In 1884, Republicans campaigned against the incumbent Democratic president stressing the 3 Rs. Now, 140 years later, Republicans are pressing a new version of the 3 Rs against another Democratic incumbent. Both were expressions of hate, bigotry, and anger.
Supporters of Republican James G. Blaine attacked the Democrats as the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.” It was a slur against the Democratic base of working-class immigrants, Southerners, and Catholics. In addition, Blaine’s reputation for corruption helped push breakaway reformist Republicans, known as Mugwumps, to vote for Democrat Grover Cleveland, known as “Grover the Good.”
Republicans revived the slogan in 1928 when Democrats nominated the first Catholic – Al Smith – another New York governor and an opponent of prohibition.
Trump's promises
Cleveland has the distinction of being the only president to win two non-consecutive terms, something Donald Trump is trying to match.
Trump has employed the kind of aggressive, often violent rhetoric to intimidate and attack political rivals and critics usually reserved for whipping up wartime fervor against foreign enemies. That, too, has spawned never-Trump Republican spinoffs, such as the Lincoln Project.
Trump has his own 3 Rs: Rage, Revenge, and Retribution.
He announced at the Conservative Political Action Committee convention: “I am your warrior. I am your justice… I am your retribution.”
Steve Bannon, the longtime Trump adviser due to report to prison on July 1, said: “We’re going to rip and shred the federal government apart, and if you don’t like it, you can lump it.” Trump’s opponents, he vowed, will be “investigated, prosecuted, and incarcerated.” Trump agreed.
A network of former aides, arch-conservatives, Christian nationalists, white supremacists, and think tanks like the Heritage Foundation have spent the past few years drafting executive orders and blueprints, including one called Agenda 47 and another called Project 2025, for Trump’s “post-Constitutional” second term.
They envision “reinterpreting parts of the constitution” to expand presidential power, weaken the Congress and the federal bureaucracy, and centralize power in the Oval Office, according to The Washington Post.
Remember this is the man who lost an election by more than 7 million votes and then called for “termination” of parts of the Constitution and sparked an insurrection so that he could stay in office.
The felonious former president has said he wants to start his new administration as a dictator, but only for a day. In light of his gluttony for power and attention, it’s difficult to believe a single day will be enough.
A first order of business will be naming special prosecutors to “go after” President Joe Biden and his family, he says repeatedly. Also targeted will be assorted enemies, critics, former aides and allies, and anyone else who ever offended the thin-skinned bully.
Hillary Clinton is apparently still at the top of his enemies list, but far from alone. Others include state and federal prosecutors who have investigated or indicted him 88 times, the judge who will be sentencing him in July, current and past FBI leaders, and Attorney-General Merrick Garland.
Then there’s his former White House chief of staff, John Kelly; his attorney general, William Barr; and his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley. The list is so long it would make Richard Nixon envious.
THE DISGRACED former president has said he wants to pardon or free all the violent insurrectionists who breached the Capitol on January 6, calling them “hostages.” The new “lock ’em up” target will be members of the bipartisan House committee investigating the insurrection, starting with Liz Cheney.
Trump insists he would have “every right” to prosecute his political enemies in revenge for “what they’ve done” to him.
In other words, the twice-impeached former president intends to do exactly what he wrongly accused Biden of doing: weaponizing the Justice Department and other federal agencies against his adversaries. His plan calls for wresting the levers of government from Congress and independent federal regulatory agencies and concentrating greater power in the president.
Trump is an endless fountain of threats, promises, and pronouncements, and not even he may know which, whether, or how he will pursue. Much will also depend on the results of Congressional elections. If MAGA Mike Johnson is the speaker in the next Congress, it will be a sycophantic rubber stamp. House Republicans will “do everything we can” to punish the Justice Department for investigating and prosecuting Trump, he said.
Meanwhile, Johnson called on his “friends” at the Supreme Court – “I know many of them personally” – to “step in” and reverse Trump’s four felony convictions.
Here are some of Trump’s 3 R plans
• A nationwide roundup of undocumented immigrants and putting them in internment camps pending mass deportations. A “Christian immigration ethic” [read “white”] will determine who can enter this country.
• Using the military to enforce border security, even into Mexico, to attack drug cartels if that government isn’t doing enough.
• Curtailing civil liberties in order to impede investigations of himself, his administration, his allies, and major donors.
• Using the IRS and FBI to investigate and intimidate his enemies.
• Invoking the Insurrection Act to employ the military to quell civil unrest and enforce domestic law, without waiting for state or local requests. He told the AP that local police should be empowered to shoot shoplifters in the act.
• Stripping civil service protection from tens of thousands of federal employees (he calls them the Deep State). Demand federal workers take loyalty oaths and a “patriotism exam” to show they share his interpretation of the Constitution.
• Bringing back rogue players like fellow convicted felons Bannon, Peter Navarro, and Paul Manafort; indicted co-conspirator Jeffrey Clark; confessed liar Mike Flynn; and anti-immigration extremist Stephen Miller.
• Changing libel laws to make it easier to prosecute the media and adopt laws common in authoritarian governments that criminalize criticism of the head of state.
• Invoking impoundment powers to take control of Congressional appropriations.
• Requiring school teachers to “embrace patriotic values” and allowing them to carry concealed weapons in their classrooms.
• Banning administration jobs for anyone who didn’t buy into his big lie about the 2020 election being stolen.
• Allowing red states to monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans.
• Rounding up the homeless and moving them into tent camps.
Donald Trump is defined not by his vision for America but by his authoritarian impulses and lust for revenge and power.
There’s no need to wait for the 2025 inauguration for him to invoke the 3 Rs. It could begin next month, when he is to be sentenced on four felony convictions. Whatever the judge decides, “I’m not sure the public would stand for it,” he told Fox & Friends. “You know, at a certain point, there’s a breaking point.”
And then there’s November 5. “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole country,” he threatened.
Hillary Clinton said it: “Trump is telling us what he intends to do. Take him at his word.”
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former American Israel Public Affairs Committee legislative director.