Wannabe Dictator, Autocrat, Authoritarian, King...It's All Semantics - Part XII - Manipulates The Law To Stay in Power

The New York Times recently published an article Are We Losing Our Democracy? where they looked at various signs of dictatorship or autocracy and whether we had crossed that line. (I also provided the text in a Facebook post for those without NY Times access). I am going to look at each segment in turn and provide my own thoughts. 

#12 - Manipulates The Law To Stay In Power

 Authoritarians change election rules to help their party, and they rewrite laws — or violate their spirit — to ignore term limits.

Trump follows two parallel paths in this segment. In the first, he is mostly a passive beneficiary of the Republicans longstanding attempts to place roadblocks in the way of people's ability to easily vote. Gerrymandering, voter I.D., closing polling places, purging voter rolls, shortening early voting and placing restrictions on mail-in voting, all benefitting Republican candidates. Locking in compliant Republican office holders makes it easier for Trump to act unilaterally without oversight by Congress. 

In addition to the traditional Republican chicanery, Trump has also pushed states with Republican legislatures and governors to further gerrymander their Congressional districts. 

Mr. Trump’s biggest attempt to follow this playbook failed, when he was unable to undo his election defeat to Joe Biden in 2020. But that effort showed Mr. Trump’s willingness to break the law to remain in power. He issued an executive order in March that seeks to interfere with how states run their elections. 

The other path Trump has taken is his ongoing "jokes" about running for a third term or cancelling elections. He regularly "jokes" about scenarios where this could happen. Even if he isn't serious, subverting the Constitution isn't something that the president of the United States should be kidding about.  However, if anyone doubts his willingness to ignore the results of an election we have only to look at his actions in 2020 and early 2021 when he literally attempted to ignore the results of an election. 

The NY Times ended their series with this quote:

The clearest sign that a democracy has died is that a leader and his party make it impossible for their opponents to win an election and hold power. Once that stage is reached, however, the change is extremely difficult to reverse. And aspiring authoritarians use other excesses, like a cowed legislature and judiciary, to lock in their power.

The United States is not an autocracy today. It still has a mostly free press and independent judiciary, and millions of Americans recently attended the “No Kings” protests. But it has started down an anti-democratic path, and many Americans — including people in positions of power — remain far too complacent about the threat.

I disagree with the NY Times that we are not yet at the stage where we are in an autocracy. While there still exists a free press, many outlets are self-censoring or settling with Trump when sued. Lower courts are attempting to block some of his maneuvers, but the results are not uniform, and the Supreme Court has not upheld all the blocks. Trump in many ways is incompetent. He is clearly in the early stages of dementia. He is ignorant of how things work. He is not an efficient autocrat or dictator, but he rules as if only his word matters.

What else do you call it?

Part I - Stifling Dissent and Free Speech

Part II - Persecution of Political Opponents

Part III - Bypassing the Legislature

Part IV - Using The Military For Domestic & Political Purposes

Part V - Defies The Courts

Part VI - Declares National Emergencies Under False Pretenses

Part VII - Vilifies Marginalized Groups

Part VIII - Attempt to Control Information & The News Media

Part IX - Attempts To Take Over Universities

Part X - Creates A Cult of Personality

Part XI - Uses Power For Personal Profit