The shape of things to come?

We can’t say we weren’t warned. Barely a month into Trump’s presidency — on February 13, 2017 — Trump true believer and adviser Stephen Miller said this on “Face the Nation”: “Our opponents, the media, and the whole world will soon see that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.” Note the imperative mood. It’s reminiscent of the rhetoric of military command.

Our armed services, of course, are authoritarian institutions, not polite debating societies. Service members must obey lawful orders — generally without question. But that stricture does not pertain to our civil society. American civilians are constitutionally guaranteed the right to question the policies and actions of those in authority — Trump included.

Stephen Miller, it seems to me, is Trump’s Rasputin. It requires only a cursory knowledge of the Russian Revolution to recognize the name. Grigori Rasputin was a self-styled monk and mystic who attached himself to the czar and czarina, much to their detriment. I suspect Miller was behind that ominous pledge Trump made on Veterans Day: “In honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country and that lie and steal and cheat on elections.”

Frankly, as a veteran myself, that is not the sort of pledge I want to hear. Service men and women swear to “support and defend the Constitution,” and Trump is vowing to run roughshod over it should he be reelected.

As others have pointed out, Trump is parroting the rhetoric of Hitler and Mussolini. He is characterizing his political and ideological opponents as less than human, as “vermin” — the better to incite violence against them.

Trump, however, is not sufficiently well-read to make such a connection. He is largely ignorant of history. I remember when he credited our Revolutionary War patriots with securing the airports and when he warned that Biden would start “World War II.” Miller, or someone like him, must have fed Trump those Veterans Day remarks.

More recently, Trump has hinted that he will use military units to quell unrest and violence, especially in Democratically controlled cities and states. The posse comitatus Act, however, stands in his way. It prohibits using our regular military for civilian law enforcement. The way around that, Trump has been told, is to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1792. But a garden-variety protest — even one that turns violent and destructive — does not an insurrection make. Would you trust Trump to make that distinction, especially if people are protesting his policies and decisions? I wouldn’t.

Even more troubling, note what he posted in support of his stolen-election lie on his Truth Social platform on December 4, 2022: “A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great Founders did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent elections.” I rather think our Founding Fathers revered rules and regulations, the rule of law in particular.

Make no mistake about it. Trump means it. Should he be reelected, his cronies are planning to replace federal workers with MAGA types, to “round up millions of undocumented immigrants,” and to “weaponize” the Justice Department against Trump’s opponents. (Susan Caskie, The Week magazine, Nov. 24)

As for the DOJ being weaponized against Trump, it’s nonsense! His legal problems are all of his own making. The DOJ, in fact, has been too lenient. Trump should be charged with inciting an insurrection on January 6, 2021. Telling his supporters to “fight like hell or [they] wouldn’t have a country anymore” was tantamount to yelling fire in a crowded theater. It wasn’t a metaphor. It was a rallying cry.

I stand with the Trump busters — those working to hold Trump accountable for his misdeeds and for the damage he has done to our body politic. Trump is a clear and present danger to our democracy. We need to dump him in the dustbin of history before it’s too late. In the words of the poet, “Awake, arise, or be forever fallen [into autocracy].”

Postscript. Trumpists are sure to jump to the conclusion I’m bully on Biden. I’m not (even though we’re both from Delaware). I agree with David A. Graham, who in a recent Atlantic article detailed how Biden and Trump are both showing “alarming signs of decrepitude.” Accuse me of ageism if you must, but common sense tells me we would be better off with younger, sharper candidates on both sides.

Contact Ed Palm at majorpalm@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: The shape of things to come?