Into the storm

According to The Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump will declare from the inaugural podium a “revolution of common sense” that will harken an age of “national success.”

LOL.

Hegseth, Gabbard, Noem, Patel, Bondi, RFK Jr.

Let’s be clear about something from the very beginning. In fact, I will cut and paste this sentence into The Warning many, many, many times over the next four years of shambolic mayhem, corruption, incompetence and depravity:

The only endeavor that these people could ever conceivably be successful at is living together in a tree house livestreamed on an OnlyFans site.

I have no doubt that the people would watch with the possible exception of Corey Lewandowski, who, according to reports, would be saddened deeply by RFK Jr. getting lucky in the tree.

What lies ahead is the cliff and below it the abyss.

The singular purpose of the Democratic Party in this moment is to stand in fierce opposition. It must make sure that when the MAGA train gets to the cliff’s edge it is the locomotive carrying the engineers that goes over, not the passengers in the car.

By the way, congratulations to Melania on the launch of her coin. What an inspiration to young ladies everywhere. She is leaning in.

Tomorrow is the first day in a long march that should aim to be standing precisely where Donald Trump stands today.

It begins with understanding why Donald Trump is standing there today, and severing completely any instinct to defend the past conduct of the Biden administration, which is a short blip in the American story that gave us Trump served up on a plate of delusion and dishonesty.

The restoration of the Democratic Party begins with two words, “Never Again.”

Then the hard work begins.

The Democratic Party needs to become the reform and renewal party. It must stand on the side of ordinary Americans who are going to be abused by powerful interests like never before.

It must stand for economic growth and prosperity.

It must stand for national strength and the American flag.

It must have zero tolerance for the next Senator Menendez in its midst.

It is harder to be the ethical party than the scumbag party, but the truth is that, in a competition between greater and lesser scumbags, the bigger one almost always wins. The Democratic Party must be the good government party and the competent party, simultaneously.

Presently, the Democratic Party is in rough shape because the magnitude of the failure is so great. However, the truth is that soon every single person associated with the gaslighting, selfishness and incompetence that restored Trump to power will be out of power. They are the heaviest of rocks to carry in a back pack for a long, rugged, uphill climb.

There is an alternative.

Drop the rocks. It makes running easier.

This is a moment of liberation for Washington, DC, Democrats.

They have no responsibilities for running the government, which means that they have no ownership in the coming failures, corruption and excess. The party now exists to identify failure, isolate it, stigmatize it, and wrap it around MAGA’s proverbial neck for the drowning season that must come — and will come.

How soon it comes is the question.

Should Ben Wikler, who said the following, become the DNC chair — and this is what Washington Democrats are going with — then JD Vance will be president in four years. Period.

We unite our coalition by making sure everyone’s at the table.

As DNC Chair our leadership team will lift up our full coalition—Blacks, Latino, Native, AANHPI, LGBTQ. Youth, Interfaith, Ethnic, Rural, Veteran and Disability representation.

There is only one interest group that the Democratic Party should speak for, and that is THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Unless and until that changes, the party is no different than a jackass trying to become an astronaut by taping a bottle rocket to his back and jumping off the roof.

Today, you will hear many lies.

Many lies.

Going forward, let no more of them pass the lips of Democrats, who lost an election on questions of honesty around the border and Biden’s fitness to the most prolific liar in American history.

Over and over again, today you will hear Trump talked about in ways that present him as all-powerful. He will be called an American Caesar.

Surrounded by a gaggle of thin-skinned billionaire children, America’s oligarchs, he will seem strong and in command.

Facing a capitulant corporate media, filled with weaklings and pompous blowhards — each a different version of the hucksters who lay hands on Trump in Jesus’ name — Trump will seem in command.

Here’s the deal.

Trump has a 47 per cent approval rating.

It will float up a few points over the next 30 days. Following that, he will be at his apogee, and the fall will begin, imperceptible at first, but picking up momentum on a constant basis.

There is panic all over the world today in friendly capitol cities of our allies who Trump is threatening whether they be Canadians or Danes.

Let us be clear about this.

It is disgusting, dangerous and unnecessary.

The American people will not stand for it.

Let me speak clearly to The Warning’s Canadian and Danish readers. Tens of millions of Americans will stand with you against the shameful threats and bullying by a low man who disgraces our history, values and every concept of American decency.

There is ugliness in every culture and society, including in America. What we are witness to in America today is not new — though it is shameful. When these ugly flames rise they must be doused — and doused they will be — but not until someone rises with a message that can be distilled to a version of:

Follow me. Better is this way.

Lastly, I read every comment posted on The Warning.

Many of you have expressed your contempt for your fellow Americans citizens who voted for Donald Trump as is your right.

Because I am not blind or deaf it is hard for me to relate to this position, and I urge all of you to reject it. Living in a hermetically sealed bubble of delusion is neither virtuous nor wise.

Today is Martin Luther King Day in America.

Draw strength from this most titanic of men who walked with doubt many times over his march for justice.

He spoke clearly about the politics of contempt and his revulsion towards it.

These are Dr. King’s principles regarding resistance to the violence of the state and the oppression of Americans under the jackboot.

Today, I urge you to listen to every word of Trump’s speech so that you can be inspired to oppose it.

Do not fear Trump or his minions. This is a strong country and a good one. I can prove it.

The contestation between the right and the wrong in America is ongoing. It is eternal. The existence of this struggle is not evidence of national rottenness, but rather a sign of national greatness.

This you must understand. I beg you.

Trump’s speech will be about empty promises and bluster. It will be about lies and threats. It will be a a curated collection of grievances wrapped in a box of awfulness and smallness.

Here is the antidote. Listen to these words today. They are medicine.

King’s momentous speeches and urgent moral crescendo reached their apogee in his final address. This speech by King is almost biblical in its meaning, foreshadowing of death, optimism and grace. It is the most optimistic speech in American history.

It is separated by an assassin’s bullet from the words of another great man who, too, would be shot dead in the tumult of 1968.

When Senator Robert Kennedy learned about Dr. King’s death, he was about to speak to a crowd of black people from the back of a pickup truck in Indianapolis. Moments before he stepped up, he was told that King was dead.

What followed was the greatest impromptu political speech in American history:

Where is it that we are going?

Where are we headed?

Our path is clear, and it has always been so.

Let me leave you with these words from President Kennedy this morning. Take them in as nourishment for the long days ahead:

But I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier.

We must always consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill--the eyes of all people are upon us.

A few weeks later, he said these words exactly 60 years ago today, and they are as true today as they were then:

Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.

---

---