The conservative legal movement has long sought to rein in the administrative state. Trump's "deep state" attack plans build on that — but also would eventually conflict with it.
What makes Trumpists - who now dominate Republicans entirely - so dangerous is their determined erosion of legal norms. Inevitably the pattern will result in wholesale flouting of law. It has already in instances. Remove the professional civil service. Then watch law, regulation, customary usage, and all deference to standard practice yield to whim. Already high courts wobble. Force, not law, will govern if American voters install a tyrant.
Conservative legal scholars' attack on the administrative state is purely situational. They mean the New Deal regulatory state. They are very likely to have no quarrel with a Trump-filled administrative state which weighs in heavily on the side of their preferred interest groups or policy goals: anti-labor, anti-environmental regulation, immigration suppression, etc. etc. Taking every issue to the Supreme Court is too time-consuming if the same goal can be accomplished by presidential-led administrative fiat.
How do you reason that trump, who wants to de-regulate and reduce the size and scope of the government, is an authoritarian? Doesn't reducing the size of the government go against the authoritarian trope? How do you reason otherwise?
What makes Trumpists - who now dominate Republicans entirely - so dangerous is their determined erosion of legal norms. Inevitably the pattern will result in wholesale flouting of law. It has already in instances. Remove the professional civil service. Then watch law, regulation, customary usage, and all deference to standard practice yield to whim. Already high courts wobble. Force, not law, will govern if American voters install a tyrant.
To say nothing of tRump's stated goal of packing our military and police with his sycophants.
Conservative legal scholars' attack on the administrative state is purely situational. They mean the New Deal regulatory state. They are very likely to have no quarrel with a Trump-filled administrative state which weighs in heavily on the side of their preferred interest groups or policy goals: anti-labor, anti-environmental regulation, immigration suppression, etc. etc. Taking every issue to the Supreme Court is too time-consuming if the same goal can be accomplished by presidential-led administrative fiat.
How do you reason that trump, who wants to de-regulate and reduce the size and scope of the government, is an authoritarian? Doesn't reducing the size of the government go against the authoritarian trope? How do you reason otherwise?