'The American constitutional order has been overthrown'

The Claremont Institute prepares for a purge.

I almost missed this piece from The American Mind, a publication of the right-wing Claremont Institute, but it’s another frightening look at the mindset of the Trumpist Right as the election approaches. It posits that under Joe Biden we are already living under a totalitarian regime, and vowing that “unpleasant things will have to be done to hold people to account.”

You have to wonder what the author, T.J. Harker, has in mind when he speaks of “unpleasant things.”

“The regime,” Harker writes, “has corrupted the legal system.” The conviction of Donald Trump in New York is proof.

This is exactly what the current regime has done with Trump. The regime understands it will likely lose to Trump in the political arena, so it has recharacterized a political struggle in the political arena as a legal struggle in the legal arena—specifically, within the federal and state criminal justice systems. In other words, the regime has corrupted the criminal justice system by forcing it to resolve a non-criminal political dispute and to do so in a way that advances the regime’s political interests.

Trump, you see, is the real democrat here.

Substantively, Trump lacks the power to threaten “our democracy.” This is why he tries to earn your vote while defending himself in court. Trump’s campaigning is relentless even as he spent 18 months and millions of dollars hiring attorneys, filing and responding to motions, reviewing discovery, making interlocutory appeals, attending oral arguments, selecting juries, conducting direct and cross examinations, and making opening and closing statements, all to fight a political struggle the regime removed to the legal system. In both cases (campaigning and trial), Trump tries to earn and to persuade, which is unusual given that he is supposedly a man with the will and power to overthrow “our democracy.”

Right.

The alarming part comes at the end.

Americans are growing angry with the regime’s unending train of abuses. Perhaps without intending to do so, Merrick Garland, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg, Tanya Chutkan, Arthur Engoran, Juan Merchan, Letitia James, and scores of others have wagered everything—their property, their careers, their reputations, and their liberty—on the regime’s retention of power. They are “all in” as the saying goes. If the regime wins, they will win. But if Trump wins, we should expect that some of the worst perpetrators of the regime’s lawlessness will be held to account. An example will be made. If any of them retain their positions or end up with cushy private sector gigs, you’ll know what you need to know about the regime’s retention of power.

There are now only two paths forward: either the regime will solidify its power in November or Trump will be elected. If the former, we will descend further into the regime’s totalitarian grip. If the latter, unpleasant things will have to be done to hold people to account—people who attacked our constitutional republic by refusing to recognize limits on their exercise of power over us. In this respect, Trump’s claim that the regime is really after you and he’s just “standing in their way” is correct.

The “unending train of abuses” is a pretty clear reference to the Declaration of Independence and its allegations that the British king had committed a “long train of abuses and usurpations.”

The message here is fairly clear: It’s time for a Trumpist revolution.

“The regime has effectively destroyed the old American order,” Harker writes. “Restoring trust in American institutions will require a revolution in values and a massive political and spiritual upheaval among the people.”

Claremont is letting us know an orgy of revenge is coming. We should believe them.