Trump's troubling love affairs with dictators and despots

This is a step by step analysis of how an aspiring despot can use perversions of constitutional democracies once they get elected. . Our democracy is a special one with strong checks and balances, but even with them, there are ways to destroy them .. I consider this column one of the most important columns I have ever written because I care deeply about our system of democracy and it is being tested,....It is a system for which I have ultimate respect having seen others at work..Democracy as a governing system has its flaws, but for ordinary people, it is still the best governing system in history.. So many democracies have fallen with the consent of their own governed, unaware of what unintended consequences result from good intentions and 
 passionate advocacy. Be careful what you wish.

Column published 6/14/17 in all editions of the Sky Hi News
Donald Trump has now returned to the realities of the political system in the United States. What was noted by many  is that he was not at ease in western Europe, and  refused to confirm US support of  the core reason for NATO, mutual defense without exception, and  was the odd man out on climate change. Lauded as his most successful part of his trip. he managed to score big with Saudi Arabia or  Saudi Arabian absolute rulers treated  Trump like the king he would like to think he deserved.. Given the contrast with his attitude toward the Saudis  with his scolding  messages and standoffishness in Europe it  is  clear is that Trump is much more comfortable with tyrants, whom he considers models of "strong leaders"  than he is with those who believe in Western democracy, so much so he has tried to ape some of their steps to power. Those who have been the most warmly welcomed or invited to the White House in the first months of his administration were the  destroyer of democracy in Turkey,  Recep  Erdogan,  and Rodrigo  Duterte in the Philippines, who had declared martial law rule as he killed thousands without due process or trials.  Trump's bromance with Putin is legendary.

There is a lesson in the rise to power of these autocrats. Unlike  the old days where a military putsch changed regimes,wannabe autocrats now get  into power by a democratic vote and then set about to grab power and eliminate the opposition. Their countrymen have permitted their loss of democracy because of real or trumped up  fear from a threat to national security or lawlessness and crime that begged for a strong arm to lead them. Others saw the emerging autocrat as a ticket to get their shared  agenda enacted.  Once in office,   the creep to autocracy began.  First they  ignored constitutional constraints on executive power, and pushed through changes in  laws, constitutions, that  made it difficult for  anyone to challenge them.   Erdogan even eliminated his legislature by a vote on a new constitution  and Putin filled his Duma with loyalists.

There are many current  examples  of how a democracy fell  to authoritarians.  There is a pattern.  The first step  is to  reduce the power of the opposition press. Unlike Erdogan or Putin, Trump  has not imprisoned opposition reporters or killed them, but he has tried to diminish their power  by convincing many that what  is reported and covered on his favorite TV station is the truth and  the rest spout fake news or make up their stories..   He has called the press the “enemy of the people”, taking a page from the old USSR slogan. The writers of the Bill of Rights  saw a strong, free press as another check  on abusers of power and protected it in  the first amendment.

Another step toward to authoritarian rule  is to diminish the credibility of an independent judiciary. Trump uses   personal attacks regarding the Trump University fraud case’ “Mexican” judge  or the Muslim ban executive orders overturned by “liberal judges”.   The balance of power with an equally empowered independent judiciary is fundamental to the Constitution ‘s rule of law.   One way to get around an independent judiciary   is to stack a judiciary with loyal true believers who have an issue agenda  instead of those who have  demonstrated support of the rule of law as embodied in the Constitution.  Another step is changing rules to make it it easier to get his agenda passed.  Changing  the Senate rules that required 61 votes for approval of a Supreme Court justice to  a simple majority was  the first step. Now he wants the Senate to change their rules so that their simple majority could pass his agenda with out fear of a filibuster or the need to compromise.