President Trump is at war with the rule of law. This won't end well - Rebecca Solnit
At the top there’s corruption, down below
there’s dismantling and disarray. Americans are entering a period of immense
danger... the federal government has become a
subsidiary of Trump Incorporated... Passivity and
disengagement got us here; political engagement will get us out..
Do Americans still have a government? I do not know. What I do know is that President Trump and the upper echelons of the executive branch are at war with the legislative branch, the rule of law, the constitution, federal civil servants and the American people. It’s a conflict that pulls in many directions, and if the president threatened civil war the other day as something that could happen if he doesn’t get his way, we can regard the ordinary state of things as a low-intensity civil war or a slo-mo coup that’s been going on from the beginning. Tuesday’s White House refusal to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry only escalates their defiance and their chaos.
Do Americans still have a government? I do not know. What I do know is that President Trump and the upper echelons of the executive branch are at war with the legislative branch, the rule of law, the constitution, federal civil servants and the American people. It’s a conflict that pulls in many directions, and if the president threatened civil war the other day as something that could happen if he doesn’t get his way, we can regard the ordinary state of things as a low-intensity civil war or a slo-mo coup that’s been going on from the beginning. Tuesday’s White House refusal to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry only escalates their defiance and their chaos.
The chaos takes so
many forms. Innumerable stories have made it clear that even the president’s
own aides and cabinet members treat him like a captive bear or a person having
a psychotic breakdown – like someone unstable who must be kept from harming
himself and others. They have done that by heaping on the flattery, and by
warping and limiting the information he receives, and often by doing their best
to prevent his directives from being realized. The New York Times
recently reported on
a March meeting about the border. According to aides, Trump “suggested that
they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down”. When he was told that
wasn’t allowed, he ordered that the border be closed. That set off a “frenzied
week of presidential rages, round-the-clock staff panic and far more White
House turmoil than was known at the time. By the end of the week, the
seat-of-the-pants president had backed off his threat but had retaliated with
the beginning of a purge of the aides who had tried to contain him.”
This is the kind
of story we’ve become used to – outrages and viciousness and inanity and all –
but it’s worth reading another way, as a story about a bear lashing out at
whatever’s around him and gobbling up the scraps they feed him while he is
still chained to the wall. When we refer to the “president” we really mean
whatever ad hoc group of people with proximity is manipulating him, lying to
him, or preventing him from knowing or doing something. They sometimes prevent
harm or illegality. But this is only half of the administrative “team.” The
other half consists of those serving his personal agenda, and in this respect
the federal government has become a subsidiary of Trump Incorporated.... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/09/trump-government-executive-branch-rebecca-solnit