Gordon L. Weil
American political history has reached a turning point.
So, too, has the country’s moral sense, at least about
politics.
But that did not happen this week. It happened eight years ago, when Donald
Trump was first elected president. Any
doubt was erased by his victory and the powerful vote for Republicans across
the country this week. Except for the
coasts, that win was national.
Just as in 1933, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt and
his New Deal changed the country, so have Trump and his intent to “Make America
Great Again.” For FDR, the emphasis was
on a “new” start while for Trump the emphasis has been on greatness “again.”
Before FDR, the nation had been essentially conservative. The private economy dominated and the role of
government and individual rights were limited.
The economic crisis of the Great Depression and World War II forced
change. The New Deal era and American post-war world dominance transformed people’s
thinking.
By 2016, Trump had absorbed and embodied the increasing
public sense that the country had gone too far beyond its conservative origins. Whether he exploited that sentiment or truly
believed it did not matter. He came to be
the flag around which the people yearning for the political norms of the past
could rally.
That realization was more than the supporters of the politics
and institutions of the New Deal era could readily accept. Government was the main tool by which Americans
took care of one another, and it was difficult for them to believe that cutting
its cost would assume a higher priority than increasing or even maintaining its
services.
The political aberration may not have been the 2016
election, but the 2020 election when the old guard barely clung to office. Looking back, it becomes less difficult to
understand how bitter it was for Trump and his backers to accept Joe Biden and
company who stood as obstacles on their path to changing the country.
This year, Democrats believed they could snuff out Trump’s
movement, because of their appeal to growing segments of the electorate and on the
abortion issue. The rushed selection of
their candidate, made necessary by a president who ignored his own failings,
left them running on the hope that the people would inevitably recognize Trump as
a mistake.
They ignored the scope of the belief that the government had
gone too far, too fast. Social change, focused
mostly on the sexual identity of some people, was not yet acceptable to many. The lack of control of the border, seen by
some as the government’s intent, created national uneasiness. Democratic progressives, buoyed by a few election
upsets, overreached.
American politics have fundamentally changed, and Trump has
been able to take advantage of it.
Originally, Congress was supposed to be the dominant power of the federal
government, not the president who had replaced the British king. Parties were not expected to matter as much
as the balanced institutions with their built-in checks.
In 1992, Newt Gingrich, the House Republican leader, set out
to change the system. GOP members of Congress
would commit to acting like a bloc and would loyally back the leader of their
party. In effect, the U.S. would adopt
the parliamentary system. It has worked
and congressional Republicans, whatever they may think of Trump, are totally loyal
to him.
This year, the power of the president was further boosted by
the decision of the Supreme Court that the chief executive could exercise
almost unchecked power. The appointed
Court, confirmed by the president’s party, became a prime driver of presidential
dominance.
Underlying the changes that are taking place is a reversal
of what had come to be accepted political morality. It has been a version of the Golden Rule: “Do
unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
In practice, that meant there were certain unwritten
understandings about political behavior.
The Constitution could not describe every possible form of government conduct,
but the early leaders believed that certain customs would be observed. They could not suspect that acceptable
behavior would change as much as it has.
Trump was clearly behind the assault on the Capitol. He radically denies undeniable facts. He savagely attacks those who oppose him and
shows no respect for many people who have earned respect, even if they
disagree. The way he denigrated John
McCain, an American hero of unlimited courage, went beyond civilized bounds.
If not dead, the constitutional culture is seriously
wounded. Unwritten understandings are
readily repealed. The Trump goal is nothing less than the transformation of
government.
Voters may be ready to believe that Trump does not mean what
he says when he lashes out or that he cannot carry out his threats, but they
may find his claim is true: he will be a president unlike any other.
