Will Impeachment Stop Republican’s and Trump’s Totalitarianism?

As Americans debate impeaching President Donald Trump over his abuse of powers, his quid pro quo deals with foreign leaders, his attacks and veiled threats against political opponents and whistleblowers, his interference in elections, and the emoluments clause, some warn a more ominous threat is at hand. It’s a threat that is not only content to rule by external means, mainly through propaganda and violence, but through the internal means of state machinery.

To be sure, and as Hannah Arendt warned: “A disciplined minority of totalitarians can use the instruments of democratic government to undermine democracy itself.” The real threat then is a political party’s and individual’s quest for nothing less than the establishment of a totalitarianism state, one based on thoughtlessness which is the essence of a totalitarian system. That political party being the Republicans, and the individual being Donald Trump.

Obstruct, Disrupt, and Rule
Mike Lofgren, a veteran Republican congressional staffer, first wrote about this in a long and anguished essay in 2011 about why he had ended his career in Washington DC after nearly thirty years. His essay was filled with charges that the Republican Party was becoming less and less like a traditional party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe.

A more serious charge was how Republicans were candidly (and proudly) employing the method of “obstruction and disruption.” “Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job” he wrote, “it would further lower congress’s generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.”

During the Obama Era, the Republican’s nearly unanimous pledge to obstruct and disrupt was used when they blocked legislation to pass a reasonable immigration plan, a fair tax code that would regulate tax-avoidance loopholes and ensure corporations would pay their fair share, lower the cost of healthcare premiums and drug prices, establish universal background checks for gun purchases, and increase funding for better mental and social health services.

Obstruct, Disrupt, and Purify
Something else occurred during the Obama Era. Republicans finally succeeded in silencing, co-opting, repelling, or expelling nearly every competing strain of Republicanism from their party, to the extent that the terms “liberal Republican” or “moderate Republican” became oxymorons. Trump’s racist, nationalistic movement has only made things worse, especially as millions of followers take their marching orders from him and FOX News, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh.

In the weeks and months to come, Americans will be faced with many difficult choices. Since Trump and the Republicans have sabotaged and nearly destroyed what was originally the most important branch of government, the Legislative which makes and passes laws and consists of the people’s representatives, impeachment may be ineffective. This is already seen in how the Trump Administration and Republicans obstruct justice by ignoring subpoenas and stonewalling.

Something else Americans will have to face are the propagandists who support the Republican’s and Trump’s quest for a single totalitarian state based on a political party and its cultic leader. As mouthpieces for Trump and the Republicans, FOX News, Hannity, and Limbaugh is to democracy what the “boot stamping on a human face forever” is to totalitarianism. It entails the most effective way to destroy people: to obliterate their understanding and make them thoughtless.

Democracy or Totalitarianism
The most difficult choice will be the general election in 2020. (That is if America isn’t already experiencing some civil or violent unrest as Trump has threatened.) Voters will have to decide if they want to continue to support the Republican’s and Trump’s quest for a totalitarian state based on a one-party political system and its leader, or vote for a Congress that is filled with competing ideas and interests and tries to uphold the supreme law of the land: U.S. Constitution.

It’s also important to remember that in “Origins of Totalitarianism” Arendt wrote: “Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.” Despite what Republicans and Trump say, they’re undermining democracy by obstructing and disrupting dozens of pieces of legislation that will benefit millions of Americans.

Whether they continue to succeed in lowering congress’s generic favorability rating among the American people isn’t known. What is known is that the guardrails to democracy have been dismantled. This, as trump just tweeted and warned of a Civil War if he is impeached. How close is America in becoming a totalitarian state with a one-party political system and its leader at the helm? The answer will be if impeachment works or not and the outcome of the 2020 election.

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.