Not just democracy, but also the rule of law

Matt Gaetz. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The incomprehensible becomes even more incomprehensible. Last week, decent human beings had to confront the news that the most evil man in American history, a man who should have been in prison long ago, was voted back into the White House by the American people.

And now decent human beings are having another sleepless night (it’s 3 a.m. here), after Trump said he will nominate Matt Gaetz, another incomprehensibly disgusting human being who belongs in prison, to be attorney general of the United States.

There can be no doubt that Trump’s intention is to crush the rule of law along with the American democracy.

Heather Cox Richardson writes:

“Republican establishment leaders have always wanted to dismantle the New Deal state that began under Democratic president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and continued under Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower and presidents of both parties until 1981. But they have never wanted to dismantle the rule of law on which the United States is founded or the international rules-based order on which foreign trade depends. Aside from moral and intellectual principles, the rule of law is the foundation on which the security of property rests: there is a reason that foreign oligarchs park their money in democracies. And it is the international rules-based order that protects the freedom of the seas on which the movement of container ships, for example, depends.

“Trump has made it clear that his goal for a second term is to toss overboard the rule of law and the international rules-based order, instead turning the U.S. government into a vehicle for his own revenge and forging individual alliances with autocratic rulers like Russian president Vladimir Putin.”

Richardson seems to think that there is some hope that establishment Republicans in Congress will work with the remaining Democrats in Congress to stand up to Trump in defense of the rule of law.

It really boils down to a bunch of fascists in a battle over which will make them richer — old-fashioned business conducted under the rule of law, or a corrupt economy that they can loot, like Russia’s, and send to the gulags anybody who gets in their way.

There were amusing stories yesterday about a spike in Google searches last week for “how to change my vote.” That’s just more incomprehensibility. Some of the people who are stupid enough to vote for Trump also are stupid enough to think they can change their vote — millions of them, apparently, to have reached a score of 100 on Google trends.

Once again I want to say how important it is to follow Heather Cox Richardson. The mainstream media are in the absurd position of having to report on a country’s descent into fascism as though there are two sides to it. As I have said before, no valid centrist narrative exists. The truth about the condition in which we find ourselves can be told only by those who have no Republican ass to kiss.

Update: In a comment on this post, the always well-informed Chenda (who is in the U.K., by the way) mentions that there are now stories that some formerly high-level people in Washington who got themselves onto Trump’s enemy list are making plans to leave the country. I’m attaching a link to today’s Washington post piece on this:

Go bags, passports, foreign assets: Preparing to be a target of Trump’s revenge

This is an alarm bell if I’ve ever heard one. Knowing some German history is very helpful here. How far down the food chain will Trump’s retribution go? We have no way of knowing at this point. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration of the Supreme Court’s new ruling to say that, if Trump shoots some generals and admirals as an official presidential act, then he is not criminally liable. Even for small-fry bloggers like me, too obscure for Trump to bother with, there will be brownshirts to take care of Trump’s business.

Those who are on the record as people who recognize Trump for what he is — a fascist and a depraved and extremely dangerous human being — had better be thinking through the contingencies and making some plans.