Caution: Autocracy Ahead

In February of 2017, Steve Bannon, then Trump administration mastermind, spoke at CPAC about how the policies of Donald Trump would become a "deconstruction of the administrative state."  At the time, many observers believed he meant that the Trump administration would seek to change taxes, trade pacts and regulations in order to reduce the size of government and positively impact the economy and America's growth.

However, Americans who have been following political news since that time should by now realize that Trump and his administration have amplified Bannon's statements to also mean strengthening and widening executive branch authority and tearing away at the balance of power between the branches of government.

We are now seeing what the founding fathers could never have imagined.  The office of the President of the United States has always had great authority and power, but there were limitations on that power.  Trump has seized power that was never intended by the founding fathers.

During Trump's first term he has been able to replace administration officials that many thought would keep him in line.  Anyone in his administration who would not comply with or simply spoke out against Trump's actions, especially when those actions were illegal or Constitutionally subversive, was fired.  Any Justice Department official who was investigating him was fired or publicly humiliated by Trump.  Trump replaced those officials with people who would be subservient and loyal to him and not to the Constitution of the United States or any oath they took for office.

In order to gain complete control of government so that no other branch has authority over him, Trump would need to have the cooperation of the Congress, cooperation of the Justice Department  and a Judicial branch that would favor his policies without question.  Trump is testing those waters now.

When he fired Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, Trump himself took the first step in creating his autocracy by hiring William Barr.   Trump knew that Barr would be loyal to him and not the Constitution since he had written a memo in June of 2018, that some saw as a resume letter for the job of Attorney General.  The letter showed he believed Trump could not be guilty of obstruction of justice.  Barr had been known to be a proponent of the unitary executive theory ascribing to a nearly unhampered presidential authority.

Barr had criticized the Mueller report before taking office. While Attorney General, he summarized it publicly before the report was made available.  Barr's summary indicated that the Mueller report was a complete exoneration of Donald Trump.  It was not.

The investigation of the Mueller investigators requested by Trump showed no evidence that there was political bias against Trump, but Barr publicly stated that he did not believe his Inspector General.  Barr was born to be Trump's second Roy Cohn and the person most likely to create an American dictator.  With Barr at his side, Trump has complete control over the Justice Department.

Trump and his Republican cronies in Congress have already shown that they band together like a criminal organization where loyalty to the leader means more to them than loyalty to the nation.  We know that the GOP meets with Trump to corroborate policies with him.  They are in lock-step with Trump.  The GOP has given up their Congressional power in this submission to Trump.  To them, violating their oaths of office and the Constitution of the United States means nothing.

In allowing Trump to trample on the Constitution without rebuke, the Republican party has taken the second step into making Trump an autocrat.  As long as Senate Republicans do not vote with the Democrats, Trump will not be removed from office.  That is a priority in becoming a dictator.  You must first be the President.  Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has publicly stated that he will not be an impartial juror and will be coordinating with the White House lawyers during any Senate impeachment trial.  McConnell has also stated that he does not want any witnesses to appear.  McConnell has said that Trump will never be removed from office, effectively admitting that the GOP will run a scam trial in order to acquit Trump.

The third step in becoming an autocrat is getting a docile and cooperative Judicial branch.  Under Mitch McConnell, this began many years ago.  The Republican party has been working diligently on the lifetime appointments of many conservative judges.  More conservative judges have been appointed during Trump's term than ever before.  With the GOP giving up their power to Trump, the judicial branch of Republican judges should fall in line with the needs of the party on substantial issues.

McConnell had prevented Obama from appointing a Supreme Court judge for two years of his Presidency in hopes that a Republican would become the next President to appoint another Supreme Court conservative judge.  That is exactly what happened.  Judgeships are important to the Republican party and a key element in giving Donald J. Trump autocratic rule.  But cooperating with the Judicial branch is not really very important to Donald Trump.  White House officials have reported that Trump has already questioned the need for judges, signaling an end to the judiciary if he becomes the first United States dictator.

So all of the steps are in motion.  Without some other intervening force, it seems very likely that Donald Trump will become the first United States dictator.  Some readers may think this is impossible, but isn't it strange that Donald Trump has not been stopped yet?  His plan is clear.  His violations of Constitutional law are obvious.  His mental state is questionable and many experts have stated that he is a danger to the security of America.  Trump has been continuously assaulting American democracy since he was elected.  This assault has not been prevented and appears will be encouraged by the Republican party.  In a real democracy where there is a respect for the constitution and checks and balances, he would have been stopped long ago.  Those checks and balances are no longer effective.  Not much else is in his way.

Don't count on the American voter to remove Trump.  If Trump is not removed from office, he will advertise it as complete exoneration.  He is guilty of asking a foreign nation to interfere in an American election for his personal advantage.  Knowing he can get away with it will inspire more of the same with other countries.  We may have many foreign nations interfering in our elections.   Who can tell if the vote tallies will be affected?

Don't count on the military to remove Trump.  The President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.  They won't be able to help.

In a world where the President has unlimited power and malignant narcissism, expect the worst.  My guess is that Trump will establish himself and family as the present and future rulers of America for the rest of our lifetimes.  Why should he stop at himself being the dictator when he could have his family rule as American royalty for as long as Trumps exist.

Am I being too unrealistic and negative?  I don't think so.  I think Trump is totally capable of making a monarchy out of American democracy.

Who's going to stop him?

When the Justice Department helps create a dictator

William Barr, Attorney General

Donald Trump is a malignant narcissist.  He can convince himself he is an innocent victim of any criticism, even if he knows the criticism is accurate.

Believing that he has escaped prosecution for his part in the Russian 2016 Presidential election interference, Trump has been proclaiming that the intelligence community came to their conclusions of his involvement  for partisan political reasons.  He thinks his own Justice Department is conspiring against him.

The Mueller report made it clear that Trump could have been indicted as a co-conspirator in campaign contribution violations.  It identified at least ten instances of obstruction of justice for which Trump was found responsible.  Mueller himself said that the only reason Donald Trump was not indicted was due to a policy statement of the Justice Department.  Foolishly, the Justice Department believes that they cannot indict a guilty sitting President.  Mueller left that to Congress, which has the power to remove such a President through impeachment.

Trump, due to his narcissistic delusions, believes that he can convince the general population of his innocence.  The proof he puts forward has no substance.  There are no witnesses that can vouch for him.  He doesn't have any alibi.  In fact, many of his tweets and public appearances are outright displays of obstruction or violations of the Constitution.  The written answers Trump gave to Mueller's questions were nothing more than "I do not remember" non-replies.  The facts are not on Donald's side.

That Donald Trump believes he must convince America of his innocence is puzzling.  The "heat" of the Mueller investigation is passed.  Democrats did not do a good job of making the serious conclusions of the Mueller investigation an issue for Trump.  One could say he got away with it unscathed.  So why is Trump bringing it up again?

Trump has fired most of the patriots who were in his administration that might have done something about his bad behavior.  He has replaced them by loyalists who have the power and desire to protect him.  Cowardly Republicans in Congress still stand by Trump and defend his every aberrant move.  They will likely stand by him until just before their own careers are impacted.  That day will come as more and more of the American people call for Trumps impeachment.

America will soon begin to hear more about the high crimes and misdemeanors Trump has committed that are worthy of his impeachment.  Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats will impeach him.  In the next couple of weeks, some of the impeachment interviews they are doing will become public appearances.

To my thinking, this is why Donald Trump needs to find another way to convince the American people of his innocence.  Donald will soon need a distraction from the negative news coming from Congress.  That distraction must be large enough to draw the attention of Americans away from the Congressional hearings.

An official investigation into Trump's own intelligence community will give credence to the conspiracy theories he wants us to believe.  He needs the force of the Justice Department loyalists to carry out the investigation as if it were something real.  His hand picked and proven loyalist attorney general, William Barr is just the man for the job.

Trump loyalists have so far ignored Congressional subpoenas.  They have refused to appear in front of Congress.  They have refused to give requested documents to Congress to aid their investigations.  That pretty much means these loyalists are willing to break the law and are likely to take other extreme actions in defense of Donald Trump.

Barr may think he is defending a person of integrity.  Maybe he thinks all Presidents are patriots.  Maybe he is just a fool.  In any case, Trump is counting on Barr to give the conspiracy theory life.  Now it appears that it is about to happen as tonight the Justice Department has opened a criminal inquiry into its own Russia investigation.

If the Justice Department can be used as the President's personal police force to round up political prisoners, then we have a dictatorship.  Something I believe Trump has been working toward since he was elected.

This is a serious attack on American democracy.  America must snap out of their Trump induced depression and start acting like democracy is something to save.