The Thrill Of Defeat, The Agony Of Victory-- Some needed reality after Cassidy Hutchinson's "Bombshells"
The Thrill Of Defeat, The Agony Of Victory-- Some needed reality after Cassidy Hutchinson's "Bombshells"
You won't want to hear this. Too bad, here it is anyway. Today's events might be the end of Trump, whether he is indicted or not. Which means our crisis of democracy has worsened.
Today's hearings seems like good news at first, but the prospects for a DeSantis Presidency just doubled. DeSantis is evil, but not mentally unstable. That makes him more dangerous than Trump in terms of the long term damage he can do. As a result, the GOP bloc that had been resigned to a Trump nomination but was nervous about him and might not have turned out, or even might have crossed over, now has a non-insane but calculatedly malignant pseudo-Christian fascist to rally around. This means that the GOP base will now orient toward the program for mass murder and dictatorship of DeSantis in Florida, the "11 point Program to Save America," of Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott, and the full-on program of Governors Abbott and Noem from the States of North and South Dumbf*ckistan. Is a GOP ticket of DeSantis and "Krispy" Noem less frightening than Trump with all of his baggage. Really?
Additionally it is likely that Trump will retaliate for an indictment by activating his hard core most violent backers in the Militias, the QAnon/Neo-Nazi scene and 8Chan/Telegram crowd to start "McVeigh style" anti-woke terrorism against hard and soft targets. Do you really think Trump will come out with his hands up, and put on cuffs and an orange jumpsuit? The same guy who tried to seize the steering wheel from his Secret Service driver? If so, are you high? We are headed for some deep sh*t. Just watch a video of Trump's recent campaign speeches in order to look closely at the people in thrall in front of him. Just look at their twisted enraged faces, you've seen them before burning books in Berlin. Those people are waiting for a "go signal." And guess what, they're not watching the J6 hearings, and wouldn't care at all if Trump was caught on tape talking with Putin and asking him to poison Mike Pence with Polonium Tea.
The GOP base in question is like fundamentalist church members whose Pastor is in the process of being booted for robbing the till and molesting the choir boys. They will rally around the new incoming Minister as if he were Jesus himself. Their religious zealotry, political positions and hearts will harden, just like with Pharoah after Moses' miracles. "Yeah Moses, you got Toads, bring 'em on!"
When Trump is gone, his supporters will degenerate further, rather than being "liberated" from Trumpism. It will have the opposite effect of what most are hoping for. I know this because I've been at work organizing and educating these people for forty years, and I know them. There is an idiom in Thai language which goes, "see so hai kwai fong," Kwai being Water Buffalo. It literally means, "playing the fiddle for a Water Buffalo." (Which had a reputation as being dumb or stubborn, like our mules) You are performing beautiful music for a virtually non-cognizant audience, which can only think about two things, eating, and mating. "Can they change," you ask? Well, ask them, and see for yourself how far it goes.
Most people are so wrapped up in their American sports and consumer fantasy states, or looking for Hollywood "happy endings" that their relationship to events such as today is beyond infantile. "Yaaay for our team... we just scored a big one." "Even better news is that since Trump is f*cked, now we don't have to do anything. Let's hear a big hoooraay for the lawyers, our heroes from Saville Row!"
For those folks who think we won something today, all there is really are feelings of satisfaction, relief, and false hope. Pulling the plug on Trump guarantees nothing. This is not cynicism or throwing cold water. I don't indulge in "doom porn." It is the cold hard calculus of a degenerative cultural process at least two generations old, which we tried to ignore because it stressed us out, and which we didn't want to think about.
So, here we are, thanks to "Democratic Centrism, Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema etal, looking at a GOP sweep, an insurrectionist Supreme Court and a likely fascist Presidency. Are we okay with that as long as we get our satisfaction when Trump is indicted? Not. Me. We are only now entering the most dangerous period, faced with the biggest challenges yet, and an immediate future fraught with instability, violence, and the unexpected.
Whatever popular spin the media goes with in the next 24 hour news cycle, what you witnessed today was not the 1970's, and January 6th was not Watergate. Cassidy Hutchinson is not John Dean. This was a conspiracy by an American President to overthrow the duly elected US President using a private Army of Nazis which he had been recruiting for five years, for exactly this purpose. It was not an attempted cover-up of a third rate burglary intended to steal a pre-debate Democratic briefing book.
My point is and has been that the racist religious lunatics who have backed Trump are "end times" apocalyptic fatalists who have been arming and prepping for their imagined "final countdown" for decades. They don't need Donald Trump, since they are virtual wind-up toys. The right-wing Billionaires who have funded him are out to tear down the protections of the US Constitution, destroy the essential functions of the Federal government, and bring about a gradual secession of half of our States which vote red, which are, for them, a replay of the Confederacy and the lawless "Wild West." Who thinks they will be weakened by Trump's crash and burn this week? Seriously? Just grow up.
Do. Not. Do not let the apparent bombshell victory of today's hearings take the wind out of our sails. Maintain your righteous anger and outrage, and while you are at it, clear your f*cking personal schedules until November to insure that the political heirs of Trump's madness are defeated. Go to Pennsylvania and crush Doug Mastriano's phoney-Christian balls. Go visit your Congressman in person in their office to ask them why Clarence Thomas hasn't been impeached yet. Find out what the enemies of democracy are up to in your backyard, and think about what you can do to kick their asses, metaphorically speaking. When you think you've won something, that is when you double and triple your efforts, not pack your bags and book a flight to Cabo.
This is my dose of positivity for today. You can take heart from the fact that someone cares enough about you to say what you don't want to hear. And I'm not playin'.
