When it comes to starting fires in the American system, Trump is distinctly the Barbecue type. He admires leaders who slaughter people indiscriminately (Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines), change the constitution multiple times to bypass legislative and judicial opposition (Viktor Orba'n of Hungary), or kill their political opponents wherever they might live (Vladimir Putin of Russia). He likes the bad boys who have transformed their parties into gangs and their countries into fiefdoms. In short, he's the ultimate gang leader.
Of course, he won't do it alone. There are plenty of true believers and opportunists to staff his administration and implement his whims, but that's not enough. As his first term revealed, the guardrails of democracy -- opposition politicians, bureaucrats, even certain Republicans who continue to have qualms - can still prevent the country from tumbling over a cliff.
This time around, Trump and those backing him hope to disable enough of the political infrastructure to create the space for non-state actors to do his work for him. In The Donald's first term, the "deconstruction of the administrative state," as Trumpophile Steve Bannon so infamously put it, was a strategy meant to empower actors like corporations and religious institutions to grab power for themselves. Next time around, he's likely to surround himself with advisors pulled from the think-tank crowd that produced the nightmarish Project 2025 blueprint in order to "free" all MAGA-oriented non-state and (often) anti-state actors to do their damnedest.
But even ruthless think tanks, corporations, and apocalyptic preachers aren't likely to go far enough for Donald Trump, since they also remain the bedrock of America's more traditional right wing, the coalition that put Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush into the White House. Trump needs genuine mayhem-makers. By removing restrictions on firearms, he aims to deputize every American citizen in his camp to MAGAfy the United States.
Trump's repeated exhortations to violence -- "lock her up," "punch him in the face," "be there, will be wild" -- may well take a more specific form in a second term. Like McCarthyites at the height of the Cold War, Trumpists have imagined "Marxists" under every bed, even in the Pentagon. It's not far-fetched to think that the reelected president might issue a coded call to his supporters to round them all up and dispatch them in some grim fashion.
Trump often accuses his opponents of exactly the sins -- attempting to steal elections, having distinctly senior moments -- of which he is supremely guilty. In the MAGA echo chamber, complaints about witch-hunts targeting Trump should be considered just a preface, should he win this November, to a genuine witch-hunt that could make the Red Scare of the 1950s look like a garden party.
After Autocracy
Haiti has no government, much less a strong-armed autocrat like Donald Trump. So, it might seem ludicrous to compare the crisis there with the prospective "bloodbath" Trump promises here. But remember: Haiti suffered under two ruthless dictators from 1957 to 1986: Papa Doc Duvalier and his son, Baby Doc. Between them, they ensured that Haiti would never easily establish democratic institutions.
Donald Trump is nearly 78 years old. He doesn't have a long political future. Yes, were he to win in November, he would surely do what he could to destroy democracy. Still, the true nightmare scenario is likely to come later, as climate change sends yet more migrants surging toward U.S. borders, generates more fires that sweep across the land, and heats politics to the boiling point. That's when future versions of the gangs Trump has encouraged to "stand back and stand by," the insurrectionists he's promised to amnesty, and the loyalists who have shared images of Joe Biden tied up in the back of a pickup truck could assault the citadels of power in an attempt to destroy once and for all the rule of law that Trump has spent his life undermining.
Cue the ominous music: from sea to shining sea, the war of all against all may be just around the corner.
Copyright 2024 John Feffer
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