The Grand Illusion
Until recently, i.e., until the arrival of Donald Trump and his MAGA clones and the Woke speech police, the United States was a democracy legally balanced (more precariously than most Americans realized) between law and long-standing custom.
Over time some of those customs were changed by law or codified into law, but far from all of them. Although the separation of church and state is mandated by the Constitution, that separation was maintained as much by custom as by law.
What we’ve seen over the last few years is a war between the extremists of the right and the extremists of the left, a war exploited for his personal benefit by Donald Trump, which is bad enough, but what is even worse is the tactic he’s used to great effect.
That tactic is simply seeking out customs and practices that used to have a certain force, almost of law, and overriding them because they’re not enshrined in law. This is nothing new. It’s happened before, but never on the scale pursued by Trump.
Trump tears down the east wing of the White House because there’s no law specifically forbidding it. He orders the militarization of national guard units and attacks on foreign boats and ships as part of a “war” against supposed drug cartels, because there’s not a clear legal definition of “war.”
The U.S. legal system was never designed to have to respond to such acts on a short-term and timely fashion, which is one of the principal reasons why he’s getting away with so much.
The other reason is because extremists control too much of each major party, and the two parties are deadlocked because the party leaders are effectively controlled by their extremists, even though most Americans don’t want the extremes of either party.
As a result of Trump’s tactics, even without Trump, the U.S. will still face the problem he’s exploiting, and that’s the fact that, at present, it appears as if corporations, presidents, and bureaucrats can damn well do anything that’s not definitively prohibited by law – and that to stop that will effectively require an authoritarian state controlling everything because the majority of Americans either don’t care, don’t understand the problem, or support one or the other extreme.
“…because the majority of Americans either don’t care, don’t understand the problem, or support one or the other extreme.”
I wish I had an answer. The situation depresses me in the extreme.
The other part of the problem is the varying views of America’s “greatness.” For too many people, “when people who look like me dominated” is seen as “great.” For many others, that’s when America was least great.
So even a discussion is all but impossible, unless both parties have thought things through (highly unlikely) and are willing to define their terms at the start (even less likely).
LEM, I disagree with your premise that we are seeing a symmetrical fight between the “far left” (what is this antifa???) and the far right. Currently the conservatives have a lock on all three branches of government. So, there’s no excuses to justify anything either illegal or ahistorical that Trump, the Republican controlled Congress, or the supermajority controlled conservative SCOTUS have done, are doing, or are contemplating doing in the future that further divides and tears apart this country.
One can’t codify against evil/crazy when the damage is being done from the very top. Even if one did, who’s going to stop Trump? Even Amy Coney Barrett said recently that the Supreme Court had no power to compel the president to follow a decision issued by the court. I believe that’s very much why that same court has not issued decisions that uphold the constitution and bar Trump from many of the acts he has been taking. They don’t want a constitutional crisis on their watch. Shameful.
The Republican mantra for many years has been one of ‘if it’s not illegal then I/we can do it’. Even the Royal family isn’t going down that road. They just ‘defrocked’ Prince Andrew.
I don’t believe I said the fight was “symmetrical.” As you pointed out, it’s not, but the extent of the far left craziness makes it seem so to people of moderate or merely mild conservative leanings, and perception is a form of reality in politics.
KTL, that’s very well said. (Wish I’d said it.)
LEM, you’re right…but when you said “a war between the extremists of the right and the extremists of the left” the parallel structure in the phrasing can lead readers to think that you’re giving each side equal words because you see them as equal problems.
(I think those in the socialist wing of the Democrats are living in a dream world. But they aren’t the problem that the Constitution-violating, law-evading Republicans are.)
I think that the socialist wing of the Democrats is a problem. They regard Funding in a way similar to how the far-right Republicans disregard Ethics.
The thing is, the average “far left” Democrat like say Bernie is really just a pretty ordinary social democrat from the point of view of much of Europe and especially Scandinavia.
He himself may hold further left views, but his intentions are very middle of the road. A nationalised health service, corporation taxes, social welfare and labour rights … these are literally “just the way society works” in the rest of the West, to greater or lesser degrees. It’s not a fantasy, it’s reality.
However I also agree that it’s a dream world to imagine those changes happening in the USA, because your entire society is a built on an individualistic richest winner takes all mindset, and the Republicans are the embodiment of that today. They’re so far to the right it’s steadily and completely skewed your politics over decades, and that’s not something that can be fixed easily.
Honestly I’m expecting chunks of the USA to start seceding into a collection of smaller nations not far in the future, the internal tensions are simply growing too large and intractable to bridge, let alone the lack of representation of the views of the majority of citizens both urban and rural in favour of an oligarchic ruling class. I’m particularly worried about the sort of ethnic cleansing that might result from it
The other reason you’re not likely to see socialism in America is that it’s hard to afford that level of social services with being the global policeman. Lyndon Johnson tried that, and it didn’t work.
Of course, if the USA fragments, then the global cop role goes with it, so at that point, who knows?
Still, if the USA breaks up…I dunno. I just don’t see MAGA as an enduring approach. Even with the ethnic cleansing that, yes, would likely be part of the fragmentation, demographic trends are against it.
I dunno. We’ll see. Whatever happens, it will undoubtedly be ugly.
KTL, you’re right again. Nihilists gonna ‘nihilate.
Meanwhile, I’m tempted to write a parable, where the wolves persuade the sheep that getting eaten alive is a wonderful thing. I could call it Making Ewe Great Again.
Guys, as a student of history, I would tell you this has all been done before… by our own government. If you looked at the things said and done by our founding fathers to each other when things broke up into political parties, it might set your hair on fire. Is Trump pushing the Constitution’s limits on executive power? Absolutely. Only because Congress has ceased to use and has delegated to the executive branch many of its powers. It became unbelievably inefficient and if Doge is correct, extremely corrupt (in both parties). Trump hi-jacked the Republican Party but he had over 74 million Americans vote for him 3 times. It is not and never has been a Cult of personality. Trump has addressed many issues that festered during administrations of both parties and if you listen to the speeches that President Obama had during his first campaign, their positions are very similar. Most Americans are ready for an adult discussion about Healthcare and the pro and cons of a National system. I will just say that in every national system, availability is an issue. Private Equity firms are too big and we need a balance budget admendment and term limits.