"Make America Great Again" is a titanic fraud

I strongly encourage you to watch Fareed Zakaria deliver a post-mortem analysis about what happened to the Democratic Party in 2024.  It is spot on.

You can also find a print version of it in Friday’s edition of The Washington Post.

Yet, it is insufficient because it discounts the reality that Donald Trump ran against the media and its condescension, judgementalism, hypocrisies and aloofness from real life as much as he did against the Biden administration.

Media smugness turned out to be a repellent. It drove a lot of people into the arms of a world-class demagogue promising to fix all the world’s problems with the wave of a magic wand, powered by the immensity of his power and the force of his whims.

Here is what Donald Trump and MAGA have won. They will soon gain lawful powers that are restrained by the Constitution of the United States, which protects dissent, conscience, speech and faith. Donald Trump will act as an American Caesar, but he is not king. Nobody need bow or tremble in advance of our dime-store Mussollini taking action to fulfill his promises of vengeance.

Truly, there is nothing anyone can do for at least two years outside of the courts to stop Donald Trump and the MAGA Congress from doing as they please — and to whomever they wish to do it. This is the consequence of an enormous democratic loss to a movement that has made clear a thousand times over its disdain for the rule of law, basic decency, the US Constitution, reality, the truth and American values. The winning side is led by a man who campaigned as a fascist against the far left, and prevailed against felony convictions, indictments, impeachment and previous defeat. He has demonstrated who he is. Now we must wait to see if he is a man of his word. For the record, once again, my position is that he is. His threats are real, and so are his intentions.

It is clear Joe Biden does not believe he is a real threat, or he would not have said the following after the loss:

We’re going to be ok.

Trump has been a convenient prop for the Washington, DC, Democrats and a cash windfall for resistance grifters. More than a billion dollars was raised from frightened Americans. Much was squandered and millions were pocketed. Nothing was built, no foundation laid, and every swing state was lost.

Now, they blame the American people for the loss, condemning them as racists and misogynists, despite the fact that Trump’s victory demonstrated his strength with women, blacks and Hispanics. His comeback represents a moral, political and media failure that will be seen with crystal clarity by historians.

America’s corrupt and broken corporate media could not stand up to America’s vicious, dishonest and dangerous right-wing media because it is feckless and weak. With few exceptions, it is filled with information brokers who peddle nonsense for clicks in a business where billions are made from algorithms which hook people like fish.

An enormous percentage of the American population has been brainwashed and idiotized, which compounds their previous aggregate ignorance into a new hybrid pathology turned ideology, which holds that some are more equal than others, with the Trumps more equal than everyone else.

All of this will end in disaster. How could it not? “Make America Great Again” is a titanic fraud. It is a lie that has been swallowed by a gullible majority temporarily. When the bill comes due it will go to the same people who supported the Iraq invasion, which had a 72 percent support level.

Reverend Martin Niemöller was a complicated figure who had a great deal of time to contemplate his early support for the Nazi regime in Dachau, where he barely survived. He is remembered for this quote:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

I raise it because I am primarily concerned with the implementation of three of Trump’s promised policies.

The first are his plans for retribution.

Second, are his plans for mass deportations.

Third, are his plans to compel Ukrainian submission to Russian aggression, which will invite more aggression.  

What does Trump’s retribution look like?

What can be expected?

It seems to me that a functional free media would not ask a single question beyond this subject until it is answered. The crushing of dissent and the chilling of speech will take place on a range. What can we expect? Is anyone going to ask, or is the price of access too high to risk by offending power? Shouldn’t someone figure out if the threat to imprison opponents was a vulgar stroking of the MAGA id, or a commitment to them?

The most interesting policy by far is the plan to deport upwards of 15,000,000 human beings from American soil, led by political extremist and frightening Trump sycophant Stephen Miller.

It will be one of the largest logistics operations in American history, and one of the most expensive ever undertaken.

How is it going to work? Who is going to be in charge? Where will the deportation camps be?

Is camp the right word? Prison? Facility? Processing center? What will the preferred euphemism be?

Transporting 15,000,000 people is no small feat. How will it be done? By air? Ship? Rail? Freight cars?

What will be the cost? Who will capture the migrants?

Will there be cash rewards to turn migrants in? What about anyone who employs one, schools one, cares for one, or feeds one?

Will there be a tip line? A new arm of federal law enforcement? Can children report neighbors to teachers?

Let me make a prediction.

Because I am 54 there is a good chance that I will live long enough for America to repudiate the coming disgrace and moral abominations. Once again America has embraced the cruel spirits and indifference that turned the SS. St. Louis into a death ship.

Yet, all the sentiment doesn’t really matter. Trump has the power to punish his enemies, and the power to deport millions. He has the power to wreck the economy, and use a nuclear weapon if he chooses. The courts have granted him immunity and placed him above the law. He commands sycophantic majorities that are terrified of him. He is a Caesar.

The Democrats aren’t in a position to do much, and are in no position to stop anything. Right now, it would be good to practice a phrase by tattooing it on every MAGA incumbent, which can be harvested in two years: Trump’s Corrupt Rubber-Stamp MAGA Congress.

MAGA and Trump will take power with a plan and execute it. When they do, Trump’s approval will rise. It is at this point of maximum despair when MAGA hits apogee that the light will first crack through.

From MAGA’s excess will rise a path, and from that path a route, and from that route a plan that will redeem this awful moment and the terrible things not yet done in the name of the American people.

America is going to be different on the other side.

I believe it can be better, but not until idealism replaces cynicism, and reality supplants willful blindness and delusion.

America has lingered in darkness before, and now it will again. We will stay there until someone lights the torch and carries it forward.

We are living at the edge of momentous events, and this will not end well.

Time will reveal what is ahead, and then the American people can decide whether it was a good idea to give Donald Trump unchecked power in Washington, DC.

They have two years to think about it, while Democratic congressional leaders have two years to get ready to win. Trump will sustain enormous midterm losses in 719 days if the historic trends hold.

In this moment, it is time to pause and refresh.

It is time for introspection and understanding.

It is time to clean house regarding a failed generation of leaders in their 80s who lack judgement, grit, conviction and determination.

It is time for a decent opposition to form in defense of the greatest cause there has ever been: America.

We have the Constitution, and for awhile, that will be enough.

Meanwhile, it is time to start getting ready for some new realities that will need to be opposed at costs that aren’t yet clear.

Into the future we go. Let me reiterate something. This American will not fear his government — and you shouldn’t either.

---

---