1) Sessions story today is a sinister confirmation of central thesis of my autocracy article:
2) Donald Trump is a uniquely dangerous president because he harbors so many guilty secrets (or maybe 1 big guilty secret).
3) In order to protect himself, Trump must attack American norms and institutions - otherwise he faces fathomless legal risk
4) In turn, in order to protect their legally vulnerable leader, Republicans in Congress must join the attack on norms & institutions
5) Otherwise, they put at risk party hopes for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to remake US government in ways not very popular with voters
6) American institutions are built to withstand an attack from the president alone. But …
7) … they are not so well-built as to withstand an attack from a conscienceless president enabled by a hyper-partisan Congress
8) The peculiar grim irony in this case is that somewhere near the center of Trump’s story is the murky secret of Trump’s Russia connection
9) Meaning that Trump is rendering his party also complicit in what could well prove …
10) … the biggest espionage scandal since the Rosenberg group stole the secret of the atomic bomb.
11) And possibly even bigger. We won’t know if we don’t look
12) Despite patriotic statements from individual GOPers, as of now it seems that Speaker Ryan & Leader McConnell agree: no looking.
13) So many in DC serenely promise that “checks and balances” will save us. But right now: there is no check and no balance.
14) Only brave individuals in national security roles sharing truth with news organizations.
15) But those individuals can be found & silenced. What then? We take it too much for granted that the president must lose this struggle
16) The “oh he’s normal now” relief of so many to Trump’s Feb 28 speech revealed how ready DC is to succumb to dealmaking as usual.
17) As DC goes numb, citizen apathy accumulates …
18) GOP members of Congress decide they have more to fear from enforcing law against the president than from ignoring law with the president
19) And those of us who care disappear down rabbit holes debating whether Sessions’ false testimony amounts to perjury or not
20) Meanwhile job market strong, stock market is up, immigration enforcement is popular.
21) I’m not counseling despair here. I don’t feel despair. Only: nobody else will save the country if you don’t act yourself.
END.
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