Sleepwalking into dictatorship

Interesting and good to hear: An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reported that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy is resigning from the House, just two months after being tossed from the Speaker’s job. Until a replacement is seated House Republicans now have only a two seat majority. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom will decide when to schedule the replacement election. Since the district is safely red he may not, letting it stay empty for the year. A few days ago I wrote that Republicans wanted to have Hunter Biden testify behind closed doors so they could issue a “summary” repeating their lies and releasing the transcript a few days later when media was no longer paying attention. Laura Clawson of Kos reported that Hunter’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, wrote a letter to Oversight Chair James Comer to explain why Hunter insists on a public session, saying essentially the same thing:

Lowell did not mince words about why that is: "He is making this choice because the Committee has demonstrated time and again it uses closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort, the facts and misinform the American public—a hearing would ensure transparency and truth in these proceedings."

An AP article from ten days ago has more about what the nasty guy intends to do in a second term. He will use the military to quell violence and do so in primarily Democratic cities and states. He’s preparing for the “necessity” by calling New York and Chicago “crime dens.” I don’t want the nasty guy to define what “violence” means. Other uses of the military could be along the southern border, helping with mass deportations. There is a law, the Posse Comitatus Act, that says the president cannot use the military for law enforcement. The biggest exception is the Insurrection Act, first passed in 1792 with the current version passed in the 1870s. And there aren’t many constraints, other than political – most presidents don’t want to be the bad guy who sent tanks down Main Street. – that prevent a president from using it. The article reviews some of the 40 times the Insurrection Act was invoked – Protecting black students integrating Central High School in Little Rock. Responding to unrest after the assassination of MLK. And responding to riots after the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King. The military says an officer and a soldier have the obligation to disobey illegal orders. But there is a strong tradition to obey an order. And a soldier does not want to disobey an order and later learn the order was legal. That could put them in jail for a very long time. Mark Sumner of Kos reported a week ago that the nasty guy has again been threatening the media. That’s as they are willing to cut him infinite slack. Though see yesterday’s post about the media waking up. Mike Luckovich posted a cartoon on Kos. It shows a wolf labeled 2nd-Term Trump facing a house labeled US Democracy with three pigs inside. The wolf says, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!” One of the pigs says, “Such a kidder...” Hunter of Kos reported that Robert Mercer and daughter Rebekah Mercer had supported the nasty guy in 2016, then became dissatisfied with him about the midpoint of his term. And now they’re ready to support him again. This is important news because the Mercers are quite rich and they have a long history of supporting white supremacists, insurrectionists, militia groups, and neo-Nazis. “The Mercers have earned their reputation as America's most prominent backers of fascism.” What is likely getting them to consider backing him is his promise of “full-on fascist rule.” Liz Cheney’s new book Oath and Honor: a Memoir and a Warning is out. Kerry Eleveld of Kos discussed what is in it. A great deal is documenting how much many her Republican colleagues in the House and Senate were supporting the nasty guy and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. This is as many of them said something quite different in public statements. An example is Kevin McCarthy, then Minority Leader, saying to Cheney the nasty guy knows he has lost and needs to go through the stages of grieving, then the same day telling Fox News the nasty guy won. This is one of several examples in Eleveld’s article which are just a tiny selection from the book. But it’s enough for Eleveld to say these Republicans, in spite of their claims, do not have virtue or honor, do not believe in the rule of law, and their oath to the Constitution is a sham. Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Kos community discussed Cheney’s appears on CBS News Sunday Morning to talk about the book. This post has a couple excerpts and their transcripts. She responded to host John Dickerson’s request to respond to her own comment that reelecting the nasty guy will be the end of the republic. Cheney said:

He's told us what he will do. It's very easy to see the steps that he will take. People who say, ‘Well, if he's elected, it's not that dangerous because we have all of these checks and balances’ don't fully understand the extent to which the Republicans in Congress today have been co-opted. One of the things that we see happening today is a sort of a sleepwalking into dictatorship in the United States.

As for those Republican members of Congress:

If you look at what Donald Trump is trying to do, he can't do it by himself. He has to have collaborators. And the story of Mike Johnson is a story of, of a collaborator and of someone who knew then—and knows now—that what he's doing and saying is wrong, but he's willing to do it in an effort to please Donald Trump. And that's what makes it dangerous.

Johnson may be doing it to please the nasty guy. Johnson is also doing it because Johnson wants that dictatorship. Sumner reported that Special Counsel Jack Smith, the guy who brought the charges of insurrection against the nasty guy, has filed another nine pages with the court. They show when the case goes to trial he will present evidence the insurrection did not start after the 2020 election. The nasty guy had been frequently making claims of election fraud well before the 2016 election. That undercuts his claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent. An AP article noted the nasty guy has again started to use the phrase “guard the vote” and urging his supporters to do that. He had used it back in June and last weekend used it again in an Iowa campaign stop. But this isn’t a new phrase used by the far right. And once the nasty guy used it his minions have been pushing it. There is now a group in Florida with the name “Guard the Vote.” And some of his elected followers declare their job is to do just that.

“It suggests that the outcome of the election is foregone. It’s been decided,” said Susan Benesch, founder and executive director of the Dangerous Speech Project. “Is it actually guarding the election against fraud, or is it guarding the election against a result in which Trump is not declared the winner?” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said that by “guard the vote,” Trump meant “to stop any instance of voter fraud in areas where fraud happens.” He did not elaborate, and didn't answer questions about whether the term referred to efforts by Flynn or Mellor. “If he’s really talking about peaceful, normal, legitimate poll watching, then he should say that,” Benesch said.

Stop voter fraud in areas where it happens? As in nowhere? There were only tiny cases of fraud in the 2020 election. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included several good quotes. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post wrote that yes, the nasty guy has a path to authoritarian rule. His minions are developing elaborate plans for full autocracy. But this is not inevitable and don’t let that thought lead you to inactivity. Noah Smith, in his “Noahpinion” on Substack discussed the difference between the economy, which is doing quite good, and the negative national mood about the economy. This isn’t about economic indicators. It’s more about the “negative narrative” pumped out by many media sources. A bit further down Tom Nichols tweeted about a survey done by FocalData that asked people some economic questions and recorded whether they knew the right answer. Some of the questions (summarized) and the percent who got it wrong: What has increased faster, prices or wages? 90% incorrectly said prices. Has inflation gone up or down? 73% say it has gone up, but it has gone down. (I can understand the confusion on this one – inflation, the rate at which prices change, can go down while prices for individual things continue to go up, though more slowly.) Is the rate of poverty higher today than 30 years ago? 68% say poverty is higher today, but it is lower.