-By Warner Todd Huston
One of the many reasons anti-Trumpers say Donald Trump is unsuitable to be our president is that he is an authoritarian and might make for a sort of dictator in the oval office. But whatever Trump’s tendencies, it seems pretty clear that this fear is an absurd one.
Firstly we have to realize that having a dictator in office is a legitimate fear. Barack Obama has spent eight years proving to be the most dictatorial and lawless president in American history. It is also completely clear that Hillary has inculcated Obama’s lesson well and will be as bad or worse than he has been.
Democrats today don’t give a fig about the Constitution or “the law” and will do anything they want until they find opposition too strong to over come. And even in that case they will just put whatever is being opposed on a back burner to be raised later as opposed to abandoned. The fact that the law would prevent them from their actions is meaningless to them. Might makes right to a Democrat and the rule of law has no meaning and Hillary will likely charge forward and do anything she wants and wait to be opposed afterward instead of fearful of being opposed at the start. It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission, as the saying goes.
That Hillary will certainly be at least the second most dictatorial president in history is inarguable.
That being said, what about Trump? I would tend to agree that Trump evinces authoritarian tendencies. His boisterous personality and combative attitude would tend to make one assume he would rather make decrees based on whim rather than issue policies based on a careful consideration of the law. I would also agree that it all isn’t very presidential.
But does this make him “just as bad as Hillary”? Any review of the news this week would tend to destroy that claim.
Right off the top, the biggest difference is that Hillary’s dictatorial leanings will be aimed at pushing a hardcore, Marxist, left-wing agenda while Trump’s possible authoritarian style will be a hit-or-miss effort to push whatever idea ops into his mind–one unguided by Hillary’s dangerous left-wing ideology. While both may be bad, Hillary’s agenda makes her tyrannical tendency far more dangerous than Trump’s whimsy.
Still, that is even beside the point for why Trump’s authoritarian bent is nowhere near the threat to the nation Hillary’s represents.
This week’s news shows us why Trump would be little threat. The news this week is filled to the brim with Republicans already coming out in opposition to Donald Trump–yes, even before he wins the White House.
Just look at some of these stories. A headline in the L.A. Times blares, “‘A sense of panic is rising’ among Republicans over Trump, including talk of what to do if he quits.” Another by NBC insists, “Donald Trump Pushes Republican Party to Its Breaking Point.” There are dozens like this.
Then there is the growing number of stories celebrating the Republicans who have come out forcefully in opposition to Trump. We have California’s Meg Whitman torpedoing her nascent political career by leading a Republicans for Hillary effort. We see retiring loser Rep. Richard Hanna of New York insisting he won’t vote for Trump. These two join a long list of other prominent GOPers and Republican establishment types proud to be #NeverTrumpers.
Why does this matter? Because what we see here is that after eight years of allowing Barack Obama walk all over them, after a decade of bending over backwards for Democrats, after ten years or more of offering not a single raised hand in opposition to Obama and Democrat agenda, these Republicans have finally found someone thy will vociferously oppose.
With this evidence in hand, do you really imagine that Trump would be allowed to become the sort of dictator that Obama has been?
Hardly.
Should a president Trump make his first attempt to emulate Obama’s authoritarian, lawless scheme of leadership, the GOP would mass together stronger than ever to become Trump’s biggest roadblock. You can be sure the GOP would work overtime to keep Trump in check.
And what of Hillary? Just as they did for Obama, if she were to win the White House the weak-spinned GOP would fold like a broken card table and would offer her no opposition whatever.
So, if you are worried about stopping an authoritarian president, your vote should be for Trump because despite his tendencies, he’d never be allowed to become such a threat. Hilary, on the other hand, would have nothing standing in her way, least of all the Republican Party.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing news, opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that wrote articles on U.S. history for several American history magazines. Huston is a featured writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart News, and he appears on such sites as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, BizPac Review, and many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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