Matt Lewis: If President AOC Governed Like Donald Trump — But in Reverse

"As Republicans roll the dice on rule of law, they forget history’s inconvenient truth: today's power grab could be tomorrow's undoing.

The other day, a Texas congressman named Brian Babin suggested that America should take a page from El Salvador dictator Nayib Bukele and “fire” judges.

I responded by asking whether Babin would support future president Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez firing judges who have the temerity to stand in her way.

My tweet was an intellectual exercise in futility. Babin didn’t respond, and why would he? Republicans have long since given up on empathy — that quaint, outdated concept of putting yourself in the other guy’s shoes: 

Matt Lewis: Would you agree if/when President AOC fires judges who stand in her way?

U.S. Representative Brian Babin: Bukele fired activist judges and took his country back.

We should take notes, clean house, and fix America now.

From Matt Lewis

"Still, once upon a time — and by “once,” I mean approximately five minutes ago — it was considered a cornerstone of democratic sanity to understand that the emergency powers, legal gymnastics, and constitutional vandalism you cheer today might be weaponized against you tomorrow.

To help Republicans imagine this possible scenario, I thought it might be instructive to imagine what President AOC might do if she inherited the Trumpian toolbox. You know, just to see how it fits.

Imagine it’s the year 2030. The headlines write themselves:

President AOC pressures major media and tech platforms to boot conservative voices, accusing them of spreading “toxic capitalism” and “environmental treason.” The White House press secretary assures reporters this is “not censorship, just carbon neutrality.”

Hunters (read “militia members” and “climate deniers”) from red states mysteriously vanish, blamed for “driving up emissions with their Dodge Rams, bloodlust, and fentanyl-fueled nihilism.” They are sent to Universal Basic Wellness Retreats, which become colloquially known as “Green GITMOs.”

AOC opens a boutique hotel in Brooklyn, where foreign ambassadors pony up large sums of money to her (note: Cuban and Venezuelan diplomats stay at government expense).

AOC targets white evangelical churches who are “preaching an oppressive ideology that we don’t like,” by threatening to revoke their tax-exempt status unless they fly rainbow flags and offer drag story hour for Sunday School.

The DOJ opens a criminal investigation into Fox News, citing "emotional harm caused by capitalist disinformation." Hannity flees to Hungary.

An MSNBC host is named Secretary of Defense, with a mandate to reorient military strategy toward the existential threat of air conditioning.

The IRS dispatches armed agents to audit rural gun shops under suspicion of “hoarding generational trauma.”

Billionaires are ordered to wear bodycams, which livestream to a public accountability TikTok. When Republicans complain, liberals accuse them of being “pro-anonymity,” which is now a hate crime.

AOC ignores a Supreme Court ruling on Second Amendment rights, calling it illegitimate due to the Court’s “GOP-packed bench of oil lobbyists in robes.” Legal scholars clutch their pearls. AOC tweets a meme.

Every church is required to install a wind turbine or face daily fines. As she tweets, “Jesus may have flipped tables, but now he’s expected to charge Teslas.”

These are just a few possible chapters in our speculative dystopia — feel free to add your own in the comments, ideally while your constitutional protections still permit satire.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect Republicans to heed our warnings. They’re not afraid of future tyrants. They’re too busy auditioning for one.

But let’s be clear: this isn’t solely a thought experiment. It’s a warning. Every norm shattered today is a roadmap for tomorrow’s leaders — whether they are on the right or the left.

If Republicans want to avoid this dark future, they might consider behaving as if the rules still apply — because one day, they might.

These are just a few possible chapters in our speculative dystopia — feel free to add your own in the comments, ideally while your constitutional protections still permit satire.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect Republicans to heed our warnings. They’re not afraid of future tyrants. They’re too busy auditioning for one.

But let’s be clear: this isn’t solely a thought experiment. It’s a warning. Every norm shattered today is a roadmap for tomorrow’s leaders — whether they are on the right or the left.

If Republicans want to avoid this dark future, they might consider behaving as if the rules still apply — because one day, they might." 

Source:U.S. Representative Alexandria O. Cortez (Democratic Socialist, Bronx, New York)

From Matt Lewis

I think Matt Lewis's main point here gets to the lack of forward thinking on the MAGA wing of the Republican Party right now. That everything is about now and what they can do now. And maybe they really do expect that Donald J. Trump will become America's 1st dictator and they'll just get away with it. And Democrats will never have the opportunity to do crazy, dictatorial things, but coming from the far-left in the future, because there will be no future. We'll just become Donald J. Trump's Dystopian States of America... his latest and last political reality TV show. 

But then my first point here is about the political boomerang: everything that's done in Washington at the Federal level, sets precedent for it being doing again in the future, but coming from different people, from the other party, especially when you are talking about partisan actions: 

President Bush and the Republican Congress of 2003-04, passed their own health care bill dealing with Medicare, through reconciliation, with no House Democratic votes, in late 2003. Democrats did the same thing to pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010, with no Republican votes in Congress... House or Senate. 

Senate Democrats eliminated the filibuster to pass President Obama's executive and judicial nominees back in 2013. 3 and 1/2 years later, Senate Republicans eliminated the filibuster so they could get President Trump's Supreme Court nominees through with just a simple majority. 

And I could go and on and on... but hopefully anyone who sees this, has better things to do than to talk about partisan precedents in Congress and how they can come back to bite the other party. 

I hate everything that Donald Trump and MAGA stands for. But the fact is his term will be up in early 2029 and he'll be forced to leave The White House, whether he wants to or not. And that's what MAGA with their myopic political vision doesn't see. America will still be a liberal democratic republic, in early 2029 and we may have a Democratic administration then, with a Democratic Congress. 

So for the pure fun of it, let's assume current U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (some people know her simply as AOC) (Bronx, New York) becomes President of the United States and takes office in January, 2029: 

Just from my perspective, this is the only way I see Representative O. Cortez winning The White House 3 years from now... assuming she never moderates and never gets elected to the U.S. Senate, first: 

Similar to 2015-16, there are like 20 different Democrats for President. Most of them are center-left Progressive types, but similar with Donald Trump who got a little competition from what was called the Tea Party back then... there are like maybe 2-3 other Socialists who also decide to run for President as a Democrat as well. 

So no one running for President, or the mainstream media is even taking AOC For President seriously. And she knocks the other Socialists out, because she's the only 1 who can raise any money at all and who has a name. 

And the supposed frontrunner Democrat, whether that's Gavin Newsome, or Kamala Harris, maybe someone else, is not taking AOC For President seriously either and if anything they're ignoring her in the early, summer, perhaps even fall debates in 2027. 

See what I'm saying? The only reason why Donald J. Trump won The White House in 2016, is because he ran for President in a very crowded Republican field., where almost no one could get 35-40% of the vote in any of the Republican primaries. But in the Republican primaries, winner takes all in most of their primaries. It's winner-takes-all in most of those primaries, which means you can win a lot of primaries there with 3-10 voters and get all of those delegates. 

So to move up my hypothetical a little bit: 

The country is now in recession, thanks to the Trump Administration's trade war and national debt bomb they're setting off because of all the deficit spending and Vice President J.D. Vance couldn't run away from President Trump, even in a Ferrari sports car, or even fly away from him, and he gets tied to the President as tightly as a death row inmate who is about to be executed and the Democratic Party unites being Ocasio-Cortez and even Independents, perhaps even a few white-collar Republicans, because similar to back to 2016, America was ready for any change from the current situation of the country. 

So now for the really fun part

Just for the record: I don't see Alexandria O. Cortez as a Communist... even as a Chavez/Maduro style Neo-Communist. That might be a newsflash for people who read The New Democrat and see how we talk about other Socialists. 

To me, as a President, I think AOC would be more like a George McGovern, or Bernie Sanders as POTUS: someone who is a small d democrat in political practice in how they govern. But way too far to the left of even her own party, to be an effective leader in moving Congress and passing anything consequential as a result. And would probably be a one-termer, unless she moderated as was able to work with the next Republican Congress and even be able to run against them for reelection as well. 

But let's say I'm wrong (for the first time in my entire life, LOL) and Matt Lewis is correct here: 

So in President Ocasio Cortez's first month as President, she signs all sorts of executive orders dealing from everything to banning junk food and soft drinks, from the Federal level, to outlawing eating meat from the Federal level, to outlawing sports bars. And that's just from the left-wing feminist dream list of things they would want her to do. 

So now President Ocasio Cortez loses all of these executive orders in court and she orders her Attorney General Larry Tribe, to arrest all these Federal judges and even the 9 U.S. Justices who ruled against her 100% of the time. And the Attorney General goes along with all of that. 

When Congress votes down President Ocasio Cortez's budget that would double even middle class tax rates and people on the wealthy would pay between 90-100% and guts the national security, and law enforcement, and intelligence budgets by 70% and maybe only 30 House Democrats vote for it and 1-2 in the Senate, she passes her own Socialist budget through executive order. But this time it gets through, because remember she just fired all the Federal judges who voted against her cultural war executive orders and we now have a new Supreme Court, because she just fired the previous justices through EO and no one's left to stop her. 

As I said before, I don't see AOC as a Communist. And maybe Matt Lewis and I just disagree on that. But as I also said before, there's a political boomerang affect in Washington. What 1 party tries to do to the other, can come back and kick in the ass just 2-4 years later. 

There might be some actual Communists out there in America right now thinking: "Look at what we could do, if only we win The White House and stack the administration behind us". 

If you really are a Republican and you actually care about not just your party, but America as well, you need to be saying no to Donald Trump's effort to try to become an American dictator. If for no other reasons, the practical reason that you don't want America to ever become a Communist State. 

You can follow me on Threads and Twitter.

You can also see this post on WordPress.