On a cold, clear night in Washington D.C., some three years ago, I ended our first nation-wide speaking tour on the climate crisis. To mark the moment, I walked the city’s most iconic path.
At its start, framed by the flag and the moon, our illuminated Capitol presented itself. Coupled with recognition of our darkening time, barely nine months post the January 6, 2021, insurrection attempt, the image induced me to silent prayer for the survival of our constitutional republic, and its rule of law.
We have learned, in recent days, that one US military general after the other considers the former President, a convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender, also to be a fascist – indeed, “fascist to the core,” in the evocative words of retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley.
And so, at this writing, democracy itself appears to be on the ballot. As 700+ national security professionals declared in September, “[t]his election is a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness, between democracy and authoritarianism.” In support, they remind us all that the Republican nominee was “the first president in American history to actively undermine the peaceful transfer of power, the bedrock of American democracy,” and that he has called for the “termination” of parts of the Constitution.”
“More than 700 national security professionals have declared the election [to be] a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness, between democracy and authoritarianism.“
The national security declaration preceded recent revelations from the former President’s longest-serving chief of staff. Via interviews published in The Atlantic, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, Retired Marine General John Kelly recounted that the current Republican nominee, when President, had regularly lamented that the nation’s top military brass were insufficiently loyal to him personally, at one point exclaiming to Kelly “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” that is, “Hitler’s Generals.”
Mindful that in June 2020 the former President had sought to employ the military against civil rights protestors, General Kelly has set out to explain to us all that his former boss’ determination to use the US military within our borders, to exact vengeance or secure political aims, is simply not “The American Way.”
What does this have to do with CPI Initiative’s central concern to effectively address the climate crisis, where time is rapidly running out?1I should note that at least one conservative legal scholar, retired federal appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig, would strongly disagree with my having even raised the question. In an extraordinary statement, Judge Luttig has explained that for this specific election he is profoundly “indifferent” to “any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law. . . .” Nearly everything.
For one, the former President, before an audience of fossil fuel titans, reportedly “vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted.” For another, an independent analysis by Carbon Brief earlier this year projected that a second Trump presidency “could lead to an additional 4bn tonnes of US emissions by 2030” and additional “global climate damages worth more than $900 billion.”
More fundamentally, real progress under our system of democratic federalism requires respect not only for the rule of law, but also for the fair-hearing contemplation of reforms advanced by concerned citizens. Indeed, our nation’s founders sought, by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, to guarantee the right of the people “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Under any reasonable interpretation of that right, then, any impacted person is entitled at least to seek help from any of, or all three branches of our federal government, for relief against mortal threats.
Particularly here, concerted, timely action by all three branches of our federal government is needed to respond effectively to the widespread and dire risk of accelerating global warming. Will that even be feasible where a corrupt and increasingly unstable man, employing patently authoritarian rhetoric, returns to power and proceeds to punish or exact vengeance on political opponents and others on his perceived “enemies from within” list,2 or else, to reward his benefactors (see, e.g., here and here) — and who, by his actions, sows “chaos, instability, paralysis,” or worse?
I wish, quickly here, to add one thing more: No matter the soon-to-come outcome, I do not think the People will long countenance a descent into despotism within our borders. Because, to appropriate General Kelly, that is not the American Way. In the long run, the rule of law will out and the impulse to democracy will prevail.
For now, though it is hardly convenient, I’ve decided to travel to Philadelphia, birthplace of the nation, to walk precincts, listen to the people, and further contemplate our common future. In an exceedingly close race even a few strategic phone calls can decide it all, no matter your favored candidate, so there is something each of us can do, in these last remaining hours.
Footnotes:
- 1I should note that at least one conservative legal scholar, retired federal appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig, would strongly disagree with my having even raised the question. In an extraordinary statement, Judge Luttig has explained that for this specific election he is profoundly “indifferent” to “any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law. . . .”
- 2