The campaign tell: Trumpism wins only by warring against law and order to delegitimize courts
Grist for Trump’s bad faith mill. Giving the finger to judges and prosecutors, to justified convictions, and to “obstructive,” suspect institutions, now defines the central Trumpist pitch. Everything is fodder for this hubris– what matters is manipulating his image flow to serve his perceived self-interest. For reasons certain to puzzle historians, the brashness of Trump’s vulgar, gross unfitness hardly impedes seeming forward motion (even if treading water).
Second only to the Big Lie contradiction, the gall of seeking the presidency, above all an executor of laws, statutes, court decisions and the Constitution, signals profound Trump unfitness. What sticks out, and what I consider to be his fatal campaign flaw, is a loudmouth mob boss running to control the rule of law, the only apparatus capable of stopping him cold if it ever adjudicates all his indictments.
Here is the “great populist” who must undermine the jury system (the monitored voice of the people) to fulfill takeover fantasies, thus inviting eventual dismissals or federal pardons. No one doubts the high likelihood of dominant guilty convictions, only whether the authorized rule-keepers will have their whistles and flags neutered. That’s what happens when a loony crawls atop a cult wherein robotic followers lose their compass for filtering character or competence. This is perverse populism shooting itself in the legal head. Despite GOP screaming, many MAGAs don’t want change, certainly not solutions, because then they’d have to stop whining. Or being perpetual victims. In Trump they have found the ultimate carnival barker whose hustles are as ham-fisted as they are transparent for those able to think for themselves.
Add “violence is good” to greed is good
In fascism, law must be corrupted by partisan power, including demonizing and jailing opponents. As a culture influencer, Trump has exploded the motto of the ‘80’s—greed is good—into “fraud is good,” “corruption is good,” indeed, “violence is good.” Other than repeat sexual harassment and defamation, campaign and business disgraces, the deplorably failed insurrection, and addiction to the Big Lie, what else is Trump and Trumpism about? Not only can’t we deny we were warned—all the worst of Trump smacks us in the face day after day after day. Okay, add unmitigated gall and stupidity of the Trump attack mode.
Sure, he panders to grievance, white rage, and victimhood but that’s gravy for his ceaseless obsession for domination, to win at all costs. To capture the entire Trumpist cult in one phrase, my nomination would be as a loudmouth F-ck you to anybody or anything that impedes his will to money, power and domination. If he could only play on bizarro conspiracies alone, he would. If he could only play on misguided patriotism, he would. If he could only play on GOP disgust with losing, he would. If he could play only on unevolved white men’s view of women, he would. Like an opportunistic tick hunting for blood, Trump’s darkest talent is capitalizing on whatever leverage-able, self-serving scam sticks to the wall.
Does this election not come down to whether the current system of justice works, even overwhelmingly provides justice? Forget about all the inevitable horrors imagined for a second Trump regime. Forget about what it means to turn a presidential campaign into an explosion of narcissism where he and he alone is the cosmic navel. Forget his void of real-world policy proposals that parallels the vacuous Trump circus with the House’s Do-Nothing-Congress, breaking all records for anti-governance.
Law and order, anyone?
Either the independent rule of law is sovereign or a justice-busting, never-say-die totalitarian would wield sovereignty. Over everyone, MAGA, just like all others. I see no other option. Either courts begin to substantiate the Trump crime spree in all its appalling horror, or the great conniver again escapes responsibility. All in all, mark up another dire success for Trumpism: Legalism, the basis of control over anti-social, disruptive or dangerous behavior is the ability of law enforcement, prosecutors and judges to bring deviants to the bar of justice. When law, courts and precedent are given short shrift, we are stuck with a reckless police state unrestrained by civil rights and majority principles. There is no middle ground: Either we have an independent judiciary with the means to indict and try malefactors or chaos looms.
Forget about Trump’s other downsides, blunders and fascist framing. Forget even his vicious personality and lust for violent control of institutions he can’t otherwise corrupt. All bad, all nods to oppression and dictatorships. But at the heart of Trumpist arrogance is the scheme that if courts are so mucked up with bad faith opposition and obstructions a small window for winning surfaces.
I still say it won’t work, as the glaring contradictions are too great to sucker most election-deciding centrists. But it is still essential to understand what the last months of legal wrangling means – and what heinous outcomes are inevitable if Trump is able to get away with relentlessly targeting law and order as his prime opponent. So far, he may have a better chance to destroy our system of justice than to defeat Biden who, all issues aside, differs profoundly from this self-declared dictator-in-training.
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