President Trump has decided to go all in. He has signed an Executive Order that will give him and successive White House occupants regulatory control of the independent agencies that are responsible for oversight and regulation of securities markets, communications, elections and trade.
Trump gained office by attacking President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the Afghanistan debacle and the Southern border. The White House bungled both challenges. And rising prices were, for many, the swing issue.
Now, Trump is acting like a south-of-the-border autocrat who has taken over his country. America is not Brazil or Argentina or Columbia. America has an unparalleled record of stability and prosperity. Troubling, however, America’s success has turned on it. Humans often have a perverse relationship with success.
I am reminded of Neil Postman’s book: “Amusing Our selves to Death”. He expressed specific concern about “the trivialization of public discourse”.
In recent weeks I have written about the importance of free speech as the President seeks to limit it through the actions of the Federal Communications Commission. He has sued CBS and ABC among others contending they distorted the news.
In both cases his FCC Chair Brendan Carr has opened proceedings against them. The President takes them on and his regulatory chief twists their arm. In the case of the ABC litigation Disney, it’s owner, paid $15m into a Trump library account.
So, Mr. President, what is the problem you are trying to solve by ordering that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the FCC give you a veto over their actions?
Surprisingly, when I chaired the FCC, I could have spent much of my time traveling abroad, staying in nice hotels and enjoying excellent meals with interesting companions. In the newly democratizing countries of the former Soviet Bloc they were eager to learn how we regulated various communications media.
Those who had dissented in the post WW2 world of Communist dictators were eager to begin private sector ownership of the media and wanted to assure free speech. The emerging world of democrats—freedom loving patriots—wanted to know how the United States balanced the competing claims in regulating entities that had a license to own radio, television, telephony, and satellite businesses.
The overarching answer was the law which in 1934 created the FCC and specified it operate in the “public interest” and at the same time balanced political power by requiring Commissioners from both political parties.
Rather than leave you with heartfelt and often courageous stories from what had been the Soviet Bloc let me turn back to what President Trump is doing. He wants a cancel button. If he doesn’t like it, it doesn’t happen.
Trump has cowed the Congress, taken over the arts and now wants to rule the independent agencies. Whats left? The Courts for one, which are presiding over a number of challenges to Presidential power. And I like to think the Majority Leader of the US Senate, Senator John Thune, might eventually say “enough.”
Regarding the Congress. On paper the Founders delegated more power to it than either the executive or judicial branches. But rather than say in public what many Republican Senators say about Trump’s overreach in private, they specialize in a defensive posture that reveals an absence of integrity.
Understandably in the “honeymoon” period of a new President there is a reluctance to be critical. And it seems like a majority support his efforts to reduce the cost of government. But, the President having telegraphed his intent to flood the zone became abusive on the first day of the honeymoon.
If this assault on common sense government is not stopped by Congress, a pattern will kick in; each Party’s President will flood the zone and before long America will join the unstable governments and economies and become progressively less trustworthy and prosperous.
Ships have keels and rudders and many have sails; no less the Ship of State. It is time for what we think of as checks and balances to be used. Senator Thune and Chief Justice Roberts can become profiles in courage.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
