OPINION: Has America Turned into a Dictatorship?
Donnie Johnston ponders where we're headed, and what got us here.
By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST
Has America turned into a dictatorship?
Donald Trump once said that he would be a dictator for a day. Apparently, he enjoyed the power trip so much that he decided to make it a permanent strategy.
I hate to keep writing about this stuff, but when the United States is faced with the worst Constitutional crisis in the nation’s history, it is the responsibility of all Americans – especially journalists – to stand up and be heard.
We are now ruled by executive order, not by laws enacted by Congress as directed by the Constitution. Trump orders a directive written and signs it. At that moment his will becomes law and the people are expected to obey the ultimatum. Our elected representatives in Congress have no say.
This, to my knowledge - and that of other constitutional scholars, has never before happened in this country. I have read about it happening in other countries like Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, and Fascist Italy, but not in America.
Have we, who were so thrilled about toppling Saddam Hussein in Iraq, suddenly become what we set out to destroy?
In less than 100 days, Trump has rattled this country to the core. He has taken over the Kennedy Center so he can control what shows we watch, and the Smithsonian to make science and history fit his perspective.
He has removed the names and achievements of prominent black Americans and women of all races from websites – and for no apparent reason.
Trump has told colleges what they may or may not teach and told big law firms what clients they may or may not accept. He has had college students picked up and hauled off to detention camps despite court orders that prohibited such action. No arrests. No formal charges. No day in court. These people just disappear.
He has chosen what media outlets he will allow in the White House and done everything possible to discredit reporters who criticize his actions and policies. Those who don’t bow down may soon be disappearing like college students.
Trump has started trade wars with our enemies and our allies, breaking trade agreements he himself made. He has imposed tariffs on almost every product imaginable and his recent import taxes on vehicles are expected to add thousands of dollars to the price of a car.
Then, on Friday, he dared automakers to raise retail prices, demanding that they eat the tariff costs. If this happens, stock prices for automakers are likely to drop like rocks.
Trumpenonics have already caused the Stock Market to plummet since his election. At some point a crash may ensue.
Elon Musk, a multibillionaire (not elected to anything) like Trump, seems to have his eye on Social Security, the life blood of millions of Americans. One Trump supporter recently told me that eliminating Social Security checks for a while might be necessary while Trump and Musk weed out the corruption.
Social Security, once halted, will likely never return, and what that will do to the American economy is too scary to contemplate.
Trump’s inept team even somehow inadvertently added a reporter to a Signal chat during a military operation, then claimed that such communications were not matters of national security.
Further, Trump officials yelled about and attempted to discredit the reporter when confronted by the press.
This has been standard operating procedure for this Trump administration. When confronted with opposing views, they go ballistic in a Nazi-like frenzy, attacking anyone and everyone to avoid the question and the truth.
These are called fear tactics and have been used by dictators for centuries. And they are working. In ordinary times the NAACP would have been all over anyone who tried to erase the names and achievements of prominent blacks.
No women’s groups have stepped forward to protest name removals. They are apparently afraid of repercussions.
Other targeted minority groups have hidden in the corners, unwilling to take on Trump and his henchmen.
Even big law firms have knuckled under, something I never thought possible.
And while Trump rules through intimidation, a Republican Congress stands by and allows it to happen, caring more about their party than their country. And even though some must be beginning to wonder about the monster they have created, they are unwilling to speak up. Again, party over country.
Nor can the Supreme Court do anything to a president who refuses to obey legal rulings.
How did we get into this mess? It was all very predictable, as I prophesied in a column a few years ago. For two decades we tore down statues, turned villains into heroes and made everything acceptable. We rewrote history and moved so far to the left that it was inevitable that one day we would move off the charts to the right, leaving the country ripe for a dictator.
In other words, we are going through what Iran went through when the Ayatollah assumed power in 1980.
Where do we go from here? Your guess is as good as mine. We may already have turned the corner and lost our democratic form of government.
I guess we just sit by and watch as a man who declared bankruptcy six times leads us down the road to financial ruin, attempts to steal foreign lands and makes us an all-white, all-male America again.
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Overall a good column.
But I have to raise at least one eyebrow at one of the last paragraphs. “How did we get into this mess? It was all very predictable…We…moved so far to the left that it was inevitable that one day we would move off the charts to the right, leaving the country ripe for a dictator. “
So, when we move too far to the left, that’s the fault of people on the left.
And also, when we move too far to the right, that is somehow ALSO the fault of people on the left.
Are folks on the right ever expected to take responsibility for their decisions?
The country did move a little bit to the left for a while. Not a lot. Not nearly as far as plenty of other successful democracies around the world.
Now the pendulum has swung ridiculously, dangerously far in the other direction, any and all progress has been erased and reversed.
Your piece has some excellent points, but I object to calling out women & minorities for not doing enough. For years I have been part of the local groups that work hard to counter 47's excesses and those groups are overwhelmingly middle aged (or older) women. In fact last night 40+ (almost all women) of us crowded into meeting rooms at the downtown CRRL to make signs for the April 5 protests happening all over the country. Both populations (women & minorities) have been at the front and center of numerous battles for equality and basic rights taken for granted by white men for centuries. If fewer are stepping forward now it may be due to justifiable fear of being targeted, or just plain exhaustion. You would do better to stir your fellow white men to help take up the charge than to scold those who have been in the fray for so very, very long.
Related to that, I am sincerely grateful whenever I see a white male stepping up to help, including in your piece, even with my other objection which is to your conclusion, that we " just sit by and watch as a man who declared bankruptcy six times leads us down the road to financial ruin, attempts to steal foreign lands and makes us an all-white, all-male America again."
Seriously? This is where you left us? I think you were being wry, I hope you were being wry. But I much prefer to take as my mantra and inspiration the 25+ hour speech from Senator Cory Booker who showed amazing skill, fortitude and love of country over that extended period. He reminds us that "The power of the people is greater than the people in power" and that is the message I wish you had concluded with.