Trump and his Republican Party are racing ahead with Trump’s plans for Trump’s America. There are more and more freighting signs that he is headed toward success in establishing a new world order, whether intended or not, while America is flailing in her efforts to fight back against his authoritarian instinct. The American people are doing everything that they can to save the American democracy while elected Republican politicians are hiding underneath any rock they can lift or cowering in any dark corner they can find and only coming out when Trump wants something done: something like having them provide political cover for him or getting a bill passed. Once they have granted him his wishes and affirmatively addressed any other commands from him that might have arisen while they were out-and-about, they scramble back to their rocks and dark corners while all the time quivering with fear.
It seems that no matter how much pressure the American people put on these Republican officials it is not enough. Thus far, it has managed to move a handful of them to stand up to Trump but not nearly enough to reign him in, let alone stop him from continuing with his quest to, what appears to be, ruin the American and world economy. They fear Trump more than they fear we the people and the power of our vote!
Trump is loving this while he openly declares that people are “coming to kiss my ass,” and revels in the power that he feels from it. Watching these elected Republican officials who are supposed to be part of a coequal branch of government scramble back-and-forth from beneath their rocks and to-and-from their dark corners is like icing on the cake or dessert. If these Republican politicians should at some point, after they have assured themselves that the American people have hamstrung Trump and have him under control, decide to come out from hiding, spin the narrative in their favor and regain the voters’ trust, they should be shown no quarter. Their political lives should not be spared because they will have failed to honor their oath of office; they will have failed to protect and defend the Constitution.
It is not only the politicians who dress in suits and ties that the American people need to take a close look at if Americans are fortunate enough to make it through Trump 2.0, we also need to take a close look at those politicians who do business in long black robes; the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) justices. The American people must not be lulled to sleep and fooled by SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts and the conservative supermajority that he leads because from time-to-time he and one or two of the other conservative justices do not vote with the other conservative justices. These dissents occur on rulings that are much less likely to have a tectonic impact on democracy as those in which they vote with their supermajority colleagues. Chief Justice Roberts’ record from the time that he entered government through the present reflects who he is.
The fact that he gutted the Voting Rights Act, voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, and authored the response that granted Trump presidential immunity solidifies his identify. And his leadership and response in the handling of requests by elected congressmen to fix a SCOTUS filled with scandalous behavior by its justices, who refuse to even establish an enforceable code of ethics to itself like one that already applies to every other court in America, certainly does not help inspire confidence in the SCOTUS and its ability to render rulings that are fair, unbiased, and based on the law. So even if the rulings that the SCOTUS is now making relative to cases involving Trump are above board, fair, unbiased and based on the law, because of its record and lack of ability or refusal to avoid even the appearance of bias or political activity, most of the American public does not trust the SCOTUS and so is not convinced that these rulings are decisively based on the law.
At this juncture, even if the SCOTUS is not among those institutions or individuals who fear Trump and are very careful about how they respond to him or any situation that involves him, it is extremely hard to decipher whether its rulings are void of fear or favor. A ruling by the SCOTUS regarding whether someone who was admittedly sent to a foreign prison by mistake and without due process should be immediately returned to the United States and allowed the same should be a slam dunk! Instead, after first granting the Trump administration a temporary stay against a lower court’s order to immediately return the person to the United States, the SCOTUS ultimately ruled against the Trump administration’s request to allow the person to remain there in a foreign prison and after ordering that a minor clarification be made, referred the case back to the lower court.
However, the ruling was somewhat vague and – according to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnel, based on the Trump administration’s attorney’s argument to ship and leave the person there in the first place, it appears to leave an opening for the Trump administration to argue that even American citizens could be swept up and sent off to a foreign prison without due process. And, right on cue Trump swoops in and lets everyone know that this is exactly what he wants to do and is ready to make this argument right now. He let everyone know that he would love to send the “home grown” to foreign prisons as well: he was referring to American citizens who are criminals.
Prior to the SCOTUS ruling, Trump had said that his administration would obey court rulings. Since then, however, he has dug his heels in. After the lower court stood by its ruling after it made the correction required by the SCOTUS, Trump’s attorneys appealed the ruling, which will likely ultimately make its way back to the SCOTUS. This already puts Trump in a direct standoff with the SCOTUS: a direct standoff with SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts, the man who, in no small part, is responsible for giving him all this power in the first place, which has emboldened him to defy the courts. Time will soon tell who will be the victor in this unprecedented standoff.
Trump has already managed to subjugate all the Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. It will be interesting to see if he can do the same to Chief Justice John Roberts and the SCOTUS. Whatever happens, we the people must remain in the fight until justice prevails and we are sure that the American democracy, our democracy, is saved and safe. While we are fighting though, we must continue to make our voices heard by way of our vote whenever that opportunity is available to us. We must vote in local, state, and federal elections. This will help prevent those who, like Trump, have an affinity for strongmen and dictators from gaining even a toehold to advance their desire to destroy our great democracy and replace it with an authoritarian leader.
So always remember, whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!
Eulus Dennis – author, M2: Street Cop To Top Cop, Operation Rubik’s Cube, and Living Between The Line