The most popular Internet meme from Super Tuesday was the mockery that rained down on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie after he delivered an obsequious introduction for “Mr. Trump” at his combination press conference/pep rally. Christie stood mutely gazing at Donald Trump like an adoring wife or something far less flattering, depending on the caption you supplied to the picture. Looking more like a hostage than an ally, Christie’s sacrifice of his dignity in pursuit of a spot in a Trump administration got almost as much attention as his new boss’s comments. But jokes aside, the tableau of subject and master was a near perfect metaphor for the future of the Republican Party in the age of Trump.
Though the frontrunner began his remarks by preaching Republican unity, once the questions turned to the remarkable joint appearance earlier in the day by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Trump let the veil slip from his pose of gracious victor.
When asked about the statement from the two GOP leaders that made clear their disapproval of Trump’s reluctance to disavow David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan last weekend, Trump dismissed both their concerns about his behavior and their concern that he is tarnishing the Republican brand in a way that might lose the party its control of Congress this fall.
“Look, I don’t want to waste a lot of time,” Trump said. “I’m going to get along great with Congress, OK? Paul Ryan, I don’t know him well, but I’m sure I’m going to get along great with him, and if I don’t? He’s gonna have to pay a big price, OK?”
That’s very much in character with Trump’s history. Threats are part of the way he has always done business, and there is no reason for anyone to think he would behave differently if he were elected to the presidency.
It should also be conceded that this sort of attitude is exactly why a lot of voters are flocking to him. Frustrated with the hard work of democracy in which neither side can always get its way — especially in a divided government — Trump’s supporters are thrilled with his strongman routine. Moreover, any threats made at Republican Congressional leaders probably earn him extra credit with many grass roots Republicans. Trump has benefited from the false narrative that some on the right have promoted in which even principled conservatives like Ryan can be branded as leaders of a “surrender caucus” because of their belief that they have a duty to keep the government running.
The war against the “establishment” has no real agenda. But those who are blasting Ryan as a sellout because he refused to shut down the government because of Obama and the Democrats’ insistence on funding Planned Parenthood now seem to think an appropriate answer to their dilemma is to nominate a presidential candidate that defends Planned Parenthood. That this candidate is also unelectable and could very well drag the party down to a Goldwater-style defeat that will ensure that Nancy Pelosi will replace Ryan as Speaker of the House next year is apparently of no importance. But this sort of cognitive dissonance is the rule of the day in the new era of Trumpian Republicanism.
But the main takeaway from Trump’s threat to Ryan to get along or “pay a big price” is that Republicans need to understand that this sort of comment is not only not an aberration but will also set the pattern for dealing with the GOP’s putative Duce.
There can only be one president, but the constitutional system the Founders created was one of checks and balances in which there were there branches of government that could not function without cooperation. One of the most disturbing elements of the Obama presidency has been his willingness to chuck constitutional norms out of the window when it suited his purposes. Frustrated with a Congress that won’t do your bidding on legalizing illegal immigrants? Go around them via executive orders that in effect give the president the right to pass laws without Congress. Want the most important foreign treaty since the end of the Cold War passed that gives Iran a path to a nuclear weapon? Pretend it’s not a treaty and get it ratified with a Democratic filibuster rather than the two-thirds vote the Constitution demands.
But if we thought Obama was a president with pretensions to dictatorship, the mind boggles about what a President Trump would do with executive power on all sorts of issues whether it is spending, trade or foreign policy. Thuggish threats are just the tip of the iceberg for a man who believes political power is a matter of dictates rather than cooperation. In Trump’s universe, everyone not named Trump is an apprentice to be ordered around and fired at the whim of the great man.
That’s why the spectacle of Christie’s humiliation was not so much an embarrassing meme as it was a stark indication of what is in store for American democracy in the age of Trump. What the real estate mogul turned reality star turned politician wants are not colleagues but toadies that can be ordered around (“Get on the plane and go home.”) and who stand silent as he issues threats to others who are not so compliant.
It’s long been apparent that Trump’s appeal is to the authoritarian instinct. Angry voters want a strongman or, at least, one that appears to project strength and claims to want to burn down the dreaded establishment and the political system. It is unlikely that a strongman who dog whistles to extremists about the Klan is electable. But whether that turns out to be true, it’s clear that what Republicans are getting is a would-be dictator that might make Obama’s trashing of the Constitution look like child’s play.
