Winged Victory Monument, commemorating Washingtonians killed in World War I, State Capitol grounds at Olympia
The voices of the people, and the endowment of the law
The distinguished historian Timothy Snyder, an expert on despotism, wrote what is perhaps his most influential book in less than three weeks. I’m sure many of you have read it, or know of it. Its title is ON TYRANNY, 20 lessons from the Twentieth Century
On Tyranny is written concisely, like a manual one might use for bike repair. For example, the introduction to lesson #3, BEWARE THE ONE PARTY STATE, is presented this way: “The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multi-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office.”
Like a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, On Tyranny is something you’d hope to never have to use, or in this case, feel an urgent need to re-read in the course of a chaotic socio-political meltdown. But Snyder felt compelled to write it during the holiday break from his teaching duties at Yale between Christmas and the 9th of January. The year was 2016, folding into 2017—the year Donald Trump would be inaugurated for the first time. Snyder clearly recognized the danger signs not just of Trump’s malevolence, but of the cult-like hold he has on millions of Americans.
When I hear someone whine that critics of Trump and Trumpism are alarmists—afflicted with “Trump Derangement Syndrome”—I think of Snyder’s actual voice. He is soft-spoken and chooses his words carefully, not as a profane carnival barker like Trump can be, but as a prescient student of our times—one who’s clearly done his homework. Snyder saw Trump’s penchant for authoritarianism and the hold it was taking with millions of disgruntled Americans. He wrote his book like Paul Revere rode his horse.
Justice of the Plains, the Movement Westward, (oil painting on the 6th floor of the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC)
Among journalists, a problem with writing about Trump’s second presidency is that—more so than the first time around—the din of the mayhem overwhelms any one story, any one threat, injury, act of fraud, or act of “retribution” as Trump himself describes it. This is by design. It is the “flood the zone with shit” strategy that former Trump advisor Steve Bannon instilled, approximately 3,200 days ago, as a way to overwhelm journalism, to sow chaos, to demoralize opponents and deflect accountability.
Last Tuesday was the 100th day of the second Trump term and it was marked, as usual, with 100-day assessments from many of the major media platforms. Usually they’re not difficult pieces to write. But this time around the task was impossible—like trying to pencil up the math on the inventory destruction as the raging bull is still bucking its way through the proverbial china shop. Here’s just a list of the kicks and punches our brains are being forced to absorb.
1) The worldwide Trump tariff fiasco, causing financial markets to buckle and provoking international condemnation
2) The public chastising of Ukraine and berating its leader for not agreeing to cede Ukrainian territory to Russian invaders who already face international criminal court warrants for crimes against humanity, including the capture and forced relocation of Ukrainian children
3) Inducing chaos in the Pentagon via the appointment of a weekend Fox News host (with a history of fiscal mismanagement, womanizing and alcohol abuse) as Secretary of Defense
4) The appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a well-documented charlatan and anti-vaccine advocate to lead the Department of Health and Human Services which houses, among other key entities, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control
5) The signing of executive orders specifically sanctioning law firms and individuals for representing clients who oppose Trump’s political or legal initiatives
6) The signing of executive orders specifically targeting former federal officers who’ve criticized Trump for making fraudulent claims about the 2020 election results
7) The threatening of universities with cut offs of federal grants and revocations of tax-exempt status if they resist changes (i.e. terminating programs advancing “diversity, equity and inclusion”) to comply with controversial policies supported by Trump and his political allies
8) Using Elon Musk and his “DOGE” operation to essentially cripple and/or dismantle whole agencies (i.e. the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Agency for International Development) without Congressional approval
9) The summary firing of at least 18 Inspectors General—the officials who audit federal government agency activities for fraud and abuse
10) The Trump answer to the threat of climate change— severe funding cuts and the elimination an entire entity—NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research—that gathers data for scientific use in chronicling the escalating planetary warming and ocean acidification caused by human-caused carbon emissions
I could add more, including the thousand National Park Service employees Trump fired on Valentines Day, or the ethical gymnastics that reportedly delivered (out of thin air) Trump and his wife billions of dollars of net worth through the marketing of crypto meme coins with his and her likenesses on them.
In Trump’s first term cabinet there were at least handlers like chief of staff John Kelly, White House counsel Don McGhan, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Attorney Generals Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr (both of whom were eventually fired) who were positioned to curb Trump’s excesses. It’s different this time, with Trump putting loyalty above competence, experience and probity. In the praise-the-leader portion of last week’s cabinet meeting, this is how the new Attorney General, Pam Bondi, engaged the president:
“Mister President your first one hundred days have far exceeded the first one hundreds days of any other presidency in this country. Ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it. Thank you.”
In short, the new Attorney General has his back and no qualms about using the resources of the Justice Department to pursue investigations into Trump’s enemies. Under her direction, the justice department has been dramatically reconfigured, with more than 250 firings, resignations or reassignments in the civil rights division of the department alone. It is the purge that Trump promised, the removal of any federal official who played a role in investigating his corrupt behavior during his first term. It is accompanied with with open defiance and hostility toward the federal judges who’ve ruled against Trump since he took office.
On Tyranny, Lesson 10
Believe in truth
To abandon fact is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.
Crowd gathering for Spokane’s May 1st Women’s March at the Riverfront Park clock tower last week
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—tjc
