Editor’s note: This commentary is by Bill Dunkel, of Windham, who is a retired teacher, coach and high school principal.
[D]onald Trump has shown us who he is and what he wants to do. He admires dictators like Putin and Kim Jung-un. He wants to rule by executive order and shows little knowledge of, or respect for, the checks and balances that the Founding Fathers built into the Constitution because they had experienced, firsthand, the tyranny of an unrestrained monarch. Trump not only is unfazed by Russian interference in the 2016 election on his behalf, he welcomed it and has all but invited them to do it again. His jocular, staged “warning” to Putin in a recent press conference to not meddle in the 2020 election was a grotesque betrayal of the national interest. Since when does putting “America First” include turning a blind eye to systematic efforts by a foreign enemy to destroy the integrity of our most important democratic safeguard — free and fair elections?
It’s obvious how Trump is positioning himself for the day after the 2020 election. If he wins, with Russian support, he will deny that they were involved and claim the election was as pure as driven snow, and an affirmation of his “incredible” popularity. If he loses, he will claim the election was rigged by his opponents and was illegitimate. He will encourage his most ardent supporters to resist a supposed “coup” against him — a term he already has used in an effort to delegitimize and derail investigations by the FBI and Robert Mueller into frequent contact between his closest family members, campaign staff and Russian operatives during the 2016 election.
Trump cannot abide criticism. He despises the free press, calling them “horrible people” and branding them “the enemy of the people.” He recently joked (but it really wasn’t a joke) with Putin about how lucky he was to not have to put up with fake news in Russia. Trump went out of his way to cozy up with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the recent G-20 summit in Japan despite overwhelming evidence that the prince ordered the grisly murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a political opponent who was a columnist for the Washington Post. I don’t know whether Trump would approve of the assassination of his media critics, but it would not surprise me if he attempted, post 2020, to crack down on the free press during a self-manufactured crisis that called for emergency powers granted to him by a supine Republican Party, and upheld by a Supreme Court which he has stacked in his favor.
Like autocrats and Mafia bosses, Trump distrusts nearly everyone and divides the world into those who support him (“his” attorney General, “his” FBI director) and those who oppose him. He values loyalty more than competence or integrity. Is it any wonder that there has been record turnover among his Cabinet and staff? Why are Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner attending the G-20 conference in Osaka? What special qualifications entitle them to represent our country, other than that they are part of The Family? Recently, Rex Tillerson testified that when he was Secretary of State, Kushner went behind his back and had secret dealings with foreign leaders. Trump’s comment that if Jared can’t bring peace to the Middle East “no one can” is absurd, but altogether typical of a president who distrusts and disrespects experienced men and women who have spent their careers serving in governmental agencies (the State Department in this case, but it could just as easily be the EPA, the CIA, or the DOD) but do not automatically endorse his viewpoint, or pass his loyalty litmus test.
In November of 2020 Americans will decide if they want to live in a country in which the president is above the law, or beneath it. Whether we want a chief executive who is constrained by traditional checks and balances designed by the Founders, or an imperial president who rules by executive decree and brands his critics as traitors. Whether we want a president who willfully ignores facts that do not conform to his prejudices and blatantly brands legitimate journalism which questions his distorted view of reality as “fake news.” The election is still over 16 months away, but Donald Trump is not going to change between now and then. He has shown us who he is and what he will try to do if we allow him four more years in office.
