Donald Trump now has everything he needs to institute American fascism. The astounding majority opinion in Trump v. United States functions like the Nazi’s Enabling Act of 1933, placing Trump above the rule of law. And Saturday’s assassination attempt in Butler County constitutes Trump’s Reichstag fire, goading the MAGA faithful to carry out their leader’s dog-whistled threats.
The peril was evident to the BBC’s Gary O’Donoghue, who was on the ground at the Trump rally, metaphorically and literally, as the shooting began. Before O’Donoghue even left the venue, he saw an electronic sign board on a vehicle inciting viewers: “Democrats attempted assassination — President Trump.”
Atlantic Monthly’s David Frum took the words out of my mouth. Among Frum’s observations in his new essay, “The Gunman and the Would-Be Dictator,” is this: “Nobody seems to have language to say: We abhor, reject, repudiate and punish all political violence, even as we maintain that Trump remains himself a promoter of such violence, a subverter of American institutions and the very opposite of everything decent and patriotic in American life.” Frum began his career writing speeches for George W. Bush.
Our time as a nation of laws is running out.
Eugene V. Torisky Jr.
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