Stop Asking 'Can It Happen Here?' It Is Happening Here.
Today the forces of wealth and power are wielding unprecedented weapons that threaten the fundamentals of the republic. It’s not just policies and government departments that are under assault, but the very foundations of our democracy.
Not since those sweltering days in Philadelphia in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention has the United States confronted so fundamental a restructuring of the federal government. What’s happening! Today, the mainstream press declares “it can’t happen here” because we are not an authoritarian society, which is a reference to Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel, about a dictatorial take over of the United States. No we are not heading into a coup d’etat, they say, nor are we heading into an oligarchy.
Well, in fact, we are in the midst of a coup d’etat and we are living under an oligarchy.
The Trump-Musk regime and Republican Party are transforming how we are governed. This is not an unconstitutional assault, but rather an anti-constitutional assault. Virtually every ruling tradition is being pillaged all in the name of democracy. As the old maxim goes, “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
This is not an unconstitutional assault, but rather an anti-constitutional assault.
Those leaders in 1787 contrary to their stated intentions did not resolve to reform the Articles of Confederation, rather to create a new government, the U.S. Constitution. After considerable and impassioned debate an uneasy consensus was forged among the 13 states. At the conclusion of the convention with philosophical differences still painfully evident, the esteemed Benjamin Franklin urged his fellow delegates to “place trust in their own fallibility” and endorse the new republic.
A Contest of Time
With all of its manifest imperfections and unremitting political and economic crises, many self inflicted, this government has survived for nearly 240 years. Of course, through it all the elites thrived while those not fortunate enough to be white and wealthy were obliged to endure. The influential federalist Fisher Ames, in defense of the Constitution, likened our new republic to traveling on a “raft where we never sink but our feet are always in the water.”
Are We Due to Capsize?
This time in our history is different. Today the forces of wealth and power are wielding unprecedented weapons that threaten the fundamentals of the republic. It’s not just policies that are under assault.
Unique concentrations of economic and political authority, dysfunctional legislative and judicial branches, a collapsed political party system, race and class scapegoating and toadying by influential sectors of the mass media combine to provide opportunities for demagogues to sell snake oil to an economically vulnerable and politically disillusioned public. This could be, in the words of the American sage Mel Brooks, a “springtime for Hitler” moment.
What Lurks Within?
Just as Trump’s rise to power is a symptom of undemocratic features of the political economy, an oligarchy and coup d’etat can emerge from a regime that incessantly consolidates power by and for the wealthy. It’s not the greed it’s the need. Power concentration is baked into the scheme. The internal logic dictates that elite political power consolidates and expands in order to preserve and amplify economic power.
Capitalism, according to noted economist Sam Bowles, is a never-ending race that requires aggressive undemocratic strategies to persevere. Well, democracy gets in the way of all of this; it organically interferes with the forces of wealth and power. Thus elite self-aggrandizement is compulsory for survival. Predictably this ceaseless jockeying for advantage in the race comes at the expense of the general welfare of the people or as the African proverb has it “when the elephants dance the mice gets trampled.”
Wizards Behind the Curtain
It is widely understood that Trump is not known for his intellectual curiosity or acuity. During his first term he seldom read his briefing books preferring to lean on his confidantes for any particulars. Presidents, in part are judged by who the advisors are. So who are some of Trump’s “brain trust”?
In the early 1970’s, Roy Cohn, the legal henchman for Senator Joseph McCarthy, became a trusted mentor to Trump. Cohn bragged that, “My scare value is high. My arena is controversy. My tough front is my biggest asset.” He admonished Trump to never admit a mistake. Sound familiar? Another key influencer was—and remains—Steve Bannon, publisher of Breitbart News, a reactionary platform for Republican extremism. Bannon is credited with saying the goal is the “destruction of the administrative state.” Then there’s Stephen Miller, the ever-dyspeptic long-time insider who stated, “I would be happy if not a single refugee’s foot ever again touched American soil.”
In the words of historian Doris Kearns Goodman, in another context, these people are not a “team of rivals” like those that Lincoln assembled. Trump’s team of advisors and cabinet secretaries are the mandatory paragons of sycophancy.
The Coup’s Afoot
The Trump-Republican agenda is in part based on Project 2025, which is a wish list of extremist proposals of an influential ultra conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. As will be shown the ultimate goal is to challenge and repeal foundational theories, structures and methods of how this country operates.
Their methods are straight out of an authoritarian’s playbook. The process consists of serial deceit, edict and executive orders all in arrogant violation of congressional and constitutional mandates and methods. This is a “shock and awe” that sabotages the rule of law. Trump’s second term is a barrage of dismantling of departments and agencies and the firing of hundreds of thousands with no regard for due process or social and human consequences. This is a coup d’etat.
Constitutional Foundations Crumble
This Trump –Musk and Republican Party coup is not a palace revolt that merely changes the faces in power. This is not about tinkering or modifying policy. This is not about upholding long cherished principles and values or a return to the “good old days.” This is about systemic change, about power and how it is structured and wielded and for who’s benefit.
What follows is an exposition of the coup’s structural attacks on governance. The actual specifics of the daily policy plundering will not be emphasized. Rather what will be explored are the why and how of this destruction of the basic architecture and operation of constitutional government. While historically this governing design and process has never been perfect it has always held the virtue of an ideal, of being a worthy democratic goal.
Reneging on the Contract
The insurrectionists intend to break the “Social Contract.” Philosopher John Locke’s foundational principle embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of an implicit agreement between the citizens and their government whereby the people abide by the authority in exchange for a freedom and the security of a stable society. People of good will understand that with freedom comes responsibility. This coup represents a comprehensive attack on the very purpose and methods of governing. Trump and Republicans are willfully undermining citizen’s trust in their government by demolishing the Contract.
How Popular is Sovereignty?
Trump, Inc. is sabotaging the principle of Popular Sovereignty whereby government’s power derives from the consent of the people. There is no need for consent in an authoritarian regime. Do citizens now want more voter suppression with fewer people voting, do they want the wealthy to have more control over campaign financing and who gets to run for office? Do citizens want an electoral system that they can’t trust? Not long ago Trump in his juvenile and artless way mused that when he becomes president the country would be so great that there would be no need for further elections.
Checking the Power of Democracy
An effective coup will subvert basic notions of how power should operate. The constitutional principles of the Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances are designed to prevent one branch from dominating the others and to insure the sharing of powers and accountability.
Republicans and Trump are consciously undermining that balance by promoting dubious theories, such as the “unitary executive” that bestows unrestrained power to the executive. Trump is impounding funds that were congressionally authorized. He is ignoring congressional oversight, thereby making a mockery of committee hearings and denying the senate it’s Advice and Consent authority. “Being president means I can do anything, I have Article 2,” thus spake Trump, the learned constitutional scholar during his first term.
In the early 1970s mainstream historian, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in his book, The Imperial Presidency, warned of the escalation and dangers of an omnipotent president. One of his subjects of course was Richard Nixon who by comparison to Trump looks like a Mr. Rogers in his neighborhood oval office.
A Supremely Political Court
Revamping and controlling the judicial system is vital to the effectiveness of a coup. The U.S. Supreme Court wields extraordinary powers through a legalism concocted in 1803 that bestowed through “judicial review” the irrevocable authority to determine what laws are constitutional. This enables an unelected branch the ability to overturn a decision of elected representatives.
That power, now in the hands of the Trump-Roberts court, is a form of despotism. If insurgents can shape the ideological tenor of the court then politics will replace judicial fairness rendering the court a confederate in the unraveling of democracy.
Working with the Federalist Society over recent decades, the right-wing movement has spent millions to colonize the Supreme Court with a super majority of conservative and reactionary jurists. This hostile takeover of our highest court has turned a once esteemed branch into an ideological bunker where the robber barons take on cases to further limit the “excesses” of democracy.
The Robert’s Court has, among other things, destroyed voting rights protections, eliminated campaign finance regulations, undermined first amendment rights, eroded immigrant and women’s rights and unabashedly championed corporate interests. And perhaps most egregiously has put the president above the law by anointing him with unprecedented immunity. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the Senate’s most effective judicial watchdog, describes the Robert’s Court as having “advanced a far right agenda” that is “deeply out of touch with the will of Americans.” This court has virtually overturned the rule of law and enabled extremism to reign supreme.
The Political Party Is Over
The party system is being destroyed enabling coup mutineers to demagogue their way to power. They have been aided and abetted by two political parties that are no longer honest or effective advocates for citizens interests.
For a long time the political party system has been a poor representative of the interests of a broad cross section of the population. Class considerations and structural weakness of government has disenfranchised many. Historically it has been up to minorities, the poor and working classes, women, and others to compel political parties and others make the country live up to its founding ideals. Yes, if the people will lead the leaders will eventually follow.
The party system is being destroyed enabling coup mutineers to demagogue their way to power. They have been aided and abetted by two political parties that are no longer honest or effective advocates for citizens interests.
The perennial issue is how well the parties have represented the citizens. The Democratic Party once an advocate for minorities, the poor and working classes has over the past 50 years abandoned its grassroots focus and party building. Aided by the myopic assistance of the Bill Clinton wing of the party, the old New Deal coalition has been abandoned in order to pander to the interests of Wall Street.
Republicans, starting in the 20th century, consistently represented business and elite interests, nothing new here. What is new and distinctive is the impact of the growing reactionary wing that gained traction in the 1970’s and surged during the1980s Reagan era. With a shrinking middle class, a tidal wave of unregulated corporate money, a new high tech Internet media combined with an economically vulnerable populace provided an opportunity for cynical Republican Party exploitation. With Trump as the carnival barker the fringe elements of the party grew in popularity and became amenable to extremist ideas.
Today Republicans are more of a cult than a party while most Democrats dither as they try to figure out what they stand for other than re-election.
With the major parties in existential disarray they are less capable of countering the anti democratic forces of oligarchy. The logical consequence is a coup d’etat to “save the country.”
Is There No Direction Home?
Not since the Civil War have the principles, structure, and means of governance been so ferociously attacked. The Lockean Social Contract between the people and the government is being torn apart.
While it was not a mandate, only about 30% of the voting age population supported Trump (76 out of c. 259 million adults), that’s nonetheless a significant portion of voters. Clearly citizens are angry with a government that consistently ignores the real interests of working-class Americans. They voted their frustrations, their anger and their pocketbooks. Hey that Trump guy is talking about my concerns.
But did they vote to promote fear and hatred in order to divide people by class, gender, race, and sexual orientation? Did they vote to destroy public education, Social Security, the U.S. Postal Service and healthcare by privatization or to politicize the Supreme Court and the Justice Department? Did they vote to further shrink the middle class and escalate the gap between the rich and the poor or to destroy unions? Did they vote to deny climate change or to blow up relations with our allies by abrogating treaties or start destabilizing tariff wars?
We do know that people’s contentment in life is primarily derived from a society that offers a fair chance for equal opportunity and security.
If we are like the theologian Abraham Heschel, “pessimists of the intellect and optimists of the will” this crisis offers a real opportunity to seek a newer world, a world where an authentic political and economic democracy can be made a reality.
Returning to the venerable Franklin, during the Constitutional Convention he would frequently gaze at the sun carved high on the chair of presiding officer George Washington and muse whether it was a setting or rising sun...
