Where’s the tipping point when the neo-Confederate, know-it-all kleptocratic war against America crashes the MAGA house of cards?
Maybe it’s the sheer size of the USA, remarkable cultural diversity, varied natural resources and of late “outdated” moral assumptions. Certainly, divergent regional variations and origins, loyalty to incessant religious fables, and differing legacies (slavery) distinguish the deep red, small-town backwaters from New York, California or Massachusetts. What do well-traveled, better-educated, work and tech savvy northerners share with insular, provincial, white fundamentalists (on sex, guns, faith, “freedom”) longing for a lost (phantom) golden age, or betting on heaven, resist relocation or upgrading skill-sets? To fulfill my life/career goals, I had to move from New Jersey to Northern California to Chicago, back to the Golden State.
Political systems, like other sentient creatures, have a lifespan, and a third century clearly tests the oldest democracy. Nothing goes on forever without positive growth and enlightenment. Whatever — the U.S. suffers beyond polarization, losing the critical moral and political skills to find common ground and peacefully reconcile disagreements. What’s being lost is a democratic necessity: enough collective consensus of values, goals and methods that honor the best of the past (laws, courts, Constitution, elections) to secure stability.
This view exposes the first Trumpist blow as endless sabotage of majority governance, then horrifically, odiously defying the fair 2020 election, then even worse siccing enraged deplorables against the ritual of vote verification. That Trump, his absurd lies and personal illegalities aside, was not instantly tarred and feathered for rank insurrection marks when nearly half of America went criminal rogue – displacing tradition and reason with rebellious contempt for justice. Worst of all, since 2021 no sufficient, critical mass rose up to confirm that only law and fairness protect America from losing birthright freedoms. Not only has a firm majority not rebuked Trump’s electoral fraud and calls to violence, the same reactionary, kleptocratic forces doubled down, leveraging billionaire payola, disenfranchisement and bizarre grievances (to engender distrust in government, let alone expertise and performance), reelecting an openly racist demagogue who scoffs at jurisprudence.
Hardly innocent is stultifying, spineless Democratic leadership, though, unlike the GOP, won’t marry violent overthrow to insufficient courage to reform income inequality and divisive crony corporatism. Dems have NOT abandoned federalism, or the idea of good governance, let alone law, order, justice and healthy traditions, like peaceful transfers of power. Only ideologues refuse to distinguish today’s GOP, an elitist gang of power-obsessed oligarchs and backward fundamentalists from the alternative Dems – honoring law, the Constitution, even majority rule. No Democrat, even right-leaning voices, sneeringly aims to be “dictator for a day,” the most revealing, most appalling Trumpist admission. No Democrat ruthlessly wants to make a virtue of violating the law, ignoring Congress, then demand impeachment of judges doing their lawful best. No Democrat candidate escapes 34 felony convictions, and more, would ever be nominated for dog catcher.
The hard-right “revolution” IS being televised
So, no rocket science needed to understand what the kleptocratic, radically-individualist, libertarian class is up to. Blast away at anything federal with even a chance to stymy whatever selfish, corrupt predators are convinced will “make America great” by pumping up their stock and bank accounts. What stands out is the magnitude of negative assaults and the arbitrary, sneering odium towards what federalist Congresses for decades openly fashioned as the law of the land. MAGA Trumpism, now more organized and better-funded, wars against the absolute necessity of checks and balances, obsessed not with humane deliverables but solely destructive takeaways. Wreckage everywhere, and note that negatives overwhelm any proposed positives.
Name one uplifting, people-serving program pushed by Trump so far that conceivably changes the misery of the average citizen. Shredding DOJ and justified (Trump) indictments, undermining Pentagon oversight, axing health and science agencies, NOAH, pollution controls, let alone the battered Dept. of Education – what else constitutes warring against federalism and defaulting (backwards) to states rights? What positives accrue to the entire West to abandon Ukraine’s territorial defense or more unabashedly back brutal Israeli militarism? Where are people positives for transparently absurd circus shenanigans, intimidation of federal workers, agencies heads, and honorable lawyers Trump can’t stand? Blight is not good for reform and not good for communal trust.
Who profits by counterproductive tariff manipulations and splashy (illegal) deportations – let alone horrendous release of convicted felons? Comic, if not unspeakably tragic. What American benefits from the theatrics over seizing Canada or Greenland, both extreme impossibilities, or suicidal alienation of solid European allies? Who (but MAGA nuts) benefit by ruining the JFK Performing Arts Center or banishing Jackie Robinson’s army life story from the Pentagon site (now rescinded)? Malfeasance, forced exile and illegal banishment of professional staff and agencies signal a system in crisis, fueling ungovernability.
It’s now federalism (not the economy), stupid!
Whatever else caused the Civil War, the core was a violent regional rejection of federalism, majority rule, nationalism, and Constitutional government, all the while betraying what “honor-bound” southerners backed. The Civil War kicked off years of national ungovernability. Then came 19th C labor/union-busting wars triggered by untethered robber barons demanding that the federal government had to protect their harsh, unjust working conditions. They invoked pliant federalism to shield great wealth while bigots forced an anti-immigration movement contrary to all melting-pot ideals. The 1930s Depression replayed this dynamic, forcing a new majority to turn the tables, leveraging federalism to advance the sovereignty of popular self-government. That meant tax the rich and push old-age pensions as federal power culled abusive capitalism.
Since the 1960s, worsened by Reaganism, America has teetered on the edge of ungovernability – with Silent Majority/Tea Party/MAGA disruptions the most visible attacks on Constitutional self-governance. MAGA Trumpism culminates the unholy alliance between a generation of radical, New Deal-hating libertarians and grievance-suckered, low-information complainers who fantasize that shredding federalism is the only road to achieve their notions of good times. How exactly do punitive culture wars (that restrict freedom), phony promises, and defiance of civilized, enacted laws “regain” the lost golden age that Trumpers claim to revere?
As with past bouts of ungovernability – and today’s neo-Confederate revulsion of compromise, even negotiation – America must realize that Trumpism is both opposed to the best American values and sustainable prosperity for all. Chaos always devastates small fry. MAGA power brokers are addicted to mass destruction first (then what, do reform and planning afterwards?) as their road to maximum control, a willful, counterproductive act of sedition. Trumpism serves up its badly-educated cronies and crackpots, its few favored dictatorships – seemingly oblivious how they jeopardize “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Judging so far by bunker-busting blasts against federalism, this Trump do-over stage show works hard to further reduce the functional IQ for democratic governance – and without current opposition (except in the FEDERAL courts), with marked successes. Frankly, I now reckon an equal chance that nasty, inept Trumpist over-reach will inspire an enormous backlash that will repair great damage – OR that America will become so permanently scarred that greater ungovernability looms. As a rash of sane experts write, democracy is a fragile flower on a vulnerable stalk – without divine or cosmic guarantees. Even nature staggers under horrendous assaults, so why not democratic self-government? Defenders must match well-heeled foes, and that means mass protests, defiance, boycotts, general strikes and more – before systemic reparation can even begin.
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