Tom Nichols: Why Democracy Is Not Over

Source:The Atlantic Magazine editor Tom Nichols.

"Americans who care about democracy have every right to feel appalled and frightened. But then they have work to do. 

An aspiring fascist is the president-elect, again, of the United States. This is our political reality: Donald Trump is going to bring a claque of opportunists and kooks (led by the vice president–elect, a person who once compared Trump to Hitler) into government this winter, and even if senescence overtakes the president-elect, Trump’s minions will continue his assault on democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution.

The urge to cast blame will be overwhelming, because there is so much of it to go around. When the history of this dark moment is written, those responsible will include not only Trump voters but also easily gulled Americans who didn’t vote or who voted for independent or third-party candidates because of their own selfish peeves." 

From The Atlantic

As my colleague Fred Schneider wrote about last December on a similar issue: 

"Just to be completely honest and accurate: (not that I'm ever not completely honest and accurate) we don't know what a 2nd Donald Trump presidency would look like. And besides that, he would have to get reelected first. And he might have to do that as a bankrupt and convicted felon, whose currently confined in prison, waiting on his sentence, after being remanded by Judge Tanya Chutkan. You can look at the polls all you want, but Donald Tump has a long, uphill, road to climb, before he even gets reelected again. 

Having said all of that, I don't want to wait and find out what a 2nd Donald Trump presidency could look like. I don't think America can afford to take chance on him, because of what Jeffrey Goldberg and others have said. Which is why the U.S. Government, as well as American voters who love not just love America, but want to preserve and defend our liberal democracy, rule of law, and checks and balances, need to legally do whatever we can, to prevent Donald Trump from getting anywhere near The White House ever again." 

From The New Democrat

Tom Nichols literally wrote his article about what the next Trump presidency could look like, literally right after Election Night. And it appeared in the edition of The Atlantic that Wednesday. So maybe he wrote it on Election Night, thinking Donald Trump was going to win anyway. 

Mr. Nichols would go on to say (and I'm paraphrasing) that Donald Trump and his MAGA crew are simply too old and stupid to try to figure out how to try to transform the American, Federal, form of government, with all of it's checks and balances, (like any great liberal democracy) into a dictatorship. 

And if you think the incoming Republican Congress is simply going to let President Trump get his way on everything, just look at the Senate Republicans right now, where Matt Gaetz has already dropped out, and Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Bob Kennedy, and now Kash Patel are probably all under 50 votes right now. And House Republicans simply aren't going to have the votes to give President Trump his way on everything anyway. They'll start off the 119th Congress with just 217-435 seats. 

As my father told me, who worked for the Public Health Service at the Food and Drug Administration for 29 years, before going into the private sector, the U.S. Government is simply too big, even with all the executive orders that President Trump could sign, to transform it into a dictatorship overnight. They would need more than just the Vice President, the Congress, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security, behind this Project 2025. They would need most, if not all the Federal agencies that are under these cabinet heads as well, a long with the workforce, which is around 10 million Federal employees. 

As Fred Said: 

"Having said all of that, I don't want to wait and find out what a 2nd Donald Trump presidency could look like. I don't think America can afford to take chance on him, because of what Jeffrey Goldberg and others have said. Which is why the U.S. Government, as well as American voters who love not just love America, but want to preserve and defend our liberal democracy, rule of law, and checks and balances, need to legally do whatever we can, to prevent Donald Trump from getting anywhere near The White House ever again."

Donald Trump is such a big risk, because of his narcissism, his paranoia, his incompetency, his lack of government experience at any level, let alone the Federal level, that you simply don't want a person like that to be anywhere near The White House, let alone President the 1st time, let alone back in office. But he's 78 years old, he doesn't learn from his mistakes, even when he privately admits them, and he might be too lazy to even try to make himself a dictator again. 

I'll leave you with one, positive, closing thought. The Democratic Party will be in much stronger position in 2025-26, then they were in 2017-18, the first time Donald Trump was President. 

The Democrats only had 194 seats in the House at the start of 2017. They'll have 215 at the start of 2025, with a House Republican Conference that's even more divided now between MAGA and Never-Trump. 

Yes, Senate Republicans will have 1 more seat in 2025, than they did in 2017. But it's 53 instead of 52. And when House Republicans can't pass anything on their own, that Senate majority won't be worth much on legislation anyway. Especially with Chuck Schumer and the cloture rule.

Democrats only had 16-50 governorships in the states at the start of 2017. They'll have 23 at the start of 2025. Democrats only had 19 state attorney generals at the end of 2016. They'll have 23 at the start of 2025. 

My point is that there will be a lot more accountability for the incoming Trump Administration, along with all those high-skilled Democratic, pro-democracy, private attorneys, as well as the Federal courts, to keep the incoming Trump Administration in check in 2025-26. 

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