The Calm Before the Storm
January 10, 2025
On the surface, the United States looks like a normal country. But this is an illusion. Donald Trump will return to power in 10 days. As his advisor Steve Bannon has promised, Trump will unleash “shock and awe” on Day 1. In this instance, Bannon’s penchant for warlike metaphors is appropriate. Trump will launch an all-out assault on democratic norms and civil rights.
Meanwhile, a debate has raged on the op-ed pages of the New York Times, as Democratic politicians and commentators present competing visions of how their party should respond to Trump 2.0.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, a moderate Democrat who won back the Long Island seat that George Santos held, argues that his party should work with Republicans as much as possible to regain credibility with voters. NYT columnist Jamelle Bouie sees little room for compromise; the Democrats must focus on blocking Trump’s agenda. Jim Carville thinks that Democrats should promote laws that address voters’ pocketbook concerns.
Suozzi and Carville make persuasive arguments, but Bouie has the clearest view of the situation, in my opinion. Democrats should channel their inner Mitch McConnell. After all, it takes two to compromise, and Trump shows absolutely no inclination to find common ground with the opposition. The President-elect continues to demonize Democrats and to call for massive purges of government officials.
Donald Trump/Getty Images
Purging “Violent Scum”
Trump could have adopted a more conciliatory tone after he was elected to a second term.
Instead, Trump has escalated his rhetoric against Democrats and the “deep state” bureaucrats who, in his paranoid view of the world, are out to get him. In a January 3 post on X, Trump bashed the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Democratic state and local prosecutors as “incompetent and corrupt” because they have been “unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government and our Nation itself”.
“Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our Country”, Trump said. Then the President-elect added a chilling threat: “The CIA must get involved, NOW, before it is too late”.
https://x.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1875050002046726519?s=43
Not exactly “with malice toward none, with charity for all”.
Trump is painting a picture of a country that does not exist. And when the President-elect refers to “scum”, he is using one of the Nazis’ preferred epithets for their enemies. Does the “scum” include former and current members of Congress, too? (Think: Liz Cheney.)
Americans have not heard major political figures talk this way since Senator Joe McCarthy triggered the “red scare” of the 1950s, warning that “Communists” had infiltrated the government. That flagrant abuse of power caused many left-leaning but democratic Americans to lose their jobs in government and business, mostly on very flimsy charges.
Siccing the CIA on “Enemies”
Trump is venturing into very dangerous territory when he calls for the Central Intelligence Agency to help purge his enemies. Apparently, Trump wants the CIA to investigate the FBI and the state and local Democratic prosecutors who filed lawsuits against him. To use one of his favorite terms, Trump wants to conduct a witch hunt.
Trump seems driven purely by a desire for revenge against civil servants who were simply doing their duty. After all, the FBI and prosecutors had ample reasons to investigate Trump and bring legal actions against him. If Trump had not been re-elected, the odds were very high that he would serve time in prison, for instigating the insurrection on January 6…or refusing to return classified government documents…or pressuring the Georgia Secretary of State to falsify election results.
Changing the CIA’s Mission
Trump is proposing a drastic change in the CIA’s operations. From its inception, the CIA has been forbidden to conduct surveillance operations in the US. For decades there has been a clear division of responsibility: the FBI handles intelligence-gathering and law enforcement inside the US, and the CIA conducts its operations outside the country.
This makes sense. Unlike the FBI, CIA agents have often conducted covert operations with the goal of killing targets. Furthermore, the CIA, as a clandestine agency, operates with greater secrecy than the FBI. This is necessary, given the CIA’s mission, but it provides yet another reason why the agency should not operate domestically. There is less government oversight and more potential for abuse.
Unfortunately, the CIA has ignored the restrictions in its charter and spied on Americans inside the US, notably during the Nixon Administration. The CIA has abused its power in other ways in the past, which has led to numerous Congressional investigations.
Congress should not tolerate any move by Trump to let this genie out of the bottle again.
The Paranoid View in American Politics
Far-right politicians have often conjured up apocalyptic visions of supposed threats to our country to justify attacking their opponents. This is, unfortunately, a long-established pattern in American history. However, Trump has taken this approach to new levels of hysteria…which he will use to justify harsh repression of his opponents.
In the last lines of his post on X, Trump thundered:
“The USA is breaking down—A violent erosion of Safety, National Security and Democracy is taking place all over our Nation. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it.”
None of this is true. Crime rates have fallen, after spiking during the Covid epidemic. The US’ national security has not eroded—although it may, if Trump sells out Ukraine and seizes the Panama Canal and Greenland. Our elections are conducted fairly and free of fraud. The economy is in very good shape, with solid growth and low unemployment. The US is not breaking down, except in Trump’s fantasy world.
A Useful Emergency
Like all would-be tyrants, Trump wants to create the illusion of an emergency, a catastrophic situation that he “alone” can fix. Trump is seeking an excuse to act as a strongman and smash through the usual Constitutional constraints on a President.
This is the reality that Democrats in Congress will soon face. They must have no illusions on that score. If Democrats find some areas of compromise with the Republicans in Congress, fine. But with Trump in charge, Democrats should not count on that. Their role is to serve as the implacable opposition.
The Wall Street Democrat