trump's Base has limits just as we all do. It is not as monolithic as Trump's critics might wish to believe. But we might assume that many in the base would be sympathetic to the notion that the wide open spaces should remain wide and open.
How else would an ordinary person be able to reap some benefits from free use of what is there for all? Once a thing is privatized if tends to get gated, you might have to go through a Betsy DeVos figure just to get a look.
Undoing
This morning the nation will wake to the news that Donald has been lopping millions of acres of virgin land out in Utah.
Undoing the work of Teddy Roosevelt and others who championed the preservation of our wilderness.
Maybe the base will be fine with that. Maybe they are fine with higher medical costs and higher taxes, if not immediately, after the 2018 elections.
Maybe those who think Trump is egregious are hated enough to compensate for any offenses Trump commits.
An environmental travesty
What Trump mandated yesterday is a clear and deliberate provocation. If a foreign power had done it, we would be at war. There are other provocations that mount up over time. But it is hard to decide whether there is a raging current headed toward a vulnerable dam or a fetid sea of apathy masking anger and resentment.
Trump Slashes Size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Monuments https://t.co/JTIJbhXSwj
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) December 5, 2017
There is a reason why this is more serious than anyone might imagine.
It is the result of the current mode of governance -- the sort that allows a few GOP votes in the Senate to spell our fate. A while back the GOP used the nuclear option to install Mr. Gorsuch in the Supreme Court. Mr. Gorsuch smiles but is the exact sort of robot Trump wants at the wheels of justice.
The Gorsuch card
Yesterday the high court said fine when asked to decide whether to enforce Trump's travel ban while it is being litigated.
That is like allowing murder while deciding whether it is alright or not. You can assume that Mr. Gorsuch is all Trump needs to win any suit he lofts into the wounded justice system.
Truth
Truth be told, Trump's base may love his acting. It upsets people for whom they may have little regard. It favors fossil fuel lovers. GOP politicians cast these monuments as the playthings of Washington bureaucrats.
If the base wants Trump to be more dictatorial, his action raises the underlying question. Does the president have power to unilaterally do what Trump did yesterday?
There can be little doubt that the Gorsuch court will side with Trump. Dictatorship advances. This is but one of the reasons why having no Trump and no GOP control and a restoration of sanity to things is so appealing.
