Awaiting the Day 1 Dictator

I don’t know about you, but I am waiting anxiously for the day after Donald Trump’s second inauguration—you know, when the dictatorship is set to begin.

At least for “Day 1.”

Remember, that’s what Trump allegedly promised would happen if he was re-elected. It was a pretty big deal. The Democratic Party chose to fixate on “Dictatorship Day” all throughout its doomed campaign. That’s why “fascist” was invoked so often, along with comparisons to Hitler and Mussolini.

Huge mistake. Time would have been much better spent convincing American voters that Joe Biden’s vice president was prepared to fix the many things he had bungled: the border, crime, the economy, anti-American progressivism, America’s declining influence in the world, the assiduous tolerance of antisemitism and the backstabbing of Israel.

Like many things that require elocution, what Trump said in that December 5 Iowa town hall was spontaneous, impulsive, irresponsible and nonsensical. From what I can decipher, he meant that he plans to dictate on day one to “fix the border” and “drill, drill, drill.” It sounds like he was jokingly saying: “Those two issues are so important, I am going to get them done on my first day back in office—by fiat, if I have to.”

No matter, that’s all Never Trumpers and those longsuffering Trump Derangement Syndrome survivors needed to hear.

You can’t really blame them. From when he first ran for the presidency beginning with the Republican primaries back in 2016, the Trump persona was defined by scary off-the-cuff remarks. Remember: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, ok? It’s, like, incredible.”

A candidate for the nation’s highest office probably shouldn’t leave voters with the impression that he was already so popular, he could attempt murder and still receive their endorsement—even when speaking in jest. Of course, it turns out he was right: Many of his core constituency probably would overlook a violent crime on his record.

This past campaign, Trump intimated that he would investigate Comcast, NBC and MSNBC for treason, possibly execute former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley for the same offense, and maybe even terminate the Constitution in order to reverse a fraudulent election result.

Many applaud such public statements, but none are funny, dignified, appropriate or in any way presidential. Of no other American politician could it be said that he would be far more successful if he simply slashed his public statements and social media postings in half, if not by two-thirds. Trump would have swept Joe Biden back in 2020 and retained the White House if he had simply spoken and tweeted less.

But regardless of all that Trump ill-advisedly said this election cycle, those ramblings are in no way comparable to the iron-clad promises and governmental reforms Adolf Hitler brought to Berlin.

I know what some readers are thinking: “Give Trump some time and watch his brand of American fascism at work.”

That’s why more than a few of our fellow citizens have already liquidated their assets (and, in doing so, missed out on a nice stock market bump) and are making plans to leave the United States. Several Hollywood celebrities have suggested that their house-hunting in Europe has already begun. (Great idea: you think we have problems with immigrant gangs and crime, Islamist terror warnings, and antisemitism?)

If you are one of those making plans or threatening to leave the United States, let me sincerely ask you: Do you need any help packing? Would you like the name of a good mover? Here are a few suggested destinations that may be more to your liking: Venezuela, Sudan, maybe Yemen.

The tragic irony is that in this era of fashionable anti-white Scrabble—DEI, CRT, BDS and PHD (Pro-Hamas Derangement)—the nonbinary thrashing of gender and sexuality, anti-colonial anti-Americanism, and all those protesting, screaming and shoving, disrupting Black Friday and Christmas tree lightings, resisting arrest and now planning to leave the country: all of these “Americans” actually believe that they are the true patriots.

I’ll have to ask George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson about that. Never mind: The original patriots are now just racists.

You may not respect people who wear MAGA caps, but there’s no shame believing in American greatness. Yes, I am aware that one can’t obtain tenure with such a grandiose love of country, or snag an invite to a fashionable party in Brooklyn, Brentwood, Bayview-Hunters Point, or Albany Park, but one of the reasons Trump is being returned to the White House is, in part, because progressive America is a regression to American mediocrity.

A majority of Americans observed and then rejected that in the policies and priorities of the Biden administration: the over-political correctness, the self-censorship, groupthink, moral certainty, and racial underpinnings of almost everything, and the lax enforcement of border control and prosecution of violent crime.

You know that voters deservedly rejected the anti-American platform of Democratic progressives when nearly 70 percent of Native Americans—from the far-flung tribes in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Arizona, and New Mexico—voted for Trump. Yes, that’s no misprint. Native Indians have every reason to hate America, and they swung for Trump alongside his greatness-seeking American cowboys.

I, of course, realize that punch-drunk red-state-haters believe that Trump supporters are plain stupid and uneducated.

You are not morally superior or more virtuous because you have three pronouns, believe that every interaction has a racial overtone, can’t define the anatomy of women, believe that America is a global menace, and Israel is the worst human rights violator in the history of our planet. What you are is arrogant, paranoid, narcissistic, self-righteous, and antisemitic.

But here’s a thought for solipsistic coastal elites: You are not morally superior or more virtuous because you have three pronouns, believe that every interaction has a racial overtone, can’t define the anatomy of women, believe that America is a global menace, and Israel is the worst human rights violator in the history of our planet. What you are is arrogant, paranoid, narcissistic, self-righteous, and antisemitic.

A lot of conformist scripted talk and self-hating beliefs led to a lost election for Democrats. For over two centuries, America succeeded because of a shared sense of what it meant to be an American. That vision has clearly been lost. The only question now is: Will a Day 1 dictator be able to bring it back.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself,” and his forthcoming book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Is Israel Fighting a Just War in Gaza?”