The story is old and familiar. Hitler led the Nazi party in the last Weimar Reichstag. In the autumn 1932 elections, his share of the vote declined, but the Nazis remained the largest political force in the body. So when the last center-right to right-wing coalition fell, President Hindenberg named Hitler as the new Chancellor–the head of what was still, nominally, a coalition government.
And then he got to work, consolidating authority in his office, isolating non-Nazi figures in the government, exploiting the false-flag of the Reichstag fire, and then achieving a majority in the parliament in an election in the spring of 1933 in which unreliable sectors of the electorate were subject to all the varieties of voter suppression that Hitler’s men could come up with.
Today we learned via the New York Times of Trump’s men working along very similar lines to similar ends:
Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.
Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control.
Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.
That’s the overview. The details are worse:
“The president’s plan should be to fundamentally reorient the federal government in a way that hasn’t been done since F.D.R.’s New Deal,” said John McEntee, a former White House personnel chief who began Mr. Trump’s systematic attempt to sweep out officials deemed to be disloyal in 2020 and who is now involved in mapping out the new approach.
“Our current executive branch,” Mr. McEntee added, “was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies. There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It’s not enough to get the personnel right. What’s necessary is a complete system overhaul.”
…
“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” said Russell T. Vought, who ran the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump White House and now runs a policy organization, the Center for Renewing America.
The Fuhrerprinzep is strong in Mr. McEntee and Mr. Vought, but it’s vital to recognize that Trump is the face of this effort, but the campaign is one as old as Reagan’s mainstreaming of the John Birch Society’s politics. This is what a substantial and now dominant fraction of the GOP and its oligarchs have been seeking for a long time–really since class-traitor FDR conceived of government as something that could serve the broad public.
The justification for this would-be coup is that hallmark of conservative argument–a bogus constitutional argument that requires those who advance it to ignore both the plain language of the text and 250 years of experience:
The legal theory rejects the idea that the government is composed of three separate branches with overlapping powers to check and balance each other. Instead, the theory’s adherents argue that Article 2 of the Constitution gives the president complete control of the executive branch, so Congress cannot empower agency heads to make decisions or restrict the president’s ability to fire them. Reagan administration lawyers developed the theory as they sought to advance a deregulatory agenda.
An aside: to call this a “theory” is a bit of MSM normalization of extremism. It was an ad hoc argument by radical right wing figures to provide a fig leaf of cover for their otherwise untenable claims.
Trump is in it for himself–as the article notes, “Personal power has always been a driving force for Mr. Trump. He often gestures toward it in a more simplistic manner, such as in 2019, when he declared to a cheering crowd, “I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”
That’s pretty clear. We already know from the actions of GOP figures in the states and on the Supreme Court that actual free and fair elections are a threat to their rule. A President that achieves the unitary executive model of government can shape elections any way he wants; Trump made it clear that he thought he could do that in 2020! If he gets in again that’s the starting point.
All of which is to say that though the NY Times piece does not IMHO state the fascist threat clearly enough, it’s still a clear and pretty unflinching account of the clear and present danger that Trump himself and the movement that is attempting to use him pose to the United States.
2024 really is an existential election.
Open thread, as per usual.
Image: William Hogarth, An Election Entertainment, 1755
japa21
This is their preemptive attack on Trump, hoping to derail his campaign and get somebody else on the GOP ticket. Even though it is obvious every other Republican in the country would attempt to do the same thing,
Don’t expect them to follow up on this if Trump does win, and they definitely won’t talk about how all the other Republicans are in agreement with the gist of the policy.
Elizabelle
The FTF NYTimes has discontinued reader comments on a lot — too much — of its political reporting. They want to report the latest smear at Biden — he’s SO OLD — and there is no way to respond back, and, more to the point, to find out that most of the reader commenters feel the same way we do.
I still have to read the story but yes, any Republican, save maybe Mitt Romney, would try the same thing.
Baud
Thankfully, the Supreme Court will check Trump’s power with the major questions doctrine.
Kay
This is what they plan on the yachts – how to seize pockets of independence.
Good Lord. We dodged an absolute bullet in 2020. We wouldn’t have a country left.
MomSense
I think it’s important we face how challenging the next election will be. We are up against a dreadful media who, for the most part, refuse to cover the tangible things Biden Harris have delivered.
In 2016 we won the popular vote by almost 3 million and lost the EV by about 70,000 votes. In 2020 we won the popular vote by almost 8 million and the EV by only about 40,000.
This is going to be a fucking terrifying nail biter, squeaker of an election. And there is everything at stake which is a lot of pressure.
We have to start now. House parties to talk through the issues, disappointments and misinformation with neighbors and friends. Build community and then prepare our circles to become campaigners/ambassadors for the election.
Kay
I didn;t read the article so maybe it says this but both Ramaswamy and DeSantis have indicated they plan on getting rid of the professional, merit-based civil servants and replacing them with lockstep Right wing nuts who will take orders.
It isn’t just Trump. It’s the Republican Party. It’s the mainstream Right now.
Elizabelle
The famous passages from Marie Brenner’s 1990 Vanity Fair profile of the Trumps; Ivana had not yet been discarded. She sounds like his biggest PR agent, in the piece, which is poignant.
Vanity Fair, September 1990. After the Gold Rush.
Unfortunately for Donald and Ivana Trump, all that glittered wasn’t gold. But the reign of New York’s self-created imperial couple isn’t over yet. Donald’s Midas touch may be tarnished, but the banks are still throwing money at him, while Ivana is busy brokering a future of her own. MARIE BRENNER reports on how the Trumps are still going for it all
[Donald had been trying to pass his grandfather Trump off as “came here from Sweden.”]
Weird that it was Marty Davis who says he gave Trump the book. I would have guessed Roy Cohn.
I remember when this profile came out. People were shocked at the tidbit about the Hitler speeches, because no one takes Trump for a public intellectual. Or, sadly, anyone with a political future of making speeches.
waspuppet
This is how things are done in the countries Republicans openly, explicitly prefer to this one.
Bookmark this for when the New York Times and the Politifact crowd have palpitations when we point out that conservatism and fascism are the same thing. He just said it. Out loud.
Litlebritdifrnt
OT (no wait this is an open thread never mind) but go and watch The 6th Commandment NOW if you can, it is absolutely brilliant. I cannot say anymore but just watch it. (Its a crime drama not religious in case you were wondering)
Elizabelle
Aha. The FTF NY Times did allow reader comments. And the very top one, most liked, with 3,950 votes.
You buried the lede. Yep. It’s what the FTF NY Times does.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
Oh, Bravo to that commentor. So they DID portray it as just Trump. Not true.
bbleh
So how ’bout this for irony: the revanchist Supreme Court, wedged into place by Republican scheming spanning decades, fulfills its mission by striking down Roe, and perhaps by next year Lawrence and even Griswold, and in so doing enrages and energizes a huge cadre of historically apathetic young voters, leading to Biden’s re-election, a Dem trifecta, and at long last the legislative codification of privacy rights.
Ok maybe reaching a bit at the end there, but ain’t no tellin’ me it’s impossible.
Elizabelle
@Kay: The commenter was Dog, The Internet.
Which I love. Props to the famous New Yorker cartoon. (“On the internet, no one knows you’re a dog.”)
Dan B
@Kay: They want a corporate top down structure, otherwise known as Fascism.
Jackie
Someone on MSNBC (The Beat) mentioned TIFG would try jailing all his perceived enemies – including any jurors who voted to send him to prison – implying TIFG would threaten jurors and potentially taint any trial he might be found guilty. That thought chilled me – and once again reminded me he can’t win ‘24! He truly wants to destroy democracy and America.
Jim Appleton
Tom’s analogy to machinations and manipulation in the rise of Hitler is very useful. No surprise that a reality tv personality finds and successfully pulls the same levers.
Also bears remembering part of differing contexts is that our own wannabe brink of authoritarianism incubated at least since Goldwater.
Jackie
Stay tuned…
“Alabama Republicans, under orders of the U.S. Supreme Court to redraw congressional districts to give minority voters a greater voice in elections, rejected calls Monday to craft a second majority-Black district and proposed a map testing the judges’ directive,” the AP reports.”
“Republicans, long resistant to creating a second Democratic-leaning district, proposed a map that would increase the percentage of Black voters in the 2nd congressional district from about 30% to nearly 42.5%, wagering that would satisfy the court — or that the state will prevail in a second round of appeals.”
Mike in NC
I first read that as the “Center for Rightwing America” or maybe even “Center for Ruining America”. Both would work.
Jeffro
about time – thank you, Tom!
Jackie
@Jackie: I guess it was on Joy Reid.
Worth reading!
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-project-2025-dictatorship/
mrmoshpotato
Yes. The same way Dump merely nominated the Trump Trash Three for the Supreme Court.
John Revolta
Never mind Trump- this is exactly what DeSantis is doing right now in FL. He has the SCOFL (SCOFFLA?) and the Lege firmly in his pocket and can get literally any stupid laws he wants passed. And as he keeps reminding us, he’s just warming up.
Ohio Mom
When did this start, that every next election was the most important ever, this escalation of anxiety and dread?
I have vague memories of the time when I was disappointed if my candidate lost, and I was sure things would have been better going forward if my candidate had won, but there wasn’t this existential and *absolutely legitimate* fear surrounding whatever the next election was.
Because now, every next election is indeed the most important ever. Every time I think, Whew, that’s over, another worse one starts forming. It’s accelerating.
prostratedragon
@Elizabelle: Just listening to Rachel saying “Don’t forget the States.” Csse in point, the attempts by 19 Repub attorneys general moving to seize medical records across State lines to catch those seeking abortions in other States, soon to include gender care no doubt. Something to take into account.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay:
Neither would Ukraine.
Nettoyeur
@Jackie: Well, if the Alabama GOP can disregard the Supremes, so can the rest of us. So all the Blue States should put up all their favorite laws at once and dare the Supremes to enforce their will. And Joe Biden should promote the generals who are blocked by Tuberville by executive order, citing national security emergency.
CaseyL
@Ohio Mom:
In the Whitmer thread earlier today, I commented about how the American Left had affected Presidential elections since 1968 by sitting them out or voting third party, thus leading to a string of GOP Presidents who each took us further down the path to where we are now. Eolirin made a very interesting comment in the discussion:
I think Vietnam, and the protests that war ignited, had a lot to do with the current situation, because it mainstreamed a kind of radicalization wherein about 25-30% of potential voters were no longer amenable to institutionally driven change, but wanted the MOST change in the FASTEST way possible.
The problem being that the Left flounces out; the Right stays on the barricades.
frosty
@Ohio Mom: It started in 2004 after watching W for four years. HW in 92 and Dole in 96 wouldn’t have been too bad. I thought the same in 2000 but I was wrong.
Subsole
@Kay:
And the Tories.
And the BJP.
And…
And…
And…
The Gentry are desperate. This is their big push to strangle Democracy in its crib and clap us all back in chains.
Eolirin
@Subsole: This moment has all the feeling of an extinction burst. The big question is whether they’re going to take us all with them.
Subsole
@bbleh:
It better be possible, or this coming millennium is gonna suck something fierce.
Jackie
Students are pissed off at The Supremes and the GQP. Hopefully they vote their anger.
“The Supreme Court and Republicans are on the top of the list for college students and recent graduates to blame for the lack of student debt relief after the high court’s recent ruling striking down President Biden’s forgiveness plan, according to a new poll from Generation Lab.”
“The survey released Tuesday showed 47 percent of college students and recent graduates across the country blame the Supreme Court for unforgiven student loan debt, while Republicans came in second place at 38, 10 percent blamed the president and only 4 percent blamed Democrats.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4102178-scotus-republicans-to-blame-for-lack-of-debt-forgiveness-students-say-in-poll/
Eolirin
@Ohio Mom: I don’t think 2024 is worse than 2020, I think we’re even better positioned to win than we were then. But the stakes certainly aren’t any lower, and it’s hard to see how they get lower without the GOP ceasing to be.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Leave to the twatwaffles at the NYT to fuck up history.
NO: Hindenburg made Hitler chancellor after Franz von Papen, the previous chancellor tried to make himself dictator and failed, and then lobbied Hindenburg that Hitler had the support to go kill all the horrible Commies. So,… that would make Biden to be von Papen is this “I was life long Democrat until the left betrayed me and I have to vote for Trump a third time” NYT pundit’s eyes? God damn it.
Jackie
John Lewis died 6 years ago today.
More than ever we need to lead by his example to make good trouble.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Democracy is a dying giant. A sick, sick dying, decaying political concept, writhing in its final pain.
I don’t mean the United States is finished as a world power. The United States is the most powerful,the richest, the most advanced country in the world, light-years ahead of any other country. And I don’t mean the Chinese are going to take over the world. The Chinese are deader than we are.
What’s finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It’s the individual that’s finished. This is a nation of three hundred odd million computerized, deodorized, whiter-than-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings and as replaceable as streaming services.
Subsole
@Eolirin:
I take solace in the forces arrayed against us. They have all the money, the megaphones, the cops, the courts, the apathy of the public, a vast and horrible web of shadowy cabals, literal Nazis, and an actual no-fooling Axis of Evil, all abetted and encouraged by an UNFORGIVABLY supine media…
…and they are still heaving with the effort to not quite keep our heads underwater.
They are breaking their backs, and still cannot quite keep us down.
All I can say is they better pray to Lillith and Baphomet if we ever get our feet under us – because God and Christ will have officially given them over.
Subsole
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Really? Because measured against our history, I would say we are actually a lot closer to that ideal, that dedication to the individual who flourishes in freedom, than we have ever been.
Subterranean bar, perhaps, but hey…keep taking inches until you get the mile.
Ohio Mom
@CaseyL: Thanks, I missed that thread. I know a handful of those revolutionaries who sit out elections; the middle-aged ones have come around, the young ones are still well, young.
@frosty: Oh yeah, Bush in 2000. That was the last time I thought, Oh well, my guy didn’t win but I lived through his dad, we could survive four years of another Bush.
That lasted until 9/11 and invading Afghanistan. I thought it was going to be one of those Grenada or Iraq One wars, where we went in, threw our weight around and skeddaled out. Nope, and it just got worse and worse.
Brachiator
I continue to be amazed that someone as unstable, erratic and unreliable as Trump can still attract allies. Plus he doesn’t pay well. But he has consistently ranted about his personal and political enemies, and the new indictments see him declaring that attacks on him are attacks on his base, and that he is the one and only potential savior of America.
It is sickening. And I keep telling myself that I can’t believe that it is succeeding. The GOP refuses to disavow Trump, and the political media insists on treating him like a conventional presidential contender.
Ohio Mom
@Brachiator: That was another one of my miscalculations. I watched Trump stalk Hillary at that debate and thought, There’s no way he could get elected, in the meantime I’m going to enjoy this slice of Theater of the Absurd because I’ll never see anything like this again.
BruceJ
@Kay: this requires getting rid of a number of federal laws like the civil service act which dates from the 19th century so is sacrosanct for Witchfinder Alito…
BruceJ
@Brachiator:
Not allies. Opportunists and buccaneers out to loot the country.
Subsole
@Ohio Mom:
I held on to my indifference until Iraq. After that, voting against the GOP wasn’t a choice. It was a civic duty. It was, funnily enough, the patriotic thing to do.
I have not breathed a sigh of relief quite like the one I breathed walking into work in 2012 and hearing Obama had won. I felt in my bones that we as a nation would maybe survive Romney, but we wouldn’t survive the GOP agenda.
If we put Trump down again, maybe we can breathe a sigh of relief.
At least legislatively speaking.
Practically speaking, if the boneheads lose again I expect they are going to start actually pipe-bombing pride displays at Target.
rekoob
@Jackie: With respect, John Lewis died 3 years ago (17 July 2020). I remember it distinctly, since it was my brother’s birthday and my mother was dealing with pancreatic cancer and died about 5 weeks later at the end of August 2020. I think about him and his righteousness and how 16th Street has been transformed, thanks in part to his example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter_Plaza
slightly_peeved
@Subsole:
The idea that America is no longer democratic and giving every citizen opportunity invites the same question asked of Republicans wanting to Make America Great Again – ‘when, exactly, did this America exist?’
Looking from the outside in, it seems the Republicans are now attempting by main force what they always wanted to do, or were doing, by stealth. That doesn’t make the situation any less precarious now, or the stakes any less high. But George W Bush asked for more votes in Florida, much as Trump did in Georgia. It’s just W asked the right people.
Brachiator
@BruceJ:
RE: I continue to be amazed that someone as unstable, erratic and unreliable as Trump can still attract allies.
I disagree with you here. Some presume that people who work for Trump are cynical opportunists. But consider how many people stayed by his side until January 6. Or who eagerly worked for him until they received a subpoena or got indicted. The risk to reward ratio is not in their favor.
Of course, there are those who are happy to support him at a distance. Still, the odds are not in their favor, and apart from his family, the number of close allies who have benefitted from being a Trump flunky appears to be a low number.
Jackie
@rekoob: Oh, you’re right! I have no clue as to why my math = 6 years!
Gretchen
I can’t find it now but saw that new voter registrations in the most populous Kansas county, suburban Kansas City, are running over 70% Democrat. In Kansas.
patrick II
@Baud:
I am not sure a different Supreme Court would make a difference.
frosty
@Ohio Mom: The reason I peg 2004 as the first critical election is that it was the first one when I volunteered to canvass and knock on doors. I’m desperately waiting for a year when I (as an introvert) can stop.
Instead I’m learning Spanish.
snoey
@BruceJ: You don’t have to violate civil service laws, you just relocate the office. Already tested when they moved the BLM headquarters to Grand Junction. Everybody in the Justice Dept. civil rights office still has a job, but it’s in Minot.
Matt McIrvin
@slightly_peeved:
It existed for 48 years, from 1965 to 2013. The US became a true democracy with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and stopped being one with Shelby County v. Holder.
jimmiraybob
@Kay:
This is it. It is a white Christian nationalist fascist party. They say it out loud every day. It is the Party. It is the agenda.
jimmiraybob
@Subsole:
Not long ago, I believe at Right Wing Watch, there was a video of a Christian Preacher praising the jihadist bombers for their commitment to their faith. Seeds are being planted.