By Lori Lee
NDG Contributing Writer
After 100 days, polls indicate many Americans are disenchanted with our current president. A recent Nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute poll found 52 percent said Donald Trump is a dangerous dictator. ABC, Washington Post, and Ipsos polls also found 49% believe the president is expanding his authority, ignoring the rule of law and moving away from the country’s founding principles.
Insinuating his authority is absolute, since Trump took office, he has been ignoring Congress, the courts, and essentially the balance of powers called for under the Constitution. The Administration has also tried to suppress any information that would contradict or counter its actions, while attacking the free press and American universities.
Because the president handily won the election, Vice President Vance said the Administration essentially has permission to do what it wants, as MSNBC reported.
Nevertheless, public opinion clashes with many of its actions, according to the recent polls.
Professor Lucan Way, an expert on political transitions and authoritarian governments, spoke recently at an American Community Media briefing. Way said he had expected a slower, more legalistic progression toward authoritarianism, more like that of Hungary, Poland or India. Yet the Administration’s progress has been dramatic.
Professor Aziz Huq of the University of Toronto, a scholar of U.S. and comparative constitutional law, also spoke at the briefing. Huq explained, we have seen attacks on the American legal system, on law firms and on the courts. These are not just rhetorical attacks but actual threats toward judges and their families in a greater campaign to steer court decisions.
Yet, many have opposed Trump’s executive orders, as both democratic and republican judges continue to rule against him. District of Columbia Judge Boasberg perhaps took the strongest stance by bringing criminal contempt proceedings in an effort to force federal compliance with the rule of law. Yet, in April, the proceedings were stayed. We have yet to see the outcome of Judge Boasberg’s efforts, said Huq.
As Professor of Constitutional Law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Gloria Browne-Marshall, pointed out, this is not the first constitutional crisis in America. The first was against African Americans with the destruction of their constitutional protections granted after the Civil War.
Black citizens have long had to fight for their rights of equal protection and free speech. Their right to vote was historically challenged through poll taxes and literacy tests and more recently, through gerrymandering.
“In many ways, society has been dismissive of the Black plight, said Browne-Marshall. All we did as a nation was to grow numb to the cries of those people and their arguments.”
Yet, many, previously incognizant of their struggles, are now feeling similar pains to what the group has experienced historically.
One cannot allow the rights of marginalized groups to be undermined, she said. The abuses will only spread to the greater society.
We oftentimes think of the United States as being the world’s oldest democracy, added Way. By any standard definition of democracy, we’ve only been a true democracy since the early 1970s with the implementation of the Voting Rights Act. “And democracy is very much over,” he added.
In Venezuela, it took a very long time to undermine democracy, and it also took a long time for people to start to realize that they actually no longer live in a democracy.
“I want to emphasize that by our measure, Venezuela today is a full scale classic dictatorship,” said Way. Yet, the nature of authoritarianism has changed dramatically over the last 50 years. Formerly the product of military coups, 63% of dictators are now elected.
We have a different type of dictatorship today, said Way, known as “competitive authoritarianism.” Like in Hungary, Turkey, and India, elections are held regularly in this system. Protests and opposition may be allowed openly, and to the normal person on the street, they appear like democracies. Nevertheless, subtle legal or semi-legal abuses continue to occur.
Where the costs of opposition flourish, democracy disintegrates, he added. Now, even mainstream opposition is costly, he added. From defamation suits to online harassment, the costs of opposition are spiking, making the United States today unambiguously a competitive authoritarian society.
“Yet it’s not like democratic crisis is anything new in the United States,” he said. Its history of democracy has been quite imperfect. African Americans and other civil rights activists have long suffered the brunt of American authoritarianism.
More recently, attacks on minority groups, of both immigrants and African Americans, are increasing, while universities and the media are also under attack.
Never before have attorneys faced challenges due to their supporting one of the two major parties. It is a significant break from the past, said Way, and a major shift.
Recent denials of due process for immigrants is another way the government is overstepping its authority. Referenced in both the 5th and the 14th Amendments, due process is a protection against the arbitrary and erroneous actions of the government and a right for all of us, he said.
An essential element of democracy is that citizens can criticize the government while not suffering harassment or lawsuits as a result. Now, in addition to immigrants, others have to think twice about whether to oppose Donald Trump.
We are seeing self-censorship in the media. Even Bill Owens, the longtime producer of “60 Minutes,” an American staple, has resigned. The debacle suggests a dire threat against the free press is occuring, making clear the costs of opposition are increasing greatly, said Way.
Is the U.S. Constitution or the rule of law failing, or will it hold? As Congresswoman Terry McBride has often said, “if all of us are a little bit more brave, you don’t need heroes.” In other words, there is safety in numbers, said Way. Though we are experiencing authoritarianism, it is not irreversible, he said. This is especially true in the United States, where society is well resourced and incredibly robust.
“We can fight back, and, in fact, it’s unlikely the Republicans will succeed in consolidating autocracy,” concluded Way.
If we go back to what happened during the Nixon presidency, he was well on his way to accumulating this type of power. Then, the Supreme Court stepped in. And he, of course, stepped out. We’ve now gone many steps beyond what Nixon achieved, said Way.
If you look at the history of autocracies, the ones that have succeeded most are those that were very popular, such as with Hugo Chavez and Vladamir Putin, added Browne-Marshall. With Trump’s popularity now around 40%, the chances of him successfully consolidating authoritarian rule are quite low, she said.
Autocracy only succeeds when those in the government apparatus go along, but they will only go along when they believe they’ll succeed, she said. If the government apparatus sees public opinion going against autocracy, they’ll undoubtedly sit on their hands.
