Protecting American democracy

from the threat of Trump’s return to unchecked power.

This post will be a departure from my usual reporting.

I was traveling in Europe for much of June, and returned to Washington late last Friday with panic rising over Biden’s poor debate performance the night before. (It was on in the middle of the night where I was and I missed it).

On Monday morning, I went to see Secretary of State Antony Blinken speak at the Brookings Institution, the same hour that the Supreme Court issued its devastating ruling that Trump had immunity from criminal prosecution for anything that could be construed an official act, even after his presidency. The decision ensured that there would be no trial before the US presidential election in November, if ever. As we were scanning the Roberts’ opinion, the chants of anti-Gaza war protesters outside made it hard to hear Blinken’s remarks.

There was a sense of those lines from the Yeats’ poem, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer; things fall apart; the center cannot hold.” Or at least, that it is under tremendous strain.

Over the past few years, dating to the Trump era, I have had an aversion to a lot of media political coverage. I tune out a lot of it. Sometimes, even watching a White House press conference, listening to the questions, I am inclined to just turn it off. There is just so much noise, and cacophony, and I have a real aversion to it.

I think Biden has been a pretty good president, particularly in forging transatlantic unity to support Ukraine from Russia’s invasion, and in legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, which is making significant investments in building a more green American economy; and in leading the relatively thriving post-covid U.S. economy (under 4% unemployment for the longest period in my lifetime). I think he is an obviously very decent man. I think many of his advisors, like Blinken, are also decent, competent, even if imperfect, human beings, who work incredibly hard and are doing their best in a tough world. I think their focus on forging and maintaining America’s global alliances with fellow democracies and like-minded countries, and recognition of what an asset that is in a world facing a rising China aligned with autocratic states like Russia, is important.

One might argue that on some policies, he and his advisors were too cautious (not trying to pull the plug on Israel’s war in Gaza earlier; not moving more quickly to try to revive the Iran nuclear deal when the Rouhani team was still there; perhaps in the kind of material support provided to Ukraine). But I will take over-cautiousness over the blithe recklessness of the past administration.

But what I most care about from a U.S. president in this day and age is preserving U.S. democracy at home, civil rights, tolerance, U.S. democratic institutions, a Supreme Court that is not taking the American people back to the 18^th century; a fair functioning judicial system not utterly corrupted by a corrupt executive.

And all of these Trump is a clear and present danger to. While intellectually understanding it could happen, I have been in a state of disbelief that America would let Trump come to power again.

But it seems these past days that we could be sleepwalking into that nightmare scenario.

It would be too tragic. But sometimes tragedies happen. 

I don’t know what the answer is. While I personally would much prefer a Biden even with diminished stamina to Trump, I am not sure if enough other American voters see it that way, to prevent Trump’s return. I would also trust Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, any of them, to protect American democracy and democratic institutions that Trump threatens.

My inclination today is that Biden should probably bow out and help forge unity behind Harris and another VP candidate.

I think all the people who care about preserving America’s democracy need to come together and do everything we can to ensure America’s democracy survives and that Trump does not come to power this year. Whoever is on the top of the ticket, I hope we all do whatever we can to try to help prevent Trump’s return to threaten our still fragile democracy.

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