Throughout most of American political life, the various parties had fought each other long and hard but generally with a certain respect for the other side, and with a tendency to meet somewhere in the middle in order to get things done. But the far-right Trumpians -- and their establishment-Republican enablers -- decided to play a different kind of politics, aimed at the utter destruction and marginalization of their opponents in order to establish permanent one-party rule from an extremist ideological position.
It was a kind of political thuggery that was more reminiscent of Stalinist Russia and Hitler's Germany. The Constitution was mangled; laws passed by the legislature were ignored; effective oversight of the leader was non-existent; voting rolls and elections were manipulated. In short, ideology, tribalism, authoritarianism, and Trump's greed-obsessed self-promotion ruled all. In effect, our democratic presidency had become a kind of feudal monarchy, and for a country that had established itself in opposition to a tyrannical king, this contradiction in American political life could not last forever.
Most Americans, coming from a long tradition of more genteel political battles, for the longest time didn't know how to confront this mendacious, authoritarian juggernaut that was rolling across the Constitution and distorting so many of our governmental institutions. Though the progressive blogosphere had agitated against the Trump administration early on, it took a long while before the general public caught on (aided by the constant revelations of new and more reprehensible scandals in key newspapers and websites) and the opposition built to critical mass. These oppositional alliances led to the demise of not only the Trump Administration but to the rapid decline of the ideological fanaticism and racist factions behind it.
The important thing I want to emphasize is that the United States under Trump/Pence came mighty close to a totalitarian, fascist society. Had the Democrats, and estranged Republicans and independents buoyed by public outrage, not stood up to the Trump Administration and confronted them time after time directly and with courage, there might well not have been a Restoration period in American history. Withdrawing funding for the Iraq and Afghan Wars, and the initiation of impeachment proceedings, appear to have been key precipitating factors that fomented the essential momentum for the swift exit of Trump and Pence from the scene. Without those moves, American democracy might well have been strangled, and even more destructive wars abroad might have been initiated.
"HARD IMPERIALISM" DAYS ARE OVER
BW: Finally, Professor Corker, could you sum up what your historical research reveals for our own time?
The forces of worldwide change were manifesting themselves before Trump and Pence, to be sure, but their Administration hastened the slide of American power and dominance in the world by their lack of creativity in dealing with these changes. They relied on the long-discredited and ineffective "hard imperialism" that did little but reveal their technological might's inherent weakness in dealing with the many low-tech nationalist rebellions, and the scary reality of cyber warfare.
Thankfully, Restoration leaders toiled intelligently and mightily to undo much of the great damage done abroad, and to right the ship of state domestically as well, returning to the type of Constitutional rule that shone as a beacon and model for many societies abroad. It took many years to undo most of the damage done to our political system, but most citizens would agree that it has been well worth the difficult effort and has diluted the impact of worldwide terrorism.
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