I’ve been slow to update my website since other things have intervened and I’ve also debated how much I want to occupy my mind with the “world’s most successful narcissist” as one friend called our new president-dictator. But I did write this piece for Caracas Chronicles and republished it in Spanish at Trópico Absoluto on the day of the inauguration, January 20th. I’ll be posting more in the future in both Spanish and English.
Now, a day after the Inauguration, we can see so many other elements of the Chávez playbook in Trump’s approach: his utter disregard for our Constitution (Chávez, “la constitución moribunda”); his celebration of the seditionists (which he, incidentally, organized and directed) just as Chávez and chavistas celebrate the sedition against their democracy on Feb 4.; renaming things like the Gulf of Mexico, etc. And that’s just in the past single day of his presidency.
A slight, very slight, majority voted for this criminal seditionist and traitor to his oath of office to protect the Constitution and laws of our land. Most didn’t believe (for reasons I don’t understand) that he would try to become a dictator, as he promised, “on day one.” Well, we can believe it now. I remain pessimistic that the Democrats will be able to do much with Republicans holding Congress and the Supreme Court. I’m reminded of that incredible article (there may be a paywall there) that I read in the Atlantic recently how Hitler managed to manipulate the system and the constitution to become dictator in a mere 53 days. We know how that turned out. The article ends by quoting Joseph Goebbels: “The big joke on democracy,” he observed, “is that it gives its mortal enemies the means to its own destruction.” This is also something Lenin knew and delighted in.
I’m afraid that’s what’s happened in the US is exactly that. The Democrats had the power to indict Trump on January 7, 2020. They likely had all the evidence for a conviction, even then. But they did nothing for the first year or two, and then they allowed the Republican Supreme Court to intervene and Trump’s Judge Cannon to continue on the case in Florida. The system has failed us because, as Daniel Ziblatt and Steve Levitsky point out in a recent interview, because our elites fail.
We all know that the elites play Twiddley Dee and Twiddley Dum and, as a friend said to me this morning, “both parties make back-room deals smoking cigars together and drinking brandy.” Well, it was something like that. He’s right: representative democracy is elitist by nature. But that’s the point, the two parties are supposed to get together over cigars and brandy to cut deals in the back room, and when we don’t like the deals, we’re supposed to vote them out two or four years later. I don’t like the system, and neither did the Venezuelans in 1998, but you know what? It’s a far better system than what the Venezuelans elected for themselves that year with Chávez, and what we just saw come to power yesterday, as I write.
All dictatorships end in destruction, but as Venezuela demonstrates, they can do much destruction over many years and remain in power far longer than anyone could imagine. And as Chávez, Lenin, Mussolini, etc, and now Trump all demonstrate and as Goebbels laughed, they often come to power by democratic means. And yeah, they end the backroom deals of elites sure enough. Thereafter everything becomes the decision of one man, and that NEVER turns out well. Read history and prove me wrong if you like.
I believe, as I read in one meme that passed by me in the wake of the election, it was initially a problem of Trump himself and his character. Now it is a question of the character, and intelligence, of the people who voted for him. I know some. They’re in my family. And I still speak to them. But I have to say, I have now lost respect for them and I hate what they have done to my country.
They will have to regain the respect of democrats (note the small “d”) before any of us will be willing to work with them to rebuild the country, and that will take time, and the failure of their project, which, with the dictator leading it, is only a matter of time. They’ll have to come to the realization of their error and its consequences. Meanwhile, we who want to live in a democratic, open (yes, “liberal”, also small “l”) will have to work alone against an emerging autocracy, realizing that we’ll be powerless as it grows, but we’ll gain momentum as it declines. But the growth of the autocracy will be painful. Empowered by ignorance, racism and resentment, Trump will now set about destroying everything that is good about our nation.