Trump’s thief dictatorship matches McConnell’s destruction of democratic norms. Both are existential threats. (New Republic, June 25, 2017)
Donald Trump, the president who has been impeached once and twice, has released and legitimized the white supremacism, despotism, greed-driven, power-hungry, and corrupt factions of the Republican Party. At the state and federal levels, Republican leaders support voter suppression legislation, oppose minority constituencies, and conspiracy theories, including denial of free and fair presidential election results. Trump was so stupid and emotional that he did not realize that he was used as a puppet by the Republican Party, and Washington insiders called him an incompetent joke. Other puppets who awkwardly use Trump to advance the anti-American agenda include Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and most recently the Taliban.
The New Republic article summed up Trump’s most blatantly authoritarian abuse of democracy as:
- Ignore the rules of nepotism and conflict of interest
- Accused the judge in a case involving him, his government and his criminal friends
- Fired FBI Director James Comey because he refused to agree to swear allegiance to him
- Dismissal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and many other officials against him on any issue
- Restrict access to press freedom and replace the White House’s daily briefing with off-camera gatherings that prohibit recording
- Hold dictator-style gatherings to instigate the masses to engage in crazy aggression and physical violence
- Inappropriate deployment of the army to support his political agenda.
- Align with foreign dictators and enemies on U.S. intelligence issues
- Propaganda similar to Russia for telling the truth
Trump is in power to satisfy his narcissistic needs for power, attention, and worship. However, the factors driving MCConnell are different. His “degradation of democratic norms in the Senate” (The New Republic, 2017) makes him a dangerous, power-grabbing damage to our democracy. He does not seek media reports or the admiration of followers. Contrary to Trump, McConnell cares about policies, especially those that suppress voting, cut funding for programs to help the poor, the disabled, and minorities, and exclude bipartisanship as a goal.
Examples of McConnell’s actions that led the United States toward authoritarianism include:
- Block a proposal by the Democratic Party that would increase voter turnout by declaring election day a federal holiday and allowing voter registration on that day
- Refused to allow Merrick Garland, the nominee for President Obama, to hold a hearing in the Supreme Court, but shelve the obstruction bill and let Trump-appointed Neil Gossage appear in court
- Although there are still a few months before the presidential election, in most cases he hypocritically promoted Amy Coney-Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination.He rejected Obama’s court nomination, saying he was too close to the next election
- When both Obama and Biden became presidents, McConnell announced that they would completely block their administrative agenda even before they began to govern, and promised to make them every president.
- Secretly wrote the Obamacare repeal bill, which is not only hidden from the public and Democrats, but even from their Republican colleagues.
- Deny the public’s right to participate in decision-making
- Opaque governance modeled on foreign dictators
The biggest problem still exists;
Whether Attorney General Merrick Garland is eligible to initiate a federal investigation against Trump and his associates, investigations involving criminal election interference, sedition, violations of pay, violations of the Civil Procedure Law, litigation, appeals, appeals, appeals, appeals, Appeals and protests and federal tax evasion?
If not, he should be fired. Allowing Trump to gather a group of violent followers of voters who support authoritarian rule rather than the two-party democratic tradition should disqualify Garland from continuing to serve as the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.
