How can Biden Prevent a Future Trump?

What powers could the current President, Joe Biden, use to ensure that kleptocratic leaders like former President Donald Trump don’t rise to power in the future? We were joined this week by the former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shuab, to answer this increasingly vital question.

One crucial aspect of this, which might not be the first thing that comes to your mind when we’re talking about ethical governance, is voting rights. Without re-securing voting rights from the onslaught of anti-democratic Republican legislation, we are dooming ourselves to generations of leaders who only need to appeal to a smaller and smaller subset of the American electorate in order to gain power. To halt this trend, the Congress needs to take voting rights seriously, but by the looks of things we’re not holding our breath for any needed reforms.

Another crucial component of this is reversing the trend of collecting all power possible under the auspices of the presidency. The more powerful the office, and the more it takes power from the legislature, the easier it will be for future presidents to misuse that power. This is a trend that both Democrats and Republicans have been extremely on board with, as well as much of Congress, but for the good of our democracy it’s time to turn the clock back.

Walter Michael Shaub Jr. is the Senior Director of Ethics of the Washington D.C.-based election law organization the Campaign Legal Center. He served as Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics from January 9, 2013 to July 19, 2017. Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/waltshaub

Recorded November 21, 2021

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