Now that Donald Trump has declared a national emergency on our southern border, he is being roundly condemned as a dictator. Those who hurl this epithet at him do not consider it figurative. They really believe he is a tyrant who must be stopped in his tracks.
Look, they tell us, at all of the illegitimate powers he has swept into his corrupt hands. See how he is violating the constitution and ignoring congressional prerogatives. This, they insist, is the way dictators behave, whether they rule over Nazi Germany, communist Russia, or the United States.
This litany would be somewhat more persuasive if liberals had not been calling Trump a tyrant since before he took office. From the beginning, he has been compared with fascists, Bolsheviks, and religious fanatics. Evil to the core, his goal has always been to enslave ordinary Americans.
To those on the political left, this sounds about right. They so hate Trump that everything he does becomes evidence of his malevolent megalomania. Vicious characterizations of his persona are repeated with such consistency that they seem true irrespective of their validity.
But is Trump really a dictator? According to the dictionary, a dictator is a person who rules by force. He is an autocrat who has absolute power over those he governs. So powerful are dictators that they can inflict any whim on the people they dominate.
Does this apply to Trump? Is he actually an evil despot who has imposed total control over our once contented democracy? I submit that none of this is the case; that the invectives tossed at him are hyperbole. They are rank exaggerations intended to diminish his standing.
Let us begin with Trump’s declaration of a national emergency. The president’s enemies tell us that this is a manufactured crisis. Let us suppose they are correct. Has this announcement led to oppressive measures? Is moving federal money around to build a wall despotic? Is this really an effort to undermine our democratic institutions?
If it is, other presidents have been equally guilty. In point of fact, executives in most bureaucracies do this with regularity. Unless they did, they would not have the flexibility to administer their organizations.
But let’s get back to what it is to be a dictator. Dictators throw people in jail. They deprive them of their freedom if they have the temerity to disagree with their leader. Has Trump done any of this? Of course, not. He has not even threatened to do it.
Well then, a dictator will at least quash dissenting opinion. He opposes freedom of speech; hence he punishes those who insult him. Many in the media are certain this applies to Trump. Hasn’t he characterized journalists as the enemy of the people? Hasn’t he accused them of disseminating fake news?
Obviously Trump has done these things. Nonetheless, has he closed down any newspapers? Has he jailed any reporters? Has he even sued them for libel? The answer to each of these questions is: No. He has merely pointed out the undeniable fact that modern journalism is deeply biased. This is a truth, not a variety of oppression.
The embarrassing fact is that Barack Obama did threaten to sue reporters. He did seek to intimidate some into remaining quiet about missteps in his administration. What was the reaction to this? It was mild because the press loved Obama.
Dictators also undermine public institutions. In order to concentrate power in their own hands, they steal it from others. Has Trump done this? We are told he behaved in this manner vis-a-vis his emergency, yet there were laws that permitted him to act as he did. Congress remains intact. So does the judiciary.
Once again it was Obama who did more to weaken our traditional forms of governance. Wasn’t it he who boasted that he had a pen and a phone that allowed him to get around congress? So where were the voices that branded him a dictator? They were absent because the media agreed with his usurpation of power.
Donald Trump may be an atypical president, but he is not an oppressor. He has stolen none of our freedoms and punished none of his detractors. If anything, it is his critics who abused their powers. Witness the Mueller probe that imprisoned people in order to extract information unfavorable to the president.
Although some may believe that Trump is a terrible president, they need to distinguish apples from oranges. If they don’t, they may one day clear the path for an actual dictator—probably a socialist one!
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Kennesaw State University
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