The authoritarian Ghost of Presidency Past

John Dean authored a book published in 2006 titled Conservative Without Conscience. He drew on the work of Robert Altemeyer on authoritarianism and the authoritarian personality, such as The Auzthoritarian Specter (1996).

Dean's book was published 12 years ago. More than a decade. Two Presidencies ago. His primary focus in that book was on authoritarian aspects of the Cheney-Bush Administration. He remarked on that Administration's contempt for law in many ways, "The president and vice president, it appears, believe the lesson of Watergate was not to stay within the law, but rather not to get caught."

It was that Administration, not Trump's, that he was writing about when it said this:

What has driven this book is the realization that our government has become largely authoritarian. It is run by an array of authoritarian personalities, leaders who display all those traits I have listed dominating, opposed to equality, desirous of personal power, amoral, intimidating, and bullying; some are hedonistic, most are vengeful, pitiless, exploitive, manipulative, dishonest, cheaters, prejudiced, mean-spirited, militant, nationalistic, and two-faced. Because of our system of government, these dominators are still confronted with any number of obstacles, fortunately. Yet authoritarians seek to remove those complications whenever they can. They are able to do so because the growth of contemporary conservatism has generated countless millions of authoritarian followers, people who will not question such actions. How, then, can authoritarianism be checked?  [my emphasis]

I saw Dean on a panel at the 2008 Netroots Nation convention in 2008. He and the other participants stressed the need to change policies on issues like torture and government secrecy. But when a questioner from the audience asked about whether officials from the Cheney-Bush Administration should be prosecuted for crimes, he seemed taken aback. And he responded that he didn't think that would be the right approach.

It seemed to me then and still does now that Dean wasn't quite ready to follow the practical conclusion to the persuasive case he made against that Administration in this book and in Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush (2004).

Because it really is insufficient when the Republicans are willing to pursue political prosecutions and try to block even investigating real crimes by high officials, if Democrats are also unwilling to investigate and prosecute real crimes by government officials, even Republican ones. Government officials should not be above the law.

(Do I even need to add that the Trumpist Administration is far worse in its authoritarianism and contempt for law and democratic traditions than the Cheneyite one was? I didn't think so.)

This means that if and when the Democrats get more power to act, including winning a majority in the House, they will need to move to reverse authoritarian and criminal tendencies, including the staggering level of old-fashioned corruption we're seeing. Ignoring official crimes won't do it. Using the Mueller investigation as an excuse to duck and cover from their responsibilities won't do it. Demanding a "PayGo" approach to budgeting won't do it.

If they really do make a big deal of PayGo, that will be a strong indication that they are still too beaten down and/or bought off to take the Trump Administration's radicalism for what it is and act accordingly.