US Dictator???

The Democratic Party in the United States has created a serious problem for itself, and it has been made worse by the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The Democratic Party wants to remove Joe Biden, due to his age and perilous health, but they can’t because they are panicked by Donald Trump.

The Democrats and the news media have so seriously demonised Donald Trump that the possibility of his being elected to the presidency is terrifying. Their scaremongering and attack adverts equating Trump with Hitler have totally spooked their people. Sadly, some Christian thinkers have joined in this excessive demonization of Trump.

So they have to keep tired Joe Biden on because they think that he is the only one who can keep Trump out. So they are clinging to Joe Biden in desperation because they are freaked out by Donald Trump.

I believe that the Democrats and the news media have greatly the danger of Trump. In my view, he was a mediocre and ineffective president last time around, and I don’t expect him to be any more effective than he was last time that he was president. (Sadly, the US political system seems to be designed to throw up mediocre leaders). There are several reasons for his failures.

• Trump is an extremely effective campaigner who loves debating hostile politicians and TV interviewers. He has the gift of the gab. But the skills that make him good at campaigning make him poor at governing. His rhetoric always outruns his ability to get things done. Changing reality is much tougher than speaking the truth.

• Trump is proud and arrogantly thinks that he knows everything. He is not willing to take advice. During his presidency, he preferred watching Fox News to reading detailed position papers.

• Trump is lazy, so he is not willing to put in the effort that a president leading a powerful country needs. He assumed that he could give orders and the people in his administration would just carry them out. He did not do the work necessary to ensure his instructions were followed.

• Trump made bad judgments when choosing the people to serve in his administration. He did not understand that when people with political skills are appointed to a political role, they bring a political agenda. Many of his appointees thwarted his policy goals. They need to be watched carefully to ensure that they are implementing the president’s policies. Trump seemed to be too lazy to do this, so many of his appointees were able to work against him and undermine his policy goals. Accordingly, he failed to achieve his main policy goal, which was to build a border wall to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico.

Dictator???
Many Democrats and commentators are suggesting that if Trump is elected, he will set himself up as a dictator. These claims are totally unrealistic.

Trump is too lazy and too old to become a dictator. Being a dictator is a young man’s game. Stalin and Hitler were both in their late forties when they gained power. I can’t think of any historical dictator who rose to power when they were nearly eighty.

A dictator has to control everyone who works for them. They have to watch all their lieutenants to check that they are doing what they are told and that they are not planning to overthrow their leader.

A dictator cannot rest, because there is too much to control, and someone will always be plotting against them. There is no time for golf. Donald Trump simply does not have the energy or the skills needed to be a dictator.

Washington is controlled by a massive and deeply entrenched political system. If they were to close ranks, Trump would not be able to control them. Even if he gets control of both houses of Congress, many of those elected would not dance to his tune. If they were to stand against him when he became autocratic, he would not have the energy or organisational skills to beat them.

Some commentators cite January 6th as an example of Trump trying to organise an insurrection to destroy the democratic system. For me, that event is proof that he is incapable of it.

I doubt that Donald Trump was trying to start an insurrection, but if he was, then all he achieved was a shamble. A few protestors broke into the Congress building, but when they got there, they did not know what to do, except to pose for selfies. There was no plan for actually seizing control. The protests took over the grounds of the New Zealand parliament for several weeks were far better organised, and they did not achieve anything either.

Trump’s legal efforts did not do any better. There were plenty of problems with the 2020 election process, due to absentee voting because of COVID. The politicised electoral systems were not up to the task due to inadequate registration processes, but Donald Trump was simply incapable of organising a single successful legal challenge. There was a lot of rhetoric, but now realistic action. The judicial system should not be trembling.

Another example of his incapability is the top-secret documents stored in his Palm Beach. His supporters assumed that he kept evidence that would expose the crimes of people in government. But it turned out that he had nothing. The documents were there because they had to be removed from the Whitehouse and he had not bothered to deal with them and he arrogantly assumed that he could declassify them.

There is simply no evidence that Trump is capable of becoming a dictator, even if he wanted to, which seems unlikely because he hates failure.

Organising an insurrection in an unstable with outside interference by a great power is not that easy. Getting an insurrection going in a developed country with a robust political system is extremely difficult. It is far more difficult than most commentators assume. The American Fathers managed to organise an insurrection that shook off the British, but they had two big advantages. Britain was constrained by its ongoing war with the French, which was a far greater threat to the British Empire. Secondly, the British were already getting tired of the fractious colonists and were soon glad to be rid of them. If the British had been able to put all their resources into the task, the revolution would most likely have failed.

I am certain that Donald Trump is incapable of organising a successful insurrection that would enshrine him as a dictator. If the United States ever becomes a dictatorship, it will be because the political establishment gets frightened during community breakdown, economic collapse or massive military defeat and installs a dictator to turn the situation around; it will be one of their own. The political establishment might be tempted to install a dictator who would have the power to bring about massive changes that they think their country needs, but which the electorate rejects. Any potential dictator will be a political insider, not someone from the fringes of power.