The Rule Of Law Versus The Rule Of Fear April 4, 2024 A Study in Senate Cowardice, Jeffrey Goldberg’s piece in the Atlantic, begins: In late June of 2022, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump-administration aide, provided testimony to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. This testimony was unnerving, even compared with previous revelations concerning Donald Trump’s malignant behavior that day. Hutchinson testified that the president, when told that some of his supporters were carrying weapons, said, “I don’t fucking care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the fucking mags away.” He was referring to the metal detectors meant to screen protesters joining his rally on the Ellipse, near the White House. A short, gripping read. Because what’s really at stake in November, when we say . . . “democracy is at stake” . . . is whether we’re going to live under the rule of law — imperfect as our justice system is — or under the rule of fear, as they do in “democracies” like Russia or North Korea, both of whose leaders Trump admires. Putin wins the popular vote by a landslide, as Trump claims to have done, except that if you run against him, he murders you; and if you protest his war, you go to prison for 15 years. It’s even worse in North Korea. It’s Stalinesque. Already in this country, you have to be somewhat brave to defy Trump — and he’s just a criminally indicted private citizen out on bail. Imagine what it would be like if he were given the power to wreak his promised “vengeance and retribution.” You have to be a little brave, if you’re a Republican, to cross Trump, especially if you can’t afford round-the-clock security. He rules by fear. We had a solution to the border crisis that would have passed Congress by a wide bipartisan margin, but Trump ordered it killed. Trump needs the crisis for his campaign — needs “vermin” to rail against, just as another spell-binding orator did 90 years ago — and most Republicans in Congress are afraid to cross him. You have to be a little brave, if you’re a poll worker or a judge or a witness or a CEO or an election official whom he might expose to the wrath of his mob. And once the rule of law is replaced by the rule of fear, there’s no going back. Just ask the Russians or the Haitians or the Venezuelans. “It can’t happen here.” Oh, but it can. Please help if you can, so it won’t. BONUS The Great Struggle for Liberalism, by conservative columnist David Brooks, begins: In 1978, the Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn gave a commencement address at Harvard, warning us about the loss of American self-confidence and will. “A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today,” he declared. Today, those words ring with disturbing force. The enemies of liberal democracy seem to be full of passionate intensity — Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Donald Trump, campus radicals. Meanwhile, those who try to defend liberal norms can sometimes seem like some of those Republicans who ran against Trump in the 2016 primaries — decent and good, but kind of feckless and about to be run over. Into this climate emerges Fareed Zakaria’s important new book, Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash From 1600 to the Present. One of the powerful features of this book is that Zakaria doesn’t treat liberal democratic capitalism as some set of abstract ideas. He shows how it was created by real people in real communities who wanted richer, fuller and more dynamic lives. His story starts in the Dutch Republic in the 16th century. The Dutch invented the modern profit-seeking corporation. The Dutch merchant fleet was capable of carrying more tonnage than the fleets of France, England, Scotland, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and Portugal combined. By the 18th century, Amsterdam’s per capita income was four times that of Paris. . . . An interesting piece . . . about the importance of finding purpose in life. And I just started listening to Fareed’s important new book. DOUBLE BONUS I saw SUFFS last night. So good. Grab tickets.