Our guardrails are failing us

But with discipline, Democrats can get the message out.

The military invasion of Washington, D.C.—with masked troops from several red states occupying the city, grabbing residents off the street and out of vehicles while hiding their identities and driving unmarked cars—underscores a brutal reality in America: We are no longer inching toward autocracy; we are sprinting. Another brutal reality: The guardrails we have to protect decency and democracy are failing us.

Who will step up and restore any sense of checks and balances?

In 2013, I co-edited with Bill Galston an edition of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, on institutions, American democracy and the common good. Long before Donald Trump, the outlook was not good—neither civic and private institutions nor governing bodies seemed to be fulfilling their duties to protect, defend, and uplift the common good. Tom Mann and I, in the introductory essay, reprised our 2012 book, “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks,” pointing to the deep dysfunction of the Republican Party and the failures of the press and others to deal effectively or truthfully about them.

I wanted to do that issue of Daedalus because it was clear that we needed firmer guardrails to protect the fundamentals of our political system and cultural ethos from collapsing. The smoldering fire then has now become a ten-alarm conflagration. The movement of National Guard troops and armored vehicles into D.C. has nothing to do with an imaginary violent crime wave—underscored by the fact that the troops are generally nowhere near the areas where crime is more prevalent. It is a beta test for using the military to suppress dissent and intimidate political opponents and to create the conditions for invoking the Insurrection Act, suspending elections, and declaring martial law, backed by military force.

Meanwhile, critical entities of government have been blown up, public safety and national security are endangered, and the rule of law is in shambles as the federal government is used to intimidate and punish Trump’s adversaries and those whose policies he does not like; illegal rescissions eviscerate programs lawfully appropriated and authorized by Congress; and we’re witnessing a level of presidential corruption far greater than in every administration in history combined. Every characteristic of an authoritarian regime—from shaking down law firms and universities to hijacking culture to trying to erase and rewrite history to undermining free and fair elections—is underway.

To quote Bob Dole: Where’s the outrage?

The business community, despite the decimation of its future workforce and facing economic policies based on whims and falsehoods, has mostly been silent or exultant about shattered regulations and big tax cuts. Republicans in the Senate and House have held no hearings on abuse of power, and few, if any, push back when our national security and intelligence capabilities are undermined. Oversight as government’s critical functions are attacked is absent, and there is no willingness in the Senate to block unqualified and extreme nominees or to hold the Trump officials to account in the slightest way.

The press, with notable exceptions, has been pliant, especially the White House press corps, which fails to follow up on tough questions, allows its members to be punished, ridiculed and intimidated by the president and his press secretary, and regularly normalizes the abnormal, including largely ignoring or downplaying the examples of Trump’s mental decline—he recently talked about voting officials asking him to produce his license plate—and brushing past his compulsive lies. Access, not accountability, is the apparent goal for far too many. Billionaires who own key media outlets willingly kowtow to Trump.

Steve Bannon long ago laid out the Trumpian strategy: Flood the zone with outrageous actions and scandals, and the media will be unable to handle them all. They would be one-day stories or non-stories, never penetrating public consciousness or creating a major problem. Every day brings a flurry of outrages, and media outlets lack the bandwidth to deal with most, or even a few, adequately. One good example: Trump takes a $400 million gift of a plane from Qatar—a blatant violation of the emoluments clause—and then his minions in Congress appropriate a billion dollars in taxpayer money to upgrade it. This appalling story has disappeared from press coverage.

When an issue that can threaten Trump emerges—namely, the Epstein files—the attempts to distract from it have not worked perfectly, but they do diminish coverage. The raid on former national security adviser John Bolton was not only a part of Trump’s war of retribution but also another major distraction on the same day we had more Epstein stories, including the release of the risible transcript of Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview with Trump lawyer and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Though many federal and state judges have stood up for the rule of law, the Supreme Court, with six justices willing to protect Trump and his power, have thwarted many efforts to hold him accountable. As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a fiery dissent to one cringeworthy ruling enabling Trump to violate the law and cancel hundreds of grants for critical health research, referencing the classic comic “Calvin and Hobbes”: “Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules. We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins.”

To be sure, the weight of judicial opinion below the Supreme Court level, from an army of judges nominated by every modern president from Reagan to Trump, will matter and eventually might have some bearing on the Supremes. And state judges have more opportunities to lay speed bumps to retard the progress of autocracy. Behind these pro-democracy and pro-rule of law rulings is an army of patriotic and courageous lawyers, including private citizens and state attorneys general, willing to bring the suits to challenge the unlawful, indecent, and unconstitutional. That is a key avenue for rebuilding guardrails.

But it cannot be the only one. Governors such as Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois, and Wes Moore of Maryland—by embarrassing Trump and highlighting his mental decline and dangerous behavior—also make clear that not everyone is capitulating.

As Trump signs ever more chilling executive orders, including creating his own army of National Guard members to invade states to “maintain order,” and as he and his sadistic cronies prepare to send Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda, and with too many Americans not thinking this is abnormal, we must start thinking about a broader public response. Mass demonstrations will become more dangerous because Trump will use them as an excuse to deploy the military. We need to think about a general strike, which might underscore to the press and the uninvolved public that this is not normal and that the dangers to every element of our civil society, governing system, and fundamental decency are palpable.

When it comes to institutions, the best hope now is the Democrats in Congress, who, despite their minority status in the House and Senate, can highlight the outrages and who is responsible. They can use the weapons of the minority, particularly in the Senate, to make Trump’s policy and personnel paths more difficult. There are commendable examples of lawmakers doing what needs to be done: Rep. Jamie Raskin filleting the lawless and unconstitutional actions of Trump; Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Jasmine Crockett using ripostes to highlight the lies and hypocrisy; Sen. Cory Booker filibustering. As necessary and important as they are, nearly all are one-offs that get brief attention but often reach only the audience already convinced. Most media ignore or offer cursory coverage to these actions—or treat them as stunts. We need much more, and it has to start from the top and with a mindset that policy-oriented and institutionalist members do not naturally embrace. Most media ignore or offer cursory coverage to these actions or treat them as stunts.

First and most important, congressional Democrats need to counterbalance Trump’s flood-the-zone approach with message discipline, which has been lacking. Democrats can force coverage of one issue or theme in a day—to plug the hole in the dam and make the media cover your message. The first step: create a shadow government, including a shadow Cabinet, consisting of prominent outside experts and key lawmakers who can use their stature and experience to counter the predations and lies of their counterparts.

This shadow government should convene a message group of House and Senate members who meet each day to set a single, powerful message for the next day—and get it out to both caucuses. Start the morning with a press conference featuring a member or expert and have all members pursue that message during morning hours, floor sessions, special orders, and in committees. Use social media to reach audiences beyond the true-believing base—and use experts to develop a broader strategy to hook audiences seemingly beyond reach. And, of course, pursue the daily message on legacy media television and radio channels.

Minority members can’t convene formal hearings and committee meetings, but there is no impediment to shadow hearings and meetings in Washington and around the country—especially in red districts and states! Commendably, many congressional Democrats have done just that, including convening town halls in districts where incumbent Republicans have been too cowed to do their own.

These are all things that House Democrats and blue-state governors and legislators can do. Senate Democrats can do them as well, but they have additional power: delay and obstruction. Senate Democrats need to adopt the mantra WWMD—What Would Mitch Do—meaning apply every tool Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) used to obstruct, delay, and foil Democratic presidents during his long tenure as Republican leader.

Democrats need to do this for every Trump nominee sent to the Senate for confirmation, judges and executive branch nominees alike; to deploy the filibuster just as McConnell did on even routine legislation, and to get tough on appropriations, even if it means the government shuts down (and make clear the shutdown was because of Republican radicalism and bait-and-switch chicanery).

All of this requires a different mindset by congressional leaders and a willingness by legislators to have their regular lives discomfited by more work and longer hours. If we were only at the edge of autocracy and if other institutions were stepping up, this might not be necessary. But we are not in normal times, or even times that are abnormal but within boundaries, with dangers and damage that could be ameliorated or reversed with an election or two. This is unprecedented in terms of the danger and damage. It requires different thinking and different responses. Now, not after it is too late.

Norman Ornstein is a political scientist, co-host of the podcast “Words Matter,” and author of books, including “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism.”

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