When will enough voters judge Trump America’s first truly anti-American president?
Headlong into rushing to bust up federalism, absent clear justifications, nearly laughable excesses already openly dramatize what a top-town, oligarchic insurrection is all about. As with criminals, would-be tyrants differ in competence, the durable ones capable, the failures blindingly inept. Never Trumpers are now handed a golden opportunity to pommel the Musk-MAGA coup d’état as a focussed barrage against federalism, thus America and wider interests.
Imagine a simple, unified message that cuts across all the arm-waving propaganda, from second-level distractions (Canada, Greenland, DEI, trans issues, punishing media, law firms and universities, a third Trump term) to the real, systemic targets: installing inept and/or corrupt administrators (with chaos as a change-facilitator), privatizing intact agencies, voter suppression (by intimidation and rule corruption), demolishing public services and consumer protections (while unduly firing minority workers, and stripping bare safety nets for the bottom half. That’s how to defend a promised, repeat fat cat tax payolas for donors while leaving the condemned poor to beg for crumbs.
Globally, the weaker the top dog democracy, the easier to beef up totalitarian leverage against remaining law- and Constitution-respecting “holdouts.” The MAGA barrage may appear incoherent, and the messenger senile and deranged, but there is method to the madness (however cruel). That makes the first goal the diminution of soft and hard American power to boost the seizure of resources, disputed territories and security platforms (by conquest or annexation). For me, the anti-Americanism message carries more weight than assailing the relative abstractions of oligarchy or saving democracy, or answering scattergun cultural wedges like the fabricated criminal immigration “invasion.” The opposition Dem “punishment” should fit the endless Trump crimes that, if successful, betray America. The battle is now how much scorched earth Trump inflicts without any positive deliverables to offset the pain. Even the dullest voters abandon their fog about the scope and magnitude of Trump’s fascistic demolition derby, a country infected from within.
The honeymoon from hell
The greatest surprise is not the scope of mammoth assaults, but the void of even talking up positive outcomes, say about jobs, inflation, supplies of tariff-depleted goods, even higher national security (now shrunken). Why only takeaways, with no Trump candy to offset the bitterness of an austerity wipeout. Where’s the Trump hustle, what he does best, that promises the moon while taking away the earth? How much disrespect for law and judges, or awful pardons, how many cuts to veterans, food, Medicare/health services, Social Security and decent trade relationships before a critical mass says No More. Trump arrogance rides so high he again figures his (dubious) messianic status allows him to get away with anything – despite growing dread by his cronies. So much for Congress, the undeniable good from federalism, the integrity of the judiciary, even bad GOP election results (in Penn and narrowing FL races). Okay, Trump has dumped UN pick Stefanik to preserve one House vote, but what else but surging protests and blows to approvals can curb Trumpism? The short Trump “honeymoon” has incited a fury of opposition against slash and burn, take no prisoners overreach, with nary any proof of alleged D.C. fraud, even massive waste.
If Dems can successfully expose and exploit the corrosive anti-Americanism behind Trumpism, that assures taking over the House next year (or sooner if Rethugs squander House seats). Ineptitude tosses Dems one softball after another to broadcast all the Make America Worse outcomes: crashing a strong economy, hobbling the vast majority, and obliterating US clout everywhere with bizarre, self-destructive acquisition stunts. Time for simple, well-publicized graphics that show the real, short and long term COSTS for shredding federalism without cutting huge capital defense spending, a pittance compared to firing Pentagon employees. How about a conspicuous equation that sets all the negatives against alleged, unproven, hardly described positives? Time for dramatic, moving depictions of how millions of voters are being catapulted downward, into dire poverty, whether retired oldsters, hungry children or chronically ill. Causal linkages to death and misery, like needless Covid deaths, could dethrone MAGA-Musk Trumpism. Ditto, show in hard economic and military terms what abandoning Ukraine to Russia means to US consumers in terms of safety, inflation and supply shortages. Only a degraded, kleptocratic America attempts to blackmail Ukraine (by denying arms) to hand over huge resources as the PAYOFF for getting Russian imperialism to backoff.
No winning offset to unspeakable losing?
In the meantime, activists who reject Muskrat Trumpism must keep spirits up while waiting for the shock and awe of today’s self-destructive mayhem, if not firing of Trump appointments to scapegoat indefensible disasters (like the Signal email stupidity). No Trump pick, even JD Vance, is safe when continued anti-Americanism costs him real political leverage, like losing the House. As tariffs and deportations only weaken our economic prowess, Trump’s absurd decoupling from the world shakes the western alliance, and that impacts our high life styles. Tariff wars indict themselves. Is this 1890 and McKinley? Is 1920’s isolationism not out of whack, as if the past century never happened? Failures to derail Putin’s Ukrainian conquest scheme, or force less Israeli brutality, even deter Iranian nuclear operations (with bombing threatened this weekend) will add to MAGA shortfalls. So much visible losing from blustering braggarts of belligerence.
Whether the MAGA movement ultimately qualifies as fascistic authoritarian dictatorship not for a day but years, the objective of today’s crime spree against America is to remove protections that stop oligarchic tycoons from buying assets at discount, the way Musk’s $300 million “bought” his enormous dominance. If disaster capitalism fails from gross negligence, if not self-sabotage, won’t that humiliate oligarchy? MAGA takes a high-risk, zero sum bet where losers go home empty-handed. Heartland anti-Americanism is the ultimate one-way trip, especially if recession, high prices and job losses strike. Because the wealth of America is directly tied to global prestige (and dollar strength), multiple blows without positives for average Yanks will expose the nasty, elitist power-mongering underway. Control of everything demands more aptitude that any Trumpers exhibit so far. The combination of domestic disasters combined with overseas losses are inestimable, and key voters in purple states won’t tolerate such overload – if not snookering.
Perhaps the greatest MAGA blunder is that Trump, unlike dictators who last, is not bridging the gap between inciting rage and producing even perceived deliverables to assuage an impatient base. Austerity without compensation will only make the pissed off majority intolerably austere. Where’s the beef for aggrieved MAGAs, let alone major corporations pinched hard by tariff excesses? How many non-criminals can you illegally deport, students and otherwise, before millions (if not courts) rise up and object? How many cuts to veteran services, with a proposed 50% reduction of VA staff, or reduced Medicaid and Social Security payments must occur before a very different, very angry, manifestly populist “revolution” surfaces?
Trump, whose narcissism has never respected any limits, legal, political or moral, is driving unprecedented and insupportable hobbyhorse nonsense (tariff wars are good, paid by shippers; isolation in a global world makes sense; government is a hoax ponzi scheme, flush with fraud and waste) like an amateur riding the fiercest bucking bronc. I can’t guarantee a few victories won’t happen, but where are the top political, stable geniuses to run the entire race? The dynamic now is between the huge, looming downsides for this amateur leadership charade vs. how long it takes enough people to understand, then counter what so far hardly looks like a winning kleptocratic takeover.
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