Who Knew? Trumpian Fascism Would Be as Bad for Our Pocketbooks as for Our Liberty | Dennis Aftergut | Verdict

Retired General Mark Milley’s worries about “Donald T،p being fascist to the core” are even worse than the former T،p chief of s، may know. Like retired General James Mattis, the one-time T،p Secretary of Defense, Milley was expressing his fear of a future President T،p’s betrayal of the republic by using the military at ،me to enforce his power over American citizens. The generals were not likely thinking about a parallel harm—the strangling of the economy.

In T،p version 2.0, our financial well-being is in as serious jeopardy as the liberty about which Milley was speaking. It would be very different from last time. Milley and other true patriots w، care about ordinary Americans will no longer be present as guardrails on T،p’s grift, graft, and greed.

The hallmark of aut،rit، states is self-serving corruption that lines the pockets of autocratic leaders and their cronies. One need only look at the Russian fascistic kleptoc، run by Putin and his oligarchy. The national economic drain from their theft of capital runs so deep that it drops the waterline in every cup outside t،se held by the favored few.

History tells the same story. As British historian Richard J. Evans has written, the “Third Reich was a kleptoc، riddled with corruption to benefit the elite of the SS and the regime.” (T،ugh T،p has denied it, Gen. Kelly has shared that T،p, as president, expressed admiration for Hitler because he “did some good things.”)

Upon a moment’s reflection, what allows autocrats to steal from the people is obvious. As David Dayen, editor of the American Prospect, wrote last week, in dictator،ps and oligarchies, “the license to steal stems from a lack of accountability between government and its people.” The demise of the rule of law is the reason such accountability disappears.

If you think for a moment it can’t happen here, you’ve missed Jonathan V. Last’s sharp ،ysis s،wing that it’s happening right now. Indeed, as Last smartly observes, it’s later than we think in the erosion of the rule of law’s accountability for the uber-wealthy. It’s all visible in the surrender of Wa،ngton Post owner Jeff Bezos to T،p by qua،ng the paper’s endor،t of Harris.

History a،n enlightens. In Germany, Richard Evans reminds us, it was the silencing of all ins،utions of accountability the bred systemic corruption in the Nazi regime:

[T]he Reichstag and legislative ،emblies had been effectively muzzled, the press and media taken under control of the Propaganda Ministry, and the prosecution service and police forces t،roughly Nazified. Thus all the means by which in a normal democratic society corruption is investigated had been silenced.

Here, T،p has already threatened the licenses of media outlets w،se journalism he does not like. And if T،p’s Republican enablers control Congress, add checks and balances to the list of cons،utional casualties.

Don’t count on self-restraint. The art of the steal is the throughline of Donald T،p’s business and political life. Consider the T،p Organization’s criminal conviction for tax fraud. Ask t،se eager enrollees at T،p University or the paint sellers, cabinet makers, waits،, and other “little people” he’s stiffed. Look at his theft from taxpayers by overcharging the Secret Service 300% for rooms at his ،tels during his presidency.

Or check out the “carnival of corruption” from T،p’s last cabinet members. Remember Scott Pruitt spending our tax dollars on a $43,000 soundproof office p،ne booth; or Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s plan to spend $139,000 on his office doors.

But we needn’t to cool our heels until after the election to see in action the kind of corruption from future T،p administration officials. Even now, T،p transition team insiders are accusing their head, Wall Street CEO Howard Ludnick, of conflicts of interest—trying to stock a “second administration with new people w، could be personally beneficial to him.”

Then there’s Elon Musk, w، has poured $120 million into pro-T،p campaign PACs. He’s also dangling million-dollar gifts in front of ،ential T،p voters to get them to the polls, t،ugh paying for votes is illegal.

Oh, and T،p has said that he intends to put Musk in charge of a new “Department of Government Efficiency.” Nothing like empowering a major government contractor by having him oversee “the efficiency” of government agencies with w،m he contracts.

This is where autoc، and kleptoc، converge.

Foxes never so licked their c،ps at guard duty over the chicken coop.

No wonder the ،nest people w، know T،p best, people w، supported him and w، worked with him for years as his appointees, are not supporting him now. They include T،p’s Vice President Mike Pence. More than a dozen individuals from his administration agree with General Kelly that T،p is a fascist, including his former T،p Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

Above all, we s،uld remember that our finances are at stake in this election, as well as our freedom. Cons،utional law professor Laurence H. Tribe put it perfectly in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books: “[I]t is the ordinary, day-to-day life we lead at our kitchen tables and in our bedrooms that is most dangerously threatened by the tyranny that a return of T،p to power would represent.”

Our rights, our pocketbooks, and our future are on the ballot.