Essay on The Nation’s Descent into the Bottomless Abyss of Trumpism

June, 2018

By Thomas Coffin

We are now at a place where the President of this Nation literally hugs the flag of the United States while gleefully extolling the idea of snatching infants, toddlers, and thousands of vulnerable children from their undocumented immigrant parents and placing them in cages at secretive concentration camps in undisclosed locations. The ICE and other agencies implementing this cruelty have kept little or no records of which children are the sons and daughters of which parents as they are separated, increasing the risk that they may never be reunited. The Attorney General of the United States, the head of something called the Department of Justice (whatever that means anymore) quotes the Bible in a hollow attempt to invoke God’s blessing on malevolence that parallels the practice of separating the families of slaves in the pre-Civil War era. Propagandists follow up on the blasphemous distortion of Scripture by comparing the separation policy to summer camp for kids and telling us it doesn’t matter anyway because, hey, they’re not Americans.

The cruelty and inhumanity of this policy is overwhelming. No one could conceive of such depravity who has a moral compass, an ounce of compassion, or a soul that harbors any empathy whatsoever within itself.

This evil can only be described as sociopathic. It is monstrous in its contravention of the most basic moral principles and fundamental values of our country.

This administration, with its open and undisguised admiration for tyrannical rulers and murderous regimes, simply does not believe in, respect, or feel bound by our Constitution and its framework of democratic government. Rather, it insists on a governmental structure wherein subordinates pledge total loyalty and obedience to a titular head of State—i.e., a dictatorial structure where the ruler is above and beyond the rule of law because he is the law.

This objective is the end game of Trumpism. It explains the relentless assaults on a free press, the FBI, the existence of independent counsel and his investigation, the other branches of government, and the entire Constitutional system of checks and balances by theoretically co-equal branches.

I endeavored to explain this danger in an earlier essay, “The Enemy Within”. The threat has since evolved and become more imminent. For example, spokespeople for the administration float the idea that the President could shoot the Director of the FBI and not be prosecuted or pardon himself for any and all violations of the law.

The transformation of governmental framework, from liberal democracy to totalitarianism, does not occur suddenly when it emanates from within the framework itself. It happens incrementally, in small erosions which crumble segments of democratic principles that the people accept in silence or only token-ly resist. Thus we have the “fake news” mantra discrediting a free press, the “witch hunt” refrain to discredit any independent investigation into alleged misconduct of associates of the President by someone who has not pledged fealty to the President, the encouragement of violations of civil rights by law enforcement, and the pardoning of those engaged in civil rights violations (see “The Enemy Within”).

The family separation policy represents a bold advancement of the administration’s incremental movement strategy. The policy carries the fingerprints of White House adviser Stephen Miller, an outspoken proponent of nationalist extremism, as well as the Attorney General himself. Fortunately, it has evoked strong and passionate resistance that the administration underestimated. The outpouring of outrage has forced at least a temporary reprieve in the form of an Executive Order ceasing the forced separation of children from their parents. But the nightmare is hardly over as the government contemplates incarcerating entire families at compounds such as Army bases and other internment camps without any coherent plan regarding the duration of confinement while individual application for asylum are processed.

It is heartening to see, in addition to the public furor over the separation policy, that 75 United States Attorneys from across the country, the highest federal law enforcement officials in their respective Districts, have expressed their objections to the policy in a joint letter to the Attorney General. Having personally served for 21 years in the Department of Justice, I have been extremely concerned about the overt attempts by the White House to undermine the independent role of the DOJ to uphold the Rule of Law which is the foundation of our Constitutional framework, and to instead transform the Department into some subservient extension of the office of the President. The letter represents a commitment to uphold the Rule of Law and the integrity of the Department of Justice, and we can hope that they will remain loyal to the Constitution in their resolve.

The rest of the Nation must do so as well. At stake is nothing less than all the freedoms and rights enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and our sacred heritage that true patriots have defended with their lives for over 228 years. That Flag that we will honor this coming Fourth of July does not stand for whoever occupies the White House at any given moment—it stands for this Country, for the Constitution, for the People, and for our fundamental values and Democracy. It does not stand for oppression or cruelty, and it certainly does not stand for any form of autocracy.

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Thomas Coffin was the keynote speaker at the Blackberry Pie Society’s Political Party in February, 2020.

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.