Snap out of it America. Yes, Bianca Censori’s Lady Godiva moment at the Grammys was shockingly not shocking—great news about Beyoncé, though—but there’s a few days now before you have to shift your attention to what Taylor Swift will wear to the Super Bowl.
So maybe now would be a good time to focus the message being sent by your new president, Elon Musk, and his assistant, Donald Trump?
Because all the warning lights are flashing.
What the Musk-Trump administration’s first two weeks in office have communicated with gut-wrenching clarity is that the coup attempt on January 6, 2021 has never stopped.
What’s more, that coup looks very much like it is now succeeding, thanks to the fawning, yawning complicity of the supine media, timid Democratic leaders, Republican sycophants and the obliviousness of an electorate apparently unbothered by the slow-motion destruction of their own democracy. And the people being targeted by Musk and Trump are not the “Deep State” or those participating in the non-existent “invasion” at our borders. No, those directly in the sights of the demolition team setting charges at each of the foundations of America’s strength are none other than you and me, the American people.
The efforts by the Trump team to supplant the role and authorities assigned to Congress, to illegally shutdown whole federal agencies, to oust government employees en masse and to champion culture war witch hunts are little different from attempts to use violence to stop the transition of power in 2021.
The reason the law protects civil servants from arbitrary, partisan termination is because our elected representatives determined it was in our interests to immunize them from the ebbs and flows, passions and stupidities of American politics. When they are systematically fired or forced out of office—as is happening this week across the government—our voice as an electorate is being ignored.
So, too are our basic interests as people. Was it in our interest for the head of the Federal Aviation Administration to be forced out of office, just days before the horrific crash that sent a passenger jet and a military helicopter plunging into the D.C.‘s Potomac River? Is it in our interests for Trump to fire FBI officials simply because they were enforcing laws our representatives put in place to protect us? Simply because they were doing their duty?
In the same vein, it is our interests that are put at risk when the White House illegally stops funding programs created and funded by the Congress to serve us. (These risks will be compounded further should Musk and his gang of vandals succeed in seizing control of the mechanisms by which the U.S. government pays its bills—which they are trying to do and which has already led to the resignation of one high level Treasury Department official.)
It is not just insane that Trump’s team is in the midst of a vendetta against people and agencies who serve the vital interests of our country. It is not just outrageous that they feel empowered—whether by the people or a Supreme Court that last year sent a message that our presidents are more like kings than public servants—to do so. It is also deeply damaging.
Take the effort that gained steam on Monday, in contravention of numerous laws, to cut funding and perhaps even erase the U.S. Agency for International Development. This is not simply an effort to cut back on our foreign aid spending—which is less than that of every developed country in the world as a percentage of GDP—nor does it just hurt friends and allies in need around the world. It hurts us. It eliminates our influence and leverage and increases that of our rivals in Beijing, the Kremlin and elsewhere.
But, then again, everything that is being done benefits our adversaries. Our plans for “territorial expansion” are a license to Russia to continue its aggression in Ukraine and for China to make its inevitable move against Taiwan. Our trade wars weaken our alliances and send a message that we are further abandoning the international system we fought two wars and spent a century working to help build. That’s not just foreign policy peacocking. That’s our country being stripped of vital protections in an ever-more perilous world.
Does it matter that the administration is wiping references to climate change or trans people from government websites? Certainly. It matters and is also surpassingly stupid—a childish stunt equivalent to a kid putting his hands over his ears and shouting “la-la-la” to avoid hearing news he does not like.
But this just theater for the crowd, efforts to distract from the real damage that is being done; the fact that people can’t take it all in and some are just tuning it out—that’s part of the plot. It is a way to get the space they need to toss their anti-democratic firebombs. It is a way of doing as much damage as possible before the courts step in. (And there is no guarantee Trump will accept court rulings either—there are early signs his administration will just... not.)
I do not recall a day- or week-long news cycle with more disturbing news about the state of the presidency and the U.S. government than today and the past seven days. I think it is fair to say that not since the Civil War has the U.S. seen a greater threat to our system—but I would argue that even during the Civil War, the federal government was better functioning, more guided by the rule of law and by officials with the interests of the people at heart.
Do not underestimate the historical significance of this lawlessness or the damage that will be done if it is not immediately and resoundingly stopped.
If the members of Congress understood or took to heart their oaths of office they, regardless of party, would step up and say no to the flagrant stripping away of their power. If the people understood that they are the targets of this onslaught—as they were when their voting rights were curtailed, as they were when companies and billionaires were given the upper hand in our politics via Citizens United, as the vast majority of us will be when our system is further rigged to serve the few at the expense of the many—they would take to the streets and they would not leave.
The reality is, though it will not happen. (And who knows, it may even soon be illegal to say so?)
Most of us will change the channel or scroll to the next social media clip. Most in the media will “both sides” the end of our democracy into a melisma of euphemisms and equivocations. Most of our political leaders will focus on the pitch for their next fund-raiser email. And if this oblivious, indolent cowardice continues as I fear it will, we will look back on these days of chaos, destruction, hatred and lunacy as only prelude. Unchecked, we are on the path not just to autocracy, but to the worst form of malevolent dictatorship.
My reaction is not hysteria. It’s not exaggeration. It’s not premature. Where we are is a place we have never been in this country and the threat we face is by no means one that we can survive—because something precious and fragile is at dire risk of being lost.
