The stakes got bigger this week for the future of American democracy.
For two reasons.
First, former president Donald Trump said he received a “target” letter indicating he is likely to be indicted for his alleged role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election. And, second, according to the New York Times, Trump has said that if he is re-elected, he would seek to consolidate control over the federal government, including the FBI. What would he do with that power? He has already said he wants to “go after” President Joe Biden.
Trump’s own reported words make it clear why it’s important for Special Counsel Jack Smith to get to the bottom of Trump’s alleged participation in the Jan 6, 2021 coup attempt. Trump is already presenting a frightening picture of what he will do if he gets back into the White House. If he gets his way, say goodbye to those restraining checks and balances the framers of the Constitution devised.
That’s not the American ideal. What would life be like with a single person at the top in control of all the levers of power? Chicagoans with long memories can recall the days when the Democratic Machine was so strong, independence in politics and city government was harder to find than an open lane on the Dan Ryan at rush hour. If you did something as simple as put a poster in your window for an opposition candidate, you could expect building inspectors tumbling over themselves to suddenly cite you for expensive building repairs.
Voters deserve to have a full picture of what Trump did before they go back to the polls.
What could the electorate learn from the probe in which Trump now is a target? The potential indictment could show just how zealously the former president, while in office, tried to subvert the will of the people. And knowing the extent of his disdain for the people’s will would tell the public much about what he would do to squeeze the independence out of federal agencies.
No one can say whether Trump will win the presidency in 2024. Candidates considering third-party campaigns could alter the calculus. But Trump’s first term alarmingly showed how many sycophants were unwilling to speak out with integrity while he was doing his best to steer the federal government into a swamp.
The pattern is repeating itself. How many prominent figures in Trump’s Republican Party today are denouncing his plans to make the federal government his tool to do whatever he wants? You could add them all up and still be a few voices short of a glee club. In comparison with Trump’s plans, being targeted by former President Richard Nixon’s “enemies list” seems no more serious than being snubbed by the popular kids in high school.
If Trump indeed tried to overturn an election, disrupt the functioning of government and prevent the counting of Electoral College votes, and incite an insurrection, he cannot be given a pass. Although he already has been indicted in two other cases and has a long history of, shall we say, treating the law like a skunk at a garden party, this would be the gravest crime he ever committed. Some political analysts say there is zero reason to think he will escape indictment.
As the case against Trump unfolds, we can expect to see mounds of additional evidence, including testimony from witnesses who declined to appear before the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack.
Had Trump succeeded in his coup, he in all likelihood would have proceeded to do what he vows to do now: turn the federal government into a vast patronage army of yes-people while experienced and valuable civil servants are shown the door. Many businesses and ordinary Americans would likely have to say goodbye to things they have come to rely on: reliable economic numbers, science-based environmental evaluations, trustworthy medical advice and nonpolitical criminal investigations. Here is a man who thinks the government should scribble the path of an oncoming hurricane with a Sharpie.
After a first term of his administration fumbling around trying to achieve “deconstruction of the administrative state,” Trump has surely learned how to be more effective in squeezing democracy out of government, including via his plans for “impounding” money that has been appropriated by Congress for programs he doesn’t favor.
For a variety of reasons, Chicago eventually moved out from under the shadow of its political Machine, but the scars remain. America should not suffer the same experience. A full airing of Trump’s alleged coup attempt matters to help prevent that outcome.
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