Your turn: Donald Trump a dictator? Highly unlikely

This seems to be the Democratic Party theme for the next presidential election, assuming that Trump and Biden make it to the ballot box next November (for reasons of health, legal problems, low polling numbers, etc.).

Warning about an impending dictatorship is not a new tactic. I remember a phone call back in the early 1970s telling me that Nixon was reactivating the World War II prison camps, starting with one just outside Macomb, to hold his political enemies. People like me.

He didn’t, of course. For all his threats and his abuse of the FBI and CIA, his alcoholism and his likely mental health issues, Nixon never came close to being a dictator. He never controlled the press and he certainly never intimidated college professors.

Then we were warned about Ronald Reagan. Inexperienced, less than bright, and approaching dementia were the least of the reasons to beware of him. He was accused of being an extremist.

Then came George W. Bush, who would surely misuse the Patriot Act. If not Bush himself, then his vice president, Dick Chenny. Months passed, then years, and finally Bush’s detractors turned their attention to John McCain, who was too proud of being a maverick to be a dictator. Then, when Obama won the election, they all relaxed.

You might notice a consistency here: all the potential dictators were republicans.

A successful dictator needs the support of the military, the police, and a mass organization which can dispatch mobs to intimidate opponents. Control of the press is essential, and an unpopular opposition helps.

None of this fits any description of Donald Trump, except for the low polls of Joe Biden, and those probably reflect his declining physical and mental abilities. There's also probably some dissatisfaction with some of his policies, such as inflation, inflaming racial divisions, and illegal immigration.

Donald Trump has talked about his being a dictator for his first twenty-four hours in office, but those familiar with his sense of humor could see that he was laughing when he made that remark. His anger at the way he has been treated is a more serious matter, but it is doubtful that he can get cabinet members likely to support him unconditionally.

First, between 2016 and 2020 he dismissed so many talented people in humiliating fashion that the most intelligent potential candidates may decline to serve. Second, the Senate might not approve radical nominees. If he goes too far, a third impeachment is not beyond imagining.

For these reasons, his choice of vice-president is very important. If Trump listens to the arguments against impeaching Joe Biden, he might be tempted to choose the MAGA equivalent of Kamala Harris, a living insurance policy against being removed. Do I know what is in Trump’s mind? No, and I don’t think he knows half the time.

The problem for those of us who would rather avoid having to choose between Trump and Biden is that moderates do not do well in the rough and tumble of politics. Take the example of Romney, now mocked by both the left and the right.

He was a thoroughly decent man with a solid record of accomplishments. But he let the election of 2012 slip through his hands because he was too nice to challenge the last debate moderator or to attack Obama strongly.

The last point is critical. Rarely are people willing to fight or to die for moderation. Extreme positions call out the passionate, while moderates stand on the sidelines and call on everyone to “be nice.”

We should remember the words of Theodore Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Well, those who us who are too old for dust and sweat can still vote. We should do so, and we should tell others how and why.

William Urban is a Lee L. Morgan professor of history and international studies at Monmouth College.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: Donald Trump being a dictator? Highly unlikely