Trump and the upside-down world

By Richard Galant, CNN.
The title on the cover of Cass R. Sunstein’s 2021 book, “This is not normal,” is printed upside down. If it were a US flag, the inverted positioning would signal “distress or great danger.”

The legal scholar and behavioral economics pioneer starts his book with the idea that what is considered normal can shift with the political and cultural context of the times. But he argues that however threatened it is right now, “democracy is the best form of government” given its emphasis on the “equal dignity” of people.

“It is a luxury, and a blessing, to be able to take it as normal,” Sunstein writes.

When the Republican candidates gathered for their first primary debate in Milwaukee on August 23, it was still possible to perceive glimmers of a “normal” primary process, far different than the high drama of the 2016 and 2020 presidential races. But by the time the second GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, ended on Wednesday, that view seemed like a fantasy.

It wasn’t only the chaotic nature of the debate and the bizarre mentions of “Donald Duck,” “sleeping with a teacher,” and costly curtains, but the overall environment:

The failure of any candidate to dislodge the Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, despite four indictments and a judge declaring him liable for fraud last week.

The beginning of a Trump-backed House Republican inquiry into impeaching President Joe Biden with no clear evidence of his wrongdoing.

A retiring Joint Chiefs chairman, accused of treason by Trump, who declares, “We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.”

A president who becomes the first in history to join strikers on a picket line while in office.

All of it was capped off with the government coming within hours of shutting down. A last-ditch move Saturday kept federal agencies funded for 45 days while putting more aid to Ukraine in jeopardy. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to pass the measure with votes from Democrats could cost him his job, given that far-right members of his party opposed that move and appeared willing to risk a shutdown, as was Trump.

Taken together, the state of US politics today is the kind of scenario no one has witnessed in the 247-year history of the American experiment in democracy.

One Republican, Rep. Mike Lawler, who represents a suburban district in New York state, recently referred to the behavior of some members of his own party as a “clown show.” He wrote for CNN Opinion that the legislators willing to risk a shutdown “either don’t understand the concept of divided government and can’t grasp the realities that come with it, or they care more about whipping up elements of our party’s base so they can milk them for $5 contributions online…”

“These folks don’t know what they want, they can’t define a win, they won’t accept ‘yes’ for an answer, and they refuse to work together as a team.” 

If a shutdown arrives in mid-November, more than 3 million federal workers, including troops on active duty, would have to work without receiving their paychecks. And the effects go further — just one example is Rosa Cruz, a contract worker hired by a private company, who has cleaned the offices of the Department of Labor for 35 years. “I still support my 81-year-old mother who lives with me and who is 100% handicapped. It’s hard to be in a financially precarious situation when someone depends on you.”

By contrast, members of Congress, who are failing in their budget-making role, would still get paid. “The very people who are causing the government shutdown will not suffer the consequences,” wrote Rob Rosenthal, a professor emeritus at Wesleyan University. “We can taste the hypocrisy when politicians tell us cutbacks, sacrifices, belt-tightening, government shutdowns are necessary for some greater good: if these things are so necessary, why aren’t you also living the plan?”

‘Flashing red signs’

In a speech in Tempe, Arizona, Biden declared that the opposing party “is driven and intimidated by MAGA Republican extremists. Their extreme agenda, if carried out, would fundamentally alter the institutions of American democracy as we know it.”

Democrats hope that message will carry them to victory 13 months from now in the 2024 election. But John Avlon warned that “there are flashing red signs that the division and dysfunction is fueling a pox-on-both-your-houses alienation,” among voters.

“A recent Pew Research Center study found that 65% of Americans say that thinking about politics makes them feel exhausted,” noted Avlon, who also pointed to an NBC News survey showing “that Republicans have an 8-point advantage when it comes to ‘protecting constitutional rights’ and a one-point advantage on ‘protecting democracy.’”

“This doesn’t square with the facts,” he wrote.

On Monday, a New York judge found Trump and his adult sons liable for insurance and bank fraud and canceled the Trump Organization’s business certification.

As Frida Ghitis noted, this was not surprising. “Trump’s record of civil and criminal cases is so long that journalists have struggled to keep up, routinely publishing articles that

“Nothing Trump does or says can shock us anymore — not his thinly veiled calls for the execution of a US general, or his continuing claims that he won an election he lost by a wide margin or even his threats to punish his critics if he wins reelection.”

But, Ghitis asked, “How is it possible that such a man is not only the leading candidate for a once-conservative, traditional-values party but also that few of those challenging him in the primaries dare spell out the truth that he nearly destroyed US democracy — and is still at it?”