Democracy depends upon the people’s trust
in government. As we’re seeing
around the world, democracy is extraordinarily fragile. It depends not only on the assent of the
governed but, even more importantly, also on their participation. To accept
governance through democracy, the people must believe that the government
- is responsive to their needs;
- operates on principles of fairness; and
- puts even itself under the rule of law.
Without faith in it, democracy sinks into chaos: People
come to believe that government is no more than powerful people looking out for
themselves. The people seek order in the
chaos; the country becomes open to non-democratic sources of order.
The President has attacked the rule of law from many
different angles. Here are four of them: his attacks on Hillary Clinton; his
ongoing response to the Russia probe; his attempt to change libel laws; and his
refusal to release tax returns.
First, and the most serious, in my opinion, is Trump's continual
pre- and post-election attacks on “crooked” Hillary Clinton. In the second election debate, for instance,
he threatened
to put her in jail if he became president.
Chants of “lock her up” were commonplace at his rallies. More than a year after he became President,
the chants continue, including, most recently in his speech
to the Conservative Political Action Caucus (CPAC) in mid-February. The President made no effort to stop them. In
fact, at CPAC, he followed up the chant, with, “Boy, have they committed a lot
of atrocities.”
There is no legal basis on which a President can order
someone put in jail. Moreover, the FBI
has found no evidence that Clinton broke any law. Yet Trump continues to press his point that until
Clinton is in jail, the legal system has failed. Lawrence Tribe, one of the foremost experts
on constitutional law, has written:
Making threats or vows to use a nation’s criminal justice system against one’s vanquished political opponent is worse than terrible policy: it’s incompatible with the survival of a stable constitutional republic.
As Washington
Post columnist Eugene Robinson writes:
“Lock her up” is more than a call to imprison Hillary Clinton. It is, potentially, a tragic epitaph for the consensus view of our legal system as a disinterested finder of fact and dispenser of justice.
Second, the President’s response to Special Prosecutor
Robert Mueller’s Russia probe also undercuts faith in the rule of law. While there is yet no definitive evidence of
obstruction of justice, it is clear that Trump—and most of the rest of the
Republican Party—are doing everything they can to neutralize the Mueller investigation. Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey
“because of the whole Russia thing.” He attacked
the Mueller probe calling
it a “scam” and “Democrat hoax.” According
to aides, in June of 2017, the President actually gave the order to fire Mueller,
only backing down after White House counsel, Donald F McGahn II, threatened to
resign rather than carry out the directive.
Third, after negative media coverage, the President
has threatened to “look into” changing libel laws so that it is easier to sue
the media. “Our current libel laws,” he
has said,
“are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American
fairness.” Either he does not understand
the First Amendment or he has contempt for it.
And finally, the President’s refusal to release his
tax forms, his unwillingness to divest himself completely from his many
businesses that are unavoidably affected by presidential decisions, and inevitable
questions about his breaking the emoluments
clause of the Constitution all bring up the issue of how the President is
using his position for personal or business gains.
Unfortunately, there’s more. I’ve written in this blog about Trump’s
- pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio, convicted of unconstitutionally profiling and detaining citizens,
- attacks on the judiciary for everything from a judgment against his business to the decision not to imprison a soldier convicted of desertion to ruling against his immigration policies, and
- refusal to promise to accept the results of the presidential election if he didn’t win.
Each of these actions and others have individually caused damage
to our democracy, but taken as a whole they reveal a stunning contempt for the
fundamental rule of law.
For those who support the President, his actions model an
infectious disdain for the law that further endangers democracy. For those who oppose the President, the
inability of our democracy to restrain his contempt for the law is itself an example of democracy’s failure. Faith
in government is now at an all-time low, on both the Right and the Left, not
only in the United States but around the world.
It did not start with President Trump, but with him it is entering a new
and more dangerous phase. Political
scientists have long believed
that “once
countries develop democratic institutions, a robust civil society and a certain
level of wealth, their democracy is secure,” but events around the world have upended this confidence. President Trump’s apparent contempt
for the rule of law, for democracy itself, is both a dangerous example of our
peril and a powerful force further imperiling us.
