"In one focus group, when Trump supporters were shown the facts about his shortcomings on building a border wall, one woman explained that Trump must have done that on purpose, in order to funnel the migrants through gaps where they could be apprehended more readily. Scott decided to stay out of the race."
In other words, this woman and millions of others like her are simply unreachable. You can't reason with people like this. If anyone still wonders why my views on the electorate and democracy are like H.L. Menken's cranked to 120 dB, it's because of people like this.
Tell me you are in a cult without saying you are in a cult... I am almost worried about what these people will do when they lose their cult leader. They're radicalized and once they lose their center of gravity with Trump, I'm not sure they just go away anymore.
They won't, but they will unravel looking for a new leader as there are a number of wannabes out there. Unless all of them coalesce around one, which with JD, (f)Elon, the pet killer, Brain Worm with a popular name, to ID but a few, is IMHO unlikely, the cat fight (sorry, but that is the expression) will be one to watch.
I agree with you and my concern is what form will that unraveling look like. I don't foresee MAGA just silently dispersing, I am beginning to think they will say F-it and go off the rails.
It's an odd coalition. Many of the true believers had never gotten involved in politics or even voted before him. I think they will eventually go back to their apathetic ways. The QAnons etc will look for another to glom on to, but no one on the right has the same combination of characteristics as Trump (thank God). MAGA will disperse but it certainly won't die. It will just lie dormant, waiting for another Moses to lead them to the promised land of their fantasies.
What seems certain is that we have three and a half more years of pain, degradation, horror, and tragedy to endure. Good luck to us all.
I think you might be missing a 4th - they give up on the system and burn it down on their own. I'm thinking about the attacks on power substations and such during Biden's term. I think they are more likely to become a bunch of fire starters with no cohesive plan other than hurt the people they don't like, and at the end of the day, the coalition largely agrees on who is in the outgroup.
Yeah, this is possible, but a lot of the soft support for Trump will get annoyed that they're going without power and AC for whatever period of time.
Trump's core supporters only make up about 30% (IIRC) of the electorate and these folks may want to burn it all down. But that leaves 15 to 20% who voted for him the last time who are fine with whatever, just so long as it's not a burden to them.
Sounds like a short-lived, know-nothing rebellion with less chance of success than the Felon has of winning (Bibi's nomination of him for) the Nobel Peace Prize.
I'm seeing it my back east family. They believe him, his goons, and Fox. Granted Fox has 1st Amendment rights but people have to understand that they are story telling. Propaganda and lies are their mantra.
It makes me want to bang my head against a wall. This isn’t just stupidity. How in the hell did so many people get brainwashed? Imagine looking at 47 and seeing greatness. The mind boggles.
I try not to go down the "how did they get like this?" rabbit hole. I don't think it really matters. We have to assume that those people are simply fucking gone. You can't reason with the unreasonable. At the same time, I believe they are morally and intellectually responsible for their votes and should experience the full and unattenuated consequences of their votes. This is why, for example, I cheered on the passage of the BBB, because Trump's base is going to get hosed. And the key thing to remember is it doesn't matter what those voters believe or don't believe. The only thing that matters is the end result. When the MAGAe have to drive 200 miles to the nearest hospital, or their parents have to move back in with them from the nursing home, it's because they voted for a man who the more responsible of us knew would do this to them. So fuck 'em. Actions --> Consequences. And I'm here for it.
I know that you are right, but for some reason I keep trying to understand why they are the way that they are-and failing. It is a futile exercise. I get so angry about their dumb comments and turn myself into a pretzel trying to figure out why they do it.
But it does no good, and I need to figure out a way to stay out of that particular rabbit hole. :)
That was the quote that smacked me in the back of the head, too.
"Pretzel logic" goes well with beer. I wonder how many she's had today.
Rumor has it that the concentration camp built in the Everglades also has intended gaps in the fences. It's so many of the migrants will escape through them and be killed by alligators, panthers, or pythons, thus saving taxpayer dollars on further internment and/or airfare to foreign gulags.
It's not like we haven't had ample warning recently. Many Floridians lost their homes (and some their lives) from hurricanes Helene and Milton in September and October.
And the disgusting scene that The Rump regime presented last week at the opening ceremonies made me sick.
But, hey, I'm learning to live with being nauseous 24/7. I live in the Florida district that has the Congresswoman who posted photos of a "new and improved" Mt. Rushmore with TheRump's head added to it. (I've lost count of the number of emails she's gotten from me in the past three years.)
I have heard that a lot of people in Florida can't get insurance now. Can you imagine what the insurance is for that tent city known as Aligator Alcatraz! I'll bet Trumpster hasn't thought of that. But then thinking ahead is his strong suit! Thinking isn't either.
Hard to even imagine DeSantos sending FL National Guard troops to guard them! But that’s what he did. More cruelty to people who volunteer their time to serve our nation.
A long time ago, I worked in a refugee camp that was run by the prison authority of the country. The "guards" considered the refugees prisoners, as I suspect most of these FLNG troops will consider the people imprisoned here. They are being put in an untenable position, as I'm sure many of the troops sent to LA feel they are in.
Unfortunately, the majority of abuses came from those expected to protect the refugees, not from any serious conflicts among the refugees themselves.
Also, official administration documents show that they intend to hold children and pregnant women and sick people there - not just vicious criminals, as they claim publicly.
I’ve seen this before on social media. He does something that gets mocked or criticized, and his online minions make up some wild theory that explains why it’s actually brilliant, and the “dummies and Democrats” who are being critical are the true fools. My favorite part of this dynamic is when he then states some other explanation in the press that blows up the explanation his devotees twisted so hard to invent.
But then he never loses support even after he humiliates his cult.
There is no bottom with Trump. And there is nothing he can do that will make his base of support dwindle. The insanity and the moral turpitude are not only baked in but they're virtues. And this is why I favor the GOP passing legislation that will absolutely fuck these people over. They will deny it, of course, but then again reality has a way of dealing with all of us, often in brutal ways.
A cult has to be the right descriptor, because Trump has to do nothing...no, no...Trump can literally grind his supporters up as fertilizer for his golf courses and they'll rationalize how this is good for them.
The good news is, this is also the weakness of the movement. The downside is, it may get really ugly until Trump dies.
The reason this felon is in our lives, ruining our country, and shredding flesh from civic bone is questions like this, questions that genuflect before the absurd premise that he might be gifted at anything beyond spectacle. This isn’t talent. It is demolition by default. A wrecking ball obeys gravity; the press sees the rubble and calls it strategy, then gasps at the dust cloud as if it were deliberate choreography.
He cannot parse a briefing longer than a sandwich wrapper, cannot pronounce half the surnames on the world stage, cannot recall which amendment protects free speech. Still, columns appear praising his “intuitive feel for the electorate.” That intuition looks like a man flipping coin after coin until one lands heads, then proclaiming mastery of probability while the newsroom tallies his “wins.”
He signed checks to silence a porn star, bullied state officials to conjure phantom votes, and spurred a mob to attack his own government. None of it required guile; it required only brazenness and a crowd conditioned to mistake volume for conviction. The true marvel is not his rise but our surrender. A media ecosystem so haunted by accusations of bias that it canonizes failure as innovation, packaging each stumble in velvet language until the public forgets what competence ever looked like.
Call him what he is:
A mediocre con artist fattened on airtime, armored by euphemism, propelled through history by outlets allergic to calling him what he is. Strip away the soft focus, the “both-sides” hedges, the breathless horse-race polling, and the myth shrivels. Leave the cameras running without the commentary, and the nation would see a man lost in his own sentences, bluffing through governance like a gambler who never learned the rules of the game.
Until that unvarnished portrait dominates the front page, the wrecking ball will keep swinging, gravity will keep pulling, and every crushed institution will be mistaken for proof of his might rather than evidence of our collective reluctance to yell “Stop.”
"A wrecking ball obeys gravity; the press sees the rubble and calls it strategy, then gasps at the dust cloud as if it were deliberate choreography."
Yes yes yes! Beautifully captures it.
Trump is a feral animal willing to do anything to survive. Combine this with Americans' worship of money and business and the power of television to make people believe that the character he played on the Apprentice is who he is. Once upon a time people wanted leaders who were better educated, more experienced, and smarter than themselves. Not so anymore. Now they want someone just like them—a person who mangles language and can't find France on a map. And it's similar to some (and I stress SOME) on the left vis a vis "identity politics"—the youth wanting young people, certain segments wanting only their candidates.
If the media had covered Trump with half of the scrutiny they do the Dems, we might be in a different place. That's not to say there isn't good investigative work going on. There is. But our political reporters fail us day in and out, and have been doing it for years.
Yes, absolutely. What we’re seeing isn’t some mysterious shift in the electorate, it’s the predictable collapse that happens when image devours substance and the media decides its job is to narrate the circus rather than expose the fraud running it.
Trump has always been given far more credit for...everything...than he deserves. In reality, he is a simple man who also happens to be purely selfish and completely lacking in empathy. What is good for him is the only thing that matters, consequences be damned. Trumps simplicity is why he is always reversing course on things like tariffs and weapons to Ukraine. His unsophisticated mind is capable of reacting only to the most recent input.
1000% The tragedy isn’t that Trump is complicated and dark, it’s that he’s shallow and empty. There’s no grand ideology, no master strategy, just a short-circuited reflex machine powered by ego and grievance.
All objective observers know trump for what he is by now - there just aren't nearly enough American adults interested enough to observe what goes on outside their immediate daily life concerns. To ever observe even a glimpse of the "bigger picture" events that take place in corridors of power far, far away from anything most of us will ever encounter. I call it apathy, but it's apathy only toward anything beyond their control. And I guess that's probably a natural human response, replicated throughout human history, probably due to how simply overwhelming it is to just deal with your immediate daily family and work and personal duties and needs. I'm actually surprised at how many people actually DO look beyond their immediate surroundings and problems to do the objective observing in the first place. But again, always a minority of adults. I think it was the permitted abuse of the 1st amendment upon the advent of cable broadcasting, in the person of Rupert Murdoch, to be allowed to monetize lies and propaganda in order to gather in what was obviously a huge number of white Americans with pre-existing biases against liberal ideas or people of color, that led directly to this current situation two generations later. Removing any media guardrails and never seriously considering reinstalling any for the new broadcast technologies, especially regarding the internet. There will be an "unvarnished portrait" of trump one day, but it will never dominate the front pages. Most , even in that future time, will simply be too involved with THEIR daily challenges to care about observing what is, by then, history anyway. We have to somehow just 'get through' this period we're living through, knowing we'll never reach the majority of our fellow citizens who simply don't seem to care.
I would call him an incredible Salesman, especially as a Closer. In addition, many voters are attracted by a tall man with blond hair. The Federalist Society worked for years on the 2025 Plan. IMO Nationally DT is trying to implement one item after another of that Plan. So much of this is cruel performance to get attention and clicks. Our Foreign Affairs are a mess with him pushing away our Allies, cozying up to Putin, starving Ukraine of weapons and acting like a bull 🐂 in a china shop.
I love how much we disagree on everything. The myth of Trump as a master closer collapses the moment you compare him to the most basic benchmark of American capitalism: The S&P 500. From the 1980s until the moment he entered office, Trump underperformed that passive index by billions, with a B.
Dateline Reality: If he had taken the hundreds of millions he inherited from his father, money laundered through sham loans, shell companies, and tax fraud, and simply parked it in an index fund, he’d be far richer today. But he didn’t. He played faux businessman, lit piles of cash on fire, and watched one gaudy failure after another implode under the weight of his ego.
The only thing that finally broke the trend, his one true “deal”, was winning the presidency. Not because he suddenly found competence, but because he was no longer constrained by laws. Once in office, shielded by executive power and an obedient party, he could do what he always wanted: Grift without guardrails. That’s when the numbers stopped reflecting effort and started reflecting impunity.
This is not the story of a savvy operator. It’s the story of a well below-average rich kid losing to the market for decades, then finally catching up only when the legal consequences were suspended. A man who failed at casinos, steaks, vodka, education, airlines, and mortgages, yet kept selling himself as a genius because the press was too afraid to say otherwise.
Calling Trump a “great salesman” is like calling a house fire a clever form of renovation. The only thing he’s closed are the courtroom doors behind him, dozens of times. The only consistent product he’s ever sold is the illusion of success, wrapped in spectacle, subsidized by media, and finally made real not by business skill but by criminal immunity.
He didn’t beat the market. He beat the system that was supposed to hold him accountable. That’s not brilliance. That’s an indictment of America.
What big business deals would you point to, where he was the closer? If you're talking about a political "closer" then, that is something very different. The republicans in congress will go with him sure. But that is because they are opening scared for their lives, and their families lives, because they know he will sent the Red Hats after them. https://substack.com/home/post/p-167535249
I never said he was a successful Businessman. However, Trump has a great deal of charisma for some people. His repeated grifts show there are people buying what he is selling. To close political “sales” he uses Fear as his favorite weapon. He has been a bully all his life.
Thanks for that response! Yeah I think I we disagree. If someone needs to be scared of violent mobs for them to agree with you, personally I don’t think that’s a good salesperson selling that message, but if you view bullying as sales then I would agree with you!
Yeah! Real-estate agents are great. Never have I ever had a fear they would send a mob after me or my family, and generally, I become good friends with my agent.
Nope. I do not see this charisma or attraction. Frankly, he lost me at "grab em by the pussy". Apparently there needs to be more to disqualify this creton. I disagree. He tapped into the racism in this country and he spoke it out loud, unapologeticly and that is why they love him. The sickness of America is reflected in his hollow soul.
Sadly, no. We HAVE seen that (Jan 6), but all Fox et al had to do was ramp it back up and they all fell back into familiar roles. I too am beginning to believe there will not be an electoral solution, especially now that "right wing media" has started to infect sports and talk shows that think they're not political. And I agree: "what Democrats did wrong" is useless unless you go back ten years.
The Republican party has always been willing to bow down and fellate any strong man who was willing to espouse the cause of God, Guns, and Whiteness that is the core of American Conservatism. They don't care that they are being lied too, as long as they are the lies that they want to believe. They don't care that they are being robbed, as long as they are robbed in service to their own beliefs in exceptionalism. Its one of the reasons that their response to being raped has always been "try to make the best of it", as they are making the best of it now.
There is no one easier to con than a conservative.
Years ago I had a neighborhood diner that had a wildly varies clientele. I had white color, blue collar, D's, R's, artists, cops.....everybody likes a breakfast sandwich! One day one of my Rush Limbaugh listening customers (whose sister was the democratic attorney general of the state) asked me why I didn't vote for Republicans. I owned my own business and in his mind (limited in scope as it was) couldn't understand why I voted Democratic. I told him I would never vote Republican because of their Machiavellian use of "God, guns and gays."
I think we are past the point of trying to keep putting lipstick on the pigs. I think the sooner we start being honest about the problems, the sooner we can stop pretending we can elect our way to solutions.
I think the former Republicans working so hard to resist T are getting closer to dropping what is left of their rosy view of Pres. Reagan. His charm did not make up for the ways in which he paved the way for another anti- government figure more forceful than he.
Bulwark readers unfamiliar with Elbridge Colby (DoD appointee who initially cancelled the Ukraine aid) should know that this is one of those “China is an existential threat” people. Every decision the DoD & America makes through be through the lens of our great power competition with China. What folks like “Bridge” don’t understand is that Trump and Trumpism don’t give one whit about China especially over Taiwan. So instead of supporting an ally who went to war by our side in Iraq and Afghanistan (Ukraine), we are going to turn our backs on them for something that America doesn’t even care about.
Secondly, boy the focus group quote really nails this whole thing down doesn’t it. There is no reasoning with people this conspiratorial. The dear leader cannot be failed because there is always a secret plan for success and the plan can only fail because of hatred of the dear leader by infiltrators. Let’s beat the dead horse and call this what it is, a Jim Jones level cult.
The problem with Colby is not that he sees China as a serious threat—because they are—but that he thinks that somehow abandoning Ukraine to "focus on China" is going to dissuade China from attacking Taiwan, because they'll see that we've swung our focus over to them.
Which is just plain idiotic. We have no troops in Ukraine. The idea that by suspending mere weapons support for Ukraine were going to demonstrate some sort of seriousness about Taiwan—when everyone already knows that Trump is antagonistic toward Taiwan because "they stole" our microchip manufacturing industry from us, and has expressed that there's not a damn thing we can do if China attacks Taiwan—is stupidity on a stick.
There is no reasoning with them. And it extends to some other voters too. People believe what they want to believe and facts won't move them one bit. I blame not only the RW media but the creation of the internet. It has been a huge boon to the world—and ultimately perhaps, it's downfall, humans being humans.
The 3 authors of the book were on Kara Swisher's podcast. Dawsey typically uses his twitter feed to forward trump talking points, so I take what he reports with a grain of salt. Kara even said at one point it was Susan Wiles who provided the internal memos to him for his book.
Look at what the GOP is getting today -- their Project 2025 is dismantling the federal government--that is why they allowed trump back in. They knew he would do what they want in exchange for him seeking revenge against those that crossed him.
There will never be a book written that tells the complicity of our national news media in the rise of trump, because they just can't go there.
Fault Democrats (elected and voters) all you want. It’s not undeserved. But the fundamental issue has been from the start the enthusiasm for Trump shown by R elected officials and voters. We always talk about why Dems lost, not why Trump won
I have a lot of issues with the Democratic Party, but what I will say is they've always tried to appeal to the voters' better angels. I wish they'd stop doing that. There are no better angels to appeal to with these people.
I agree about the Trump cult completely. But there are plenty of other voters who are just ignorant and/or misinformed who voted for him for a host of other reasons, from the economy to racism to sexism. They aren't baked and as difficult as it can be, we can't stop trying to reach them. Otherwise we will be lost for good. But definitely forget the MAGA.
Aristotle spoke of people ultimately wanting to be seen as doing good. Steven Pinker wrote two books that show, charts and graphs, the world is actually getting more civilized. The “better angels” are being drowned out, but not killed off.
Yes. Thanks for mentioning them! Here's hoping more young people become familiar with their writings. Both are champions of the ability of reason to win over passion.
Aristotle set the bar high, but not too high, for our ability to understand logic. Unfortunately, even trying to jump over inductive and deductive reasoning is just too difficult for many voters these days.
I completely agree. The majority of my anger is directed at Republican politicians for our current hell. Most of them know or knew better but are/were too cowardly to speak up and do the right thing.
That is completely true. But the GOP know what the consequences are and refused to put their own power and careers second to the nation. That is unforgivable.
And the only "power" they have at this point is hurting ordinary Americans and currying favor with rich donors who will give them nice cushy jobs with big pay packages once they leave Congress. They are so egotistical they fear and loathe the prospect of "irrelevance" even as they have made themselves irrelevant.
Let's just cut to the chase and say it out loud: we live in a new and different era, and the old one isn't coming back. The world around us has changed, and the new regime has figured that out (intentionally or not is another issue) while the old order continues to clutch its pearls and say how wrong what is happening is.
Objectively, yes, that is true. Realistically, it doesn't matter. We now live in an age where truth is less important than opinion. Personality is more important than policy, and emulating reality TV, to entertain and amuse the voters, works way better than talking about new initiatives and how to implement them. Owning the libs is way more important than improving our lives. AI ... podcasts and blogs ... social media otherwise ... all are much more effective ways to spread the message and target the opposition and get results, far more so than TV commercials and direct mailings. Controversy is good. Bad behavior is rewarded, as long as there is something in it for the supporters in the end and the enemy is vanquished. Up is down. Down is up. Rinse and repeat.
What to do about it? Going high no longer seems to be an asset. Go low and punch the bully back in the mouth? Be as crude and profane if that's what it takes to get the points across? Tell people what they want to hear often enough that they believe it, even when the evidence tells us it isn't so? The new era requires a strategic rethink, lest we keep watching the public go after the enticing junk food rather than the dull but nourishing meal that they need. As long as they prefer the bad diet and the shiny objects in the room, we will remain in this box. It feels too much like trying to convince alcoholics that they have a drinking problem. The question is: do we start drinking too, to know enough what it is like to be the alcoholic and what the needed treatment is?
We need to remember our history. Have you seen footage of the raging mobs at Central High School in Little Rock when it was integrated? Do you remember that people used to take picnics to lynchings, take their children? Do you remember that the South was willing to sacrifice their own young men to keep slavery? Do you remember that schools in some places in the South were shut down rather than submit to integration? Do you remember how high the tolerance was for Jim Crow, for our apartheid, our humiliation and control of Black people?
Just a few years ago there was a firestorm of objection to changing the name of a local school named for Robert E. Lee....with his portrait hanging in the office. I can't even drive to the grocery store without being confronted with bumper stickers proclaiming loyalty to Trump and even threats to use violence on anyone who gets in their way.
I am white, but I can tell you Black people are not surprised. They are exhausted from having to fight the same battles over and over. I am pretty exhausted myself. I live among people with a high tolerance for cruelty.
I mostly agree with you. But many people where I live don't listen to podcasts or read blogs. Television commercials and mailers do still work here. If they didn't Trump wouldn't have spent the money inundating the airwaves on both local stations and streaming services.
Lying like the right does not and will not work for Dems. It's one of the areas of double standards when it comes to the legacy media, which still has influence on the rest of media, even if it's lost viewers and readers. Also Dems and those who vote for Dems also hold their electeds to much higher standards than the right does with their candidates. the asymmetry is what's killing us. Imagine if Obama paved over the Rose Garden? Well Trump is doing just that without a peep from our vaunted press corps. The Washington Press Assoc is no better than the GOP. Instead of sticking up for reporters and organizations that Trump denigrates or tries to isolate they shrug and raise their hands, eager to spread his lies.
When Biden called out a reporter it was a mass pile on about his incivility even though he was right in what he said. Instead, he ended up apologizing. But if he didn't apologize it would have become an even bigger and stupider story. It's infuriating.
It feels like we are in a perfect (shit) storm); the Dems are in a lose-lose situation with so many forces—the same forces that shape most public opinion—arrayed against them. I do think they need to stop worrying to a degree about how the NYT writes about them, even though it does affect opinions—and care more about what the voters want. They need to say (if they can without jeopardizing strategy) what they are doing to counter the GOP. They do need better outreach and I have seen some progress.
You're a smart guy and you're clear-eyed about the stakes and realities while being perplexed about solutions. So am I. I agree we aren't going back to the before, which means we have to try to salvage the best of what was and forge it with whatever new reality we help to create. That's all I've got right now.
Good and fair points. We've seen that there are two sets of rules -- the Ds must play by the established ones while Rs get away with "That's just Donald being Donald," a permission structure then extended to others in his orbit. I don't want to go down that road with the Ds as well. But some sort of reset is in order, when the old ways no longer achieve the desired results. The world around us is changing, and we all need to both accept it and find a way to make it work for us too.
Yes, we do need a reset because indeed the world is changing. The problem is we are in the middle of that change, in the forest so to speak. And it's hard to formulate a strategy when you are trying to navigate through uncertain and unfamiliar terrain. But we must try.
There are so many logical inconsistencies in Trumpism, like deporting every living immigrant without tanking the economy, that it’ll eventually explode. No telling when that’ll happen or how, but I think that’s going to be the only way out of this malignant Idiocracy. The only hope of ameliorating it is if the current chaos moves a fair amount of people to elect Dems in the midterms to act as brakes. Coaster brakes are better than no brakes.
Now that the BBB( use whatever words you want) is passed, we need to go on the message offense that is double to counter what Trump will bring. Let's face it, Trump is at 40% and underwater with every issue and that is before results have even started to come. I don't know if 90 to 95 % of Republicans will ever move regardless of what happens, but Independants will.
This. Recent polling (2024) indicates that as many as 51% identify as Independents. Granted, all of them probably lean one way or the other but a "lean" may mean open to persuasion.
I know one of the independents. Smart person, had a job with a lot of responsibility for numerous employees, generous with time for charitable nonprofit boards of directors. Had a pretty comfortable life in the sense of enough money to not stress about it all the time, no major illness or family disruptions. Watches both Fox and whatever other cable news there is in an effort to understand "both sides." This person is politically naive and lacks context because the interest in politics started in 2017. This person was what I would call a casual country club Republican who still can't shake the idea that Republicans are smarter in business related things like the economy. So is willing to give the Trump Administration the "benefit of the doubt" and thinks that the crazy stuff like 1/6 was bad and was perpetrated by people that aren't linked to the current president.
We all know people like this. If the Dems focus on trying to reach Independents, it is certain they will not persuade all of them. If the polling is accurate, however, there are enough of them, numerically, that it is worth the attempt. Just think of all the energy the party spends trying to ensure that 6% of the electorate (Progressives) support the Dems.
Agree. The Dems spend way too much time and effort at what seems like trying to convince the people that will vote for Dems anyway. The Dems (and those like me who aren't Dems) need to focus more effort on those independents/on the line people that will shift if they have the right motivation and info.
Also, we don't mention this enough but "we" need to get better at kinetic tactics like trying to cause divisions among the MAGA/Trump Supporters. Elon vs Trump, America Party vs MAGA, Bondi/Patel/Bongino vs pro-Epstein List MAGA. We should be throwing fuel on that fire much more than what I see (unfortunately, no help will come from the MSM)
Was this person unbothered by Trump's pardon of the people who waged war on the Capitol Police in his name, or by his characterization of them as great patriots who were horribly abused, or by his efforts to punish anyone involved in investigating and prosecuting them?
Oh very much bothered by it. Thought it was wrong when they clearly broke the law. Doesn't like the president as a person, but some little part of the psyche still thinks maybe the economic aspects of the presidency will get some good results eventually. Knows that tariffs are taxes on us but thinks it'll change the balance of power a little in trade to the US advantage in the long run. Haven't seen this person since the ICE raids started so I don't know what the reaction is. This is a humane person...was on the local abused women's services board of directors. I suspect the ICE will further erode any support for the president. I hope so anyway.
I've seen recent polling (Quinnipiac) on all the issues. Republicans are pretty lock step while Independents are close to Democrats. Doesn't bode well for R's in 26. And that is before results on the economy have begun to surface.
"Personality is more important than policy" - That is clearly true for the MAGA rank and file, for the most part. At the same time, Trump apologists made a mantra of "Policy, not personality" as a way of rationalizing their abandonment of the principle that "character matters."
The answer to the question is that institutions weakened as Trump's popularity rose. Trump's power doesn't come from his money, it comes from his fame and popularity. As Trump's popularity rose in 2016 he eventually captured the GOP. Once he captured the GOP this didn't automatically weaken institutions, and the differences between Trump's 1st term and 2nd term are indicative of that. In term #1, the institutions somewhat held--"adults" were still in the room, people like Fauci and Mattis and Wray were running government, and the adults were able to serve as a bulwark against Trump's worst impulses. It wasn't until Trump began routinely weaponizing his popularity and the mob it held sway over that things started breaking down. Once Trump started selectively unleashing his online mob--and later the whole of the US government--onto other people/groups/institutes that became his political enemies that the guardrails started breaking down. Fear and chill set in. Institutes and individuals started capitulating out of fear of what would happen if they didn't. THAT is when things changed. When Trump went from being simply a popular guy who was restrained by adults to a guy who weaponized his popularity and used it to either convert or replace the "adults" with loyalists and sycophants.
Trump found out a secret: that institutions are manned by people, and people respond to fear-driven environments with capitulation. It's kind of like when cartels or the Taliban publicly and horrifically kill business owners who don't cooperate with the cartels/Taliban to send a message, only Trump need not horrifically kill people in public here, only threaten their profits, careers, and social status. In the US, it's much simpler to get institutions in line with fear via financial penalties and lawsuits and death threats from online mobs than it is to do so with violence. That's financial terrorism being used to bend institutions, terrorism being the use of force or the threat of use of force to get someone else to change their behavior. It's like extortion, only you're trying to get people/institutions to change their behavior and/or speech rather than trying to extract a payoff. That's Trump's secret weapon: the weaponization of his popularity to bend institutes to his will.
But isn't the first rule in a budding autocracy not to surrender in advance? Oh, sorry, I just remembered that the guy who wrote the book on autocracy just moved his entire family from New Haven to Toronto, Canada, where he can now teach history safely without being threatened. The rest of us- not so much.
We've gotten so used to surrendering to oligarchs in our capitalism that it's not really a large leap for us to start surrendering to authoritarians in our democracy now too. One surrender begets another until it's just part of your culture to let powerful men have their way with whatever and whoever. To quote King, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," but we've allowed so many injustices to pile up across our society that tolerance of injustice is a cultural thing now and injustice in our democracy is just one more injustice among many others we tolerate on a rolling basis. It starts with bootlicking oligarchs and ends with bootlicking authoritarians.
We're not really a "budding democracy" either, we're the longest run democracy has had in human history. Our long run with democracy is coming up against our shorter-but-still-long run with decadence and letting oligarchs hoard as much wealth (read: power) as they want. If our democracy began with a culture defined by not living under monarchs and it's probably going to end with a culture defined by the tolerance of living under oligarchs. We started as a country that eschewed concentrations of power in government, and we're dying as a country that loves concentrations of power among individuals.
I appreciate the Tim Snyder shoutout by the way. Well deserved.
' We started as a country that eschewed concentrations of power in government, and we're dying as a country that loves concentrations of power among individuals."
Dude has been a wannabe mobster for a very long time. Now he kind of finally is one, only instead of running a crew or a family he runs a political party. His tactics are the same as a mob boss's, the constituency is just different.
He runs a political party. That political party just happens to control the country at the moment but does not control it indefinitely (for now) because of the continued presence of free and fair elections.
It made them simply old; aware that their time in Middle Earth was drawing to a close, wishing little more to than to heed the call of the Valar and depart for the Undying Lands. They had done their part in Ages past. Dowager Queen Arwen would wander an abandoned Rivendell by herself in her final days. Though men are infinitely flawed - and Tolkien was right on that one - stewardship over the earth was entrusted to our kind.
I Love the cheap shots this morning. Netanyahu nominating Trump for the Nobel Prize for Peace is like Pol pot nominating Stalin for the award. Last I checked Netanyahu was indicted by the ICC for war crimes, and Trump; well what can I say about America’s favorite narcissistic sociopath which hasn’t already been said.
All this makes me wonder how Netanyahu can breathe with his head so far up Trump’s derrière! It’s a mystery to me!…:)
much like Germany in 1945, it will be not just Americans, but the whole world and the entire human race paying the cost for our ignorance. Or as a dramatic idea, we could fix our own problems and not expect the whole world to save us from the willful ignorance of flyover country.
It might help if we remind ourselves what Germany was like after the end of 1945, though that's a conversation not many people want to have, and the idea of Americans learning from our mistakes is simply laughable.
But we did. The Great Depression brought this country to its knees. It took a long time, but America emerged stronger. We can do this again, if people don’t give up.
You do recall and understand I hope that the only reason "America emerged stronger" after the great depression was that Europe was a ruined impoverished hellscape from the effects of removing the Nazis from power? And that America was a significant contributor of that ruin?
Yeah, that's what America will be if we don't remove Trump and the Republicans from power before the rest of the world has to do it.
And we never, NEVER learned from the Great Depression. The petty ante stops we put in place to try to protect the country from the actions of the robber barons of the Gilded Age (that caused the Depression) were dismantled less than 50 years later by Reagan and the same people who are now praising the actions of those same robber barons. That does not sound like the actions of a country that "learned its lesson" from the Great Depression.
I agree. I still adhere to the theory in the book "The Fourth Turning" and somewhere around 2028 - 2032 we'll pull out of this but like you I think at great cost and I am curious what that new turning will look like
That rough ride will happen during my grandkid's elementary and high school years. Those are important formative years that will be spent with shoestring educational opportunity, disease, and economic instability. Their age cohort are the ones that will pull us out of this and they'll lack the tools to do so. I question the long term optimism.
Thought this was really well-written. I also think that the current pres. is the best thing that has ever happened to the current incarnation of what used to be the Republican party. I don't think it's so much that the current republicans have capitulated or given in--I think they love having the current pres. as their leader b/c now, no republicans have to think/be troubled by consistency or avoiding hypocrisy. The current republicans don't have to try to convince their constituents about difficult, nuanced topics or broader ideals for the good of the country--all they have to say is the pres. says this, so I say this too. It's simple and easy if you have no shame.
Mike Johnson basically admitted that he sees the job of the legislature as codifying what Trump has already decreed - and what Trump decrees is undoubtedly often spelled out by the think-tankers who wrote his agenda.
To go with what others have said, I don't think that Democrats should be faulted for the things that Republicans and right wingers did all on their own. If nothing else, the main thing they should be faulted for is not reading the room that vibes and dumb propaganda have replaced policy for millions of American voters.
The feedback is telling from the Trump supporter who doubled down on her delusions after being shown that Trump was inept. For her and millions of others, it is more important to believe the delusion that Trump cannot be faulted for anything. The aim of a grandiose cult is to vicariously live through the shamelessness of the leader because it's associated with strength, and people like that aren't going to make the conclusion that their leader is an idiot because that would make them feel like an idiot. They likely already do, which is why they joined the cult to begin with. Mass delusion isn't going to be fixed with better government policies. Unfortunately, it's going to take a disaster of epic proportions and/or the death of their cult leader to make any difference.
It's not that Trump "improved" from his first term, either. If anything, his senility and constant narcissistic gratifications have made him worse and more volatile. The difference is now he has institutions that are more acquiescent because they see him as a permanent fixture, and the "adults in the room" (i.e. Republicans who at least had a bottom of decency) have now been replaced by sycophantic psychopaths who have had a few years to prepare for launching their sadistic fantasies.
Or, they've been replaced by extremely efficient ideologues who know EXACTLY how they want to change the country and will do it come he'll or high water, and he is their vehicle. They do not care who they kill or impoverish, either. They are far more vicious, if you can imagine, than he is. Once they've achieved their goal, he's meaningless. So will a lot of us be. The stakes are really high.
Both. The guardrails are off and the dreams that have been percolating for years are being brought to fruition by people who have learned from their own mistakes and those of others combined with their arrogance, shamelessness, and moral vacuity.
But also remember this. The reason they are slamming these changes through so quickly is because they know they only have two years. They know how unpopular these changes are and will be as more people become aware. They know they are most likely going to lose seats in 2026. They are expecting it. Which is why it is essential that the Dems take back the House and Senate, which was once out of the question. It's essential they conduct hearing after hearing and try to televise them as much as possible. And in 28 they need to purge and make it clear why.
In the meantime the Dems and organizations friendly to them should be suing the shit out of this admin every. single. day. SCOTUS may overturn lower courts' opinions, but with every decision they reveal their partisanship. Better to have a clear eyed picture than to live in fantasy about those 6 judges. Maybe now the left understands why SCOTUS is so important?!
It is indeed going to take a disaster of epic proportions. And when that guy tried to shoot Trump but only managed to graze his ear, this country dodged a bullet too. Imagine him turned into a martyr, a sort of malign Obi-Wan Kenobe who would become the subject of ever greater hagiography. Instead, he gets to be the captain of the Titanic, aiming us for an iceberg.
Gang membership is not only unproven in Abrego Garcia's case, it wouldn't even violate US law--absent a RICO finding. You may have noticed that however much we don't care for them, we do not imprison the Crips and the Bloods for simple membership in their respective gangs; not here, not in El Salvador.
Deporting Abrego Garcia may be a more nuanced question.
they way I think of it Trump is a drug and his MAGA base are addicts, who want more even if they know it will kill them. Then there are the elected republicans who know it’s bad, but seek to profit by it.
The MAGA base don’t know it will kill them, they think it’ll make them even stronger, like a daily dose of Ivermectin. The elected Republicans, those who are not drinking the Ivermectin themselves, are selling the Ivermectin to make their livelihoods.
I am fascinated with the reaction to Bondi's DOJ announcing the Epstein files are a 'nothing burger'. What's a conspiracy cult to do when their leadership looks to have sold out to the deep state? Heads are imploding. Maybe the entire cult will implode.
"In one focus group, when Trump supporters were shown the facts about his shortcomings on building a border wall, one woman explained that Trump must have done that on purpose, in order to funnel the migrants through gaps where they could be apprehended more readily. Scott decided to stay out of the race."
In other words, this woman and millions of others like her are simply unreachable. You can't reason with people like this. If anyone still wonders why my views on the electorate and democracy are like H.L. Menken's cranked to 120 dB, it's because of people like this.
Tell me you are in a cult without saying you are in a cult... I am almost worried about what these people will do when they lose their cult leader. They're radicalized and once they lose their center of gravity with Trump, I'm not sure they just go away anymore.
They won't, but they will unravel looking for a new leader as there are a number of wannabes out there. Unless all of them coalesce around one, which with JD, (f)Elon, the pet killer, Brain Worm with a popular name, to ID but a few, is IMHO unlikely, the cat fight (sorry, but that is the expression) will be one to watch.
I agree with you and my concern is what form will that unraveling look like. I don't foresee MAGA just silently dispersing, I am beginning to think they will say F-it and go off the rails.
It's an odd coalition. Many of the true believers had never gotten involved in politics or even voted before him. I think they will eventually go back to their apathetic ways. The QAnons etc will look for another to glom on to, but no one on the right has the same combination of characteristics as Trump (thank God). MAGA will disperse but it certainly won't die. It will just lie dormant, waiting for another Moses to lead them to the promised land of their fantasies.
What seems certain is that we have three and a half more years of pain, degradation, horror, and tragedy to endure. Good luck to us all.
Three scenarios:
1) They coalesce around one and that is the new King, long live the King,
2) They splinter into pick-a-number of factions and duke it out among themselves who is the new King, then see number one,
3) They can't agree on a new King and go underground to wait until the new one comes along, creating as much chaos as possible during the wait..
I think you might be missing a 4th - they give up on the system and burn it down on their own. I'm thinking about the attacks on power substations and such during Biden's term. I think they are more likely to become a bunch of fire starters with no cohesive plan other than hurt the people they don't like, and at the end of the day, the coalition largely agrees on who is in the outgroup.
Yeah, this is possible, but a lot of the soft support for Trump will get annoyed that they're going without power and AC for whatever period of time.
Trump's core supporters only make up about 30% (IIRC) of the electorate and these folks may want to burn it all down. But that leaves 15 to 20% who voted for him the last time who are fine with whatever, just so long as it's not a burden to them.
Sounds like a short-lived, know-nothing rebellion with less chance of success than the Felon has of winning (Bibi's nomination of him for) the Nobel Peace Prize.
3) Is where we were prior to 2015. MAGA was the culture that'd submarined after the Civil Right Movement.
I think option 2 leading into option 3 is the best case scenario for us.
They are already.
Don Jr. anyone?
I am laying my $$$ on the “Crypto King” aka La Barron
Perhaps a well timed deep fake video inviting them to join the dear leader in a special section of MAGA heaven ?
Exactly.
I can't wait to find out though
I'm not worrying.
count on them staying around, looking for a new "leader". You have a better chance of turning a Scientologist or a Mormon.
Indeed. What becomes of them after Trump? Will they rally to JD Vance?
I'm seeing it my back east family. They believe him, his goons, and Fox. Granted Fox has 1st Amendment rights but people have to understand that they are story telling. Propaganda and lies are their mantra.
It makes me want to bang my head against a wall. This isn’t just stupidity. How in the hell did so many people get brainwashed? Imagine looking at 47 and seeing greatness. The mind boggles.
I try not to go down the "how did they get like this?" rabbit hole. I don't think it really matters. We have to assume that those people are simply fucking gone. You can't reason with the unreasonable. At the same time, I believe they are morally and intellectually responsible for their votes and should experience the full and unattenuated consequences of their votes. This is why, for example, I cheered on the passage of the BBB, because Trump's base is going to get hosed. And the key thing to remember is it doesn't matter what those voters believe or don't believe. The only thing that matters is the end result. When the MAGAe have to drive 200 miles to the nearest hospital, or their parents have to move back in with them from the nursing home, it's because they voted for a man who the more responsible of us knew would do this to them. So fuck 'em. Actions --> Consequences. And I'm here for it.
I know that you are right, but for some reason I keep trying to understand why they are the way that they are-and failing. It is a futile exercise. I get so angry about their dumb comments and turn myself into a pretzel trying to figure out why they do it.
But it does no good, and I need to figure out a way to stay out of that particular rabbit hole. :)
That was the quote that smacked me in the back of the head, too.
"Pretzel logic" goes well with beer. I wonder how many she's had today.
Rumor has it that the concentration camp built in the Everglades also has intended gaps in the fences. It's so many of the migrants will escape through them and be killed by alligators, panthers, or pythons, thus saving taxpayer dollars on further internment and/or airfare to foreign gulags.
"Trump is so brilliant!"
The heat, humidity and mosquitos would get them first.
Those will get them INSIDE the camp.
Can you imagine what happens when a hurricane hits those tent internment camps. Great public relations!
Exactly.
It's not like we haven't had ample warning recently. Many Floridians lost their homes (and some their lives) from hurricanes Helene and Milton in September and October.
And the disgusting scene that The Rump regime presented last week at the opening ceremonies made me sick.
But, hey, I'm learning to live with being nauseous 24/7. I live in the Florida district that has the Congresswoman who posted photos of a "new and improved" Mt. Rushmore with TheRump's head added to it. (I've lost count of the number of emails she's gotten from me in the past three years.)
I have heard that a lot of people in Florida can't get insurance now. Can you imagine what the insurance is for that tent city known as Aligator Alcatraz! I'll bet Trumpster hasn't thought of that. But then thinking ahead is his strong suit! Thinking isn't either.
Is your district one that was gerrymandered to create a perpetual safe seat?
Hard to even imagine DeSantos sending FL National Guard troops to guard them! But that’s what he did. More cruelty to people who volunteer their time to serve our nation.
A long time ago, I worked in a refugee camp that was run by the prison authority of the country. The "guards" considered the refugees prisoners, as I suspect most of these FLNG troops will consider the people imprisoned here. They are being put in an untenable position, as I'm sure many of the troops sent to LA feel they are in.
Unfortunately, the majority of abuses came from those expected to protect the refugees, not from any serious conflicts among the refugees themselves.
See also "the Stanford prison experiment."
Also, official administration documents show that they intend to hold children and pregnant women and sick people there - not just vicious criminals, as they claim publicly.
Like that four-dimensional chess board, the one the pieces fall through.
I’ve seen this before on social media. He does something that gets mocked or criticized, and his online minions make up some wild theory that explains why it’s actually brilliant, and the “dummies and Democrats” who are being critical are the true fools. My favorite part of this dynamic is when he then states some other explanation in the press that blows up the explanation his devotees twisted so hard to invent.
But then he never loses support even after he humiliates his cult.
There is no bottom with Trump. And there is nothing he can do that will make his base of support dwindle. The insanity and the moral turpitude are not only baked in but they're virtues. And this is why I favor the GOP passing legislation that will absolutely fuck these people over. They will deny it, of course, but then again reality has a way of dealing with all of us, often in brutal ways.
It's the 4D chess playing crap.
This exact quote is what hit me...literally: WTF.
A cult has to be the right descriptor, because Trump has to do nothing...no, no...Trump can literally grind his supporters up as fertilizer for his golf courses and they'll rationalize how this is good for them.
The good news is, this is also the weakness of the movement. The downside is, it may get really ugly until Trump dies.
Like you said Tim; they are unreachable. Note to those worrying about: quit crying over spilled milk.
The reason this felon is in our lives, ruining our country, and shredding flesh from civic bone is questions like this, questions that genuflect before the absurd premise that he might be gifted at anything beyond spectacle. This isn’t talent. It is demolition by default. A wrecking ball obeys gravity; the press sees the rubble and calls it strategy, then gasps at the dust cloud as if it were deliberate choreography.
He cannot parse a briefing longer than a sandwich wrapper, cannot pronounce half the surnames on the world stage, cannot recall which amendment protects free speech. Still, columns appear praising his “intuitive feel for the electorate.” That intuition looks like a man flipping coin after coin until one lands heads, then proclaiming mastery of probability while the newsroom tallies his “wins.”
He signed checks to silence a porn star, bullied state officials to conjure phantom votes, and spurred a mob to attack his own government. None of it required guile; it required only brazenness and a crowd conditioned to mistake volume for conviction. The true marvel is not his rise but our surrender. A media ecosystem so haunted by accusations of bias that it canonizes failure as innovation, packaging each stumble in velvet language until the public forgets what competence ever looked like.
Call him what he is:
A mediocre con artist fattened on airtime, armored by euphemism, propelled through history by outlets allergic to calling him what he is. Strip away the soft focus, the “both-sides” hedges, the breathless horse-race polling, and the myth shrivels. Leave the cameras running without the commentary, and the nation would see a man lost in his own sentences, bluffing through governance like a gambler who never learned the rules of the game.
Until that unvarnished portrait dominates the front page, the wrecking ball will keep swinging, gravity will keep pulling, and every crushed institution will be mistaken for proof of his might rather than evidence of our collective reluctance to yell “Stop.”
"A wrecking ball obeys gravity; the press sees the rubble and calls it strategy, then gasps at the dust cloud as if it were deliberate choreography."
Yes yes yes! Beautifully captures it.
Trump is a feral animal willing to do anything to survive. Combine this with Americans' worship of money and business and the power of television to make people believe that the character he played on the Apprentice is who he is. Once upon a time people wanted leaders who were better educated, more experienced, and smarter than themselves. Not so anymore. Now they want someone just like them—a person who mangles language and can't find France on a map. And it's similar to some (and I stress SOME) on the left vis a vis "identity politics"—the youth wanting young people, certain segments wanting only their candidates.
If the media had covered Trump with half of the scrutiny they do the Dems, we might be in a different place. That's not to say there isn't good investigative work going on. There is. But our political reporters fail us day in and out, and have been doing it for years.
Yes, absolutely. What we’re seeing isn’t some mysterious shift in the electorate, it’s the predictable collapse that happens when image devours substance and the media decides its job is to narrate the circus rather than expose the fraud running it.
Trump has always been given far more credit for...everything...than he deserves. In reality, he is a simple man who also happens to be purely selfish and completely lacking in empathy. What is good for him is the only thing that matters, consequences be damned. Trumps simplicity is why he is always reversing course on things like tariffs and weapons to Ukraine. His unsophisticated mind is capable of reacting only to the most recent input.
1000% The tragedy isn’t that Trump is complicated and dark, it’s that he’s shallow and empty. There’s no grand ideology, no master strategy, just a short-circuited reflex machine powered by ego and grievance.
All objective observers know trump for what he is by now - there just aren't nearly enough American adults interested enough to observe what goes on outside their immediate daily life concerns. To ever observe even a glimpse of the "bigger picture" events that take place in corridors of power far, far away from anything most of us will ever encounter. I call it apathy, but it's apathy only toward anything beyond their control. And I guess that's probably a natural human response, replicated throughout human history, probably due to how simply overwhelming it is to just deal with your immediate daily family and work and personal duties and needs. I'm actually surprised at how many people actually DO look beyond their immediate surroundings and problems to do the objective observing in the first place. But again, always a minority of adults. I think it was the permitted abuse of the 1st amendment upon the advent of cable broadcasting, in the person of Rupert Murdoch, to be allowed to monetize lies and propaganda in order to gather in what was obviously a huge number of white Americans with pre-existing biases against liberal ideas or people of color, that led directly to this current situation two generations later. Removing any media guardrails and never seriously considering reinstalling any for the new broadcast technologies, especially regarding the internet. There will be an "unvarnished portrait" of trump one day, but it will never dominate the front pages. Most , even in that future time, will simply be too involved with THEIR daily challenges to care about observing what is, by then, history anyway. We have to somehow just 'get through' this period we're living through, knowing we'll never reach the majority of our fellow citizens who simply don't seem to care.
It’s a sobering comment, Steve, and you’re right.
I would call him an incredible Salesman, especially as a Closer. In addition, many voters are attracted by a tall man with blond hair. The Federalist Society worked for years on the 2025 Plan. IMO Nationally DT is trying to implement one item after another of that Plan. So much of this is cruel performance to get attention and clicks. Our Foreign Affairs are a mess with him pushing away our Allies, cozying up to Putin, starving Ukraine of weapons and acting like a bull 🐂 in a china shop.
I love how much we disagree on everything. The myth of Trump as a master closer collapses the moment you compare him to the most basic benchmark of American capitalism: The S&P 500. From the 1980s until the moment he entered office, Trump underperformed that passive index by billions, with a B.
Dateline Reality: If he had taken the hundreds of millions he inherited from his father, money laundered through sham loans, shell companies, and tax fraud, and simply parked it in an index fund, he’d be far richer today. But he didn’t. He played faux businessman, lit piles of cash on fire, and watched one gaudy failure after another implode under the weight of his ego.
The only thing that finally broke the trend, his one true “deal”, was winning the presidency. Not because he suddenly found competence, but because he was no longer constrained by laws. Once in office, shielded by executive power and an obedient party, he could do what he always wanted: Grift without guardrails. That’s when the numbers stopped reflecting effort and started reflecting impunity.
This is not the story of a savvy operator. It’s the story of a well below-average rich kid losing to the market for decades, then finally catching up only when the legal consequences were suspended. A man who failed at casinos, steaks, vodka, education, airlines, and mortgages, yet kept selling himself as a genius because the press was too afraid to say otherwise.
Calling Trump a “great salesman” is like calling a house fire a clever form of renovation. The only thing he’s closed are the courtroom doors behind him, dozens of times. The only consistent product he’s ever sold is the illusion of success, wrapped in spectacle, subsidized by media, and finally made real not by business skill but by criminal immunity.
He didn’t beat the market. He beat the system that was supposed to hold him accountable. That’s not brilliance. That’s an indictment of America.
What big business deals would you point to, where he was the closer? If you're talking about a political "closer" then, that is something very different. The republicans in congress will go with him sure. But that is because they are opening scared for their lives, and their families lives, because they know he will sent the Red Hats after them. https://substack.com/home/post/p-167535249
And being a student of Roy Cohn, he learned to never ever confess or concede to anyone, ever, anytime. Sadly, it has served him well.
I never said he was a successful Businessman. However, Trump has a great deal of charisma for some people. His repeated grifts show there are people buying what he is selling. To close political “sales” he uses Fear as his favorite weapon. He has been a bully all his life.
Thanks for that response! Yeah I think I we disagree. If someone needs to be scared of violent mobs for them to agree with you, personally I don’t think that’s a good salesperson selling that message, but if you view bullying as sales then I would agree with you!
Have you ever met a real estate agent?
Yeah! Real-estate agents are great. Never have I ever had a fear they would send a mob after me or my family, and generally, I become good friends with my agent.
Why?
Nope. I do not see this charisma or attraction. Frankly, he lost me at "grab em by the pussy". Apparently there needs to be more to disqualify this creton. I disagree. He tapped into the racism in this country and he spoke it out loud, unapologeticly and that is why they love him. The sickness of America is reflected in his hollow soul.
Sadly, no. We HAVE seen that (Jan 6), but all Fox et al had to do was ramp it back up and they all fell back into familiar roles. I too am beginning to believe there will not be an electoral solution, especially now that "right wing media" has started to infect sports and talk shows that think they're not political. And I agree: "what Democrats did wrong" is useless unless you go back ten years.
Spot on
His downtrodden followers identified with him when the media and the courts attacked him.
The Republican party has always been willing to bow down and fellate any strong man who was willing to espouse the cause of God, Guns, and Whiteness that is the core of American Conservatism. They don't care that they are being lied too, as long as they are the lies that they want to believe. They don't care that they are being robbed, as long as they are robbed in service to their own beliefs in exceptionalism. Its one of the reasons that their response to being raped has always been "try to make the best of it", as they are making the best of it now.
There is no one easier to con than a conservative.
Years ago I had a neighborhood diner that had a wildly varies clientele. I had white color, blue collar, D's, R's, artists, cops.....everybody likes a breakfast sandwich! One day one of my Rush Limbaugh listening customers (whose sister was the democratic attorney general of the state) asked me why I didn't vote for Republicans. I owned my own business and in his mind (limited in scope as it was) couldn't understand why I voted Democratic. I told him I would never vote Republican because of their Machiavellian use of "God, guns and gays."
They are so FUCKING easy to dupe.
Your comment about rape and "try to make the best of it" is a very dark, but accurate perception of their mindset.
I think we are past the point of trying to keep putting lipstick on the pigs. I think the sooner we start being honest about the problems, the sooner we can stop pretending we can elect our way to solutions.
I actually had a man tell me that in “polite” conversation. I was dumbfounded, and left as soon as I could.
As long as the poorest white man can look doen on someone else he is happy, in short.
I think the former Republicans working so hard to resist T are getting closer to dropping what is left of their rosy view of Pres. Reagan. His charm did not make up for the ways in which he paved the way for another anti- government figure more forceful than he.
That is what Bobby Knight once said.(about rape)
Bulwark readers unfamiliar with Elbridge Colby (DoD appointee who initially cancelled the Ukraine aid) should know that this is one of those “China is an existential threat” people. Every decision the DoD & America makes through be through the lens of our great power competition with China. What folks like “Bridge” don’t understand is that Trump and Trumpism don’t give one whit about China especially over Taiwan. So instead of supporting an ally who went to war by our side in Iraq and Afghanistan (Ukraine), we are going to turn our backs on them for something that America doesn’t even care about.
Secondly, boy the focus group quote really nails this whole thing down doesn’t it. There is no reasoning with people this conspiratorial. The dear leader cannot be failed because there is always a secret plan for success and the plan can only fail because of hatred of the dear leader by infiltrators. Let’s beat the dead horse and call this what it is, a Jim Jones level cult.
The problem with Colby is not that he sees China as a serious threat—because they are—but that he thinks that somehow abandoning Ukraine to "focus on China" is going to dissuade China from attacking Taiwan, because they'll see that we've swung our focus over to them.
Which is just plain idiotic. We have no troops in Ukraine. The idea that by suspending mere weapons support for Ukraine were going to demonstrate some sort of seriousness about Taiwan—when everyone already knows that Trump is antagonistic toward Taiwan because "they stole" our microchip manufacturing industry from us, and has expressed that there's not a damn thing we can do if China attacks Taiwan—is stupidity on a stick.
There is no reasoning with them. And it extends to some other voters too. People believe what they want to believe and facts won't move them one bit. I blame not only the RW media but the creation of the internet. It has been a huge boon to the world—and ultimately perhaps, it's downfall, humans being humans.
Paul Simon : A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. 1969.
David, You beat to that response! I had it ready then saw your reply. From the Boxer; Simon's all time greatest.
🍻
Internet = Splitting the atom
Excellent.
That's why we have been defining them since 2017 as "Those who drank the Kool-Aid".
Sure ended well for the followers of Jim Jones.
At least they expected it would. Don't know how their relatives (who survived) thought about it....🙄
The 3 authors of the book were on Kara Swisher's podcast. Dawsey typically uses his twitter feed to forward trump talking points, so I take what he reports with a grain of salt. Kara even said at one point it was Susan Wiles who provided the internal memos to him for his book.
Look at what the GOP is getting today -- their Project 2025 is dismantling the federal government--that is why they allowed trump back in. They knew he would do what they want in exchange for him seeking revenge against those that crossed him.
There will never be a book written that tells the complicity of our national news media in the rise of trump, because they just can't go there.
Prime example: ABC and CBS
Yep. It's much easier and so much more fun to blame the Democrats, whom they despise.
Fault Democrats (elected and voters) all you want. It’s not undeserved. But the fundamental issue has been from the start the enthusiasm for Trump shown by R elected officials and voters. We always talk about why Dems lost, not why Trump won
I have a lot of issues with the Democratic Party, but what I will say is they've always tried to appeal to the voters' better angels. I wish they'd stop doing that. There are no better angels to appeal to with these people.
I agree about the Trump cult completely. But there are plenty of other voters who are just ignorant and/or misinformed who voted for him for a host of other reasons, from the economy to racism to sexism. They aren't baked and as difficult as it can be, we can't stop trying to reach them. Otherwise we will be lost for good. But definitely forget the MAGA.
Aristotle spoke of people ultimately wanting to be seen as doing good. Steven Pinker wrote two books that show, charts and graphs, the world is actually getting more civilized. The “better angels” are being drowned out, but not killed off.
Yes. Thanks for mentioning them! Here's hoping more young people become familiar with their writings. Both are champions of the ability of reason to win over passion.
Aristotle set the bar high, but not too high, for our ability to understand logic. Unfortunately, even trying to jump over inductive and deductive reasoning is just too difficult for many voters these days.
The failings of education unfortunately.
Trouble is they will never vote Democratic no matter what.
So much for when they go low, we go high. Sounds good in theory though.
I completely agree. The majority of my anger is directed at Republican politicians for our current hell. Most of them know or knew better but are/were too cowardly to speak up and do the right thing.
Don’t absolve the voters, for those are the people many of those officials most fear
That is completely true. But the GOP know what the consequences are and refused to put their own power and careers second to the nation. That is unforgivable.
And the only "power" they have at this point is hurting ordinary Americans and currying favor with rich donors who will give them nice cushy jobs with big pay packages once they leave Congress. They are so egotistical they fear and loathe the prospect of "irrelevance" even as they have made themselves irrelevant.
I don’t. I’m angry at the voters too but the majority of my anger is focused on the R politicians.
They’re not cowardly. They want this.
While Trumpster won, we lost.
Let's just cut to the chase and say it out loud: we live in a new and different era, and the old one isn't coming back. The world around us has changed, and the new regime has figured that out (intentionally or not is another issue) while the old order continues to clutch its pearls and say how wrong what is happening is.
Objectively, yes, that is true. Realistically, it doesn't matter. We now live in an age where truth is less important than opinion. Personality is more important than policy, and emulating reality TV, to entertain and amuse the voters, works way better than talking about new initiatives and how to implement them. Owning the libs is way more important than improving our lives. AI ... podcasts and blogs ... social media otherwise ... all are much more effective ways to spread the message and target the opposition and get results, far more so than TV commercials and direct mailings. Controversy is good. Bad behavior is rewarded, as long as there is something in it for the supporters in the end and the enemy is vanquished. Up is down. Down is up. Rinse and repeat.
What to do about it? Going high no longer seems to be an asset. Go low and punch the bully back in the mouth? Be as crude and profane if that's what it takes to get the points across? Tell people what they want to hear often enough that they believe it, even when the evidence tells us it isn't so? The new era requires a strategic rethink, lest we keep watching the public go after the enticing junk food rather than the dull but nourishing meal that they need. As long as they prefer the bad diet and the shiny objects in the room, we will remain in this box. It feels too much like trying to convince alcoholics that they have a drinking problem. The question is: do we start drinking too, to know enough what it is like to be the alcoholic and what the needed treatment is?
We need to remember our history. Have you seen footage of the raging mobs at Central High School in Little Rock when it was integrated? Do you remember that people used to take picnics to lynchings, take their children? Do you remember that the South was willing to sacrifice their own young men to keep slavery? Do you remember that schools in some places in the South were shut down rather than submit to integration? Do you remember how high the tolerance was for Jim Crow, for our apartheid, our humiliation and control of Black people?
Just a few years ago there was a firestorm of objection to changing the name of a local school named for Robert E. Lee....with his portrait hanging in the office. I can't even drive to the grocery store without being confronted with bumper stickers proclaiming loyalty to Trump and even threats to use violence on anyone who gets in their way.
I am white, but I can tell you Black people are not surprised. They are exhausted from having to fight the same battles over and over. I am pretty exhausted myself. I live among people with a high tolerance for cruelty.
I mostly agree with you. But many people where I live don't listen to podcasts or read blogs. Television commercials and mailers do still work here. If they didn't Trump wouldn't have spent the money inundating the airwaves on both local stations and streaming services.
Lying like the right does not and will not work for Dems. It's one of the areas of double standards when it comes to the legacy media, which still has influence on the rest of media, even if it's lost viewers and readers. Also Dems and those who vote for Dems also hold their electeds to much higher standards than the right does with their candidates. the asymmetry is what's killing us. Imagine if Obama paved over the Rose Garden? Well Trump is doing just that without a peep from our vaunted press corps. The Washington Press Assoc is no better than the GOP. Instead of sticking up for reporters and organizations that Trump denigrates or tries to isolate they shrug and raise their hands, eager to spread his lies.
When Biden called out a reporter it was a mass pile on about his incivility even though he was right in what he said. Instead, he ended up apologizing. But if he didn't apologize it would have become an even bigger and stupider story. It's infuriating.
It feels like we are in a perfect (shit) storm); the Dems are in a lose-lose situation with so many forces—the same forces that shape most public opinion—arrayed against them. I do think they need to stop worrying to a degree about how the NYT writes about them, even though it does affect opinions—and care more about what the voters want. They need to say (if they can without jeopardizing strategy) what they are doing to counter the GOP. They do need better outreach and I have seen some progress.
You're a smart guy and you're clear-eyed about the stakes and realities while being perplexed about solutions. So am I. I agree we aren't going back to the before, which means we have to try to salvage the best of what was and forge it with whatever new reality we help to create. That's all I've got right now.
Good and fair points. We've seen that there are two sets of rules -- the Ds must play by the established ones while Rs get away with "That's just Donald being Donald," a permission structure then extended to others in his orbit. I don't want to go down that road with the Ds as well. But some sort of reset is in order, when the old ways no longer achieve the desired results. The world around us is changing, and we all need to both accept it and find a way to make it work for us too.
Yes, we do need a reset because indeed the world is changing. The problem is we are in the middle of that change, in the forest so to speak. And it's hard to formulate a strategy when you are trying to navigate through uncertain and unfamiliar terrain. But we must try.
You will never convince an alcoholic that he has a drinking problem by becoming an alcoholic too. You’ll just have 2 drunks instead of 1.
Yes, that's my point. It doesn't work ... but nothing else has worked either. Giving up isn't a viable option. So what now?
There are so many logical inconsistencies in Trumpism, like deporting every living immigrant without tanking the economy, that it’ll eventually explode. No telling when that’ll happen or how, but I think that’s going to be the only way out of this malignant Idiocracy. The only hope of ameliorating it is if the current chaos moves a fair amount of people to elect Dems in the midterms to act as brakes. Coaster brakes are better than no brakes.
Now that the BBB( use whatever words you want) is passed, we need to go on the message offense that is double to counter what Trump will bring. Let's face it, Trump is at 40% and underwater with every issue and that is before results have even started to come. I don't know if 90 to 95 % of Republicans will ever move regardless of what happens, but Independants will.
This. Recent polling (2024) indicates that as many as 51% identify as Independents. Granted, all of them probably lean one way or the other but a "lean" may mean open to persuasion.
I know one of the independents. Smart person, had a job with a lot of responsibility for numerous employees, generous with time for charitable nonprofit boards of directors. Had a pretty comfortable life in the sense of enough money to not stress about it all the time, no major illness or family disruptions. Watches both Fox and whatever other cable news there is in an effort to understand "both sides." This person is politically naive and lacks context because the interest in politics started in 2017. This person was what I would call a casual country club Republican who still can't shake the idea that Republicans are smarter in business related things like the economy. So is willing to give the Trump Administration the "benefit of the doubt" and thinks that the crazy stuff like 1/6 was bad and was perpetrated by people that aren't linked to the current president.
We all know people like this. If the Dems focus on trying to reach Independents, it is certain they will not persuade all of them. If the polling is accurate, however, there are enough of them, numerically, that it is worth the attempt. Just think of all the energy the party spends trying to ensure that 6% of the electorate (Progressives) support the Dems.
Agree. The Dems spend way too much time and effort at what seems like trying to convince the people that will vote for Dems anyway. The Dems (and those like me who aren't Dems) need to focus more effort on those independents/on the line people that will shift if they have the right motivation and info.
Also, we don't mention this enough but "we" need to get better at kinetic tactics like trying to cause divisions among the MAGA/Trump Supporters. Elon vs Trump, America Party vs MAGA, Bondi/Patel/Bongino vs pro-Epstein List MAGA. We should be throwing fuel on that fire much more than what I see (unfortunately, no help will come from the MSM)
Was this person unbothered by Trump's pardon of the people who waged war on the Capitol Police in his name, or by his characterization of them as great patriots who were horribly abused, or by his efforts to punish anyone involved in investigating and prosecuting them?
Oh very much bothered by it. Thought it was wrong when they clearly broke the law. Doesn't like the president as a person, but some little part of the psyche still thinks maybe the economic aspects of the presidency will get some good results eventually. Knows that tariffs are taxes on us but thinks it'll change the balance of power a little in trade to the US advantage in the long run. Haven't seen this person since the ICE raids started so I don't know what the reaction is. This is a humane person...was on the local abused women's services board of directors. I suspect the ICE will further erode any support for the president. I hope so anyway.
I've seen recent polling (Quinnipiac) on all the issues. Republicans are pretty lock step while Independents are close to Democrats. Doesn't bode well for R's in 26. And that is before results on the economy have begun to surface.
Such a good comment! I have to commit this particular phrase to memory: "We now live in an age where truth is less important than opinion."
"Personality is more important than policy" - That is clearly true for the MAGA rank and file, for the most part. At the same time, Trump apologists made a mantra of "Policy, not personality" as a way of rationalizing their abandonment of the principle that "character matters."
The answer to the question is that institutions weakened as Trump's popularity rose. Trump's power doesn't come from his money, it comes from his fame and popularity. As Trump's popularity rose in 2016 he eventually captured the GOP. Once he captured the GOP this didn't automatically weaken institutions, and the differences between Trump's 1st term and 2nd term are indicative of that. In term #1, the institutions somewhat held--"adults" were still in the room, people like Fauci and Mattis and Wray were running government, and the adults were able to serve as a bulwark against Trump's worst impulses. It wasn't until Trump began routinely weaponizing his popularity and the mob it held sway over that things started breaking down. Once Trump started selectively unleashing his online mob--and later the whole of the US government--onto other people/groups/institutes that became his political enemies that the guardrails started breaking down. Fear and chill set in. Institutes and individuals started capitulating out of fear of what would happen if they didn't. THAT is when things changed. When Trump went from being simply a popular guy who was restrained by adults to a guy who weaponized his popularity and used it to either convert or replace the "adults" with loyalists and sycophants.
Trump found out a secret: that institutions are manned by people, and people respond to fear-driven environments with capitulation. It's kind of like when cartels or the Taliban publicly and horrifically kill business owners who don't cooperate with the cartels/Taliban to send a message, only Trump need not horrifically kill people in public here, only threaten their profits, careers, and social status. In the US, it's much simpler to get institutions in line with fear via financial penalties and lawsuits and death threats from online mobs than it is to do so with violence. That's financial terrorism being used to bend institutions, terrorism being the use of force or the threat of use of force to get someone else to change their behavior. It's like extortion, only you're trying to get people/institutions to change their behavior and/or speech rather than trying to extract a payoff. That's Trump's secret weapon: the weaponization of his popularity to bend institutes to his will.
But isn't the first rule in a budding autocracy not to surrender in advance? Oh, sorry, I just remembered that the guy who wrote the book on autocracy just moved his entire family from New Haven to Toronto, Canada, where he can now teach history safely without being threatened. The rest of us- not so much.
We've gotten so used to surrendering to oligarchs in our capitalism that it's not really a large leap for us to start surrendering to authoritarians in our democracy now too. One surrender begets another until it's just part of your culture to let powerful men have their way with whatever and whoever. To quote King, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," but we've allowed so many injustices to pile up across our society that tolerance of injustice is a cultural thing now and injustice in our democracy is just one more injustice among many others we tolerate on a rolling basis. It starts with bootlicking oligarchs and ends with bootlicking authoritarians.
We're not really a "budding democracy" either, we're the longest run democracy has had in human history. Our long run with democracy is coming up against our shorter-but-still-long run with decadence and letting oligarchs hoard as much wealth (read: power) as they want. If our democracy began with a culture defined by not living under monarchs and it's probably going to end with a culture defined by the tolerance of living under oligarchs. We started as a country that eschewed concentrations of power in government, and we're dying as a country that loves concentrations of power among individuals.
I appreciate the Tim Snyder shoutout by the way. Well deserved.
' We started as a country that eschewed concentrations of power in government, and we're dying as a country that loves concentrations of power among individuals."
That is a beautiful summation of the problem.
Felon Trump was called a mob boss years ago. His base was thrilled. Mainstream Media was asleep.
Dude has been a wannabe mobster for a very long time. Now he kind of finally is one, only instead of running a crew or a family he runs a political party. His tactics are the same as a mob boss's, the constituency is just different.
Let's tweak that a bit: instead of running a crew or a family or a political party he runs a country
He runs a political party. That political party just happens to control the country at the moment but does not control it indefinitely (for now) because of the continued presence of free and fair elections.
Fair enough
"Men are weak". *Elrond, Lord of the Rings
And yet the elves were so dependent on the power of men to hold back Mordor. What does that make the elves?
It made them simply old; aware that their time in Middle Earth was drawing to a close, wishing little more to than to heed the call of the Valar and depart for the Undying Lands. They had done their part in Ages past. Dowager Queen Arwen would wander an abandoned Rivendell by herself in her final days. Though men are infinitely flawed - and Tolkien was right on that one - stewardship over the earth was entrusted to our kind.
I Love the cheap shots this morning. Netanyahu nominating Trump for the Nobel Prize for Peace is like Pol pot nominating Stalin for the award. Last I checked Netanyahu was indicted by the ICC for war crimes, and Trump; well what can I say about America’s favorite narcissistic sociopath which hasn’t already been said.
All this makes me wonder how Netanyahu can breathe with his head so far up Trump’s derrière! It’s a mystery to me!…:)
Netanyahu knows exactly how to manipulate Trump. So easy!
Birds of a feather flock together.
After reading this I'm more convinced than ever that we are doomed as a society and a country.
I think we're in for a rough ride in the short term. Long term, we might pull out of this.
I’m not sure you’re right, but I gave this a like because that’s all I have at this point.
I think we'll pull out of it, but at great cost.
much like Germany in 1945, it will be not just Americans, but the whole world and the entire human race paying the cost for our ignorance. Or as a dramatic idea, we could fix our own problems and not expect the whole world to save us from the willful ignorance of flyover country.
It might help if we remind ourselves what Germany was like after the end of 1945, though that's a conversation not many people want to have, and the idea of Americans learning from our mistakes is simply laughable.
But we did. The Great Depression brought this country to its knees. It took a long time, but America emerged stronger. We can do this again, if people don’t give up.
You do recall and understand I hope that the only reason "America emerged stronger" after the great depression was that Europe was a ruined impoverished hellscape from the effects of removing the Nazis from power? And that America was a significant contributor of that ruin?
Yeah, that's what America will be if we don't remove Trump and the Republicans from power before the rest of the world has to do it.
And we never, NEVER learned from the Great Depression. The petty ante stops we put in place to try to protect the country from the actions of the robber barons of the Gilded Age (that caused the Depression) were dismantled less than 50 years later by Reagan and the same people who are now praising the actions of those same robber barons. That does not sound like the actions of a country that "learned its lesson" from the Great Depression.
I agree. I still adhere to the theory in the book "The Fourth Turning" and somewhere around 2028 - 2032 we'll pull out of this but like you I think at great cost and I am curious what that new turning will look like
Spot on.
Same.
That rough ride will happen during my grandkid's elementary and high school years. Those are important formative years that will be spent with shoestring educational opportunity, disease, and economic instability. Their age cohort are the ones that will pull us out of this and they'll lack the tools to do so. I question the long term optimism.
100%
Thought this was really well-written. I also think that the current pres. is the best thing that has ever happened to the current incarnation of what used to be the Republican party. I don't think it's so much that the current republicans have capitulated or given in--I think they love having the current pres. as their leader b/c now, no republicans have to think/be troubled by consistency or avoiding hypocrisy. The current republicans don't have to try to convince their constituents about difficult, nuanced topics or broader ideals for the good of the country--all they have to say is the pres. says this, so I say this too. It's simple and easy if you have no shame.
Mike Johnson basically admitted that he sees the job of the legislature as codifying what Trump has already decreed - and what Trump decrees is undoubtedly often spelled out by the think-tankers who wrote his agenda.
Very good point.
To go with what others have said, I don't think that Democrats should be faulted for the things that Republicans and right wingers did all on their own. If nothing else, the main thing they should be faulted for is not reading the room that vibes and dumb propaganda have replaced policy for millions of American voters.
The feedback is telling from the Trump supporter who doubled down on her delusions after being shown that Trump was inept. For her and millions of others, it is more important to believe the delusion that Trump cannot be faulted for anything. The aim of a grandiose cult is to vicariously live through the shamelessness of the leader because it's associated with strength, and people like that aren't going to make the conclusion that their leader is an idiot because that would make them feel like an idiot. They likely already do, which is why they joined the cult to begin with. Mass delusion isn't going to be fixed with better government policies. Unfortunately, it's going to take a disaster of epic proportions and/or the death of their cult leader to make any difference.
It's not that Trump "improved" from his first term, either. If anything, his senility and constant narcissistic gratifications have made him worse and more volatile. The difference is now he has institutions that are more acquiescent because they see him as a permanent fixture, and the "adults in the room" (i.e. Republicans who at least had a bottom of decency) have now been replaced by sycophantic psychopaths who have had a few years to prepare for launching their sadistic fantasies.
Or, they've been replaced by extremely efficient ideologues who know EXACTLY how they want to change the country and will do it come he'll or high water, and he is their vehicle. They do not care who they kill or impoverish, either. They are far more vicious, if you can imagine, than he is. Once they've achieved their goal, he's meaningless. So will a lot of us be. The stakes are really high.
Both. The guardrails are off and the dreams that have been percolating for years are being brought to fruition by people who have learned from their own mistakes and those of others combined with their arrogance, shamelessness, and moral vacuity.
But also remember this. The reason they are slamming these changes through so quickly is because they know they only have two years. They know how unpopular these changes are and will be as more people become aware. They know they are most likely going to lose seats in 2026. They are expecting it. Which is why it is essential that the Dems take back the House and Senate, which was once out of the question. It's essential they conduct hearing after hearing and try to televise them as much as possible. And in 28 they need to purge and make it clear why.
In the meantime the Dems and organizations friendly to them should be suing the shit out of this admin every. single. day. SCOTUS may overturn lower courts' opinions, but with every decision they reveal their partisanship. Better to have a clear eyed picture than to live in fantasy about those 6 judges. Maybe now the left understands why SCOTUS is so important?!
I completely agree, Susan. You stated it much more eloquently than I did.
It is indeed going to take a disaster of epic proportions. And when that guy tried to shoot Trump but only managed to graze his ear, this country dodged a bullet too. Imagine him turned into a martyr, a sort of malign Obi-Wan Kenobe who would become the subject of ever greater hagiography. Instead, he gets to be the captain of the Titanic, aiming us for an iceberg.
My thought is that two things probably will have to happen:
1. People need a proactive, non-partisan movement that they can unload onto (something akin to the social reforms in the Progressive Era).
2. The disasters will be viscerally painful and constant for everyone in the cult.
Gang membership is not only unproven in Abrego Garcia's case, it wouldn't even violate US law--absent a RICO finding. You may have noticed that however much we don't care for them, we do not imprison the Crips and the Bloods for simple membership in their respective gangs; not here, not in El Salvador.
Deporting Abrego Garcia may be a more nuanced question.
re the tariffs - at least the penguins are off the hook for them! 🐧
they way I think of it Trump is a drug and his MAGA base are addicts, who want more even if they know it will kill them. Then there are the elected republicans who know it’s bad, but seek to profit by it.
The MAGA base don’t know it will kill them, they think it’ll make them even stronger, like a daily dose of Ivermectin. The elected Republicans, those who are not drinking the Ivermectin themselves, are selling the Ivermectin to make their livelihoods.
I am fascinated with the reaction to Bondi's DOJ announcing the Epstein files are a 'nothing burger'. What's a conspiracy cult to do when their leadership looks to have sold out to the deep state? Heads are imploding. Maybe the entire cult will implode.
1. Bondi failed Trump.
Or:
2: Powerful malign forces conspired to force the Trump admin. to protect all the evil Democrats.
Then their god sucks and we should let them know that
If only. Sigh.