AMERICA IS TURNING AUTHORITARIAN

TRUMP IS GETTING AWAY WITH IT

The authoritarian playbook starts with suppressing the legal profession, intellectuals and the media. That then makes it easier to undermine the political system.

Donald Trump is following the playbook with a vengeance and mostly getting away with it. Leading universities, big law firms, and major media venues are bending the knee to Trump's dubious demands.

These are almost all private institutions yet striking is the silence of most conservative politicians who used to warn about the dangers of a heavy handed government interfering with private institutions.

Silent too are major business and corporate leaders who seem to pay more heed to lower tax rates than the rule of law, an alien concept to Trump, but one on which their long term success depends.

These incidents of Trump's vindictive, sometimes unconstitutional, actions have been well-reported. But with the future shock of a new outrage almost daily -- this week taking over Washington, D.C. -- well-informed people forget how specious and dishonest the rationale is for these actions.