let it happen?

I certainly won't. Millions of us will be marching in the streets. It's a wake up call. It's a test of our will to continue to be America. Americans have been complacent for a very long time because it's unimaginable that our country could be anything other than what it is.

Patriotism has been nothing but hollow symbols and words for a long time. The RW have co-opted that word for as long as I can remember, but they're giving up their right to call themselves patriots right here and now.

The true meaning of patriotism will come to mean something again, something hard-earned and not taken for granted. Those who are complicit in allowing our country to become a sham will live to regret it.

[swag]

5. It's gonna be fun finding out.

[RiverStone]

8. If all that happened, Americans would experience...

...what It feels like to be ruled by a dictator. And a lying mentally unstable dictator at that.

I agree with you on not standing by and letting it happen. The civil unrest could exceed what we saw in the 60's.

[Awsi Dooger]

10. Republicans will absolutely shrug and let it happen

If Mueller is fired he deserved to be fired. That's the way they'll look at it and the few voices of dissent in high places will be drowned out and threatened.

None of the traditional assumptions or methods matter. That's where we are.

The other side has surreal energy right now, to go along with all the lies and corruption. When I joined this site in 2002 there was a bizarre notion that Democrats would dominate the upcoming midterm because of determination to avenge Gore's improper fate in 2000. But that's not the way things work, if you know anything about variables and outcomes. A devastating defeat does not lend itself to a surge in energy. Just the opposite. I learned very early as a sports bettor that revenge is garbage. Idiots rely on revenge. The overwhelming tendency is to suffer a psychological letdown after a brutal unexpected defeat, and to receive a jolt of energy and enthusiasm after an unlikely victory. I have no idea how anyone assumes the opposite is true. There was yet another sports example recently: Lexi Thompson was cruising to victory in the first LPGA major of 2017 until she had a sudden 4 shot penalty early on the back nine. She ended up losing in a playoff to So Yeon Ryu. The conventional wisdom types asserted that Lexi would be so outraged that she would take it out on the field in subsequent events, dominating the scoreboard. I saw that claim on one forum after another. Nope. That's the dullard conclusion. Lexi has done next to nothing. So Yeon Ryu, on the other hand, has used the incredible win to vault to new heights, including another victory and rising to #1 in the world for the first time in her career.

I look at things as a handicapper, not a cheerleader. I realize that is not always popular, either here or on partisan sports forums. Meanwhile it holds up. I can't count how many personal messages I've received on various sites from posters who said they initially couldn't stand me until my big picture theories held true time and again. We are not in great shape in 2018 unless independents have an unusually slanted favoritism of Democrats. That is certainly possible, if Trump's approval rating remains low. But the unreliable voters who did show up for Hillary are likely to be so demoralized they won't bother in 2018, while the 50/50 types who did show up for Trump are likely to become more involved and to participate again in 2018, to essentially validate their opinion from 2016. I wasn't surprised at all at the recent poll that indicated 65% of Republicans and leaners are enthused about 2018 compared to 57% for Democrats and leaners. We would have been in far better shape toward 2018 if that outcome had been a standard expected defeat, and not one seemingly snatched away in Shattered fashion, to borrow the book title.

I realize I've strayed somewhat from the topic of this thread. I expect chaos of some type as long as Trump remains president. But nothing is a crisis when it becomes accepted as day to day normalcy. Trump will lie. Nothing will be provable. Republicans will dismantle.

Those constitutional experts wouldn't fare well in Las Vegas. History doesn't apply.

[flibbitygiblets]

15. Oh I see, you're here to bask in being "right", and discourage everyone else from

even trying to do anything constructive. Thanks so much for clearing that up.

Might I suggest your time would be better spend practicing speaking Russian then, if you're so certain that's the way things are going, rather than contributing to demoralize those of us who might just actually do something about it? Or is being right more important?

What exactly are you doing here?

[Dopers_Greed]

12. The American people will shrug and let it happen

So long as it doesn't cost them money, or force them to miss the latest Game of Thrones episode.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Chilling indeed.

This is scary stuff, and I'm glad I read it.

Thanks, my dear swag, for the post.

K&R

[swag]

6. Smooth sailing on the eclipse trip! All will be fine! Eclipse will rock!

[BigmanPigman]

7. This seems to be the most realistic outcome at the moment unfortunately.

Putin is thrilled! HE WON!

[Duppers]

11. I agree. Sadly most realistic.

And when Marital Law is called and enforced by guns against the protesters in the streets, what do we then do?

This is a gut-wrenching thought and I hate this worst case scenario but know it's possible with insane people in charge. I remember what Nixon did in Ohio in 1970.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

13. Could the health care vote be the stone that hits some in the head and...

...back to reality? Those vulnerable rural folk who will lose hospitals and doctors? Won't they actually come to Jesus?

[swag]

14. They just seem to go even more into a mire of intransigence.

[Amaryllis]

16. We? Is that Gollum talking? Or Smeagol ?

“It’s something that goes beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself. We love this job. We love this department.”