We’re a rustic that stands on the precipice, simply six weeks away from swearing in, for the second time, a wannabe “dictator” with ambitions to wildly reshape our democracy. There’s a want to tune out. I get it. And whereas, as a member of the media, I really feel a bit sheepish making the case to maintain studying columns (like this one!), watching the information, and listening to podcasts, it’s a dangerous second for America, and it solely serves Donald Trump and his allies to look the opposite method.
Many individuals have been shocked by Trump’s victory in 2016 and turned to the information media to make sense of what had occurred, buying subscriptions and changing into glued to cable information. Eight years later, the legacy media appears to be like like a shrunken husk, with 2024 election evening viewership down greater than 25% from the final presidential race and a rising notion that the likes of Joe Rogan are ascendant whereas the old guard is diminished. However even when people are tuning out political protection, that doesn’t imply the information cycle goes to grind to a halt.
Quite the opposite, there’s been no scarcity of developments the previous few weeks as Trump has began assembling a possible Cupboard that includes regular selections, like Marco Rubio for secretary of state, alongside norms-crushers, resembling FBI director nominee Kash Patel, a man who has mused about focusing on journalists, and protection secretary candidate Pete Hegseth, a former Fox Information host who has railed against so-called wokeness within the army. The general public can’t rely on Republicans, who will management the Senate subsequent month, to completely vet such nominees, as Tommy Tuberville, for one, mentioned it’s not their job. “Who’s to say we’re a greater vetter and picker of individuals than Donald Trump?” requested Tuberville, who apparently doesn’t grasp that it’s the Senate’s constitutional responsibility to offer “recommendation and consent” on the presidential Cupboard nominees.
It’s additionally the normal function of the media to use scrutiny to folks nominated for highly effective authorities positions. With out the work of journalists, the general public wouldn’t find out about allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking, and financial mismanagement towards Hegseth, who has denied the claims towards him. (Trump, in the meantime, is standing by his choose.) The Hegseth protection has painted an image of somebody who seems unprepared to guide a division with an $849 billion budget and almost 3 million staff, and is a reminder of the kind of accountability journalism wanted within the face of Trump’s unreality present.
The transition interval has already proven that Trump might be held in examine, as even Republican senators appeared to balk on the concept of Matt Gaetz main the Justice Division. The Trump transition additionally relented in permitting Cupboard nominees to be vetted by the FBI after “a number of senators in each events…known as for thorough vetting of Trump’s picks,” in keeping with Politico, which means that pushback nonetheless works with the president-elect. This may increasingly appear to be a really small victory, however each victory is strictly that—a victory. Defending norms and establishments is a sport of inches, not ft.
Trump remains to be heading into the White Home emboldened. He desires to do quite a bit, a lot of which is totally with out historic precedent. On Sunday, he told NBC’s Kristen Welker that “we now have to finish” birthright citizenship, regardless of that proper being enshrined in our Structure. He known as the primary part of the 14th Modification “ridiculous.” Nobody is stunned that the man who’s musing about pardoning the January 6 rioters is now toying with modifying the Structure, nevertheless it additional reveals how extremely harmful this second is. Utah senator and devoted Trumper Mike Lee adopted up the NBC interview by making a nonsensical case on the president-elect’s behalf, exhibiting how far some within the GOP will go to supply a rationale for Trump’s concepts.
There’s something particularly horrible and tragic concerning the concept of adjusting Reconstruction-era amendments just like the 14th, which was initially ratified in 1868 to grant citizenship to previously enslaved folks. These amendments are a key a part of the democratic bedrock on which America is constructed—not beliefs to which a president can merely take a Sharpie. Worse but, their demise might additionally mark the start of a good darker future by which he might embark upon wreaking extra constitutional chaos, difficult different civil rights that America holds close to and pricey. Trump could not be capable to do that by way of govt order, however the truth that he’s even discussing it ought to function a wake-up name for all of us.
People are exhausted. I’m exhausted too (I was younger and didn’t have baggage below my eyes). It’s been almost a decade since Trump got here down that golden escalator. But it surely’s additionally essential to do not forget that this was a detailed election with decrease turnout than in 2020, and 75 million voters solid ballots towards Trump; the person doesn’t have the “mandate” he thinks he has. It could be tempting to despair, retreat into nihilism, and conclude that nothing can cease Trump from taking up our authorities and reworking it into some sort of Koch-brother fever dream. However that could be very a lot not true! We have been capable of defend establishments in the course of the first Trump administration; we are able to do this once more. The query is: How will we greatest defend the norms and establishments in order that they’ll survive after Trump’s second time period?
