Revolution

Many Democrats find it difficult to get their minds around the idea of another Donald Trump presidency.

Donald Trump has a reputation for demeaning people…

How, for instance, could the American people elect a person who called Sen. John McCain a “loser” because his airplane was shot down in Vietnam and he was captured? In more than five years of imprisonment, McCain was tortured more than the other prisoners because his father was a renowned U.S. Navy admiral. When the North Vietnamese, hoping to reap a propaganda victory, offered to release McCain, he declined. He did not think it fair to leave before comrades who had been imprisoned longer. The torture was ratcheted up.

Ten years younger than McCain and of the prime draft age, Donald Trump avoided military service – and Vietnam – after a Queens podiatrist friendly with the family wrote a letter asserting that young Trump had bone spurs in his heels. He came into office without having done military or public service of any kind.

… but Democrats did worse

It is not the point of this column to rehash all the times Trump demeaned people who make sacrifices for us. It is to encourage responsible dialogue on all sides. Many are deeply offended by Trump’s comments on McCain. But how can Democrats decry a Trump acolyte for calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and dismiss President Biden calling Trump supporters “garbage” – or the fact that Biden’s White House press office altered the transcript with the remark?

Or, to take another example, how can we condemn Trump for using his presidential power for personal interest and not condemn President Biden for giving a blanket pardon for his son? As a lifelong Democrat, I am appalled. 

In particular, my intent here is to raise a problem Republicans will have to get their heads around as they seek to “make America great again.”

Americans have a high level of agreement on one thing. They are disappointed with their government. A recent survey found that “barely one in 10 Americans thought the government represents them well.” 

This near-consensus is perverse, of course. The very people who are in agreement on this point are sharply divided on the solutions to the nation’s problems.

As Democrats alienate their traditional followers,…

In the coming four years, Democrats must fashion an agenda that inspires a broader range of support. As the recent presidential election returns show, they are alienating many of their traditional followers. They have a lot of platform reform to do. Offering to forgive student loans is not a uniting policy. On the face of it, it is unfair. Many Latin American immigrants who earned their citizenship blame the Democrats for being lax on illegal immigration.

For Trump supporters, who now hope to be the agents of sweeping change, the solutions are embodied in the slogan “drain the swamp” or Trump’s statement at the beginning of his candidacy: “Either the deep state destroys America, or we destroy the deep state.” These sweeping pronouncements are vague, but have the whiff of violence in them. The system is broken, they seem to be saying, so let’s tear it down. And, in the process, even the score with “deep state” officials who have provoked us. In response to essays I have written about the need to preserve normal government checks and balances, a fair number of RealClearPolitics readers have responded that chaos would be just fine.

Revolution

This sentiment animated past revolutions, whether the anti-monarchical revolution in 18^th century France or the Chinese communist revolution in the 1940s. At the base of them were legitimate grievances. As Mark Twain noted, “There never was a revolution unless there were some oppressive and intolerable conditions against which to revolute.”

But what sort of revolution would Make America Great Again? This is not well defined. Nor does the slogan give any indication of how to achieve it without making terror “the order of the day,” as French radicals called for in 1793. Ultimately, it is worth noting, the radicals’ own heads were in the guillotine.

These are serious problems that call for serious reflection.

It is easy to understand why people would respond to a clarion call for deportation of illegal immigrants. We have every reason to want regulated borders and orderly entry into the country.

It is similarly easy to understand the sentiment to protect jobs when paychecks are worth less at the grocery store. Such concerns have sparked enthusiasm for high tariffs before.

There is also a case for government reform. Our government can certainly be more efficient. A suggestion by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump is putting in charge of bureaucracy reform, is straightforward: Federal employees need to come to work five days a week rather than working remotely.

It is natural for people to grow angry over a drumbeat for “equity” and “diversity” that does not recognize their own worth.

Modern liberals are now just as bad as McCarthy was alleged to be

To put a personal touch on this last point, as a young man, a root cause of my liberal views was seeing and writing about people being hounded during the McCarthy-era witch hunts. Unfounded belief in conspiracies led to trampling freedom of speech. Many of today’s liberals have forgotten this lesson and seek to cancel those with whom they disagree. This is a recipe for fragmenting our society. You may blame Donald Trump for much of our division, but he has not done it alone.

These problems, and many others, should be addressed by the Trump administration. But much of the MAGA rhetoric is loose and goes nowhere that is productive. At times Trump reformers seem to be reaching for an ill-defined something in the shadows. In groping around, they can topple the very things that ensure their well-being.

It is irresponsible to set false expectations for government reform by arguing, as Musk has, that he can reduce our nearly $7 trillion federal budget by $2 trillion. That would eliminate every government expenditure other than defense, interest on debt, and such transfer payments as Medicare and Social Security – and even those would experience reductions. All good if you don’t care that national parks are closed and Social Security checks are smaller.

Will the revolution create bad precedents?

Likewise, it would be reckless to reach deeply into departments to replace experienced employees with Trump loyalists. That was what sparked civil service reform more than a century ago. Either that reform would have to be done all over again when Trump is out of office or, worse, the Democrats will install their loyalists when, at some future date, they win the White House.

You can carry out mass deportation. But a dangerous precedent is set by putting armed forces on the street to do it. This is how police states begin.

You can raise tariffs. There are grounds for that. We have lower tariffs than many other countries. But if we trigger an all-out trade war, we hurt our own exports. Such protectionism also will push up prices, which will hit the working class and the poor hardest.

The Trump administration will do no good by fighting DEI with censorship of other kinds, which has been hinted at by Kash Patel, Trump’s proposed FBI director. It can better elevate discourse by protecting everyone’s right to speak out freely and safely.

It is best to stick to bedrock principles. It is here, indeed, where the argument reaches a crucial stage. For most of our history, leaders have seen the secret sauce of America’s greatness in the protections embedded in the U.S. Constitution. This is the mantra of Trump’s own appointees to the Supreme Court.

Stand by the Constitution

We have not always lived up to our ideals. The Constitution lends itself to different interpretations. But if the Trump revolution means overriding it, leaving chaos in its wake, everyone will be in danger. Calling for government reform should focus on making institutions stronger and more accountable, not destroying them.

In seeking a way to remake themselves, the Democrats would do well to embrace the idea of change rather than resist anything Trump says because he says it. There are legislative and constitutional tools to modify what Trump wants to do.

I am open to learning more about Republican reforms that preserve what is good. I invite readers of this column to educate me on this with specifics they favor.

Meanwhile, I close with this thought. While it is heady and hopeful to rush into the streets shouting “Revolution!”, every tool that is sharpened to take apart government can be used by others later. This will not make America great again.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.