“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”-George Orwell.
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Via the NYT: Deploy National Guard to Chicago? Trump Says He Has ‘The Right to Do Anything I Want to Do.’.
“You have a guy in Illinois, the governor of Illinois, saying that crime has been much better in Chicago recently and Trump is a dictator,” Mr. Trump said. “Most people are saying, ‘If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants’ — I am not a dictator, by the way.”
[…]
“Not that I don’t have — I would — the right to do anything I want to do,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m the president of the United States. If I think our country is in danger — and it is in danger in these cities — I can do it.”
In case anyone is wondering, claiming that he has “the right to do anything I want to do” is claiming dictatorial powers.
In terms of any additional wonderings, the word “dictator” means, literally, one who issues dictates. A “dictate” is a command or order. Trump continually centers all power in his person and then issues dictates.
He is governing as a dictator. Our system is supposed to slow, if not stop, such behavior primarily via checks and balances from the other two branches. As I have noted before, partisanship is stronger than institutional jealousies, so the Republican-controlled Congress has no interest in containing him. Some elements of the judiciary have tried, but SCOTUS keeps allowing things to play out before any final adjudication can be rendered, meaning the damage is being done as we await a final dispensation from the courts, which can take years.
Oh, and SCOTUS has made the president immune from prosecution for actions undertaken in pursuing his official duties. So, can someone tell me what the penalty is going to be if he violates the Posse Comitatus Act?
Let’s return to this:
“Most people are saying, ‘If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants’
This is classic dictator stuff. It is the promise of order, and order easily obtained. People don’t like crime. They are, in fact, irrationally afraid of it and are especially convinced that big cities are brimming with crime. That this is also a racialized conversation exacerbates the fear and the willingness to see “those people” kept under control.
And Trump is sadly, and frighteningly, correct. There is a chunk of people who will say “he can do whatever he wants” if they think that what he is doing is making them “safe.” Dictators promise order, and people like order, never mind if what National Guard troops in DC are doing is picking up garbage.
If elderly Fox News watchers who never leave their small town, and perhaps rarely leave their houses, feel safer, well then it is all worth it, right?
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Steven L. Taylor
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