An opinion piece in today’s Washington Post, somewhat obscured among the coverage of the healthcare debate and DT’s latest tweets, struck me. Its title laments the president’s lack of transparency and his direct attacks on the press.
In the backdrop of the continuing Russia investigation, the looming repeal of Obamacare, Supreme Court decisions hostile to progressive ideals, and the administration’s announcement that the president will meet with Putin during the G-20 summit next week, this statement in the piece struck me—
Authoritarianism does not announce itself. It creeps up on you.
Yesterday, Mark Sumner posted a dairy that aptly notes that we are becoming used to being lied to, daily by the president of the United States.
Yet, in the midst of outrage over today’s tweets, the president’s travel ban goes into effect tonight and today Pence is pushing senators to support a healthcare bill that benefits the wealthy at the expense of the poor. While these threats to our way of life are obvious, there is a more subtle undoing of our democracy.
The president has had a single formal news conference — in February, 168 days after his previous such encounter with the media. At this point in their presidencies, Barack Obama had held seven; George W. Bush three; Bill Clinton seven; George H.W. Bush 15.
As the president rants on Twitter, it is apparent, even to some Republicans, that our Commander In Chief is unstable. And while some suggest that the president’s tweets are not to be taken seriously, but are rather an intentional ploy to disturb Democrats, or distract from policy debates—sensible people can agree that never, in the history of our nation, has the chief executive behaved in such a manner. And this behavior, with no vehicle for direct questioning, is dangerous. From the article, (emphasis mine)
A president automatically commands airtime; this president, through his Twitter feed, automatically commands attention. But publicity without accountability is the antithesis of democracy. Reporters questioning elected officials serve in this sense as surrogates for the public.
I admit that I have become so distracted by the constant barrage of Executive NonsenseTM and the inevitable “Outrage of the Day”, that I haven’t fully grasped that I am living in an increasingly authoritarian country. Perhaps because our president is a former reality TV personality, our nation (including supporters) take a “what is he gonna do/tweet now” as entertainment, and even in our outrage, we gawk at the Twitter wars that inevitably ensue.
Unlike totalitarianism, authoritarianism has been described as relying “...on passive mass acceptance rather than popular support”.
Meanwhile on Monday, the president held a joint appearance with the prime minister of India
...at which the leaders of the world’s two largest democracies took zero questions.
Let’s continue our fight to protect what healthcare rights we have gained, and ramp up our push for more and better Democrats in the midterm elections, and let’s also be mindful that if Democrats take back the reigns of government, we cannot let this level of executive behavior become the new norm.