{"id":11824,"date":"2018-03-15T09:31:29","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T13:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=11824"},"modified":"2024-09-11T16:53:51","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T20:53:51","slug":"fff-donald-trumps-authoritarian-opponents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/15\/fff-donald-trumps-authoritarian-opponents\/","title":{"rendered":"FFF: Donald Trump&#8217;s Authoritarian Opponents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fff.org\/explore-freedom\/article\/donald-trumps-authoritarian-opponents\/\">DONALD TRUMP&#8217;S AUTHORITARIAN OPPONENTS<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-6071 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ffflogo.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"97\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>by James Bovard<\/p>\n<p>President Trump has said and done many things to appall the friends of freedom. From Trump\u2019s pro-torture comments to his praise of police brutality to his cruise-missile barrage against Syria to his threat to annihilate North Korea, there are ample signs that he scorns a freedom-and-peace posture.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, many of Trump\u2019s opponents are even more statist than the president. Marking the anniversary of Donald Trump\u2019s election, the <i>Washington Post Magazine<\/i> presented \u201c38 ideas for repairing our badly broken civic life.\u201d <i>Post Magazine<\/i> editor Richard Just explained that \u201call of us \u2026 should be able to agree that some future-pondering about the state of our democracy is in order.\u201d Many \u2014 if not most \u2014 of the <i>Post<\/i>\u2019s recommendations from experts, artists, and writers were insipid or authoritarian. Some of the proposals provided chilling examples of liberal\/leftist power-lust in the Trump era.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Author Kristin Henderson proposed conscripting all young people for three years in military or government civilian work, such as AmeriCorps, the legendary make-work boondoggle begotten by the Clinton administration. Forcing adults to \u201cspend time in compulsory service to our country\u201d would be the same as going back to \u201ckindergarten and relearn how to cooperate and share our toys.\u201d But the Founding Fathers never intended to treat personal freedom as a political toy. Henderson asserted, \u201cA democracy requires we the people to work together to solve our problems\u2026. As our democratic skills improve, we can thank ourselves for our service.\u201d If it is compulsory, it is servitude, not service. The most important lesson young people would learn is that politicians have the right to capriciously destroy their freedom and waste a swath of their lives in which they could have developed their minds and talents to make themselves self-sufficient citizens.<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li>The best fix for American democracy is to \u201coutlaw private education\u201d to banish inequity, according to novelist Ann Patchett. In the name of equality, parents must be prohibited any choice or effective role in their children\u2019s schooling. Patchett also rhapsodized about confiscating Ivy League endowments to redistribute to state schools. Her scheme would result in \u201cthe best teachers and administrators available to raise the standards in classrooms.\u201d Presumably teachers would lose their freedom (as parents and children did) as benevolent administrators dictated who would be sent to unsafe schools. Patchett, who has no children, gushed, \u201cMy dream for this country is opportunity and equality.\u201d Texans in 1836 were inspired by the motto \u201cRemember the Alamo!\u201d Patchett would do well to \u201cRemember Boston!\u201d \u2014 a city whose families and schools were ravaged by an iron-fisted busing scheme imposed by a federal judge who, like her, had no skin in the game.<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li>Domingo Martinez, a Texas novelist, portrays \u201cgun addiction\u201d as a national \u201cdemon\u201d and advocates forcing gun owners to buy insurance (presumably at prohibitive rates) to deter firearm ownership. If gun-insurance rates were based on homicide rates (the same way that auto insurance rates are based in part on local collision data) \u2014 residents of East St. Louis, Illinois, might be charged 70 times higher rates than New Hampshire residents. In Maryland, firearm-insurance rates could be more than five times higher in Baltimore than in Allegheny County in the western part of the state, because of the vast difference in homicide rates. Besides, what right do politicians have to tax gun ownership when the government in so many areas dismally fails to protect private citizens from violent predators?<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li>Harvard professor Dani Rodrik proposes to boost democracy by vastly expanding government economic intervention: \u201cSociety, through its agent \u2014 the government \u2014 would end up as co-owner of the new generation of technologies and machines.\u201d However, any D.C.-area resident who regularly uses the Washington subway recognizes government\u2019s ability to blight any technology it touches. The crony-capitalism debacles of recent years (such as the Obama administration\u2019s Solyndra scandal) should certainly have stifled visionary thinking about the benefits of government-business partnerships. Rodrik, a Turkish economist, fails to offer any protection against the vast increase of political power he proposes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>More government = more wonderfulness<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Similarly, Julius Krein, editor of <i>American Affairs,<\/i> calls for reviving Cold War government-business relations because \u201cthe economy was healthier when the national government exercised greater direction over it.\u201d Krein said that \u201cour frayed social fabric is an inevitable consequence\u201d because aspects of American life have been \u201cdepoliticized.\u201d He proclaimed, \u201cThe state needs to take a larger role in many areas.\u201d But the areas of the economy currently most subjected to federal edicts \u2014 such as agriculture \u2014 are among the most wasteful or irrational. Americans rejected Hillary Clinton\u2019s calls for more government takeovers in 2016 because federal intervention is widely equated with corruption and folly.<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li>Carl Gershman, the president-for-life of the federal National Endowment for Democracy, calls for cultivating Americans\u2019 \u201csense of gratitude\u201d by forging \u201cmore links between Americans and people in other countries who are fighting for the basic freedoms that we enjoy.\u201d So the \u201clinks\u201d from deploying American troops in 172 nations are not sufficient? It is considered bad taste in Washington to recognize foreigners\u2019 gratitude when the United States does not meddle in their nations or elections. The National Endowment of Democracy and its political front groups routinely intervene in foreign nations\u2019 political life, regardless of U.S. laws restricting such antics.<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li>\u201cCelebrate government\u201d is the solution proffered by University of California law professor Joan Williams. She urged Americans to use the hashtag #GovernmentStillWorksForUs and make videos thanking government for the water from their faucets and the safe milk for their breakfast cereal. Anything government does should be considered manna from heaven, regardless of the $3 trillion in taxes the feds commandeer from citizens each year. Williams suggests that people \u201cupload a picture or just tweet about how government works for you\u2026. By celebrating all that it does, you will have taken the first step toward reminding Americans that the government is us.\u201d But this is political infantilism: the notion that \u201cgovernment is us\u201d is a ploy to shift the guilt for every federal crime onto every victim of the government. The \u201cgovernment is us\u201d dogma presumes that the citizen\u2019s unspoken wishes animate each restriction inflicted upon him. However, drivers who exceed speed limits are not \u201cself-ticketed,\u201d and travelers who get accosted by Transportation Security Administration agents at airports are not molesting themselves.<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li>Lanhee Chen, a Stanford University research fellow, called for establishing a \u201cNational Unity Week\u201d \u2014 \u201can opportunity for all Americans \u2014 public officials, famous figures and everyday citizens \u2014 to come together.\u201d To solidify national unity, Congress should commit \u201cto passing (and the president to signing) at least two pieces of legislation proposed by one of our nation\u2019s many bipartisan boards and commissions.\u201d So when politicians ratify recommendations from political appointees it will magically restore faith in politics? This proposal is indicative of how much of the academic and media establishment still believe that a few tweaks will restore them to their rightful place in the Pantheon.<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li>Farah Pandith, a Council of Foreign Relations fellow, proposes a vast public-private partnership for a \u201c\u2018National Civic Plan\u2019 designed with incentives to deepen honest and open relationships across communities and the nation as a whole.\u201d This plan would include \u201cspecially trained local teams\u201d to \u201cproduce practical skill development in the areas of listening, empathy and compassion; and promote an ethos of civility and good works.\u201d According to Pandith\u2019s vision, \u201cEngagement with the duties and blessings of citizenship would once again become a tangible part of our everyday lives, as was the case in the days of our Founding Fathers.\u201d This project would benefit almost no one aside from the contractors and sappy editorial writers. It tacitly presumes that contemporary democracy\u2019s problems stem from a lack of citizens\u2019 faith, rather than a profusion of government deceits and endless wars dishonestly commenced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Making things worse<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Some of these \u201cdemocracy fixes\u201d would destroy the tattered remnants of federal legitimacy. Sending in federal marshals or the National Guard to shut down private schools would be far more explosive than Eisenhower\u2019s sending in the 101st Airborne to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Sending federal agents door to door to seize uninsured firearms would produce endless havoc and bloodshed. Forcing all young people to forfeit several years of their lives to AmeriCorps or the military would spur mass bitterness and pervasive resistance. Giving politicians and bureaucrats new pretexts to confiscate and redistribute paychecks would severely discourage \u201clabor force participation\u201d \u2014 i.e., working for a living.<\/p>\n<p>Many Trump opponents are the same type of zealots who, in the late 1700s, proudly labeled themselves \u201cFriends of Government.\u201d In their eyes, Trump\u2019s greatest sin is tarnishing the majesty of the presidency and the federal government. Trump is exposing the sham of a Leviathan Democracy which pretends that presidents will be philosopher kings \u2014 instead of merely talented vote catchers. However, Trump cannot be blamed for destroying Americans\u2019 trust in Washington. That was already achieved by presidents such as George W. Bush and Barack Obama, whom the media \u2014 such as the <i>Washington Post<\/i> editorial board \u2014 occasionally exalted to the skies.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, many people, happy to believe the worst about Trump, will heave all their skepticism overboard when the next political savior is anointed. Such naivete is being encouraged at the highest levels of Democratic Party. For instance, in her recent book, <i>What Happened?,<\/i> Hillary Clinton claimed that, according to George Orwell\u2019s <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four,<\/i> the goal of abusive regimes \u201cis to make you question logic and reason and to sow mistrust towards exactly the people we need to rely on: our leaders, the press, experts who seek to guide public policy based on evidence, ourselves.\u201d In other words, the most famous anti-totalitarian novel in history supposedly teaches people to defer to their masters. The fact that this bizarre passage was written, edited, proofread, and published exemplifies the blind power-lust of Clinton and her advisors.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s critics are correct that the president has too much arbitrary power. As French political philosopher Benjamin Constant wrote in 1815, \u201cIt is in fact the degree of force, not its holders, which must be denounced\u2026. There are weights too heavy for the hand of man.\u201d The sheer amount of punitive power possessed by the federal government is one of the best gauges of potential tyranny. We should strive to permanently reduce the power of the presidency to destroy liberty regardless of who is tweeting from the Oval Office.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally published in the the February 2018 edition of<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fff.org\/explore-freedom\/journal\/\">Future of Freedom<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/pixabay.com\">Pixabay<\/a> for the royalty-free fist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; DONALD TRUMP&#8217;S AUTHORITARIAN OPPONENTS by James Bovard President Trump has said and done many things to appall the friends of freedom. From Trump\u2019s pro-torture comments to his praise of police brutality to his cruise-missile barrage against Syria to his threat to annihilate North Korea, there are ample signs that he scorns a freedom-and-peace posture. [&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":[],"class_list":["post-11824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FFF: Donald Trump&#039;s Authoritarian Opponents - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Trump has said &amp; done plenty of appalling things but many of his opponents are even more authoritarian - favoring conscription, censorship, gun bans, padlocking all private schools, &amp; a vast increase in federal meddling in private lives\" \/>\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\/2018\/03\/15\/fff-donald-trumps-authoritarian-opponents\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FFF: Donald Trump&#039;s Authoritarian Opponents - 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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. 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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. 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