U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) walks to the Senate Chamber ahead of a session on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 22.Jon Cherry/Reuters
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican from Alaska, has never been afraid to stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump – perhaps until now.
Ms. Murkowski has generally been her own person when it comes to dealing with the seismic events Mr. Trump has set off in America. She was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Mr. Trump in his second impeachment trial in 2021. She endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for president last year, not Mr. Trump. She was one of only three Republicans who voted not to confirm Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose brief time in the position has been an unmitigated disaster.
But last week, in Anchorage, Alaska, Ms. Murkowski said something that silenced the conference room in which she was speaking.
When asked about what it was like serving at a time when Mr. Trump is seemingly out for retribution against anyone he perceives as his enemy, she said: “We are all afraid.”
After waiting a few seconds to let her words sink in, she continued: “It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where … I certainly have not been before. I’ll tell you, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real.”
This is a U.S. Senator – a Republican Senator. And she’s talking about Donald Trump and the deep anxiety he has unleashed not just in Washington but across America.
While this may sound strange, we are fortunate to be witnessing this from the perch we have in Canada. We are getting an up-close view of an early-stage illiberal democracy in action. Don’t let people tell you that is just exaggeration. It is not.
Much of what we are seeing is right out of the playbook of people like Viktor Orban. Even Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Trump’s clash with the judiciary is a good place to start. A federal judge in D.C. has ruled that there is probable cause the administration willfully disobeyed his order to halt or turn around flights carrying about 200 men to a prison in El Salvador. The same administration has also ignored court requests to provide updates on efforts to secure the return of a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, which it has defiantly said it has no intention of doing.
Mr. Trump, meantime, has unleashed a string of attacks on members of the country’s courts, calling out “activist” jurists who have no business derailing his agenda. He’s characterized some as “crooked” and said they should be “impeached.”
The administration has gone after law firms, bringing some of the nation’s biggest to heel by threatening to hurt their business unless they get in line and play nice with the White House. Mr. Trump has gone after elite universities, threatening their funding over vague complaints about antisemitism and protest policies. What it is, primarily, is an assault on institutions perceived by the MAGA movement to be occupied by liberal-minded professors who indoctrinate students to become woke Democrats. In Mr. Trump’s world, universities are the enemy that needs to be reined in and put under his authority.
The U.S. President doesn’t seem to care about the damage he is doing to the intellectual foundation upon which much of America’s prosperity was built. Today, top scientists and academics are looking to flee elsewhere, much like their peers in Russia did at the beginning of Mr. Putin’s reign.
Mr. Trump continues to denigrate the mainstream media and elevate right-wing mouthpieces and propaganda organs, even giving them a place in the White House press room at the expense of credible news companies.
Power in the United States is being concentrated in the hands of one person, a convicted felon who more often rules like a mob boss than a President for all. To Mr. Trump, it’s all about fealty, control and access to all the power and money that flows from his position. We are witnessing the most corrupt administration in American history.
Which brings me back to Canada and the precious democracy that we have here, one that looks more treasured by the day. While far from perfect, we do not have anyone who looks quite like Mr. Trump making a pitch to run this country. Yes, there have been some Trumpian overtones in some of Pierre Poilievre’s rhetoric and tactics up to and during this federal election campaign, but nothing quite as unnerving and appalling as what we are seeing in the U.S.
As a country, we need to be vigilant and alive to the misplaced notion that the autocratic tactics we are witnessing in the U.S. could never happen here. They definitely could. And we need to be prepared to fight it at all costs.