Normalizing the Autocrat

Nancy Pelosi and two dozen other House Democrats are boycotting Trump's inaugural today in opposition to his policies. Salud Carbajal won't be among them.

Donald Trump will be sworn in today in the Capitol Rotunda, the historic venue where a mob four years ago beat police officers, defecated and trashed windows, walls and statuary, following his incitement to block the peaceful transfer of power.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former First Lady Michelle Obama, along with several dozen Democratic members of Congress, are among a small handful of notable political figures who will boycott the ceremony, opposed to Trump’s radical right-wing policies and authoritarian ambitions.

A 78-year old convicted felon, corrupt to the core, he not only tried to stage a coup but also has promised to use the most sensitive and powerful agencies of the federal government – the Department of Justice, the FBI and the IRS – as personal tools of revenge and “retribution” against those who oppose him politically.

He has hired as senior aides and operatives authors and backers of Project 2025, a sweeping blueprint of extremist, strongman government that, among other things, proposes a radical increase in the power of the president.

Having declared the news media “the enemy of the state” and expressed a desire to restrict First Amendment rights, Trump also has promised the mass deportation of millions of immigrants, some of whom have lived and worked here for decades, and is reportedly eyeing repeal of “birthright citizenship,” ensconced in the Constitution since 1866.

With racist language, misogynistic tropes and anti-LGBTQ policies, he has systematically debased the nation’s culture and language, offended every norm of decency, let alone common courtesy, and created a permission structure for political violence and hate groups, from Nazis to the Proud Boys.

And yet.

In the two months since the election, not only have there been few expressions of concern, let alone outrage, to these notions, which would have been unthinkable a decade ago - there has been a rush to normalize Trump and his MAGA allies: a constant stream of tech billionaires, corporate executives and news media owners, plus every sentient member of what used to be the Party of Lincoln, and even some wobbly Democrats, have flocked to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring, bend the knee, pledge fealty, appease, submit and offer anticipatory obedience to the autocrat-in-waiting.

Along with a few modest-sized street protests over the weekend, the Pelosi-Michelle, Democratic House protest is one of only a few examples of behavior befitting what might be considered an actual political opposition.

Why Salud is going. So on Saturday afternoon, I texted Rep. Salud Carbajal, Santa Barbara’s man in Washington, to ask if he would be joining Pelosi and other of his colleagues in refusing to take part in the pomp and formalities celebrating Trump.

He responded that he was going to the ceremony.

“Why would you do that?” I asked him, wondering why he would choose to “lend your stature and credibility to the swearing in” of a would-be strongman.

“So (you’ll) go to the exact location where they staged a coup four years ago and now (you’ll) stand up his legitimacy?” I wrote, journalistically curious (and, full disclosure, admittedly irked as a constituent who supported his re-election).

This time, Carbajal didn’t answer for five hours, and then texted to say his press secretary would be sending out a formal statement, which went to every news outfit in town, in response to my questions.

“I gave it much thought,” Salud said.

Well.

His statement, reprinted in full below, is a masterpiece of doublespeak and mush, tarted up with a few platitudes to democracy, a muddle that not only displays Carbajal’s ultra-cautious, have-it-both ways, always-be-middling style of politics, but also illustrates more broadly the bind that Democrats find themselves in as Trump returns to the White House amid unified Republican control of Washington (as the New York Times reported here).

Among other nuggets, Salud’s statement, explaining his decision to bear witness to Trump’s mouthing an oath of loyalty to the Constitution, said this:

“I want to be clear: I do not participate in this act of democracy to celebrate Donald Trump, the man who I hold personally responsible for breaking our streak of peaceful transitions. I participate in recognition of the strength of our democracy for persevering through his attacks…”

Huh? Let me rewrite that for you:

Donald Trump led an insurrection four years ago, and it made me really, really mad, but now I need to go to the inaugural because our democracy is so strong that we just elected the guy who staged the coup.

Salud also tried to wrap himself in some feel-good Martin Luther King Day vibes (several of his inaugural-boycotting Democratic House colleagues are attending MLK Day events instead) by quoting the late civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis:

“Democracy is an act. This was a core tenant (sic) of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – whom we celebrate today – and a regular quotation by my late friend and colleague John Lewis.

“Today, I will hold those words close as I attend – what in the long history of humankind remains a historical rarity – the peaceful transfer of power between two opposing political factions.

Puh-leeze.

As those of a certain age will recall, it was that very same John Lewis who led the widespread Democratic boycott of Trump’s first inaugural, on Jan. 20, 2017.

"I couldn't be at home with myself if I had to participate or be part of [Trump's inauguration]," Lewis said at the time. "The movement told us to withdraw from evil."

"You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong, is not right," Lewis said.

So there’s that.

Down the memory hole. Over the past four years, Trump succeeded in memory-holing what happened on Jan. 6 2021, or in rewriting the history for many voters.

L.A. Times political columnist Mark Z. Barabak showed on Sunday how this erasure has become a central tenet of MAGA ideology, and exactly how far the effort to whitewash the events of that day has gone in Trump’s Republican Party:

The bloodstains of the Jan. 6 insurrection have long ago washed away. The shattered windows of the Capitol are mended, the broken doors replaced. You’d never know the terrible mayhem that was visited on the seat of our national government, or the way our country and democracy were defiled that pitch-black day.

Which is exactly how some would like it.

Trump and his acolytes have spent years rewriting history and burying the uncomfortable truth — the lies about a stolen 2020 election, the violent attempt to overturn the result — beneath a reeking blanket of deception, misinformation and falsity.

Barabak reports that House Speaker and Trump toady Mike Johnson has single-handedly blocked installation of a plaque honoring the police officers who battled the rioters in the Capitol Rotunda. A plaque.

“Disgraceful doesn’t even begin to describe the affront to their bravery and sacrifice,” Barabak writes.

Beyond that, it’s important not to whitewash history simply because it makes some people squirm or undermines a party’s political agenda.

Erasure is a step toward forgetting. Forgetting is a step toward nullification. Nullification is a step toward repeating a despicable event.

Read the whole thing here.

Calbuzz Classic. On this day eight years ago, my late writing partner Phil Trounstine and I previewed Trump’s first inaugural address with a post in Calbuzz, the popular political website we operated from 2009-2022.

Headlined “Jan. 20, 2017: The Madness is About to Get Very Real,” the piece began this way:

Whatever lies, jive and tripe ooze from the filthy mouth of Donald J. Trump at today’s Inauguration, the plain fact is this: the U.S. is about to embark upon a destructive, dangerous and chilling new era led by a mentally ill, ignorant and authoritarian kleptocrat.

If we do say so ourselves: That holds up pretty well, and could work just as well as an advance on his speech today.

You can read the whole thing here.

Salud speaks. Here is Rep. Salud Carbajal’s statement on why he’s attending the Trump Inauguration.

.“Democracy is an act. This was a core tenant (sic) of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – whom we celebrate today – and a regular quotation by my late friend and colleague John Lewis.

“Today, I will hold those words close as I attend – what in the long history of humankind remains a historical rarity – the peaceful transfer of power between two opposing political factions.

“I want to be clear: I do not participate in this act of democracy to celebrate Donald Trump, the man who I hold personally responsible for breaking our streak of peaceful transitions. I participate in recognition of the strength of our democracy for persevering through his attacks, and in honor of the great nation that has given me the chance to grow from a child immigrating to this country to becoming a representative in its government.

“I remain committed to serving the Central Coast, delivering for its communities, and defending our core values from the extremist policies of this incoming Administration. As always, I will continue working to find any and all opportunities to improve the lives of those that I represent in Congress.”

Image: The U.S. Navy historically flew an upside-down flag as a signal of distress. More recently it was used by insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 2021, and by protesters objecting to the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision (Yahoo).