Trump is crippling Congress, agencies and departments that could restrain him. No one knows how far this will go. Some Americans think dictatorship wouldn’t be a bad idea and that Trump would be a fine dictator. I’d like to explain why they’re kidding themselves.
I’ve lived in a dictatorship. When I was working in Iran, the recently restored Shah was fairly progressive. It didn’t last. Our friends soon started showing up here because the Shah had some imprisoned, their friends and family killed. We’ve prayed for the survival of those still alive.
And we’ve known many who escaped dictators in Argentina, Chile, Haiti, Iran, Russia, and countries once part of the Soviet Union.
People don’t do well under dictators, not in Central and South America, Africa, Asia or Europe. Dictators take money and resources for themselves and leave little for the rest of us.
Because they can. People who have influence in a democracy are a threat and a nuisance for dictators. So they shrink those with any influence. They shackle, expel, imprison or eliminate anyone they don’t like or need. Then they tie the fortunes and loyalty of those who remain to their continued rule. Having eliminated any need to satisfy the mass of us, they need not bother. So we suffer.
Notice how Trump first attacked people and corporations that had influence and then made deals that turned them into his dependents and lackeys. He first went after broadcasters, law firms, and universities, eliminated them if he could, intimidated those he couldn’t, or made deals with private entities that made survival depend on his approval. His so-called changes of heart are part of his process of reducing people, companies and countries to servitude, depending on his favor in some sort of deal.
He’s obviously rigging elections while blaming Democrats, trying to minimize Democratic representation by changing district lines in Texas and elsewhere, minimizing the census count in Democratic districts by excluding some of those the Constitution provides should be counted and stripping naturalized citizens of their citizenship.
He’s trying to eliminate broadcasters who disagree with him. With Truth Social and Fox News as his mouthpieces, he’s cowed those who disagree and cut off funding for public broadcasting – whose broadcasts are largely determined by local stations who buy what they want from the nationals.
That makes three different forms of election rigging – by monkeying with the arithmetic, the voters and the news. In any foreign country we’d recognize all of that as election rigging. It eliminates much effective opposition.
Is that good for Republicans? Rich ones, perhaps, but many of those in economic pain are Republicans. Trump has been putting them under stress by cutting stimuli for important growth industries, as well as school lunches, Medicare, Medicaid – all designed for American workers, farmers, former coal miners and others similarly stressed.
He’s been passing those assets to his benefactors while using his office to feather his nest. That’s called corrupt, but it’s typical of dictators, part of a strategy that neutralizes opposition without doing anything for the people. America will be a very different, poorer, less powerful country.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran. He enjoys the help of his editor, Jeanette Gottlieb
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
