Cults Love Dictators

Trumpism is a cult. I've written about this before, but I believe that the cultish aspects of the MAGA base have expanded since his inauguration last month.

As I wrote about my own cult experience, no one who is in a cult thinks they're in a cult. No one sets out to join a cult. Once you're in, you rationalize behaviors that would have horrified you pre-cult. You make excuses for your cult leader and either deny that you ever believed differently or you portray yourself as an enlightened convert. The goalposts representing success change along with the cult leader's moods. Trumpism is no different. 

Trump was re-elected in large part due to a widespread belief that, despite any of his other defects, the economy was in better shape with him in charge. This makes sense if you squint and cover one eye. The traditional measures of economic health were all good from 2017 -- 2019, including low inflation, low unemployment, and robust stock market performance. During Biden's term two out of three of those were still true, but high inflation gave the understandable impression that the economy was in free fall. There were reasons for inflation that had nothing to do with any presidential action (and some that did), but people's short memories apparently wiped out all of 2020 as Trump's bungled Covid response, lack of coherent leadership, and undermining his own team had equally terrible effects. These effects naturally carried over into the early parts of Biden's term. It was hard to argue that Trump wasn't better for the economy with people who didn't understand basic economics. 

Maybe some people actually believed what they were saying, but I have concluded, for the vast majority, the talk of economics was mere cover for their cultish support for Trump, right or wrong. They were going to vote for him no matter what he said or did; pointing to the economy was no more than a way to make it sound as if they were making a reasoned decision. Hand in hand with this faux reasonableness was the demonization of anything associated with the Democratic Party. Trumpists and other Republicans have convinced their people that Democrats are communists and pedophiles. They have convinced their base that Joe Biden, a moderate, middle of the road, plain vanilla politician, was a raging dictator. 

But the economy was what Trumpists pushed as the rationale for re-electing Trump. I doubt anyone listed siding with Putin over Ukraine and systematically dismantling the government as good reasons to put him back in the White House. But here we are. People who were calling Biden a dictator for trying to cancel student loan debt are cheering on Trump for governing by fiat. People who loudly claimed to be Constitutional absolutists (at least when it came to the Second Amendment) are perfectly fine with an attempt to repeal part of the Fourteenth Amendment by way of Executive Order; those who were losing their minds over a years-old clip of Harris wanting to hold social media companies accountable, claiming it was a First Amendment infringement, are happy with Trump suing media companies, freezing out the Associated Press and deciding what news organizations can cover him; the people who screeched about Trump being held accountable for his alleged crimes were now drawing up lists of "enemies". 

The rank and file of the Trump base sees nothing amiss with an unelected "special government employee" rampaging through the government, firing people with no due process, bypassing both the union and their immediate supervisors. They shrug as whole agencies are gutted; agencies whose mission and funding had been authorized by Congress (and incidentally approved by whoever was president at the time). There's no process, no oversight, and certainly no "auditing for fraud and corruption". They don't blink when Trump claims that only he has the authority to decide what the law means or when his appointees testify that some court rulings can be ignored. There's a word for an individual who takes all government power and authority unto himself. 

The Trump Cult is not interested in facts or logic. The claims by Trump that he would solve inflation and lower prices has been abandoned, so they have acted as if that were never "a thing". They act as if now rooting out "fraud and corruption" are the most important issue facing the nation, despite zero evidence that anything other than the defunding of programs Trump doesn't like has been accomplished. They have convinced themselves that cozying up to Putin, a brutal dictator, aligns with our national values. 

It's always been a cult. Now it's a cult that supports a dictatorship.

Is There An Upside to All This Chaos?

There are two aspects to the actions taken by Trump in his first month (is it really only a month?) in office: one is whether he has the legal authority to do what he is doing and secondly, whether any of it is a good idea. I have addressed the legal angle in several posts on the subject of dictatorship, but is any of it good for the country?

Eliminating inefficiency, fraud and corruption is, of course, a good idea. In several of the companies where I have been employed over the years "process improvement" has been on the table. One of the things that you look for is whether any particular step in a process "adds value” — does the action make things better? Trump promised to have Elon Musk head up the "Department of Government Efficiency", and that's what he did (although whether he's actually the administrator or not changes from day to day depending on which regulations he's trying to break), but is what Musk is doing the best way, or even "a" way, to eliminate inefficiency, fraud and corruption?

No.

First of all, what's going on isn't an audit. A legitimate audit is usually done by an auditor. In order to be able to determine whether something is being done illegally or inefficiently, you have to have some knowledge of what legal and efficient look like. If you want to identify fraud and corruption, it's essential that you know how a properly functioning organization runs. A certified public accountant (CPA) will know how to follow the money as it makes it way through an organization, following the paper trail, comparing invoices to ledger entries and budgets. Whether an agency is efficient requires a thorough knowledge of the organization — what it's goals are and whether the daily actions of the employees and executives align with those goals and whether they are achieved in the most direct manner, avoiding steps and handoffs that don't add value. 

Musk's band of pirates isn't doing any of that. 

None of them, including Musk himself, are accountants. None of them have any experience or understanding of the role of the agencies and departments that they are "auditing". This would be a problem if what they really were doing were audits to identify inefficiencies, fraud and corruption, since they wouldn't know what any of that looked like. What they are doing is (1) eliminating any programs which they have been told to target because Trump doesn't like them, e.g. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs; or foreign aid and (2) Firing as many employees as they can without regard to whether these are essential jobs or not. The ultimate goal is not rooting out inefficiencies, fraud and corruption, but conducting a right wing culture war jihad, with a side dish of dismantling the government. 

Chaos is not a bug, but a feature of DOUCHE...I mean DOGE.

While Musk is taking a blowtorch to half the federal agencies, Trump himself is engaging his Retribution '25 Tour. As promised he is punishing anyone who had anything to do with the various investigations and prosecutions into his actions that led to indictments and felony convictions. Career attorneys have been unceremoniously fired, transferred or demoted. FBI agents have been treated the same way. The new Attorney General and FBI Director have talked about prosecuting those same people, as well as various political opponents. Patel, the FBI Chief even has an enemies list! 

Let's not overlook the insanity on the international front. Neighbors and allies are being hit with punitive tariffs for essentially looking at him funny. He seriously talks about annexing Canada, the Panama Canal and Greenland, not to mention buying Gaza and turning it into a resort. His representatives chide Germany for not tolerating Neo-Nazis. We knew he liked cozying up to dictators, but this week he accused Ukraine of starting the war in which they were invaded by Russia and is conducting "peace talks" without them. 

Lastly, he's been in office slightly more than a month and he's talked multiple times about running again in 2028 and has referred to himself as a king. 

The chaos is so pervasive and all-encompassing that its tentacles potentially affect every aspect of our lives. Is there an upside to all this chaos? 

No.

This Isn't An Audit

Much time was wasted this weekend arguing with Trump Cultists about Elon Musk's March to The Sea. Of course the cult thinks it's great, because that's what Bhagwahn Rajneesh Trump wants. He could announce tomorrow that everyone's taxes are going up 100% and they'll all cheer. 

One of their arguments is that seeking out fraud and corruption is a good thing, and it's about time somebody took action. It's hard to argue against that; nobody thinks fraud and corruption are good things! But is that what's happening?

The ongoing purge is wrong in two broad categories. The first is that the president, who certainly has the authority to look for inefficiencies, fraud, and corruption in federal government, and take corrective action, does not have the power to unilaterally dismantle whole sections of the government, or refuse to spend funds that have been appropriated. The second is that, despite the high minded claims to root out fraud, no fraud is being discovered, and Musk and his team are not competent to find it even if it were there. What is happening is that programs whose mission Trump and Musk disagree with are being dismantled under cover of a hunt for fraud. 

Despite the claims of the so-called Unitary Executive proponents, the president doesn't have unlimited and unfettered authority over the departments and agencies that make up the federal government. Every department and agency of the United States government has been created by an act of Congress, and are funded by appropriations approved by Congress. These actions have the force of law and come about the same way any other law does: by being passed by a majority of both houses of Congress and signed by the president. Article II Section 3 of the Constitution directs that the president "take care that the laws be faithfully executed". That includes keeping Congressionally created departments and agencies up and running. 

Federal agencies exist to turn laws into reality. A bill might be passed to provide aid to a certain country. Somebody has to secure that aid, pay for it, arrange for transport to the target country, and account for it. Another bill could create penalties for some specified action. How will those penalties be enforced? How will violations be tracked? Often the scope of a Congressional action is so large that interpretation on the part of the regulatory agency is necessary. The president, as titular head of the executive branch can direct an agency's priorities, does not have the authority to eliminate that agency or refuse to spend appropriated funds. 

A properly conducted audit requires an auditor; someone who understands the flow of money through an organization. Additionally, the auditor should have an understanding of the laws governing the organization that is being audited. Real audits take time when done right. Red flags spur further investigation, not a knee-jerk assumption that something shady is being perpetrated. While I am not an auditor, I work with auditors and am aware of many audits that have taken years to complete. What is going on with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is not an audit. What it is, is a bunch of pimply faced computer geeks running loose, without security clearance, doing quick and dirty searches for what they think are suspicious transactions. Or maybe not even that. What has come out so far is not fraud or corruption - at least no one has been charged with fraud or corruption - but is a search for programs within the agencies that rightists loathe - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices as well as any program that protects consumers. 

Thousands of federal employees are being fired without cause, with little thought given to how important those jobs are. Thousands of IRS employees are let go during tax season; the team who oversees our nuclear arsenal were fired, until it was realized they were essential but couldn't be reached because their contact information was no longer available. Employees are being locked out of their computer access and their physical offices on the authority of a "department" that didn't exist less than a month ago. 

I started this article by mentioning the enthusiasm with which the Trump Cult is celebrating what their cult leader is doing. In the months before the election the two biggest reasons that I saw given for voting for Trump were the economy and immigration. These were reasonable, but in my opinion, mistaken, rationales for supporting Trump. Even though inflation is caused by many factors with little influence by whoever the president is, many voters will always blame the president for a bad economy. And while immigration was not handled well by Biden, he could be forgiven for wanting to take action with Congress, instead of by EO. The Trump Cult literally believed that their Messiah would reverse inflation and bring prices back down. I may have missed it, but I don't recall people clamoring for the government to be dismantled. In fact, Project 2025, which does call for a deconstruction of the administrative state, was disavowed by Trump. But now, since dismantling the government is what Trump is doing, his cult has decided that dismantling the government is what they wanted all along, and are completely fine with his illegal, unconstitutional, power grab. 

 

But The Trains Will Run on Time

The Trump Cult said we were exaggerating when we called Trump and his team Nazis. They said that we were overreacting, that we were suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome". But here we are, less than a month into Trump's comeback term, and we have somehow gotten to the point where the president makes unilateral decisions without checks and balances. 

The nation's founders, despite including various undemocratic features in our Constitution, were very clear on one thing: they did not want a king. They defined "king" as someone in whom all decision-making authority was vested. It didn't matter if this king held the title of "president", unchecked power was what they were to guard against. In modern terms, since the kings we have in the 21st century are mere figureheads, we would term one in whom absolute power is concentrated a dictator. In order to prevent a dictatorship they devised a government structure where power and authority was spread among three theoretically coequal branches. The national legislature (Congress) made the laws, the executive branch (headed by the president) executed and enforced the laws and the judicial branch interpreted the laws. The system by which the three branches keep the others from assuming absolute power is generally referred to as checks and balances. Congress writes laws, but they must be approved by the president, whose veto can be overridden my a Congressional supermajority. Presidential appointments must be approved by the Senate. The president can be removed by impeachment and conviction by Congress. Laws can be deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 

There is a constitutional theory, mainly propounded by conservative legal scholars, called the Unitary Executive. This theory posits that all according to Article II of the Constitution executive branch agencies and departments are overseen and directed solely by the president, with Congress having no role in oversight or control. Trump, in his usual ignorant manner, has summarized this theory as "I have an Article II which means I can do whatever I want". The problem is that Congress has created agencies and departments and imbued them with a specific mission, and regularly appropriated funds for the executing of that mission. Some of these agencies have been termed "independent", in that they were envisioned as being able to conduct their mission unencumbered by partisan considerations or change in administration. The advocates of the Unitary Executive believe that all of that is unconstitutional; that the president has complete authority over all departments and agencies. This theory is at odds with the law. If an agency is established by law, and funds are appropriated for it's operation, the president, according to Article II Section 3, is to "...take care that the laws be faithfully executed...", not pick and choose what laws to follow and which ones to ignore. 

What Trump is doing with his blizzard of executive orders (EO's) is to announce that he is not bound by the law or the Constitution, and that he has the power and authority of a king, a dictator. This is completely separate from the issue of whether his policies are actually good ideas. That's a discussion for another day. The fact that his ideas, whether good or bad, are being pursued unilaterally, without following previously passed laws or appropriations, is what makes what is going on a dictatorship. A lot of ink has been spilled about Elon Musk's installment as the unquestioned arbiter of what is inefficient in government. I saw an article the other day about what Trump should do to rein in Musk. But the problem isn't Musk, it's Trump himself. Musk is merely acting on illegally delegated authority from a president who is illegally exercising authority that he does not have. 

One of Trump's first moves was to fire Inspectors General in most federal departments. It's the job of these officials to identify corruption and other problems in their departments. I am unclear whether it is within their purview to proactively conduct audits. In Nebraska the Auditor of Public Accounts, an independently elected official (i.e. not controlled by the governor) conducts audits of all government agencies. I can tell you from experience that they are extremely detailed and leave no stone unturned. If there is not a similar federal position, there should be. Instead, we have a team of people who have no experience in, or understanding of, government, who wouldn't know if something was inefficient or not, unilaterally shutting down government agencies with no oversight whatsoever. Whether or not government is bloated and inefficient isn't the question, it's whether budget trimming should be done in the dictatorial manner. 

I brought up checks and balances earlier. It remains to be seen what action the judicial branch will take, but the Republican Congressional majority has decided that they will be doing nothing. They're okay with allowing a president to assume dictatorial powers, as long as they kinda-sorta agree with the broad outlines of his "plan", and as long as they stay on his good side, and therefore in the good graces of his cultish supporters. 

Whether you think USAID is a waste of money, or agree that the Department of Education should be eliminated, or CFPB should go, or woke communist transgender gun takers must be stopped, are you really fine with the United States becoming a dictatorship? 

Oh well, at least the trains will run on time.

Trump Derangement Syndrome - Who Precisely is Deranged?

One of the labels that the Trump Cult likes to pin on those who oppose their leader is "Trump Derangement Syndrome". They imply that there isn't any rational reason to be opposed to Donald Trump - after all, I that he wants to do is "Make America Great Again"! Who could possibly be opposed to making America great? Again. 

The problem with being opposed to Trump is that the actions that he takes and the words that he speaks and writes come at us with such unbelievable and unnatural speed that addressing one quickly becomes irrelevant and untimely in light of the outrage of the hour. 

Nonetheless, most people who oppose Trump do so because of specific reasons that have been documented publicly. It's not our problem that Trumpists are immune to logic and evidence. Not only do they refuse to see their Emperor's new clothes, but they have become deranged in opposition to whoever Trump is opposed to. For example, President Biden. 

It's not exactly new that there should be opposition to the policies of the president of the opposing party. But the insane and vicious attacks upon Biden, for no other reason than he wasn't Trump, defined logical explanation. Who can forget the idiotic "Let's Go Brandon" chants? I'm not suggesting that Joe Biden didn't earn some of the criticism sent his way. He placed too much faith in the ability of Congress to do something about the border and waiting too long to take executive action; the withdrawal from Afghanistan was chaotic; inflation always get blamed on the sitting president. Regarding his apparent diminished mental capacity and dropping out of the general election - he should have either done it a year earlier, or not at all. He was probably the most moderate, middle-of-the-road, typical politician type that we could have emerged from the 2020 Democratic primaries. Yet he has been demonized by the Trump Cult, on one hand as a senile, doddering old man who doesn't know where he is half the time, and on the other hand as an evil genius robbing us of "our freedoms". This moderate Democrat is portrayed as a left wing radical, a communist even! 

Trump Cultists accuse us of focusing on "Russia, Russia, Russia", calling it a hoax. I'm reasonably sure that none of the Trumpists that I'm likely to interact with on social media have actually read the Mueller Report, but has relied on Bill Barr's deceptive synopsis or any number of podcasters who spun it in Trump's favor. The Mueller Report was very clear that the 2016 Trump campaign, while not coordinating with Russian agents to spread information intended to sway voters, knew about their efforts and happily accepted it. The report was quite clear that Trump was engaged in obstruction of justice - the only thing that headed off a prosecution was the fact that Justice Department policy precluded prosecution of a president while in office. There are any numbers of things that cause us to oppose Trump that are now claimed to have been debunked by his cult. I covered a few of them back in August in an article about "debunking"

Now Trump is in office again. For the last two years we have been warning about how dangerous he would be if reelected. We were dismissed as alarmists and accused of exaggerating, and yes, of having "Trump Derangement Syndrome". Yet if anything, it's worse than we thought. He's still a racist, a bigot, and a misogynist; he's still ignorant about how things work, and incompetent. But this time he has hired people who know how the system works and who know how to break it. He has installed loyalists into positions of authority, people who won't push back against illegal orders, or try to prevent his more dangerous actions from seeing the light of day. He has become emboldened and is acting to exact retribution upon those who he thinks wronged him, and to dismantle the government. And if that isn't bad enough, the Republican majority in Congress doesn't appear willing to do anything about it. 

If anything, we weren't "deranged" enough.