My Radical Proposal in the Real World

So much for my proposal to have President, and federal Attorney General, Treasurer, and Auditor separately elective offices.  An obvious objection presents itself.  I am assuming that the President is the sole danger to democracy and the rule of law and the others will reign him in.  What if they go rogue as well?  In particular, what if instead of reigning each other in, these four office holders all work together to achieve their aim.

Suppose (worst case scenario) that all four are elected at the same time.  And suppose that in 2024 we not only elected Donald Trump as President, but Stephen Miller as Attorney General, Elon Musk as Treasurer, and Russ Vought as Auditor.*  Presumably the four would coordinate closely, and there would be no way to stop them.  While Trump closed the border and picked fights with allies, Miller would crack down on immigrants with maximum brutality and undertake an "all of government" attempt to shut down the opposition and prosecute Trump's opponents.  Musk would arbitrarily cut off funding to any purpose he disliked and illegally divert funds to unauthorized purposes.  All would fire anyone who stood in their way.  Vought would refuse to sue for any release of funds, uphold all firings, limit his audits to investigating actions taken during the Biden Administration, and generally give suggestions to the others on how to make their undermining of the rule of law more effective.

Could anything be done about any of this, or would we be facing the same situation we have now, only worse?

Two main constraints would operation on Miller.  One would be the one in effect already -- an independent judiciary and trial by jury, which have been quite effective in stopping politicized prosecutions.  The other is my proposal not to allow any appropriation for law enforcement to extend beyond two years.  Right about now the prospect of a new Attorney General prosecuting any illegal actions by Miller and his associates might seem too remote to be much of a deterrent. (Remember no Presidential pardon for federal employees and a minimum statute of limitations of five years).  But Miller would be facing cutoff of funds if his party lost Congress.  Admittedly, Musk might make an illegal diversion.  But remember, we would also allow private suit by the lawful recipient.  And the prospect of criminal prosecution would not be all that remote.

But I do think constraints would be more effective if the four offices were not all elected at once.  Suppose the President and Auditor were elected at the same time, and the Attorney General and Treasurer were elected in midterm years.  

Given how unpopular Biden was in 2022, I would expect a Republican Attorney General and Treasurer to win.  The Republican Attorney General would no doubt be bad, but probably not as bad as Miller (not a high bar to clear, admittedly).  He/she would probably drop all charges against Trump for trying to overturn the election or stealing classified documents and generally treat all Republican politicians as above the law.  But I would not expect him/her to go as far in prosecuting and attempting to shut down opponents as Team Trump.  I would also expect the Republican Attorney General to crack down on immigration in ways that were ugly, but not as ugly as what we have now, if only because Biden would veto the funds to do it.  This might have interesting effects of another kind.  An internal crackdown on immigration might deter border crossing at least to some degree and make border chaos less of an issue in 2024.  It is hard to say.  Certainly, the Republican AG would be released from such constraints once Trump and a Republican Congress were elected and flooded immigration enforcement with money.

As for the Treasurer, it seems unlikely that Musk would win, but I could very much see Russ Vought be elected and start cutting off funds in a less flamboyant but more effective manner than Musk.  But for the first two years he would be faced with an Auditor elected along with Biden, who would presumably regularly sue to release illegally withheld funds and reject any of Vought's firings.

This would come to an end with the election of Donald Trump and an allied Auditor -- maybe Elon Musk.  Certainly, one can imagine Auditor Musk being every bit as intrusive, aggressive, and ignorant as he was in our reality.  His actions would not carry the force of law.  He could only suggest.  But other agencies might eagerly take him up on his suggestions.  Or they might not.  After all, Musk's downfall occurred when the entire Cabinet revolted against him, saying he was making it impossible to get their work done.  Musk as elective Auditor could not be fired, but he could be ignored.

And in any event, in this parallel reality Team Trump would be staring down, not just the cutoff of funds from a new Congress, but prosecution under a new Attorney General.  Admittedly, it would presumably be too late to do anything about the actions against Trump, either for attempting to overturn the election or for stealing classified documents.  But everything done from 2022 onward would be fair game -- a most alarming prospect.  As for the Treasurer, but if he/she wanted to disburse funds as required by law, neither Trump nor Musk could really do anything about it.

Only one terrifying though presents itself.   Faced with that prospect, would the Republican team be deterred from further lawlessness?  Or would they throw off the rule of law altogether and attempt a coup?

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*I have already said that I saw no need to require the other three to be natural born US citizens, so Musk would be eligible.  Admittedly, one might argue that Miller is not a lawyer or law enforcement professional, Musk is not an accountant or banker, and Vought is not an accountant, so none of them should be eligible for the office.  But I am not sure these professional qualifications would apply.  They don't seem populist.