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The Danger of a Constitutional Crisis
The Republican Party has been replaced by a personality cult that runs right over history, economics, and political science. It is a first principle of winning democratic elections that you consolidate your base and immediately reach out to expand it. Mr. Trump is in the second half of his first term and he has governed in the interest of his base, threatened his political opponents with jail, and urged his supporters to believe that any election he does not win will be illegitimate. He has accused Robert Mueller of an attempted coup d’état. He was not attempting an analogy. He meant an illegitimate movement that must be opposed violently if necessary. The president of the United States is priming his supporters for civil war.
Mr. Trump’s relation to history is ignorance or disregard — which one does not matter. Political debate, like legal analysis, always requires historical context. We all agree that WWII happened and most of us agree that this country was changed forever by the GI Bill and Rosie the Riveter. We all agree the Civil War happened and most of us agree that the great civil rights movement that touched the lives of we who are getting old now was unfinished business from Reconstruction. Blacks may understand the Great Migration better than whites who may understand the Dust Bowl better than blacks but most Americans, if shown the numbers, could quickly understand…
