A Little Concern Trolling

I am not a conservative and disagree with almost all of the Republican agenda. 

But suppose that you disagree with me on that. You aren't troubled by income inequality. You think that globalism and international trade are bad. You think that abortion is murder. You think that it is appalling that more than ten million people are present in the United States in violation of U.S. immigration laws. You think that workplace safety regulations are too strict. You think that child labor is a good thing. You think that healthcare isn't a human right. You think it is too easy to immigrate to the U.S. You think that widespread civilian gun ownership is a good thing. You think that the death penalty should be vigorously, frequently, and promptly imposed. You think that harsh penalties for drug dealers and drug users is the solution to drug abuse. You think that family values are being threatened. You think that much of what colleges and universities do has little value and is indoctrinating young adults into liberal ideologies. You want to encourage people to be more religious. You think that taxing unearned income reduces economic growth. You think that the government should do more to encourage patriotism. You think that affirmative action policies are unjustly displacing large numbers of more qualified straight white men with women and minorities and gay people in selective colleges and in the workplace.

None of this implies that you need to conduct politics in the way that Donald Trump's MAGA movement does.

* You can advance your political agenda with laws adopted by Congress and regulations vetted through the Administrative Procedures Act, instead of unilateral Executive Orders that haven't been vetted to see if they are legal (or just if they make any sense).

* When you consider issuing Executive Orders, in addition to vetting them with legal counsel that displays some professional independence, you can confer with the people whom you appointed to positions relevant to those Executive Orders and ask for their input, before issuing them.

* You can nominate competent people who personal merit qualifies them to do the jobs for which they receive political appointments, even if you ultimately want to make big changes in the policies the agencies you are appointing them to, that you are legally obligated to carry out until the policies are changed.

* You can refrain from nominating people as political appointees when they are known to be, or have been credibly accused of being drunks, drug addicts, conspiracy theorists, liars, rapists, sexual harassers, Holocaust deniers, or otherwise lack good character.

* Your elected officials and political appointees can refrain from using public office for their personal benefit, and you can hold them accountable when they do try to receive personal benefit from their public offices.

* You can refrain from pardoning violent and serious criminals who are unreformed simply because they support you politically.

* You can refrain from using your public office to seek revenge and settle scores from your personal life.

* You can seek appropriations from Congress for the money to deport people who aren't lawfully in the U.S. in a manner that affords people you are seeking to deport due process in the course of determining if they are really deportable.

* You can obey court orders, and appeal them or change the law, if you disagree with them.

* You can refrain from creating doubt over whether you will obey court orders, or the law, or the U.S. Constitution.

* You can refrain from illegally impounding funds already appropriated by Congress and focus on having Congress refrain from making similar appropriations in future years.

* You can refrain from trying to arrest, deport, and baselessly prosecute people just because they are your political appointees.

* You can admit when you make a mistake and try to make it right when you do.

* You can deliver speeches and statements in expletive free complete sentences that aren't in all capital letters, and have correct spelling and punctuation and grammar.

* You can dress appropriately at state funerals, and can make an effort to not fall asleep in public when you attend them.

* You can refrain from posting whatever comes into your head on social media at three in the morning, without consulting any of your own advisors, when you hold high political office.

* You can refrain from making statements that you plan to violate the U.S. Constitution which you are sworn to uphold, for example, by ignoring constitutional term limits.

* You can refrain from saying things that you know to be untrue, and from saying that things are true when you have no idea whether or not they are true.

* You can refrain from making unprovoked threats to invade or annex some or all of the territory of sovereign countries.

* You can refrain from trying to ban books from university libraries and the Library of Congress.

* You can refrain from trying to fire federal employees you do not have the legal authority to fire.

* You can support people running for public office who have a basic grasp of geography, history, basic scientific concepts, and the U.S. Constitution.

* You can refrain from trying to deport legal immigrants because they don't share your political views.

* You can insist that your elected officials and political appointees are transparent about their personal financial interests, and, if you are running for President (or are the President), can disclose your tax returns.

* You can insist that all public officials, even the President, refrain from committing crimes and be held accountable if they commit them.

* You can refrain from challenging the validity of settled law.

* You can make a point of obeying the law in the course of your governance, even when there may be no one in a position to challenge you for not doing so in court because no one has standing to do so, or because no one knows that you broke the law.

* You can staff agencies at levels necessary for them to carry out their legal duties until such time as you secure changes in the law that change their legal duties.

* You could refrain from trying to undermine election results.

* You could condemn the use of violence as a political tactic.

These are not exactly big asks. They are really a bare minimum for any elected official of any political ideology. Before President Trump, almost all Republicans believed in  these points too. They don't prevent you from advancing your conservative political agenda. But this would make your movement more credible with decent people and would prevent the country from slipping into fascism and ending democracy.

The problem, of course, is that not doing these things is a big part of what makes Trump popular with his base, because a stunning share of Americans are perfectly happy to live in a fascist authoritarian dictatorship, as long as the dictator hates the same people that they hate.