It’s done. Trump has won not only the Presidency, but both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. In the three weeks since his inauguration, he has stopped work in department after department, received the code to the Treasury, eliminated US foreign aid, and proceeded to round up immigrants—legal or not—and, just to show off his power, promised to acquire Greenland and Panama. Leaving aside the absurdity of the last item, the creation and elimination of departments is the province of Congress, not the President, but three weeks has given us a ferocious demonstration of Trump’s contempt for the law. He has usurped the power of Congress, damaging the balance of power that underlies our government and is the central purpose of the Constitution. What now? Today he is challenging the power of the courts which have stalled some of his edicts. Now we will see whether the courts do what our founders believed they would never do—relinquish their share of the power. This would destroy the third and final pillar of our democracy. Then we will know out how totally he has enslaved those in the remaining seat of power. We’ve taken democracy for granted; now we watch dumfounded as Trump takes control of the third and final branch of the government.
I’m enraged. Furious that he has brought in a deranged, fascist oligarch do his dirty work for him. I’m appalled at the Republicans’ self-enslavement, frustrated that the Democratic Party could find no weapons except continuous protest. Finally, I’m recognizing how deeply my belief in democracy is rooted in my faith in the American people and how outraged I am at their betrayal.
As a Chicagoan, I took for granted that my fellow Midwesterners’ common sense would guard against buying into absurd conspiracy theories, and their sense of fair play would win out against their basic conservatism—their belief that government is corrupt, deprives us of freedom, and is filled with incompetent freeloaders, gobbling up their tax dollars. I was wrong. I think their low opinion of government made them vulnerable to conspiracy theories. How often was I assured, usually by teachers of business writing, that the state universities I taught at would be ever so superior if they were run as businesses? Businesses aren’t public services, nor are they democracies, and conservatives have long believed they should be free to run unhobbled by the public interest. Belief that privatization is the golden cure is as widespread as education in the vital role of democracy is scarce. This is where the conservative half of the public is. Lesson learned.
But it’s too late to be talking about how we got here. The next months will show us the grim reality of what we’ve done. Cries of illegality are coming from all quarters and from the street; the next months will tell us what strength Congress still has—and is willing to exercise in the name of the people—and what is left of the much-battered court system. Trump has at times backed off at the hue and cry of both national and international leaders. That means we need to overwhelm our representatives and senators with letters and calls, demanding action. It means we keep up with what’s happening. Right now Trump is trying to make a Ukraine peace plan with Putin, leaving out Zelensky and giving Putin all he wants. Simultaneously, he is mounting an “Emergency Meeting” of MAGA, begging for money. The speed of events in the last three weeks tells us we cannot wait until midterm elections. Much as I dislike the polarizing effect of street protests, we need them now. We cannot let a recent news panelist have the last word: “The public isn’t paying attention; they don’t care.” The actions above don’t sound like much, even to my own ears, but it’s what we have.
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