Historically, “running the gauntlet” meant the condemned had to walk (or was dragged) between double rows of cudgeling persons – persons with clubs. Another person walked in front of the offender with a sword to prevent him from running away.
Trump and Trumpers are an existential threat to our Republic. The president of the United States is an authoritarian-minded demagogue who views checks and balances as outdated nuisances not sacred principles.
Trump’s executive orders are being used to “club” checks and balances and separation of powers daily, with the Republicans winking and nodding with approval.
The United States is running the Trump Gauntlet.
The “cudgeling persons” are Attorney General Barr, Secretaries Pompeo and DeVos, Senators Graham, Johnson, and Grassley, with Senate leader McConnell in the shadows, leading from behind.
The “clubs” being used to harm our Republic fall into three categories: damage to the rule of law; damage to norms; and normalization of authoritarian tactics.
Damage to the rule of law
First, Trump tries to undercut the rule of law to advance his political goals or to save his own skin.
He’s called for the jailing of political opponents while pardoning political allies. He has fired Inspectors General because they were investigating him.
He forced out his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, because Sessions wouldn’t sabotage an independent investigation about Russia helping the 2016 Trump campaign.
Trump’s current attorney general, William Barr, has lied about the Mueller investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, even while Trump continues to defer to Vladimir Putin on domestic and foreign policy that helps Russia and exposes the United States. Barr has also supported the Republican Senate’s bogus investigation of Joe Biden in Ukraine and plans to use it for an October surprise to “club” Joe Biden’s candidacy. This will be 2016 Clinton emails 2.0.
Trump is “clubbing” the integrity of elections, by spreading lies about voter fraud and mail-in voting, sabotaging the Constitutionally-mandated Postal Service to discourage sending ballots in by mail, and by doing nothing to deter attacks on our elections by Russia, China, and Iran – all with “cudgeling” from Moscow Mitch’s refusal to fully fund election security and the Post Office.
All these actions implicitly “club” the rule of law — the ultimate basis of any Democratic Republic.
Damage to norms
Second, Trump has taken a “club” to democratic norms — the unwritten guidelines of political behavior that give meaning to our democratic institutions. Trump and his allies have “clubbed” countless ethics norms while simultaneously introducing an extreme level of nepotism and cronyism.
It’s hard to decide which “club” hurts the US more: the president’s unqualified daughter helping to pick the next World Bank president, or putting Eric Trump’s wedding planner in charge of all federal housing in New York and New Jersey?
Trump has “clubbed” the norm of using law enforcement according to law instead of politics, the norm of intelligence activity under the law not as a domestic weapon, including honest bipartisan congressional oversight, as well as basic norms like avoiding conflict of interest instead of in your face grifting, and the White House staying out of justice department investigations – Trump and Trumpers have “clubbed” all the essential elements of the rule of law.
Meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister in public view at Mar-a-Lago where guests were allowed to sit in; meeting with Vladimir Putin without an American translator or scribe behind closed doors in Helsinki; and spending millions of taxpayer’s dollars at his resorts housing his entourage on foreign and domestic trips – all have destroyed 244 years’ worth of norms for our Republic.
Damage of authoritarianism
The third, and perhaps the most devastating “club”: Trump has injected authoritarianism into the bloodstream of the Republican Party. And one example of that is his treatment of the press.
The biggest threat to an authoritarian government is a free press. Trump has relentlessly “clubbed” our free press. He has called journalists the “enemy of the people.” Trump defended Saudi Arabia’s government after its murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a US citizen and Washington Post journalist.
Subsequently, a die-hard MAGA disciple sent pipe bombs to Trump’s favorite media targets.
Trump is the first President who has publicly condoned acts of violence against journalists – and with absolutely zero push back by Republicans like McConnell.
Many Republicans now agree that the press is an “enemy of the people” rather than an important part of democracy. This has become a political pandemic infecting those who hate the press like any good autocrat.
The mention of violence against journalists — who his rabid supporters see as the “enemy” — sends his red-hat-wearing mob into a frenzy. They cheer and whoop and clap with glee.
The damage this gauntlet has done to our nation
Our democratic republic has been “clubbed” beyond recognition as it has tried to run the Trump Gauntlet this past three years. Our biggest test is yet to come – the 2020 election.
Can the pillars of our democratic republic be salvaged? Only time will tell. Even when Trump is finally gone, the damage to the rule of law, to our norms of governance, and to the essence of our democratic republic itself will take a long time to repair.
The work begins by getting Trump out of office. But once that is done, we must name the damage that has been done, then begin working together to repair it, and to protect our nation from such damage happening again.
Otherwise, under some future would-be autocrat, we will have to run this gauntlet again.
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