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I've been thinking about why some people are terrified of Trump while others, like me, are more indifferent. I mostly tune out Trump news because I assume much of it involves scare tactics or misleading framing by his detractors. When my wife brings up concerns about his supposedly authoritarian actions, my general response is that if what he's doing is illegal, the governmental process will handle it - and if it's legal, then that's how the system is supposed to work. I have faith that our institutions have the checks and balances to deal with any presidential overreach appropriately.
This reminded me of a mirror situation during 2020-2021 with the BLM movement, where our positions were reversed. I was deeply concerned about social media mobs pressuring corporations, governments, and individuals to conform under threat of job loss, boycotts, and riots, while my wife thought these social pressures were justified and would naturally self-correct if they went too far. The key difference I see is that the government has built-in checks and balances designed to prevent abuse of power, while social movements and mob pressure operate without those same institutional restraints. It seems like we each trust different institutional mechanisms, but I can't help but think that formal governmental processes with built-in restraints are more reliable than grassroots social pressure that operates without those same safeguards. Furthermore, the media seems incentivized to amplify fear about Trump but not about grassroots social movements - Trump generates clicks and outrage regardless of which side you're on, while criticizing social movements risks alienating the platforms' own user base and advertiser-friendly demographics.
To see why either Trump or BLM are scary to people, just imagine a movie where large sections of the populace have apparently lost their minds due to a mushroom virus or whatever and will believe in whatever they're told to, either by some unpleasant chaotic creature or malevolent force. In that movie, the character who pipes up saying, 'Don't worry, we can trust in our civil norms and structures to stop it' is a fool.
So when you say you believe in governmental checks and balances, that is just proof you don't really see the monster the way your wife does in the first place. Trump may be to her a viscerally horrific entity, why would you decide it was okay to keep it in your spare bedroom? Even if the lock is sturdy, if you saw it the way she does, you would be afraid of it until you were sure it was under the ground.
Historically, both over- and underestimations of the norms of civility and the strength of checks and balances have appeared.
The people who predict the rise of the fourth Reich whenever a right-of-center politician takes power are certainly wrong more often than a rock with the text "it's gonna be fine, checks and balances, baby."
But ever so rarely, that rock ends up being wrong, and when it is wrong, it will be so much more wrong than the wolf-criers.
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