The first fortnight of Donald Trump’s presidency has been an unrelenting series of man-made horrors, writes Charlie Samuda
Netflix’s show Designated Survivor is not very good, but it does make a point about the different sources of political power in the United States. In the very first episode an attack on Capitol Hill during the State of the Union leads to the housing secretary, played, unconvincing, by Keiffer Sutherland, becoming an unlikely commander-in-chief.
So shaky is the new president’s authority that – spoiler alert – the fictional governor of Michigan feels free to take matters into his own hands and indiscriminately arrest local Muslims in response to the attack. When trying to put a stop to this, the new president finds that in practice, his power is surprisingly limited.
In the real world it is the president who is targeting Muslims. Unlike a television show, where crises appear and disappear with each episode, the first fortnight of Donald Trump’s presidency has been an unrelenting series of man-made horrors.
With so many dreadful decisions, from so many different quarters it is hard for the Democrats to know where to start in responding to this onslaught. To complicate things, the different sources of political power in the US mean there are many different answers to the question: who governs?
Congress is one answer. After the election many clung to the idea that, despite their spinelessness during the campaign, ‘moderate’ republicans on Capitol Hill would keep Trump in check. Whatever hopes there ever were of the Senate blocking extreme cabinet appointment have faded. A small silver lining is that at the time of writing, confirmation of Betsy DeVos as education secretary was in doubt after Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine voiced concerns about her total lack of qualifications for the role. Encouragingly, both said this was due to the number of calls her office had received opposing the appointment. Fights over healthcare, immigration and the civil rights will be much harder to win and anyone pinning their hopes on congress acting on impeachment will be waiting a long time.
Judges have always shaped American politics. The next big fight will be over the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as supreme court justice. Senate Democrats – furious that their opponents refused to give Barack Obama’s nominee a fair hearing just months ago – can try to block the appointment. This would mean another fight over legitimacy if Republicans choose to ‘go nuclear’ and to carry out an unprecedented change of rules in the upper house to get their way. Leaving the supreme court aside, lower courts also matter a lot and hear far more cases than supreme court justices. The judicial stay that paused parts of Trump’s Muslim ban over the weekend came from an American Civil Liberties Union case in a federal court in Brooklyn, not Washington.
Recent history shows that even after the courts have spoken, the state’s word is not final. The weekend saw reports of border officials refusing to comply with the courts verdict on the immigration ban over the weekend, an early warning of what may happen when the judiciary tries to limit Trump. Rulings upholding Obamacare did not stop conservative states doing everything in their power to slow down the local implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Just a few years ago many Republican politicians rushed to embrace Kim Davies, a Kentucky county clerk who refused to sign marriage licences for same-sex couples despite her legal obligations.
State houses and governor’s mansions are also sources of political power. In a mirror image of the Michigan governor in Designated Survivor, some progressive local politicians have led the way in standing up to Trump. Here in Boston, Mayor Marty Walsh has refused to abandon his support for the town remaining a sanctuary city – one that refuses to enforce extreme measures against undocumented immigrants. Others, such as Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, have also stood firm. These cities have been targeted by the White House, but in practice the president has limited powers to stop them. The best hope for action on climate change is also at the local level since many mayors and governors will press ahead with environmental reforms regardless of decisions made in Washington. What it means for the long-term health of the federal system to have mayors and governors constantly going their own way is anyone’s guess.
Trump has already made the unthinkable possible in foreign and domestic policy. Pointing to the constitution in response feels hollow and moves such as putting white-supremacist Steve Bannon on the National Security Council show just how much damage a president can do without touching congress, the courts or the states.
So there are no guarantees that American democracy will be saved by its institutions. If there is some comfort to be found it is that America’s multi-layered system has always contested power and questioned the legitimacy of its presidents. But Trump’s attack on each layer of government means that these check and balances may not hold up forever.
For now, though, his tiny hands can only reach so far.
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Charlie Samuda is a former adviser to the Labour party and is studying at the Harvard Kennedy School. He tweets at @CharlieSamuda
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