Either our system is
going to break, or Trump’s finally going to fail.
Does Trump understand democracy? I’m
really asking.
His approach to politics is
combative — kill-or-be-killed. If you hit him, he will hit you back harder, no
matter what the rules of the game are.
That might be a great strategy in a
WWE ring. It’s less good in life.
Trump gives demeaning and sometimes
racist (e.g. “Pocahontas” for Elizabeth Warren) nicknames to political
opponents.
He never apologizes, even when he
has been caught admitting to sexual misconduct with women (and been accused of
plenty more by a host of women) or making fun of a disabled person.
He appears to believe you are either
the winner or the loser, and he must be the winner. His only strategy has been
brute force. And he doesn’t seek out solutions in which all parties win.
This approach has been very
destructive on the policy front. But it’s not clear whether it’s going to work
for him in the long term.
He kicked off his reign with a host of executive orders attempting to strong-arm the government into bending to his will while bypassing Congress. He silences climate scientists. He appointed Betsey DeVos.
After being investigated for
collusion with Russia, he appears to have attempted to pressure Ukraine into
digging up dirt on his political opponent in the next election.
And now we find out that he
pressured the prime minister of Australia to help his attorney general, William
Barr,discredit the Mueller investigation.
Does he not understand how the
government works? He seems to be missing some key lessons about the
Constitution, Congress, and oversight.
I am not suggesting that it would be
better if he enacted his platform of climate denial and opposing immigration
through more shrewd, yet Constitutional means. I would like to see more
compromise, moderation, and humaneness in how this administration operates.
I don’t wish for him to be more
competent at achieving an agenda I believe is harmful. However, I am somewhat
baffled at why the sitting president of the United States repeatedly attempts
to circumvent democracy even after getting politically dragged for it.
Perhaps that’s because, up to a
certain point, it’s working. The man’s still president. He’s getting at least
some of his agenda accomplished, even if it’s only in the form of stalling
progress on fighting climate change and other forms of throwing wrenches into
anything he doesn’t like.
And he gets to meet world leaders
and feel very important. (Reportedly the clever ones have figured that making him feel important is a useful tactic for manipulating him.)
He still gets crowds of adoring fans
at rallies — even if the host city’s government simultaneously publishes a statement
opposing him.
Donald Trump’s presidency feels like
a test to push the limits of our Constitution, to find its weaknesses, and see
if it truly protects the liberties and principles it was designed to protect.
Personally, I’m ready to be done
waiting with baited breath to see if the Constitution holds up to these
assaults. It would be less exhausting to trust that we had a leader who
believed in it.
OtherWords columnist Jill
Richardson is pursuing a PhD in sociology at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Distributed by OtherWords.org.