Eight steps for post-Trump America

It is not too early to start planning for the rebuilding that will follow this destructive tyranny

Donald Trump is committing high crimes and misdemeanors every day. And each day that passes without his impeachment removal indicts the United States Congress as complicit.

Perhaps the Republicans in charge think Mr. Trump will succeed in holding power for years to come. Perhaps they think that Democrats, if they ever do get control, will continue to be too weak to hold them to account. They are wrong.

When we once again have a government that governs for the American people, it will be obligated to repudiate the Trump era and to affirm anew the democratic values this administration and its allies in Congress seek to destroy.

Impeachment and removal are one way to do that. This is the obvious path, but also the least likely, as today’s Republican Party has itself repudiated democratic norms. (That’s a big claim. The evidence is widespread and voluminous and fully covered by others.)

Here are eight steps we should expect once Trump is gone, and Republicans no longer control Congress:

1. A new administration restores impartiality to the Justice Department. Congress enacts laws to insulate the Justice Department from political meddling. At the same time, the next Attorney General prioritizes prosecuting crimes that undermine the foundations of American democracy. That means treating Kriti Noem and Marco Rubio, who used hooded thugs to disappear people off our streets, are not excused for just following orders. It means Elon Musk is held accountable for any data he took from the American people to train his own AI machines, and for any actions DOGE took that went beyond its authority. The message to the world must be clear: justice is once again blind, but she still carries a sword.

2. Non-partisanship is restored in the other coercive departments: Defense and intelligence. Congress must act so that no President can turn these departments away from their mission of national security and to a more partisan mission in service of a regime.

3. A new administration rebuilds our government transparently, so that it both works, and is widely supported. The government does many things most Americans never thought about. For years the argument that government is too big hinged on dishonest claims that government just takes money from some of us to support others. The next administration will have to explain what our government does and justify that work as it rebuilds the infrastructure to deliver it.

4. Donald Trump is firmly and fully repudiated. Post War Germany has given us very good examples of how to do this. They have shown how to turn the visible images of a fascist regime into moments of healing and teaching. Congress should direct that Mar-a-Lago be taken by eminent domain (or, if Mr. Trump is ever held legally liable, confiscated) and turned into a new Smithsonian Museum of American Fascism.

5. Congress passes and the next President signs legislation declaring January 6^th an insurrection, and those supporting it barred by the 14^th Amendment from serving in the government. Mr. Trump fellow plotters in Congress must be removed and barred. As after the Civil War, important legislation should be enacted while those hostile to democracy are not in the chamber. Voting rights, fair maps, campaign finance laws, reformation of the Supreme Court, independence of the Justice Department, bans on sending prisoners to foreign jails, etc.

6. The benefits of American diversity are affirmed. Banned books should be returned to libraries, and the contributions of our people so recently censored from national narratives should be newly recognized with public welcoming ceremonies around the country. Congress should ban naming government facilities after Confederates or contemporary insurrectionists.

7. Civics education is funded in every state. Congress should make funding and curriculum available to address the deep lack of basic understanding of how democracy works.

8. Congress makes it more difficult for dishonest media to get away with lies. Section 230 protections should be revisited. Congress should make clear that algorithms create liability just as speech does.

These actions will help us move forward, reassure the rest of the world that their fate is not in the hands of a few swing voters ever four years, and will restore the kind of competent democratic governance that can help us rebuild and restore our needlessly shattered economy, reputation, and hard-earned freedoms.