Trump has been attacking the FBI since he took office.
Why?
Trump’s goal—and one of his method for undermining the Mueller probe and putting himself above the law—is to create what Paxton calls a A Cult of Leadership.
[View here as a Twitter thread]
1/ From Paxton: The followers believe the Leader’s instincts are superior to the rational logic used by “elites” Leaders don’t follow laws. They are the law & embody the mythic destiny of the nation. The only truth is the word of the Leader.
2/ To do create a Cult of Leadership, Trump must undermine factuality. Without factuality (a shared reality) you cannot have Rule of Law. Liberal Democracy will not work. The FBI is all about facts, evidence, and truth. Therefore Trump must bring the FBI to heel.
3/ In Trump’s attacks on the FBI, he insists, among other things, that if Democrats work for the FBI, it must be partisan and corrupt—an idea contrary to a representative republic in which people are free to hold various political opinions.
4/ For Trump, even Republicans who are not 100% loyal to him are partisan, biased, and corrupt. The only way—according to this logic—to have a non-corrupt FBI is for everyone to agree with whatever Trump says and to do his bidding. That’s not an FBI, that’s a secret police.
5/ Now all eyes are on the Kavanaugh FBI investigation. Comey says that truth isn’t the goal of the investigation. If it were “there would be no clock and the investigation would have been held before the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed the nominee.”
6/ The Republican goal—Comey says—is to be able to say there was an investigation and that it didn’t change their view. Now evidence is emerging that the White House is severely limiting the FBI investigation.
7/ Meanwhile, Trump tweeted that he hasn’t hampered the FBI in any way—suggesting a game afoot to undermine the FBI or set the FBI up for a fall. Joe Walsh laments the fact that the GOP is now “perfectly happy to attack the FBI. And to obstruct justice.”
8/ What’s going on is this: The GOP is no longer a conservative party. It is an authoritarian party. (What do I mean? See twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield… ) Falling in line behind a Leadership Cult is exactly what we would expect from an authoritarian party.
9/ The Fox-GOP is willingly abandoning truth and factuality. Everyone else is stubbornly resisting. To get everyone else in line, Trump must lead us into a post-truth world; citizens will not have a shared reality, making meaningful political discourse impossible.
10/ Mueller’s findings, and even jury verdicts, will be disbelieved. (One of the jurors was a Democrat! It was all corrupt!) How will he accomplish this? One way is by persuading people that the entire system and all politicians and institutions are corrupt.
11/ When people lose faith in democratic institutions (courts, government, law enforcement) they no longer believe anything that comes out of them. Eventually people conclude that the truth is unknowable and they stop trying to find the truth. News becomes entertainment.
12/ Once people lose faith in democratic institutions, liberal democracy collapses. How do we prevent this? Stay grounded in facts, continue to believe in our institutions. Liberal democracy requires a lot of work The people have to work. So let’s do the work.
13/ Elections, for example, are held locally. Get involved in yours! I’m signed up (again) as a volunteer lawyer to monitor polls for fraud. My husband is a poll worker. Drive people to the polls. Do something. If enough people come out in November, we can turn this around.
14/Comey reassures us that although the Kavanaigh investigation was “apparently designed to thwart the fact-gathering process, the F.B.I. is up for this.” nytimes.com/2018/09/30/opi… The FBI, a truth-based fact-gathering institution, is one of our remaining pillars against autocracy.
15/ In seeking to reassure us that our institutions are holding, Comey is doing his part to save the Republic—because confidence is essential. When enough people give up hope, it’s all over. (I see people spreading gloom. We are still in control!)
16/ “But what if the FBI caves . . .” you ask [feeling panicked]. Support the FBI as it labors under constant presidential attacks, make sure we turn Congress blue to put a check on presidential power—and we can get through this.
