Knowingly or not, Bob Bauer on Lawfare is laying out a strong tactic for Democratic use in the next two elections in nearly all their national races. How so? By elaborating on how the GOP is helping Trump do lasting damage to the nation:
Does it matter if the threatened lawsuit never materializes? A lawsuit is surely worse than the threat of one. Yet the threat, conveyed in the most formal terms by his legal team, is an appalling precedent to have set.
In previous posts, I have suggested that Trump displays a demagogic leadership style characterized by the pathological personalization of his office. Of primary importance are his personal ends and ambitions: those ends justify the use of virtually any means. If to make a point or to inflict a penalty for crossing him, he feels he must climb down from the presidency to threaten litigation and perhaps become a litigant with no apparent concern for the costs to the institution, then that is what he will do. Norms are meaningless to the demagogue, who delights in ignoring them or who views them, as his chief of staff recently affirmed, as an impediment to running things as he would like.
Now the problem might be seen as only Trump’s, a problem to last as long as a presidency in which this most unusual occupant routinely confuses personal whim with official prerogative. One might imagine that democratic norms will not suffer permanent damage, only a temporary bruising until the next president takes office. On a more pessimistic note, what is once done stands a very fair chance of repetition. The presidents who follow Trump may bring to government no more experience and also fall back in running the government on whatever they learned in the private sector pursuits that earned them their wealth and public notice. The “insider-outsider” dynamic of contemporary politics rewards the candidates who profess contempt for government. In their understanding of government, “norms” are simply biases built into the system, the rules by which the insiders set the rules for their own benefit.
The damage to norms may begin with Trump’s personal outbursts and inclinations, but it does not end there. The acquiescence of congressional Republicans in the president’s conduct, which has sometimes risen to active support, elevates the attack on norms beyond an expression of Trump’s eccentricities. Not a single senior Republican member of Congress has raised a question about the president’s use of threats of litigation against political adversary Bannon or media critic Michael Wolff.
Nor have Republicans dissented from the president’s suggestion on Saturday, which he has made before, that the libel laws should be revised to ease the way for politicians to sue their media critics.
The Dems have the raw material: Trump may be leading the way in inflicting damage on the Nation, but the GOP is in full sheep mode right behind him. But they need to keep in mind that the average Joe doesn’t really know much about norms or how the Executive really functions. Much like myself, past tense, most think the President, through his nominees, runs these departments, and who has ever heard of a norm.
Therefore, the Dems need to embark on an educational and then accusatory campaign. First, educate everyone, in a non-partisan manner, on how and why the Executive is structured as it is. Following that – and much harder – will be to explain and justify the norms that Trump and his Party are trampling. Think the refusal to even consider Judge Garland.
If they’re smart, they’ll use multiple media and learning styles. Even the old cartoons which explained the rudiments of American government forty years ago could provide a style for these new lessons.
The trick will be to make them completely non-partisan so that when the Trumpists try to discredit them, the independents will scratch their heads and then dismiss the Trumpists. Hell, if it can be done effectively and honestly, throw Bill Clinton under the bus.
The next step is to put a knife into the chest of the opposing GOP candidates. In the case of incumbents, the Dem ad should ask why the incumbent did not raise a fuss, introduce a bill, or do anything at all to impede the destruction of the American nation. Your Congressperson is supposed to be a strong-willed leader, but instead Trump had his way with them without the least objection! Don’t hesitate to use the sexual innuendo, because it connects to our primitive beings and reinforces the central truth of the GOP in this Congress – irresponsible loyalty to Party and Leader over their loyalty to the United States.
For those candidates who are not incumbents, if they are Tea Party members – and most will be – then simply point out that Trump and the Tea Party are one, and ask why in the world a voter would want to send a Trump partisan to Congress to continue damaging the government of the United States?
Reading Bob’s post, it brought out quite vividly the difference in outlooks of Trump vs just about previous Presidents, and that difference is their view of the Nation’s future. These norms and requirements and laws and all the constraints on the Executive are there to enhance the just behaviors of the Executive, and by so doing, enhance the very future of the United States. That is the point of all these things that frustrate President Trump.
And that is really the point of Trump – not the future of the United States, but his own immediate gratification. He seems to have no conception of a future for anyone but himself, and even that is merely how he compares with those who he conceives of as competitors, whether they’re other real estate developers or previous American Presidents.
And that irresponsible outlook is why it’s important to start dismantling the GOP Government. It’s the first step on the difficult rehab of a Party in steep decline.
