EJ Dionne has Thoughts
Will Trump scare some sense into the Democrats?
While the Democratic presidential candidates tear each other to pieces, President Trump is sending a message to the country: The rule of law means nothing to him. He will weaponize the federal government to his own political purposes, and things will only get worse if he’s reelected.
Trump has said many awful things, but here are his most chilling words yet: “I’m actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country.â€
Trump as “the chief law enforcement officer†is akin to putting the Houston Astros in charge of policing cheating in Major League Baseball.
It should worry Democrats that as the dangers posed by four more years of Trump (and two more years of a supine GOP Senate) become clearer, their presidential race may be coming down to a choice between a billionaire and a democratic socialist. “ ’Tis the final conflict,†as “The Internationale,†the old anthem of the left, put it. It’s hard to imagine a confrontation more likely to shatter the party.
What follows is lots of whining, including about Trump providing pardons, clemencies, and commutations, which is totes different from when Obama did it, you know. And lots more whining, because
But this is not a normal time. We have seen too many cases in history when authoritarian leaders triumphed because their opponents were so focused on adversaries within their own camp that they lost track of the larger struggle to preserve democracy and free government.
I’m still waiting for some Lefty to explain how, exactly, Trump is authoritarian, and how he is controlling their lives. I mean, isn’t that exactly what most of the Democrats are saying they each want to do?
Thus a modest suggestion: Can these Democratic candidates start competing over who is best positioned to bring together the majority of Americans who disapprove of how Trump is running things? Can they try to prove it by reaching out now to constituencies not part of their own natural base — and by taming the furies within their own factions? Can they look at the smirk on Trump’s face and realize the damage they’ll do our nation if they just pretend that this primary is like every other?
Nope. They’re all nuts, and none of them will reign in the wackadoodle. They’re all trying to see how much they can appeal to the extremists in the Democrat party. And they won’t stop.
