Democracy vs. Autocracy
FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | February 24, 2022
An autocracy is defined as a system of government by one person with absolute power.
Evil President Vladimir Putin of Russia is an autocrat. Donald Trump aspired to be one during his presidency – and still aspires to be one.
Trump sees Putin as his role model. His unabashed admiration for, and envy of, Putin was demonstrated repeatedly during Trump’s presidency.
Trump’s latest bending of the knee to Putin came with his outrageous siding with Russia and against the United States, calling Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “a genius move” and Putin “very savvy.”
Putin’s unprovoked war against Ukraine is a deadly power grab, a war without justification. But, Putin is also pursuing another goal – to weaken the United States and undermine the very idea of democracy.
Putin exercises absolute power in Russia. His authoritarian grip includes a rubber-stamp legislature, a controlled judiciary, an illusory rule of law, a fake constitution, and perpetually rigged elections.
Trump tried to exercise autocratic powers while President, but unlike Putin, he faced a constitutional system of checks and balances, a real rule of law, an independent judiciary, and honest and fair elections.
Trump did everything he could to stack and politicize the judiciary with his Supreme Court nominations and lower federal court appointments. Trump mocked the rule of law, ignoring the laws that applied to him and his Administration. And, he refused to comply with the powers of Congress, the first branch of government in the Constitution.
Trump’s post-election loss was followed by his relentless campaign attacking our democracy. He repeatedly claimed without a shred of evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Trump unleashed the violent January 6 insurrection attack on the Capitol, the first such attack since the War of 1812. He triggered an ongoing wave of state voter suppression and election sabotage laws to rig future elections for Republicans. He has attacked federal prosecutors and judges, calling them partisans and racists.
But, despite Trump’s efforts, our constitutional system of checks and balances worked.
The federal courts overwhelmingly rejected the efforts of Trump and his followers to overturn the presidential election, ruling against almost every case brought by Trump and his acolytes. Congress rejected the Trump-triggered violent insurrection at the Capitol intended to prevent the certification of Biden’s victory.
If Trump were to win the presidency in 2024, however, it is by no means clear that our constitutional system would stop him again.
Trump would use every avenue of power he has to govern as an unconstrained autocrat and to impose his personal will on the American people.
The assaults on our democracy that Trump and his followers are expected to launch in the next few years must be combated and defeated. The first assaults have already occurred with Trump’s attacks on the legitimacy of the Biden presidency, on the fundamental right to vote, and with new laws empowering election officials to steal elections from the voters.
The fact that there is one Vladimir Putin is an unmitigated disaster for the world. A Putin Jr., back in the White House, would pose the greatest domestic threat to our country and our democracy since the Civil War.
Democracy must prevail over autocracy.
________________________
Fred’s Weekly Note appears each Thursday in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter here. Or, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
