Today Dana Milbank argues what has been increasingly clear — and vastly comforting — throughout more than 100 days: that the "institutions [Trump] is assaulting daily are stronger than he thinks"; that his "autocratic instincts have been checked every step of the way" — from his court-halted Muslim ban to his cruel, congressionally rejected budget. Proceeds Milbank:
Many of us feared during the campaign that Trump would be a threat to democracy, operating outside the Constitution, using demagoguery to turn white Americans against immigrants and religious and racial minorities. That hasn’t happened, though not for lack of trying on Trump’s part. His instincts are authoritarian, but the Trump presidency has been one pratfall after another. He has proved to be a blundering bully and an inept autocrat…. This president may think himself unassailable, but Americans are seeing him for what he is: a tin-pot tyrant.
Although there exist (and always have existed) notable weaknesses among America's major institutions — Congress, the courts, the press — perhaps more notable are their enduring strengths. Trump has indeed been checked by the courts and countered by the press. As for this Republican Congress, its partisan protection of the president has been scarcely surprising, and absolutely nothing new. Its protection of Trump is also cracking, however, and could soon suffer an altogether seismic eruption.
Don't mistake: I'm far from being a Pollyanna when it comes to American politics and its assorted institutions. Representative democracy itself I hold in ceaseless suspicion, as does every responsible student of political philosophies. American democracy's repeated displays of mass ignorance and unforgivable indifference, which give us intolerable buffoons such as Trump, are of course plenty worrisome.
But, just as we hit bottom — or rather because we hit bottom — the American electorate historically has swung around and come to its senses. Well, we've hit bottom now; accordingly, Americans are seeing Trump for what he is: "a tin-pot tyrant" whose demagoguery, blunders and bullying and inept autocracy will not hold.
We'll come out of this — stronger.