{"id":10763,"date":"2017-10-18T11:50:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T15:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=10763"},"modified":"2024-09-11T20:36:17","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T00:36:17","slug":"usa-today-trump-dictator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Today: Trump as Dictator?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"speakable-p-1 p-text\">\n<h2>USA Today, October 18, 2017<\/h2>\n<h1 class=\"asset-headline speakable-headline\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2017\/10\/18\/we-wouldnt-freaking-out-dictator-trump-if-we-saw-our-past-tyrants-what-they-were-james-bovard-column\/587500001\/\">Donald Trump didn&#8217;t create danger of presidential dictatorship, he inherited it<\/a><\/h1>\n<p>by James Bovard<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-1 p-text\">Americans nowadays have a bad attitude towards presidents. Many people are denouncing Donald Trump as a dictator. But <strong>the real problem in this nation is the dictatorial illiteracy that has allowed modern presidents to commandeer far too much power.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-2 p-text\">Trump\u2019s saber-rattling, rude outbursts\u00a0and rancorous tweets have spooked folks far and wide. But most Americans are not sufficiently informed on recent history to recognize where Trump poses dire threats beyond the usual Washington machinations. Most citizens are unaware that both political parties have perennially championed bureaucratic aggrandizement over civil liberties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\"><strong>Many of the experts who have condemned Trump are also clueless about how far federal control has stretched. Y<\/strong>ale professor Samuel Moyn and Oxford professor David Priestland recently declared in a New York Times op-ed that \u201cthere is no real evidence that Mr. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/08\/11\/opinion\/sunday\/trump-hysteria-democracy-tyranny.html?mcubz=3\">Trump wants to seize power<\/a> unconstitutionally, and there is no reason to think he could succeed.\u201d But violating the Constitution is practically the job description for modern presidents. It was George W. Bush\u2019s White House, not Trump, which asserted a \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/ws\/?pid=66011\">commander-in-chief override<\/a>\u201d that entitled presidents to <a href=\"http:\/\/lawreview.usc.edu\/issues\/past\/view\/?id=1000383\">ignore the law<\/a> and the Bill of Rights. Congress utterly failed to thwart that outrageous claim.<\/p>\n<p>Presidents have amassed vast authority because they are judged on their rhetoric and purported goals, not on their constitutional fidelity. Former president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/Commentary\/Opinion\/2011\/0517\/Assassination-nation-Are-there-any-limits-on-President-Obama-s-license-to-kill\">Obama\u2019s drone assassinations<\/a> of American citizens were non-issues because observers knew Obama \u201cmeant well.\u201d When <a href=\"http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/dc\/clinton-to-congress-obama-would-ignore-your-war-resolutions\">Obama decided to bomb Libya<\/a> in 2011, his appointees made it clear that he would ignore the War Powers Act of 1973, enacted to prevent presidents from launching wars on their whim. When a federal judge ruled in May 2016 that the Obama administration\u2019s consumer subsidies under the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/nation\/la-na-obamacare-court-ruling-20160512-snap-story.html\">Affordable Care Act violated the Constitution<\/a>, the decision was almost completely ignored \u2014\u00a0perhaps because Obama\u2019s illegalities were progressive. When President Trump ended the subsidies, he was denounced for trampling Congressional prerogatives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\"><strong>Much of the response to Trump is akin to a novice cable weather reporter who treats each morning\u2019s sunrise as a shocking development. <\/strong>Sen. John McCain,\u00a0R-Ariz.,\u00a0responded to Trump\u2019s media bashing by warning, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/the-fix\/wp\/2017\/02\/18\/thats-how-dictators-get-started-mccain-criticizes-trump-for-calling-media-the-enemy\/?utm_term=.579edbf03290\">That&#8217;s how dictators get started<\/a>.\u201d By this standard, practically <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/the-fix\/wp\/2017\/02\/17\/trumps-war-with-the-media-isnt-new-thomas-jefferson-railed-about-newspaper-lies-too\/?utm_term=.eb0446717de1\">every president since Thomas Jefferson<\/a> has been a dictator in the making.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\"><strong>Trump is being denounced as a dictator for rescinding Obama\u2019s executive decree<\/strong>s. Nothing frightens some Trump opponents more than his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio denounced that decision as \u201c <a href=\"http:\/\/www1.nyc.gov\/office-of-the-mayor\/news\/381-17\/statement-mayor-de-blasio-us-withdrawal-paris-climate-agreement\">immoral assault<\/a> on the public health, safety and security of everyone on this planet.&#8221; But former president Obama chose not to submit that agreement for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2016\/aug\/29\/obama-will-bypass-senate-ratify-paris-climate-acco\/\">ratification to the Senate<\/a>. As the New York Times noted, Obama relied on \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/08\/14\/us\/politics\/obama-era-legacy-regulation.html?mcubz=0&amp;_r=0\">bureaucratic bulldozing<\/a> rather than legislative transparency,\u201d issuing nearly 50% more \u201cmajor regulations\u201d than the George W. Bush administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\"><strong>Many Trump opponents are not opposed to dictators per se \u2014\u00a0they simply want different dictates.<\/strong> Trump was widely denounced because his Justice Department refuses to compel every public school in the nation to make special <a href=\"https:\/\/edsource.org\/2017\/california-legislators-reassure-transgender-students-of-protections-denounce-trump\/577685\">bathroom and locker room accommodations<\/a> for self-proclaimed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/02\/22\/politics\/doj-withdraws-federal-protections-on-transgender-bathrooms-in-schools\/index.html\">transgender kids<\/a>. But the Constitution did not grant the federal government jurisdiction over gender identity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\"><strong>The media bears much of the blame for Americans\u2019 dictatorial illiteracy<\/strong>. None of Trump\u2019s actions yet rival the odiousness of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/other\/military-commissions-act-2006\">Military Commissions Act<\/a> of 2006, which retroactively legalized torture and gutted habeas corpus. There was little uproar at the time thanks to blase headlines such as this Washington Post gem: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2006\/09\/28\/AR2006092801763.html\">Many Rights in U.S. Legal System Absent in New Bill<\/a>.\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/articles\/sins-of-commission\/\">Whitewashing torture<\/a> was of no more significance than Congress creating a new wool subsidy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">P<strong>eople who are clueless about past oppression are unlikely to effectively resist new abuses.<\/strong> If people never perceived or complained about the power grabs of the prior three presidents, they have scant standing to bewail Trump. This is especially true of top officials in prior administrations who set perilous precedents that Trump could exploit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Trump, like recent presidents commanding armies of enforcement agents with sweeping prerogatives, is a threat to our rights and liberties. His recent comments endorsing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/trump-to-cops-as-they-arrest-suspects-please-dont-be-too-nice\/article\/2630036\">police roughing up arrestees<\/a> were appalling by any standard. Luckily, Trump\u2019s blather cannot negate local, state\u00a0and federal laws against such abuses. On the other hand, Attorney General Jeff Sessions\u2019 campaign to revive the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2017\/05\/sessions-sentencing-memo\/526029\/\">drug war<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2017\/07\/19\/jeff-sessions-drug-war-seizures-240706\">asset forfeiture<\/a> poses a far more direct peril.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\"><strong>The sheer amount of punitive power possessed by the federal government is one of the best gauges of potential tyranny.<\/strong> Do we really need\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/roomfordebate\/2010\/09\/30\/cyberbullying-and-a-students-suicide\/new-criminal-laws-arent-the-answer-to-bullying\">4,000 federal criminal laws<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritage.org\/report\/revisiting-the-explosive-growth-federal-crimes\">300,000 regulations<\/a> with criminal penalties to punish wayward citizens? As Benjamin Constant wrote in 1815, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=wW9vx_fjZ3IC&amp;pg=PA176&amp;lpg=PA176&amp;dq=BENJAMIN+CONSTANT+degree+of+force,+not+its+holders,+which+#v=onepage&amp;q=BENJAMIN%20CONSTANT%20degree%20of%20force%2C%20not%20its%20holders%2C%20which&amp;f=false\">It is the degree of force<\/a>, not its holders, which must be denounced &#8230;\u00a0There are weights too heavy for the hand of man.\u201d Unfortunately, many Trump opponents will never make an adverse inference against arbitrary power because they seek to put government itself back on a pedestal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Trump won the election last year in part because he promised to \u201cmake America great again.\u201d B<strong>ut America will not be great again until people expect and tolerate far less from presidents. And only illiterates believe that toppling Trump is the only \u201cdictator insurance\u201d that America needs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\"><em>James Bovard,\u00a0author of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Public-Policy-Hooligan-Rollicking-Washington-ebook\/dp\/B00AKZH97W\">Public Policy Hooligan<\/a>,\u00a0is\u00a0a member of USA TODAY\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/reporters\/boc.html\">Board of Contributors<\/a>. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JimBovard\">@JimBovard<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USA Today, October 18, 2017 Donald Trump didn&#8217;t create danger of presidential dictatorship, he inherited it by James Bovard Americans nowadays have a bad attitude towards presidents. Many people are denouncing Donald Trump as a dictator. But the real problem in this nation is the dictatorial illiteracy that has allowed modern presidents to commandeer far [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1166,1167,940,113,238,195,983,401,520,38,12,708],"class_list":["post-10763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-accord","tag-criminalization","tag-dictator","tag-drug-war","tag-forfeiture","tag-george-bush","tag-jeff-sessions","tag-libya","tag-military-commissions-act","tag-obama","tag-torture","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>USA Today: Trump as Dictator? - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"USA Today: Trump as Dictator? - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"USA Today, October 18, 2017 Donald Trump didn&#8217;t create danger of presidential dictatorship, he inherited it by James Bovard Americans nowadays have a bad attitude towards presidents. 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But the real problem in this nation is the dictatorial illiteracy that has allowed modern presidents to commandeer far [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2017-10-18T15:50:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-12T00:36:17+00:00","author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"USA Today: Trump as Dictator?","datePublished":"2017-10-18T15:50:17+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-12T00:36:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/"},"wordCount":901,"commentCount":2,"keywords":["climate accord","criminalization","dictator","drug war","forfeiture","george bush","Jeff Sessions","libya","military commissions act","Obama","Torture","Trump"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/","name":"USA Today: Trump as Dictator? - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-10-18T15:50:17+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-12T00:36:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/18\/usa-today-trump-dictator\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"USA Today: Trump as Dictator?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10763"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20494,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10763\/revisions\/20494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}