I often wonder what America will look like 25 years from now when I might be Donald Trump’s age, staring backward at the wreckage of this era from the far side of history.
This entire debacle saddens me and hurts my heart. I still cannot wrap my head around all those who voted for AND continue to support the orange madman who is dying. Now we are going to obliterate Oman!
I can't stand to look at the pictures of OUR White House, turning into the image of frumpism, , anymore! I can't stand to listen to frump's voice, or to see his orange, angry face! I can't stand to hear the fake "praises", coming out of the mouths of his cabinet members! I can't stand to see America so crippled by this "orange Satan"! Frump is declining, both physically and mentally, and "We the People" are feeling the effects of that decline! Anyone for term and age limits in all three branches of government, after all this hellish time is over?
Oman, Cuba, Canada, Ukraine, UK, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, plus his personal enemies list. The list is so long, and growing, that there's no room left on it for Russia or China. Go figure.
John Cornyn had the opportunity to retire from politics and assume the role of an elder, thoughtful statesman, free at last to speak his mind and values. Instead he endorsed Paxton, leaving his ethics and morals where they have apparently been since he entered politics - in the outhouse.
Spot on Steve. I do subscribe, but under my pseudonym from my iPad, not Android phone. You relashionship with unabashed truth is fearless abd cogent. You perspective is based not on opinion but on the evidence of history. Keep up the incredible work of tge bravest among us.
I, too, spend a lot of time thinking about how it will be for us in the future. I wonder if my friends who have supported the evil will admit they were wrong? Thinking about the future is what drives me to keep speaking out against this evil. I am very clear about which side of history I will be on.
Glad to hear that students are still learning the truth from brave professors and teachers, like you! If I were still teaching, my students would be hearing the truth from me! The truth must be told to the generations that follow us!
If we've learned one thing about our "friends," it is that they would sell their soul rather than admit they're wrong. They'll just lie and say they never voted for him, or that they did but they never really "liked" him.
Postwar clemency has a history of writing sequels for defeated fascists. In Germany, “denazification” quickly softened into paperwork and parole. Most Nazis were processed, not purged, then quietly folded back into running both West and East Germany.
Stalin and Mao chose the opposite poison—mass terror, show trials, and graves instead of gray pensions. They killed enemies and truth in the same blast, and cemented personal power for decades.
in 1865, the Union let the Confederacy totally off the hook for starting a war that killed so many people. The defenders of human slavery got their statues, their ballots, and eventually their Jim Crow racial counterrevolution under the saccharine banner of the Lost Cause. It was all lies. That war was about a bunch of wealthy men wanting to keep their slaves at any cost.
In Japan, sparing Hirohito from the dock turned him into MacArthur’s ventriloquist dummy, not a martyr, and helped Japan shed Meiji-racial chauvinism instead of turning defeat into a neo-samurai revenge cult.
The lesson for Trumpism writes itself. The unpunished lies do not die; they rebrand. But when the gutters run with blood as they did in 1789, what often happens is that some other ambitious shit heel will consolidate power and cause even more suffering. Look at Bonaparte and Castro as two examples of tyrants who rode an idealist wave and became despotic dictators.
Jim Jones died and so did his followers. Same with David Koresh. Will Trumpism die with that fat awful asshole? Probably, but the system that put him in power will last and last unless it is dismantled and replaced by something that works better. Which at this point would be anything at all.
The system was and is in place to hold tyrants like Trump in check! However, our own human weaknesses allowed corruption of the system through our own human failures! We must use our legal and checks and balancing systems as they were designed to be used. We must stop allowing those that break and violate our laws and moral values a pass for their actions!
It's pretty to think that, but the fact is that all of these checks and balances were nominal and based on the individuals feeling accountable to law. A true tyrant who is dedicated to disregarding this could easily smash through and exploit the fact that at the root this was not a noble set of mechanisms designed for personal freedom, but rather a set of documents that achieved a compromise and allowed an elite set of ruling class men to hold their property and direct the laws and profits to benefit them.
In other words it is, as Noam Chomsky said, functioning exactly as it was designed.
We need to disavow ourselves of the sacredness of constitutional wisdom and realize that these outdated documents do not protect us from the worst people among Us. unless they are punished for malfeasance they will continue to operate and continue to dominate.
I do not believe that our current system is going to deliver true democracy.
What breaks my heart is that my husband and I dedicated 30 years of our lives as proud Civil Service employees. 30 years! Never, in all of those years and across administration changes, did we experience anything even close to today’s horrific behaviors. And even worse, I’ll be dead before this travesty becomes a chapter in the history books.
You should remain proud of the years of service that you gave to our nation! Along with all those who served in the Armed Forces; all of those who remain faithful to our Constitution, to our democracy, and to our rights and freedoms, should remain proud of their service. As Churchill echoed 80 years ago; we are living through dark times; but if we stay true to what we believe, we will eventually prevail! Good always beats evil; it may happen after we are all gone, but it will happen! I thank you, BonBon and Marion, and to all who gave to our country, in so many different ways, for your service! May God bless America and its people!
I can only say that there is no exaggeration in Steve Schmidt's commentary today. I agree completely; things are as bad as Steve says and the view of Trumpism in the future is, I hope and believe, absolutely accurate.
I love this piece because it gives me hope that, yes this will end. I won't be here then ,but that's fine with me. The idea that our country will go on and will become well again can sustain me for today. I think about Hungry, they had enough. Hopefully that will happen here too. Thanks lost in america.
As a Phoenix rises from the ashes, so too will America! If those in power at that time, really learned from this time in our history, America will be improved, along with its citizens! I am fighting for America's future!
Yes and we need to be very thorough about naming names. There can be no confusion about who, when and where. We’ve got to be explicit in marking families, mostly those that sat and did nothing. There will be healing that many of us will need. Living through malignant narcissism is of great significance, but we’ll never see this country the same way again. Hoping we make as much of the good as possible! We can’t live like this every 2-4 yrs.
The ballroom bullcrap is just a facade for the missile proof bunker that's being built.....1 BILLION bucks....its gonna have a hospital, the latest tech so a leader can coordinate his military from it. A drone operation on the roof....my question is....is he planning on starting a nuclear conflagration and with whom? Surely not his buddy Putin...Who. Shoukd we all move from DC as it's a target. I'm asking questions here that aren't being asked by the idiot WH Press....
What the self-centered MAGA leaders do not realize is that there will be no world they can live in following WWIII, even if the bunker enables them to survive the initial exchange of nuclear tipped missiles. When they leave the bunker, they will wish they died in the initial nuclear explosions.
It is eerie how all these malignant narcissists have to build bunkers and holes in the ground to feel safe. Hitler had his famous bunker, Saddam Hussein was captured in a hole in the ground. This speaks to how deep their paranoia runs and how terrified they are as a group of maniacs. They instill fear in everyone, yet have more fear than most. Sick.
If I’m around in 25 years, I expect it will be barely around. Trumpism has been a revelation. America as a whole doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong, has (at best) an abridged conception of the American story and of American civics. It’s not hard to look back at our breaking points, the vacillation between by and for the money and by and for the people. Is the fevered American Dream of becoming the one with un-countable wealth holding us back from perfecting our union? Or is our suspicion and, yes, hate, for one another the thing? Steve so often lauds the world’s languages being spoken across the USA every day. It is an astounding achievement but also let’s those hungry for only themselves pit us all, we the people, one against the other. Trump has ruined so many aspects of US, that the rebuilding needs a builder, an FDR, or a resolute leader like Lincoln. Who’s it gonna be? The time has come.
It has to be a well-spoken leader who has loved the constitutional fabric of our nation their whole life. Someone who is for the country, not the party. Someone who values service over self. And, please, someone young enough to get the attention of our youth.
Our country is relatively a baby, compared to other countries around the world. We should take courage in the fact that most, if not all countries had their darkest of times, and yet the goodness of the people overtook the evil of others. Look at Hungry, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Italy, Japan; all of these countries have survived evil, or are till fighting for what is right! Hope rings eternal, and we must not stop fighting until THIS evil is dead and gone, and the goodness of "We the People" prevail!
Those of us as old as Trump who have watched this descent into madness for 12 years won’t be around in 25 years. We want a wholesale repudiation of the GOP in November and the immediate start of hearings, prosecutions, and impeachments.
This Congress will not act, not enough courage! I say vote them ALL out and start anew with fresh, new faces in Washington, who have bold ideas on how to improve America and its people's lives!
Sorry, but there will always be the white nationalists and the neo-Trumpers backed by biased billionaires. If Southerners can believe for 160 years that the Civil War was the War of Northern Aggression, they can easily come up with a MAGA version of “Forget? Hell no!”
“These are the times that try men’s souls…”
Amen sister
This entire debacle saddens me and hurts my heart. I still cannot wrap my head around all those who voted for AND continue to support the orange madman who is dying. Now we are going to obliterate Oman!
I can't stand to look at the pictures of OUR White House, turning into the image of frumpism, , anymore! I can't stand to listen to frump's voice, or to see his orange, angry face! I can't stand to hear the fake "praises", coming out of the mouths of his cabinet members! I can't stand to see America so crippled by this "orange Satan"! Frump is declining, both physically and mentally, and "We the People" are feeling the effects of that decline! Anyone for term and age limits in all three branches of government, after all this hellish time is over?
It was bad enough with the demolished East Wing, but now with the killer fighting dome it’s disgusting what he has done to our house.
Yes
Donna you are exactly right. Thank you.
Oman, Cuba, Canada, Ukraine, UK, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, plus his personal enemies list. The list is so long, and growing, that there's no room left on it for Russia or China. Go figure.
Panama, Ecuador, Caribbean, Lebanon...
John Cornyn had the opportunity to retire from politics and assume the role of an elder, thoughtful statesman, free at last to speak his mind and values. Instead he endorsed Paxton, leaving his ethics and morals where they have apparently been since he entered politics - in the outhouse.
Exhibit “A” at the heart of the Republican problem: ALWAYS PARTY OVER COUNTRY!
All them there jolly, gun-totin' Trumpectomized Texans who voted for Paxton - what are they?
True telling of who and what he is.. glad he’s gone.. paxton is next
Spot on Steve. I do subscribe, but under my pseudonym from my iPad, not Android phone. You relashionship with unabashed truth is fearless abd cogent. You perspective is based not on opinion but on the evidence of history. Keep up the incredible work of tge bravest among us.
I, too, spend a lot of time thinking about how it will be for us in the future. I wonder if my friends who have supported the evil will admit they were wrong? Thinking about the future is what drives me to keep speaking out against this evil. I am very clear about which side of history I will be on.
Me too. I cannot shut my big mouth at work, where hundreds of college students hear my perspectve QD.
Glad to hear that students are still learning the truth from brave professors and teachers, like you! If I were still teaching, my students would be hearing the truth from me! The truth must be told to the generations that follow us!
If we've learned one thing about our "friends," it is that they would sell their soul rather than admit they're wrong. They'll just lie and say they never voted for him, or that they did but they never really "liked" him.
See post war Germany. People who admitted they were Nazis became very scarce. Many who couldn't deny their part disappeared down the ratlines.
Maybe the "Age of AI" will be the answer; where robots, not humans are in charge of the future.
Postwar clemency has a history of writing sequels for defeated fascists. In Germany, “denazification” quickly softened into paperwork and parole. Most Nazis were processed, not purged, then quietly folded back into running both West and East Germany.
Stalin and Mao chose the opposite poison—mass terror, show trials, and graves instead of gray pensions. They killed enemies and truth in the same blast, and cemented personal power for decades.
in 1865, the Union let the Confederacy totally off the hook for starting a war that killed so many people. The defenders of human slavery got their statues, their ballots, and eventually their Jim Crow racial counterrevolution under the saccharine banner of the Lost Cause. It was all lies. That war was about a bunch of wealthy men wanting to keep their slaves at any cost.
In Japan, sparing Hirohito from the dock turned him into MacArthur’s ventriloquist dummy, not a martyr, and helped Japan shed Meiji-racial chauvinism instead of turning defeat into a neo-samurai revenge cult.
The lesson for Trumpism writes itself. The unpunished lies do not die; they rebrand. But when the gutters run with blood as they did in 1789, what often happens is that some other ambitious shit heel will consolidate power and cause even more suffering. Look at Bonaparte and Castro as two examples of tyrants who rode an idealist wave and became despotic dictators.
Jim Jones died and so did his followers. Same with David Koresh. Will Trumpism die with that fat awful asshole? Probably, but the system that put him in power will last and last unless it is dismantled and replaced by something that works better. Which at this point would be anything at all.
Brilliant summary of the fate of tyranny. And of the hard protracted struggle to undo the damage
Greed, fear, hate: when they leave the human heart they will leave the public square.
The system was and is in place to hold tyrants like Trump in check! However, our own human weaknesses allowed corruption of the system through our own human failures! We must use our legal and checks and balancing systems as they were designed to be used. We must stop allowing those that break and violate our laws and moral values a pass for their actions!
It's pretty to think that, but the fact is that all of these checks and balances were nominal and based on the individuals feeling accountable to law. A true tyrant who is dedicated to disregarding this could easily smash through and exploit the fact that at the root this was not a noble set of mechanisms designed for personal freedom, but rather a set of documents that achieved a compromise and allowed an elite set of ruling class men to hold their property and direct the laws and profits to benefit them.
In other words it is, as Noam Chomsky said, functioning exactly as it was designed.
We need to disavow ourselves of the sacredness of constitutional wisdom and realize that these outdated documents do not protect us from the worst people among Us. unless they are punished for malfeasance they will continue to operate and continue to dominate.
I do not believe that our current system is going to deliver true democracy.
Excellent point! However, going forward, we must establish stronger mechanisms to accomplish those needs!
What breaks my heart is that my husband and I dedicated 30 years of our lives as proud Civil Service employees. 30 years! Never, in all of those years and across administration changes, did we experience anything even close to today’s horrific behaviors. And even worse, I’ll be dead before this travesty becomes a chapter in the history books.
Same….38 years….and we won’t be here either.
You should remain proud of the years of service that you gave to our nation! Along with all those who served in the Armed Forces; all of those who remain faithful to our Constitution, to our democracy, and to our rights and freedoms, should remain proud of their service. As Churchill echoed 80 years ago; we are living through dark times; but if we stay true to what we believe, we will eventually prevail! Good always beats evil; it may happen after we are all gone, but it will happen! I thank you, BonBon and Marion, and to all who gave to our country, in so many different ways, for your service! May God bless America and its people!
I can only say that there is no exaggeration in Steve Schmidt's commentary today. I agree completely; things are as bad as Steve says and the view of Trumpism in the future is, I hope and believe, absolutely accurate.
Steve, you always tell it like it is... many of us will never see the 25 year mark, but just knowing we are witnessing
the ugly, depraved downfall of Trumps nightmare for our grandchildren helps a lot.
This is true! At 79, I don’t think I’ll be around in 25 years, so doing all I can now to try and make our better!
This is true! At 79, I don’t think I’ll be around in 25 years, so doing all I can now to try an make it better!
I love this piece because it gives me hope that, yes this will end. I won't be here then ,but that's fine with me. The idea that our country will go on and will become well again can sustain me for today. I think about Hungry, they had enough. Hopefully that will happen here too. Thanks lost in america.
As a Phoenix rises from the ashes, so too will America! If those in power at that time, really learned from this time in our history, America will be improved, along with its citizens! I am fighting for America's future!
The worst truth will be and is..that Tfump was totally Enabled and Allowed to happen.
Yes and we need to be very thorough about naming names. There can be no confusion about who, when and where. We’ve got to be explicit in marking families, mostly those that sat and did nothing. There will be healing that many of us will need. Living through malignant narcissism is of great significance, but we’ll never see this country the same way again. Hoping we make as much of the good as possible! We can’t live like this every 2-4 yrs.
The ballroom bullcrap is just a facade for the missile proof bunker that's being built.....1 BILLION bucks....its gonna have a hospital, the latest tech so a leader can coordinate his military from it. A drone operation on the roof....my question is....is he planning on starting a nuclear conflagration and with whom? Surely not his buddy Putin...Who. Shoukd we all move from DC as it's a target. I'm asking questions here that aren't being asked by the idiot WH Press....
What the self-centered MAGA leaders do not realize is that there will be no world they can live in following WWIII, even if the bunker enables them to survive the initial exchange of nuclear tipped missiles. When they leave the bunker, they will wish they died in the initial nuclear explosions.
Be careful what you wish for… you just might get it😞
It is eerie how all these malignant narcissists have to build bunkers and holes in the ground to feel safe. Hitler had his famous bunker, Saddam Hussein was captured in a hole in the ground. This speaks to how deep their paranoia runs and how terrified they are as a group of maniacs. They instill fear in everyone, yet have more fear than most. Sick.
yes Patricia...it seems they share the same pathologies
Yes, and look at how they perished!
Right, Donna. They wrote their own much deserved destinies and demise.
If I’m around in 25 years, I expect it will be barely around. Trumpism has been a revelation. America as a whole doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong, has (at best) an abridged conception of the American story and of American civics. It’s not hard to look back at our breaking points, the vacillation between by and for the money and by and for the people. Is the fevered American Dream of becoming the one with un-countable wealth holding us back from perfecting our union? Or is our suspicion and, yes, hate, for one another the thing? Steve so often lauds the world’s languages being spoken across the USA every day. It is an astounding achievement but also let’s those hungry for only themselves pit us all, we the people, one against the other. Trump has ruined so many aspects of US, that the rebuilding needs a builder, an FDR, or a resolute leader like Lincoln. Who’s it gonna be? The time has come.
It has to be a well-spoken leader who has loved the constitutional fabric of our nation their whole life. Someone who is for the country, not the party. Someone who values service over self. And, please, someone young enough to get the attention of our youth.
agreed!
Our country is relatively a baby, compared to other countries around the world. We should take courage in the fact that most, if not all countries had their darkest of times, and yet the goodness of the people overtook the evil of others. Look at Hungry, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Italy, Japan; all of these countries have survived evil, or are till fighting for what is right! Hope rings eternal, and we must not stop fighting until THIS evil is dead and gone, and the goodness of "We the People" prevail!
Those of us as old as Trump who have watched this descent into madness for 12 years won’t be around in 25 years. We want a wholesale repudiation of the GOP in November and the immediate start of hearings, prosecutions, and impeachments.
Thank you, Steve for truth telling. We need to keep repeating the ugly truth about T until Congress acts.
dB
This Congress will not act, not enough courage! I say vote them ALL out and start anew with fresh, new faces in Washington, who have bold ideas on how to improve America and its people's lives!
Sorry, but there will always be the white nationalists and the neo-Trumpers backed by biased billionaires. If Southerners can believe for 160 years that the Civil War was the War of Northern Aggression, they can easily come up with a MAGA version of “Forget? Hell no!”