{"id":17546,"date":"2025-02-28T10:10:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T18:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17546"},"modified":"2025-08-04T15:24:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T22:24:46","slug":"my-latest-sna-vm-64-it-can-only-end-in-violence-on-how-ignoring-the-rule-of-law-will-mean-somebodys-going-to-get-hurt-and-in-a-society-that-goes-to-extremes-like-america-does-only-extreme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17546","title":{"rendered":"My latest SNA VM 64: “It can only end in violence” (Feb 26, 2025): On how ignoring the rule of law will mean somebody’s going to get hurt, and in a society that goes to extremes like America does, only extreme blowback is going to make the pendulum swing back."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0This month’s entry is again based on what’s on my mind these days as I teach courses on the state of American Democracy: \u00a0How it is being predictably and rapidly dismantled. \u00a0Here’s my article about consequences of acting lawlessly. \u00a0Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

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IT CAN ONLY END IN VIOLENCE<\/h4>\n

Subtitle:\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s what happens when the rule of law meets a lawless leader<\/h4>\n
Shingetsu News Agency, Visible Minorities column 64, February 26, 2025<\/h5>\n
By Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/h5>\n

Courtesy https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2025\/02\/26\/visible-minorities-it-can-only-end-in-violence\/<\/a><\/p>\n

We live in extreme times\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Time out for a second, for I have a confession to make.\u00a0 <\/span>Things are so extreme that columnists like me don\u2019t know where to begin.\u00a0 <\/span>Do I comment on a small thing within a deluge of events, and risk ignoring the big picture?\u00a0 <\/span>Or do I go big and realize I\u2019m completely out of my depth, especially measured up to the big-picture columnists successfully rising to the occasion, such as Anne Applebaum, Rebecca Solnit, Robert Reich, or Timothy Snyder? \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But writing things out is how columnists make sense of it all, so bear with me as I try.\u00a0 <\/span>Let me start again:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

WE LIVE IN EXTREME TIMES\u2026<\/h4>\n

We have an American president who has declared himself king (not only rhetorically, but pictorially), while the legislative branch abdicates its oversight powers, and the judiciary grants immunity.\u00a0 <\/span>Essential services are arbitrarily slashed by an unelected, unapproved, and unmonitored \u201cDepartment of Government Efficiency.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Civil Servants are fired for something as mundane as taking a DEIA course required under the previous Trump administration (Source:\u00a0 <\/span>Alex Wagner, \u201cTrumpland\u201d podcast, Feb 13).\u00a0 <\/span>Even reliable information is under assault, as top-level domains with the formerly trustworthy .gov label (see for example whitehouse.gov and doge.gov) are being degraded into blogs and twitter feeds.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, NATO is dying, with the likely victory of Russia as it absorbs Ukraine then reconstitutes its military.\u00a0 <\/span>We are regressing to a century where the world was carved into blocs run by regional powers (this time probably China, Russia and the US).\u00a0 <\/span>This will mean the end of equal sovereignty within a community of nations, as might makes right, and great powers invade at will (China taking Taiwan; the US taking Greenland, Panama, Gaza, even Canada?; and Russia snaffling sovereign countries of the former Soviet empire). \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The postwar order of interlocking trade that made the world generally rich and peaceful looks mortally wounded.\u00a0 <\/span>All thanks to one man, believing his place is secure in the \u201cGreat Man theory<\/a>\u201d of world history, who doesn\u2019t understand the concept of consequences for his actions because he has never faced any in his life.\u00a0 <\/span>He invokes a turn-of-the-century President (William McKinley) as his template while ignoring that era\u2019s unstable world order, where a few people\u2019s emotions led to stupid public policies, culminating in global conflicts ultimately costing close to 100 million lives. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is this happening? \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

THE ROOT CAUSE:\u00a0 <\/span>AMERICA\u2019S NATURAL-BORN EXTREMISM<\/h4>\n

If I could offer one generality that seems to cut through some of the noise, it would be that the Americans were always temperamentally ill-suited to be leaders on the world stage.\u00a0 <\/span>Pax Americana was fine while it was governed by the educated specialists, trained in useful skills such as international trade, diplomacy, military strategy, and the sobering science behind life and death decisions.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But among governing systems, democracy uniquely gives the public a say in foreign policy.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s why the policy experts had better make sure the general public knows the basics of what\u2019s going on, or is convinced by the aims of the mission.\u00a0 <\/span>Or bad things will happen when they go out and vote.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The governing class really dropped the ball on that.\u00a0 <\/span>The overall culture of secrecy and unaccountability behind America\u2019s military action, both in mandate and budget, was shrouded in \u201cofficial secrets\u201d and \u201cexecutive privilege.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>That not only made things ripe for unknown unknowns to be filled by internet conspiracy theories, but also ideal for the opportunistic \u201cAmerica First\u201d advocates.\u00a0 <\/span>Why is America spending so much of our money on weird things overseas when people at home are hurting?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, this political dynamic favoring isolationism could happen anywhere.\u00a0 <\/span>But here\u2019s where America is particularly susceptible:\u00a0 <\/span>It not only has the largest economic and military footprint in history (meaning uninformed Americans falling for irresponsible slogans affect the whole world order), but also a long history of taking things to logical extremes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

America was founded in extremism.\u00a0 <\/span>From the first settlers\u2019 cult-like devotions to superstitions leading to the Salem witch trials, to a system of slavery that overwhelmed entire economies (to the point where, in some places, slaves outnumbered the free population).\u00a0 <\/span>From a system of coexisting with your indigenous neighbors to a philosophy of \u201cterra nullius\u201d that denied their very existence.\u00a0 <\/span>Or worse, a system that justified the extremes of war and genocide in order to occupy an entire continent through \u201cManifest Destiny.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, these ideologies could be dismissed as excesses of an adolescent nation.\u00a0 <\/span>But even as the United States turns 250, plenty of extreme ideologies can be found in modern policy debates.\u00a0 <\/span>Consider these:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM<\/h4>\n

The belief that the United States is unique in its values, democracy, and development, therefore destined to place a special role on the world stage, has underpinned policies ranging from an economy open to trade deficits (even to the detriment of American workers) to the United States assuming the mantle of de facto world policeman (even if that means Americans dying in military adventurism abroad). \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Having been born and raised in America and being trained as an Eagle Scout, I too was once imbued the mindset of how America is special.\u00a0 <\/span>But after decades living abroad and becoming fluent in another language (America\u2019s brazen monolinguality is a related blind spot), I\u2019ve also developed the skill set of seeing that that other viable world views and systems are possible, and that America isn\u2019t #1 at everything.\u00a0 <\/span>Revisiting America, I find mine a pretty lonely view.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the logical extreme:\u00a0 <\/span>American Exceptionalism doesn\u2019t just mean it\u2019s special or unique.\u00a0 <\/span>It means America is also somehow an exception to international rules.\u00a0 <\/span>That given its unique role as keeper of the world order and promoter of the democratic peace, the United States should get special treatment immunizing it from the consequences of its actions.\u00a0 <\/span>How else does one justify the United States not joining the International Criminal Court, or arrogantly issuing \u201cCountry Reports on Human Rights Practices\u201d without including itself?\u00a0 <\/span>If American leaders or soldiers make decisions that result in war crimes, who gets prosecuted at The Hague?\u00a0 <\/span>Nobody.\u00a0 <\/span>And what are you going to do about it?\u00a0 <\/span>It makes international relations even more lawless.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But the biggest blind spot in American Exceptionalism could be American democracy\u2019s undoing:\u00a0 <\/span>the unfounded belief that authoritarianism couldn\u2019t happen here. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The logic is that America\u2019s amazing democracy wouldn\u2019t allow it.\u00a0 <\/span>Except that historically America has had many \u201cnear-misses\u201d with popular political extremists, including John Adams, Aaron Burr, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Leland Stanford, Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, Joe McCarthy, and George Wallace.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Americans can\u2019t accept that one authoritarian finally got through in 2016 and 2024, and watch agape as Trump and his cronies act in waves of extremes dismantling democratic institutions one by one.\u00a0 <\/span>So policymakers, media, and voters disbelieve their lying eyes and treat it as politics as normal.\u00a0 <\/span>This is extreme hubris. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

AMERICA AS THE COWBOY IN THE WHITE HAT<\/h4>\n

Another American extreme is cultural:\u00a0 <\/span>The conviction that Americans are always the winners and the heroes in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks in part to the dominance of American entertainment in media, coupled with the Americans\u2019 incessant need to feel entertained rather than informed, they aren\u2019t used to seeing themselves as the bad guys (in contrast to, say, the Germans).\u00a0 <\/span>American-sponsored torture and coups overseas?\u00a0 <\/span>Fuhgeddaboudit.\u00a0 <\/span>Show us Rambo blowing up Afghanistan and pass the popcorn. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If Americans ever make it outside the US (most don\u2019t; it wasn\u2019t until 2024<\/a> when 51% Americans even got a passport!), they\u2019re astounded to find themselves loathed and targeted abroad.\u00a0 <\/span>After all, American news media rarely reports on overseas events, and many Americans can\u2019t find a country on a map unless it involves an American military conflict.\u00a0 <\/span>Then that, of course, goes through a filter embedding the reporters and supporting the troops, so lessons aren\u2019t learned again.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The problem is that Americans have little sense of what\u2019s being done in their name.\u00a0 <\/span>A public ignorant of that elects extremely ignorant people in their own image, who in turn make irresponsible decisions affecting the lives and governments of people thousands of miles away.\u00a0 <\/span>And if there is any blowback, we American Heroes have been attacked, so America must retaliate.\u00a0 <\/span>Pass the popcorn.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

EMBEDDED STRUCTURAL EXTREMISM\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

Finally, we get to the fact that America\u2019s archaic democracy has mechanisms that embed extremism. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Start with the fact that America has an extreme number of elections and jobs elected\u2014the most in the world, in fact.\u00a0 <\/span>That means even fundamentally nonpartisan jobs (such as sheriffs and judges) become popularity contests.\u00a0 <\/span>While many dismiss this as true people power in action, American democracy goes to extremes in more important ways:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For example, the \u201cprimary system\u201d not only favors extremists choosing candidates, but also the most important election campaigns are now perpetual.\u00a0 <\/span>American elections are the most expensive in human history, thus easily susceptible to corruption.\u00a0 <\/span>Yet a Supreme Court stacked with free-speech extremists has consistently short-circuited attempts to rein in campaign finance reform by interpreting free speech in terms of money, which plainly gives the rich and corporations the loudest voices in an election.\u00a0 <\/span>National politicians are now forced to waste at least half their work time not on policymaking, but on fundraising.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Likewise, extremist candidates picked under extreme conditions end up passing extreme laws (such as banning abortion under all circumstances), and ask politicized judges to take things to their logical extremes. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Follow this logic:\u00a0 <\/span>New York City Mayor Eric Adams last September was indicted for bribery, fraud, and soliciting foreign campaign money.\u00a0 <\/span>However, the Department of Justice under Trump as of last week wants to drop those charges.\u00a0 <\/span>Why?\u00a0 <\/span>The Supreme Court last year granting Trump immunity while in office.\u00a0 <\/span>The reasoning?\u00a0 <\/span>Being sued or arrested for a crime is an interference with an elected official\u2019s duties. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thus Trump is trying to apply his immunity beyond the presidency to the mayoral level.\u00a0 <\/span>And beyond.\u00a0 <\/span>The DOJ is also arguing here that all politicians, or even political candidates, should be granted immunity, because being accused of a crime counts as election interference!\u00a0 <\/span>Run for office and immunize yourself from criminal prosecution?\u00a0 <\/span>Calling all crooks!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When extremism becomes this normalized, weird theories go from fringe to mainstream.\u00a0 <\/span>What other country would fall so hard for Milton Friedman\u2019s capitalistic zealotry, i.e., that unfettered market forces magically fix everything so we don\u2019t really need governments?\u00a0 <\/span>That hokum has evolved from Ronald Reagan\u2019s snake-oil \u201ctrickle-down economics\u201d to the current extremist Project 2025.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND<\/h4>\n

So what happens next? \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Extreme moves result in extreme blowback, and that means sometimes violence has to occur before people realize they went too far.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For example, it took extreme laws (the Alien and Sedition Acts, etc.) that nearly destroyed freedom of speech under the fledgling US Constitution before people voted out a stupid President John Adams.\u00a0 <\/span>However, the United States then swung to another extreme, becoming a one-party state for the next 30 years and enfranchising slavery as an economic and political institution.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It took a horrific Civil War before the United States finally outlawed that slavery.\u00a0 <\/span>But the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln followed by extreme interpretations of \u201cstates rights\u201d ensured that freed slaves still remained disenfranchised for nearly another century.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After 60 years of a \u201cspoils system\u201d embedding political cronyism, it took the assassination of President James Garfield by an enraged job seeker before people realized a politicized civil service was a bad idea. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It took the death of 146 workers in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire<\/a> and 172 children in the Collinwood School Disaster<\/a> before people realized that buildings needed safety protocols and fire escapes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It took the death of President Franklin Roosevelt before people realized that perpetual presidencies were a bad idea, and constitutionally enshrined term limits (a lesson Trumpophiles, recently creating a \u201cThird Term Project and Beyond<\/a>,\u201d seem to have unlearned).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It took the death of President John F. Kennedy before Civil Rights and Voting Rights were finally passed, thanks to a guilt-ridden election that gave rare supermajorities to one party.\u00a0 <\/span>(After all, thanks to the filibuster, it takes extreme support for anything to pass the Senate.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Likewise, I bet somebody gets hurt before things snap back from the extremes in the present Musk-Trump co-presidency.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

IT CAN ONLY END IN VIOLENCE<\/h4>\n

It\u2019s ironic that Trump cites McKinley as his template president, as he too went to extremes.\u00a0 <\/span>Presiding over a mercantilist tariff regime and stoking wars to annex territories overseas, McKinley saw society polarize into an oligarchic ruling class versus an exploited factory worker class, and the rise of the Communists and the domestic \u201cbomb-throwing anarchists.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of those anarchists assassinated McKinley.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The politics of assassination is not sustainable, and it\u2019s completely avoidable.\u00a0 <\/span>One of the reasons we have the rule of law is not only to temper extremism, but also because a functional society requires justice. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When justice is not served, and people with power act as if they are above the law, people resort to extrajudicial means.\u00a0 <\/span>If you go to the police after a crime but they do nothing about it, what else can you do?\u00a0 <\/span>You call the mafia and they break legs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We have the rule of law so the black market for justice does not thrive.\u00a0 <\/span>Consequences must happen one way or another.\u00a0 <\/span>And if lawlessness happens, that probably means violence.\u00a0 <\/span>A lawless Trump administration means that sooner or later somebody is going to get hurt. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I don\u2019t think things will end well.\u00a0 <\/span>Extremes result in counter-extremes.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s what history teaches us over and over again.\u00a0 <\/span>Learn it or else. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But America\u2019s exceptional case means that, due to its extremities, it was never designed to sustain a worldwide empire.\u00a0 <\/span>And now that its expertise is being politicized and removed, this is where the empire collapses.\u00a0 <\/span>That, or democracy will snap back and real reforms happen. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Either outcome might happen extremely fast.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019ll be here to muddle through with another column then.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

======================
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Excerpt: [Header] WE LIVE IN EXTREME TIMES\u2026<\/p>\n

The postwar order of interlocking trade that made the world generally rich and peaceful looks mortally wounded.\u00a0 All thanks to one man, believing his place is secure in the \u201cGreat Man theory\u201d of world history, who doesn\u2019t understand the concept of consequences for his actions because he has never faced any in his life.\u00a0 He invokes a turn-of-the-century President (William McKinley) as his template while ignoring that era\u2019s unstable world order, where a few people\u2019s emotions led to stupid public policies, culminating in global conflicts ultimately costing close to 100 million lives. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Why is this happening? \u00a0
\nTHE ROOT CAUSE:\u00a0 AMERICA\u2019S NATURAL-BORN EXTREMISM…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,22,19,20,26,13,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-cultural-issue","category-education","category-history","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-media","category-on-democracy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17546"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17589,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17546\/revisions\/17589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}