Our Naked Emperor
Ezra Klein's interesting take
While I plan to return to my how-to-kick-MAGA-to-the-curb series soon, I want to interrupt the flow of that multipart essay to share a perspective on the topic that I am actively noodling on this week.
Ezra Klein has an opinion piece out (link to a gifted version!) that caught my attention. Compared to some of what he has been saying these last few weeks, this one really grabbed me.
His basic argument is that Trump’s flurry of illegal power grabs are not a sign of building strength, but of flagellating weakness. The Trump strategy is to hide this weakness behind a tornado of lawbreaking, so that we will be overwhelmed into thinking his power is “real.”
But the only thing that will make that power real is if we believe it and act like it. The antitdote is to do the opposite.
Yes, for the last few months, the news media and many politicians have acted just like this—which is terrifying. And, I would add, that it is undeniable that many of the actions taken come withirreversible and terrible consequences. But, Klein argues, some of the most egregious and illegal moves have been so overtly criminal and clumsy, that finally opposition is starting to emerge.
He sees this—not just the backlash—but an opposition that exposes the fact that the emperor has no clothes, as the path for fighting back.
I haven’t sat with it quite long enough to decide if I think he’s right that this will inspire the kind of clarity of opposition needed. But my gut says he is really on to something. I’d encourage you to read it (or listen).
Here are the final few paragraphs:
The attempted spending freeze gave Democrats their voice back, as they zeroed in on the popular programs Trump had imperiled. Trump isn’t building support; he’s losing it. Trump isn’t fracturing his opposition; he’s uniting it.
This is the weakness of the strategy that Bannon proposed and Trump is following. It is a strategy that forces you into overreach. To keep the zone flooded, you have to keep acting, keep moving, keep creating new cycles of outrage or fear. You overwhelm yourself. And there’s only so much you can do through executive orders. Soon enough, you have to go beyond what you can actually do. And when you do that, you either trigger a constitutional crisis or you reveal your own weakness.
Trump may not see his own fork in the road coming. He may believe he has the power he is claiming. That would be a mistake on his part — a self-deception that could doom his presidency. But the real threat is if he persuades the rest of us to believe he has power he does not have.
The first two weeks of Trump’s presidency have not shown his strength. He is trying to overwhelm you. He is trying to keep you off-balance. He is trying to persuade you of something that isn’t true. Don’t believe him.