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GOP Authoritarianism Isn’t Going Anywhere After the Midterms

Voters helped push back against escalating authoritarianism in midterm elections last week. That is worth celebrating. But we also need to consider why Democratic Party and those who are struggling to Preserving democracy in America didn’t do any better.

It’s important for 2024. And it’s important for the country’s long-term future.

Yes, many famous election deniers have lost their races, but a worrying number of them have won at both the national and local levels. And the majority of GOP above Supreme Court going nowhere—meaning more fundamental rights are at stake and partisans will have friends in high positions if they want to distort future election results.

We must consider the candidates who will carry the GOP banner during the 2024 presidential campaign and understand that, like the last Republican president, they are drawn like moths to the flames. dictatorial fire. Their goal is to burn through the controls over the power of the president and suppress the will of all who might oppose them.

As the excitement about stopping the “red wave” fades, we will have to accept the fact that the 2022 midterm elections have finally confirmed that we are still a deeply divided nation. .

The House and Senate are currently split almost evenly between the party that favors majority rule and the party that still fights for minority rule. So is the state. While many supporters of the Big Lie lost, and Donald Trump was revealed to be toxic to many of his defenders, hundreds of others — including Senator Ron Johnson and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene — still holding or achieving high office. The GOP has also made significant strides in states that were once deep blue like New York. And many of the victories celebrated by the Democratic Party are amazingly close. Neither side won the quest

In a system that has given a constitutional advantage to minorities from less populous states, many clearly want to combine that unfair advantage to protect them from the rise of a new, plural American majority. more form. While the backlash against the Supreme Court Dobbs The decision and clarity with which President Joe Biden has framed the MAGA Republican threats against democracy are politically effective—more work remains to be done.

Furthermore, it is essential to understand that efforts to undermine our democracy are not always as clear-cut as Supreme Court decisions like Dobbs direct and obvious impact on every woman in our society. The morals aren’t always as clear-cut as condemning the angry mob that attacked the Capitol.

Abortion rights protester Elizabeth White leads a song in response to a ruling by the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Foundation before the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Brandon Bells/Getty Images

Some of the decisions made by SCOTUS will deal with complex issues—such as the ability of legislatures to determine which votes in a presidential election count and which can be ignored. . Some will be efforts to block funding to departments and functions critical to protecting the integrity of our government. And some will still be more sophisticated, such as the GOP’s ongoing efforts to make it easier to fire government officials who choose to honor their oath of office and serve the Constitution instead. for following the directives of a politician or their party.

As the excitement about stopping the ‘red wave’ fades, we will have to accept the fact that the 2022 midterm elections have, at last, confirmed that we are still a divided nation. deep.

My new book, American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Underground State Saved the Nationparticular focus on this last effort.

Cutting off the protections offered to us by civil servants who put the country above the party is one of the most covert attempts to undermine our democracy and make us vulnerable. vulnerable to rogue rulers. My book tells the story of how dedicated officials — including many Trump appointees and Republicans — put the rule of law and the Constitution first, thereby disrupting a president’s plans. The system was even more incompetent and deranged than many of us understood at the time. It celebrates their heroism and sacrifice.

But it also concluded that Trump and other leaders of the GOP — seeing the impediment to their plans created by what Representative Jamie Raskin called “constitutional patriots” — committed to removing the government from these important national assets and replacing them with consentees. and women — administrators who will ensure that the power of the man in the Oval Office and those closest to him is unchecked.

The entire concept of the “underground state” conspiracy—popularized in this country during Trump’s 2016 campaign—was created to begin the process of disabling, independent government experts law enforcement. It is intended to discredit those who adhere to values, laws or regulations that could somehow create obstacles for Trump (or his successors) in advancing an agenda. are often illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, or contrary to the interests of the United States.

The book—based on more than 100 interviews with Trump administration officials and senior Washington experts—shows time and time again, dedicated public servants, diplomats, intelligence officers , military officers and experienced political appointees have prevented, derailed, or derailed the most damaging initiatives of the president and his aides.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 15, 2022.

Alon Skuy/AFP via Getty Images

This is not disobedience. They are doing exactly what the law and their oath of office require. From preventing war to our efforts to destroy our alliances, from delaying and easing the Muslim ban to ensuring the security of the 2020 election, from addressing real economy of COVID that the president wanted to deny to stopping Ukraine’s newly elected president-elect’s attempt to blackmail—they kept the Trump era from becoming more chaotic and disastrous than it already is.

Towards the end of his term, Trump and his associates waged a systematic war against these patriotic Americans. Many people have been fired. Others were publicly attacked. They have been replaced by the MAGA function, sometimes without the benefit of Senate confirmation. And a new plan was launched, called Schedule F, that would allow the president to fire others—perhaps as many as 50,000 officials.

President Biden canceled that plan. But today, Trump, again a candidate, is joined by other GOP leaders who want to restore it. Once again, they talk about the power of the underground state, tying it to the Big Lie about Rejecting the 2020 Election. They see it as a necessary step, building on the damage done by a lie. much older than Ronald Reagan, who propagated that government was the enemy, the source of the problems, not the solution.

The line between Reagan and Trump is very clear. If government is the enemy, it’s okay to end government programs that help people—even if it’s just to justify tax breaks for the richest Americans. And if you want weak government, then you don’t care much about the quality of elected officials, you just need their political loyalty. That’s how you end up with incompetent and insane people like Herschel Walker or Lauren Boebert as the GOP candidate for Congress.

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado’s Third Congressional District stops campaigning to speak to supporters at the Wild Beaver Mountain Man Emporium on October 4, 2022 in Creede, Colorado.

RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

But if these ideas of government spread widely enough, it will be much harder to attract the kind of bureaucrats on which the republic has long depended—those who have given up on careers that could be very profitable. more profitable and comfortable to sacrifice for their country, sometimes putting their own lives at great risk.

I spent my whole career in Washington. Over the past 40 years, I have met hundreds of government officials from all walks of life. I have learned that, during the Trump years in office, many of them have served as the ultimate and most effective line of defense against a very dangerous and extremely dangerous president. These people are the rule, not the exception, in public service. They are Republicans, Democrats, independents, and openly apolitical. They preserve, protect and defend the country often anonymously, with little public appreciation.

They recognize that in a democracy, they represent the will of the people as embodied in our laws, decisions of Congress and the courts, and their duty to serve their interests. of the final decision-makers, the final authority… the electorate.

That role has never been more important than it is today. Last week’s election represented a major victory over some of democracy’s enemies. But greater competition with minority rule and authoritarianism in America lies ahead.

At each and every level where Trump and his authoritarian-minded accomplices threaten the fundamental principles on which the United States was founded, we must identify the threat, fight to repel it, and ultimately It’s about protecting what we value most. Fortunately, we will have public servants dedicated to doing the same, as well as trusted political leaders who are committed to the same goals.

It is this alliance on which the future of our democracy will ultimately depend. Last week’s election showed the strength of that coalition, now we must all work to ensure its long-term success.



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