America's cancer
The last eight years of American life have been consumed by the growing madness of Donald Trump and his demands. With the help of America’s newsrooms he has forced an issue around which there is no hope for settlement or compromise. Donald Trump wants the power he briefly and startlingly held made permanent — regardless of whether the American people like it or not.
The criminal case against him is a matter of trivia compared to the overwhelming evidence of his malice, incompetence, disloyalty and utter disregard for the American people. He divided and incited Americans at an unprecedented scale and helped a full-fledged extremist movement blossom in his wake. His legacy is Marjorie Taylor Greene and his army of little Eichmanns and Boris Epshteyns, who would gladly burn the country down for the chance to rule over the ashes. They offer chaos and disharmony without hope or any pretense of making anything better.
Their apocalyptic vision for America has become linked to a deep grievance and resentment, which fuels a drive to punish and control those Americans they hold responsible for opposing that ambition. Increasingly, the bent of their argument is turning towards its predictable final unveiling.
The ubiquity of the word “Soros” isn’t accidental. It’s MAGA for Jew. The furies have been unleashed, and there will be no putting them back. The choice is either stopping them, or surrendering to their ambition. Trump doesn’t have the votes to be elected president, but he certainly controls the levers of one of America’s two major political parties. His party is the party of Trump. It stands for Trump, his children and associates. It is built around their entitlement and ambition to take as much as they can get while they can get it. They have promised to control the disorder they have unleashed for the right price. It is an unattractive offer, to say the least.
There is no place to compromise or meet in the middle with an extremist movement made up of fascist paramilitaries, Nazis, conspiracy loons and religious zealots. There is no avoiding their demand, which is patently ridiculous and deeply dangerous. They want power, and they want Donald Trump. They want a twice-impeached serial liar and credibly accused rapist to be the president of the United States — again.
The book bans, abortion bans, birth control bans, criminalized curriculum, punitive legislation and investigations against dissenters aren’t an end. They are a gateway to abuse and ultimately terror. Please tell me that I wasn’t alone in seeing the anger burning in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s eyes during her ‘60 Minutes’ interview? At whom is she angry? You. She wants payback.
Defending ideas is harder than defending territory. The boundaries are fuzzier. Ideas can be weighed down by reality, bad faith, lies, corruption, faithlessness and disappointment.
The American people will be compelled to think hard about America over the next two years because there is a plan to remake it into something new and horrendous under Donald Trump and his gang. They aren’t fighting to expand the concept of ‘justice for all.’ They are trying to contract and limit it. They have come around to a perverse belief that the American dream can only be preserved if it is hidden from the majority of Americans. It is a pessimistic gospel.
This generation of Americans has been called to confront the toxic sludge left behind from slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Bund and all of the detritus from failed movements, experiments and other forms of oppression, exploitation and discrimination. American progress requires the defeat of America’s original cancer, which can be found in the empty space between the declaration that asserts ‘all are equal,’ and the reality that some are not yet.
America’s broken political and media structures won’t fix America. The American people will — or not. My bet is on the American people. The MAGA Republicans are getting ready and forming up for an electoral suicide charge. The good news is that on the other side might be a green shoot of normalcy. We are certainly overdue.
Right again. My “yes and” to that is about the most vile projection the GOP casts on Democrats, drag queens & LGBTQIA individuals: pedophilia. Kansas passed a law to inspect the genitals of children who want to play sports. One after another, GOP operatives, aides & party members are being convicted of child pornography & sexual abuse of minors. Sone of these people work at schools or are church pastors. The extreme MAGA members of the House are obsessed with grooming , homosexuality, transvestism, transgenderism & public urination. Lest we forget that the MAGA King 🍊🤡 is credibly accused of the rape of an underage girl during a party organized by Jeffrey Epstein as well as the sexual assault of dozens of women. The party that embraces the fascism of Donald Trump should be held to account for embracing his sexual perversions as well.
As an aging hippie liberal Democrat, agreeing with former GOP operatives still surprises me. This one brings me to 96% this morning.