A Diagnosis On Whether Democracy Will Survive:Part 2

A DIAGNOSIS ON WHETHER DEMOCRACY WILL SURVIVE: PART 2

By Thomas Coffin

The Washington Post recently published an opinion piece by neoconservative Robert Kagan about whether our democracy will survive if Donald Trump serves another term as President (A Trump Dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.) Kagan is thorough, accurate, and bone-chillingly frank in his evaluation of the dire state which our nation and people face should we fail to successfully treat and eliminate the progression of the cancerous disease that has infected the body of our political system—autocracy and dictatorship.

Unfortunately, however, Kagan doesn’t prescribe the cure to remedy this condition, perhaps because we ourselves are a major factor in the cause and are consequently charged with the duty of discovering and implementing the cure. To paraphrase Walt Kelly’s comic strip character, Pogo, “Have we met the enemy and he is us?” 

This phenomenon of a transition to autocracy did not happen overnight. It has been percolating for decades, but the Trump assault on democracy takes aim on our legal system and the very rule of law we live under. Kagan even predicts a kind of lethargy among the American population should they lose their rights under another Trump administration; perhaps they would just go about their business as best they can under a dictator, as has already happened in Hungary and Russia. 

Trump, or rather his handlers and consiglieri, have devised plans such as Project 2025 and Schedule F to terminate virtually the entire personnel of the Department of Justice, including prosecutors and FBI agents, to be replaced with partisan hacks dedicated not to justice, but only to Trump, whose mission will be focused on exacting vengeance by arresting and prosecuting his enemies. Trump-loyal think tanks have already identified 50,000 current civil servants that could be dismissed under the new authority they seek to create. (For further information, see the Project 2025 website, the Project 2025 Wikipedia webpage, the Federal News Network, and the Government Executive.)

Let that sink in for a moment. If Trump becomes President again, they intend to fire—immediately and without cause—a staggering number of federal employees and fill their spots with loyalists who will swear a solemn oath and pledge loyalty not to the Constitution but to a damn dictator!  There is no other word for this but totalitarianism. None: it’s blatantly reminiscent of Stalinism and Naziism, not of anything remotely associated with democracy. 

The Rule of Law is the cornerstone of our democracy. One does not get marching orders to target political “enemies”, lock them up, and somehow dress that up as “Justice.”  

What a grim prognosis. But we have a year to improve our chances to avoid the tragedy of the plans to destroy a legacy of two centuries of being a democratic nation. It starts with identifying the threat. Thank heaven we still have a free press, and so much has been uncovered and reported to make us aware of these dangers. But knowing is one thing; taking action is the only way to prevent the tragic conclusion of this saga in our history. Obviously, all of us need to exercise our voting rights while we still have them.  Those of us who are politically active need to make the survival of the democratic system the highest priority and reach across the aisle to demand the same commitment. The media needs to do its part in educating the public at large. 

One idea that could help would be to profile the Hitler era and compare it to what is happening today. Documentaries and editorials as well as other educational media are powerful tools to awaken citizens and hopefully resonate with those entrusted to represent us in Congress to put democracy and the rule of law above politics. We can reinforce loyalty to our Constitution and condemn loyalty pledges to would-be dictators.

I recently had a conversation with a government official who has an important job in tracking and improving the health needs of the public. I was informed that this individual would resign rather than swear a loyalty oath to a wanna-be dictator. Everyone without exception should follow that example. We should never sully the heroism of those who died defending our freedoms by kneeling to a present-day reincarnation of the threat they gave everything to defeat.

P.S.  After this essay was submitted to the publisher, Republican Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio demanded that the Department of Justice investigate Robert Kagan and the Washington Post for writing and publishing the opinion piece referenced in my essay.  Such itself evidences the depth of not only the assault on free speech, but the very foundations of our democracy.

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Thomas Coffin was the keynote speaker at the Blackberry Pie Society’s Political Party in February, 2020 and at Politics and Pie in October, 2022.  He is a retired federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon and a former professor at the UO Law School. Thomas retired in 2016 after 24 years on the bench, prior to which he had a career as a federal prosecutor spanning 21 years. He is married with 7 children.  

The Blackberry Pie Society is pleased to include a collection of his essays on our website.  We will post them as they become available.

posted 12.12.2023