Trumpism and pre-Trumpism

Another reminder that Bunker Boy is bad in his own unique way and is changing the US government radically for the worst. But Trumpism also didn't appear out of nowhere. The Republican Party created it, and the Democratic Party far too often abetted the process.

Angela Dewan and Jennifer Hansler report (CNN 06/08/2020):

The US' credibility has taken another dent over the past two weeks. Current and former diplomats told CNN the events at home were "scary" and "heartbreaking" to watch -- and also undermined their mission. A current State Department official said that America's "moral standing is challenged."

But the erosion of the country's moral credibility didn't begin with Trump. America's so-called war against terror and the abuses that came with it, such as those in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, was a major turning point. Some of that was remedied under the Obama administration, but even then, the US continued to violate rights abroad as the wars trundled on.

Trump's three years in office have expedited that erosion, in part by his failure to lead by example at home, said Rob Berschinski, who worked for the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor during the Obama years. [my emphasis]

The American political system is currently badly broken. From asymmetric partisan polarization to the militarization of the police to the collapse of the will of Congress to maintain essential Constitutional checks to the massive corruption of money in politics to the massive inequality and institutionalized white racism that underpins the system, the problems cannot be fixed only by substituting a minimally competent President for Bunker Boy.

Al Gore, who was rightfully elected President in 2000 but was blocked from taking office by a system already badly failing, wrote about the cycles of security scares in American history, with particular reference to the post-9/11 one, wrote in The Assault on Reason (2007), published the year that Season 5 of The Apprentice began:

Former Supreme Court justice William Brennan commented on this cycle once, writing, ''After each perceived security crisis ended, the United States has remorsefully realized that the abrogation of civil liberties was unnecessary. But it has proven unable to prevent itself from repeating the error when the next crisis came along."

There are also reasons for concern this time around that what we are experiencing may no longer be the first half of a recurring cycle, but rather the beginning of something new. For one thing, this war is predicted by the administration to last for the rest of our lives. So we are told that the conditions of national threat that have been used by other presidents to justify arrogations of power will persist in near perpetuity. Some have expressed the view that over time it will begin to resemble the "war" against drugs - that is, it will become a more or less permanent struggle that occupies a significant part of our law enforcement and security agenda from now on. If that is the case, then when - if ever - does this encroachment on our freedoms die a natural death? [my emphasis]