The last two weeks would seem to demand another advance of the Fascism Watch. After all, we saw Trump and Nunes collaborate on a work of fantasy that was purpose-built to damage the justice system of the United States. Despite objections from both the FBI and the Department of Justice, Trump unclassified it in full and pushed the document back to the House where it was published without a single letter being redacted.
The White House then “considered” a memo drafted by Democratic members of Congress that pointed out the eras in the Nunes memo and debunked the central theme concerning Republican efforts to demean the FBI and halt Robert Mueller’s investigation. After waiting all week, on Saturday, White House counsel Don McGahn emerged to say that Trump would not be releasing the Democratic memo. His excuse — the FBI and DOJ asked that the memo not be released.
In fact, the exact same people appeared before Trump with concerns about both memos. When it came to the memo Trump wanted to release, he was completely deaf to those concerns. When it came to the memo showing that everything Trump had supported was less substantial than hot hair, suddenly those concerns from the DOJ became concerns.
The absolutely asymmetrical, partisan approach to documents on a matter of genuine national import would seem worth at least another minute of movement toward fascism midnight — especially as Trump continued to make false statements about the FBI in general and FBI leadership in particular.
Really, the only thing that stops the Fascism Watch from advancing is … incompetence. The last two weeks were a showcase of incompetence on the Republican side, from Nunes to Trump to Porter to Kelly to … everything. Trump has certainly demonstrated often enough that it’s possible to be both ridiculous and ridiculously destructive, but this past week has also made it clear that even a direct assault on democracy can be so poorly executed that it simply … fails. This week, these jackasses were simply too bad at everything to fear.
I’ll probably regret that when everyone is forced to take part in the All Americans Must Attend, two thousand mile, Pledge Allegiance to Trump Parade, at the end of which Trump will press his giant button while sitting on his golden throne.
But for now, let’s go read pundits.