When you look at the long road the Christian Nationalists have taken to remake the country in their image, the election of a MAGA Fascist as President would be the capstone of their efforts. It started with Roe over 50 years and then ERA, and it was a slow but study accumulation of power. Like the Taliban, these fraud Christians work deliberately and are very patient. A component of it is the complete subjugation of women. No separation of church and state in a post-Constitutional era is right at our doorstep.
Indeed they are - minus the niqab and the hijab. And I fully expect these same so called Christians to reintroduce the chastity belt for their women and daughters.
They couldn't have done it without the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo with his billion dollar "war" chest. I think since Judge Cannon's clerks have all quit on her, she is getting some direct help from The Federalist Society. I don't think she is smart or savvy enough to have come up with her latest ruling in permitting unprecedented, live oral arguments as to why the Special Counsel is an illegal appointment, the "friend-of-the-court people" having gotten their idea from Clarence Thomas during oral argument before SCOTUS regarding presidential immunity a month or more ago. And I'm thinking Thomas got the idea from the Federalist Society. It's all so insidious! For the longest time I couldn't figure out how the MAGA people, including the likes of Leo etc., could tolerate Trump's predisposition for criminality. And then it hit me. The people behind the curtains doing all the "legal" lever pulling, like Leo, are also criminals at heart, so a Trump criminality goes over then like water rolls off a duck's back. Yeah, they may cast their theories in terms of "original intent" etc., and they're just trying to get back to what the Founders intended when they originally wrote the Constitution, but if you really look at it, those who support Trump are nothing but rule breakers, and what is a chronic rule breaker but a white-collar criminal at heart. A rogue and pirate that follows no person's rules. And when the rules no longer go in their favor, then they break some more rules. They are all criminals with evil intent is what they are!
They have spoken out, repeatedly. They have called Trump a dangerous idiot, dotard, moron and child. What can they do other than speak up? What can anyone do as long as citizens united allows corporations to control our elections? Other than suing Fox News for disinformation and getting every person on your block to vote, options appear to be limited.
AND there was reported on PBSNewshour that the Biden/Harris campaign held meetings w/ prominent former GOP office holder who are finding others who support Biden and will act. I hope this campaign is coordinated and throughout the places most needed. I live in DC so it is not likely the media coverage of their acts and words will be well covered. Still they will be heard, loudly and forcefully, I hope.
I read this essay, I again familiarized myself with Dr. King's six principles of nonviolence against injustice and tyranny. But before I got to the link that brought me to Dr. King's principles I broke down in tears, and am weeping as I write this. Had we acted to create "an American coalition of disagreement, united by faith in the US Constitution, our history, each other and our destiny", had we acted earlier, before allowing a Fascist Christian Nationalist to hold the seat of The Speaker of the House of Representatives, with others who have weaved themselves into many levels of government and institutions with this fascist movement at their rear, we might have had a chance to "together crush the rising fascism that is pointing a gun at all of us" with the principles of Dr. King.
But they have had a head start, allowed by the weakness, fecklessness and lack of imagination of those we elected to represent our interests. As you so often reminded everyone, there are 150 days until the November election, and we have run out of time. There must be a shift in strategy, actions must be taken that are brutal and repugnant. If we are going to "not stand for the menace." The bully has stuck, we must stand up to them, punch them in the face, breaking their nose, knocking out a few teeth while putting them on the ground. Point our collective finger at them and tell them "don't get up." Because of this, I am weeping.
MAGA has become a violent ongoing coup. Many martial arts are based in non-violence and deflection. In Karate, for instance, there is a time for a swift kick in the head to the opponent.
You would not believe the people I have come across that are not engaged. Weeks ago I was having a conversation with someone who had no clue. I sent him several pieces of truth, some from Steve. Yesterday I saw him, and asked had he seen what I had sent, take a guess..
Believe me I know he didn’t even look at what he was sure would even challenge the safe space he’d retreated to a long time ago. I know these people too. Only a Flannery O’Conner-level moment of traumatic insight could possibly do that.
Had dinner last night in West Palm Beach, a golf shot away from Mar-a-Lago. We are worried; we have watched our 50-year right of Roe taken away from us- some of us had mother or grandmothers that fought for!
This is a strategic planned attack by the RW on women’s rights and human rights- and it is getting worse.
DC, Your point is taken. However, if you know any “undecideds” or younger people who are saying, “two old white guys, shrug” it would be worth sending this column to them. As well as the WaPo article. We have to try.
I still don’t understand why Project 2025 doesn’t get more press. It is literally a blue print to take over the country.
Nor do I about Project 2025. Is it a fear that by exposing it, well .. what? More "buyers"?
I too am trying by exposing ideas to others. I know there are those, prob. in my family, who will vote for fascism over democracy, while rationalizing the old GOP thinking of "good for business" while ignoring the GOP is dead and MAGA has no written platform other than showing their agenda with every act of hate and threats (I take seriously) of retribution.
The press is part of that project. I believe they say and do nothing worried if Trump does get back into our WH any who spoke against him will be eliminated how he states in Project 2025. I advise everyone to read the project because if they do not heed caution they will be under a dictator who has no respect for law, human rights, or anything progressive for our country.
It’s still a mystery to me that so many of your citizens are so blasé about the future of your country. It’s disconcerting because your allies all stand to lose, albeit not as much as you all will, but the reverberations will be felt north of the 49th as well as the rest of your allies.
Steve you’re probably on MAGA’s top 10 enemy list. That’s because you’re effective and you stand for truth and the American way. Stay strong. We all support you. You are a true American patriot!
Voices of reason, like yours, are part of the battle. But as someone else commented below, most of us are talking to ourselves, in our own respective echo-chambers of right vs. left; preaching to the choir so to speak. The crucial armament is getting out the vote, and getting every human you know to register, then actually show up in November. It's exhausting- there can be no rest- but there is literally no other way to defeat fascism.
I am definitely talking to my 19 year old and 22 year old grandchildren. I know one will definitely vote for Biden. The other is apathetic. Sad…
I am also having conversations with my 20-30 something friends. I have been encouraged by their responses. I am concerned though, that so many young people in their 20s blame Biden for the inflation we’re experiencing. I ask, “So you’re going to vote for a dictator who will take away all your rights because of your frustrations about the economy and cost of living?! Are you aware that a woman’s right to make her own decisions about choice have been taken away? Did you read or watch, ‘The Handmaid’s Tales?’” I am honestly very concerned. We all need to get involved and do what we can to get Biden re-elected.
I wanted to make a brand of this column and mark the flesh of every member of my family who hates Trump but won't vote for Biden. Maybe that'll wake them up.
I am resigned to the fact that the MAGA Fascists can win this election. It says as much about them as the people around me who voted for them. And there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it if that is what enough of them want.
Uhhh, that is a given and we have done that! Americans are determined to have Fascism take over our country. they think it is some winning game and they just are dumb enough to not research what is ahead of them if they keep voting for Trump. Stupidity is terminal.
You don't "see" fascism was in the USA in the 1900s? You are fortunate that every member of your family are voters. Unfortunately, I have two Evangelical nut cases in my family who are blind to truth.
I defer to your first-person experience. I know something about the history of fascist/racist movements in the United States, yes. But experience? Only obliquely.
LOL! this isn't the place for your ridiculous comment. Defeatism is in your tiny brain! Your stupidity is terminal. As a proclaimed writer you should know the origins of fascism in the United States date back to the late 19th century, during the passage of Jim Crow laws.
I relate to your perspective. I too have evangelicals (I was once an indoctrinated one but that’s another story) in my family who are determined to vote for Trump but I will still share Steve’s writings with them in hopes that they will eventually read his words.
I would like to also tell you there’s no need to resort to name calling when another person disagrees with you. It doesn’t help at all.
I forgot to mention I make phone calls for Dems right here on main
St. in Middletown CT, and use Uber or senior van to get my fellow senior Democrats to the polls. How is your success at converting Trumpers to vote Dem? Just wondering.
That is a good question. It would be interesting to know. It’s probably pretty low, if at all. Perhaps we should focus on those who are not involved politically and do not usually vote.
Not so long ago, it was said that, in a political debate, whoever mentions Adolf Hitler or the Nazis first loses the debate. Whether it was to preserve the singular monstrosity of that regime and mentality or to screen the growing domestic fascism from discussion, not to mention Nazis and Hitler these days is political malpractice at best; complicity at worst. The "rhymes" with 1932/3 are loud and clear - the Russ Vought possibility (and his claim that we are in a "post-constitutional phase") is but one example.
In the Sturm and Drang that characterized Weimar politics in 1932 and culminating on January 30, 1933, the parliamentary structure of the constitution, the relatively balanced but bitterly divided party popularity (Social Democrats, Centrists, Communists, German Nationalists, and the National Socialists), and the refusal of the Center and two right wing nationalist parties to cooperate enough to form an operating majority in the Reichstag resulted in a succession of Chancellors, culminating in Hitler, who ruled almost dictatorially with their cabinets, using emergency provisions of the Weimar Constitution. Despite Hitler's declining vote totals in a succession of elections that year, he claimed victory nevertheless (sound familiar?), at one point arguing that his party's 37% of the electoral vote tally represented 75% of the 51% needed to form a majority in the Reichstag should grant him the chancellorship and one-party control of the government. (Gotta love statistics - like passages in the Bible, you can make them mean anything you want.)
German President Hindenburg despised "that Austrian corporal", but acquiesced to offer him a position as vice chancellor in August 1932 to try to fashion a Reichstag governing coalition. Hitler, believing that Germany had entered (and needed) a post-constitutional phase (sound familiar?) implemented his "Alles oder nichts" strategy, declined the vice chancellorship and was frozen out of any executive power, even though the Reichstag had already elected Nazi Herman Goering as Reichstag president.
Hitler then 0lost the election for Reich President in November 1932 by millions of votes (Hindenburg - 49+%; Hitler - 30%), polling worse than in the April and July 1932 elections, but again tried to make chicken salad out of chicken sheise, stressing the millions who voted for him/NSDAP and ignoring the many additional millions who voted against him. (Sound familiar?)
Hitler blew another chance in mid-November 1932 to gain power as vice chancellor, again refusing any offer that did not grant him and his NSDAP absolute control of the government - Alles oder nichts again.
Elections were scheduled for mid-January in the small district of Lippe, where Nazis had gotten shellacked in the November elections. Recalling an adage from Frederick the Great that 'he who commits his last battalion to the fight wins', Hitler pulled out the stops and ran a full court press in the area - to no avail. The election saw the Nazis actually poll 4000 fewer votes than in November (but went from 20% to 30% share due to lighter turnout). Hitler declared victory anyway (sound familiar?) and rolled onward (despite being pulloried and ridiculed in the German press and expressing near despair and depression privately).
After 2 weeks of palace intrigue and deadlock that suggested Hitler's star was rising (or that he was simply the last nationalist party leader left that Hindenburg could consider for the position), Hitler was called to a meeting with Hindenberg on January 30, 1933. Goebbels' last words to Hitler on the way out of the hotel were, "Alles oder nichts," the same strategy that had blown up twice in Hitler's face over the past 6 months and the opposite of what Hitler had agreed among themselves and with key German politicians to do to obtain power. After some last minute brinksmanship by Hitler on the way into the meeting (using a standard last minute "walkaway" negotiating tactic) in an attempt to go back on some of the concessions he had made to get to the meeting in the first place, Hindenberg offered Hitler the chancellorship. Within weeks, however, Hitler again showed his true colors and began purging non-Nazis from the government, culminating in the Night of the Long Knives the next year.
Hitler and the NSDAP rose to total power despite never once obtaining a majority of votes cast in any election. Even the March 5, 1933 Reichstag election Hitler called as chancellor only resulted in a 48% NSDAP share - almost, but still not the 51% Hitler craved to legitimize his absolute rule. In the end, he did not need it. Flipping Bismarck's maxim, politics became war by another means - complete with violence, murder, autocratic decrees, and consolidation of Nazi control throughout not just the government, but society as well (sound familiar?).
[Read Tim Ryback's book, Takeover - Hitler's Final Rise to Power. It is as revealing about MAGA's tactics in their bid for total power as Project 2025 is about MAGA's goals and objectives should they achieve it.]
Finally, MAGA people like Russ Vought, and a well-known host of others, are not even trying to hide their destructive intent. Why? Simple - if they win the election, they can point to the many times they said what they were going to do and claim that the election provides them with the mandate of the people to implement those measures (i.e., to enslave ourselves, apparently). We saw it in Trump I.
"It's not like someone didn't warn us." If the MAGANazis win it will be because enough of us either didn't listen or thought our ideology needed to remain intact and unsullied by reality, so we voted for pure but sure loser (e.g., Stein, Williamson, Kennedy) rather than the OK but boringly competent old(er) guy. May we have the clarity of vision to see the path to victory and the lasting strength and will to achieve it.
Keep beating the drum and sounding the alarm, Steve. We are approaching the time when voters start paying attention.
As I sit here, I'm reminded of an old Bill Maher episode a few months before the 2020 election. His solo guest was a consultant to the Democrats whose job it was to outline for them all the potential outcomes of a Trump loss. (Bill's biggest fear was that Trump simply wouldn't leave the White House.) The guy said that as he presented each scenario to party leaders, their consistent reaction was, "Oh, that would never happen." He said he was shocked, and so was I. I couldn't believe how naive they were. (I'm a Democrat, btw.)
In recent months, I've been watching many documentaries about Hitler's rise to power. It's an absolute blueprint for what's happening now, right down to Hitler's phrase, "Make Germany Great Again." My face drops into my palms, and I cry.
Could we all somehow bombard the comments sections of right wing media, even posing as one of them, to get the truth out? It would have to be a concerted effort.
Part of this reference to losing a debate by being the first to mention Nazis or Hitler is an interpretation or extension of Godwin's Law. The TFG troll here, Frank Lee, incorrectly cites it ALL the time. However, this is just more dismissive bullshit from the Right, just like saying anyone with concerns about TFG suffers from TDS. It's all BS, and they know it, but it allows them to completely dismiss the realities of what's going on, so they assuage their cognitive dissonance without addressing the real threat TFG presents.
Wow, Steve, WOW. Another poetic piece superbly scripted. I embrace with a sense of pride and honor that two uncles, my dad's younger and older brothers, fought in WW2 with the U.S. Army. The older brother was a career officer, retiring at the rank of Lt. Colonel in 1962, the year I joined the U.S. Air Force. Looking further back into my family history one will find that my distant paternal grandfather fought during The American Revolutionary War with the Virginia 9th Regiment.
Those kin would look in horror at what has taken hold of our republic. Evil is being unleashed across the land, ushered in and led by Trump, Johnson, and other white supremacist Christofascist domestic enemies. They promise horror and terror. They are the enemy about whom we have been warned for decades. Even Barry Goldwater warned us about "those evangelicals". Sadly, Ronald Reagan lifted them up and gave them wider voice when he appointed Jerry Falwell Sr. to the National Security Council. In fact, Reagan is the pivotal factor that put our nation on this trajectory to treachery. I fear for our republic, a fear that heretofore was absent.
I wish I knew how to break through right wing media. We're all preaching to ourselves here. Should we start a massive campaign of our own to completely bombard the comments sections with factual information, short but incisive? They're all talking to themselves, too. There HAS to be a way. What if we entered the discussions as Trump fans?
Mary, creating a false nom de plume ala Trump is not the avenue we should take. The fact is, the Democrat Party talking heads are the ones "talking to themselves". Two Dems at the moment who are doing yeoman's work are Jamie Raskin and Eric Swalwell. I am sure there are a few more, but those two stand out. Frankly, Hakeem Jeffries seems to like to talk a lot; period. The Democrats have sat on their hands watching Republicans restructure entire state and local legislatures. They should have started a ground war. Are they afraid?
Maybe I wasn't clear. As maga voters ONLY tune into right wing media, very often through YouTube segments, my suggestion was to somehow engage them directly, one on one. If I were to post and let it be obvious that I'm anti-Trump, they would shut their ears, hence my suggestion to pose as Trump supporters and cleverly work in the facts. I'm aware of Raskin and Swalwell, but their reels or shorts follow the algorithms to those who already support their ideas. What I'm suggesting is something out of the box. You didn't really say why the idea "is not the avenue we should be taking," and instead pondered why the Dems didn't start a ground war when the GOP acted criminally. We can't look backwards and instead must think of real world ideas NOW. I would suggest you not shoot down any idea unless you have another to replace it. Believe it or not, these grass roots ideas can work and work well. Remember the K-Pop fans booking all the seats at Trump's rally? That was done BY KIDS.
The verb contending for top-spot attention now is mobilize. Time to mobilize. Seek out now others who are mobilizing and join and learn. Move on from passive dwelling to active demonstrating. Up your ante. Commit to things beyond yourself and your inner musings. Join others and see your fears dissipate, giving way to sane-saving determined action. You can do nothing alone in your cocoon.
Those of us who read and align with Steve’s excellent analyses of our current political and social divide are only urged to continue to vote for democracy and the rule of law. The numbers must go in our favor because allowing the no nothing, authoritarian and far right Christian voters to upend our way of life again, by putting a convicted felon, with diminished mental ability to take our country to the abyss, can not be allowed.
No, it cannot. But should that happen, I will be standing on the street shoulder to shoulder with Steve and anyone else in front of anything that tries to roll up into the city. What I believe is a good defense is a smart offense. I have yet to see it.
Thank you for your research, institutional knowledge, focus, clarity and determination Steve. The widespread disinterest in this election astounds me. The disinformation being disseminated through social media is disgraceful. I still engage on X rather than ceed the platform to the dark side. It seems futile, but, silence is consent.
The subject of The Post’s Beth Reinhard’s frightening exposé is a frontrunner to be Trump’s chief of staff, Russ Vought. He does not believe in the separation of church and state. He believes we live in a “post-constitutional era,” which means Trump should have absolute power to do as he wishes to make America great again. Vought is unhinged and dangerous. He should never be close to political power — or worse, hold it — yet the possibility he will walk into the Oval Office with President Trump is very real.”
And we wonder why people like Barr continually carry water for the man. Trump isn’t the man we need to fear; its men like Vought, Barr, Miller, Bolton, Pompeo, Kavenaugh, Alito, etc…These people honestly believe in the Unitary Executive Theory; Presidents have absolute power.
This isn’t a new concept; it goes back to the Nixon days with the neo-cons who like Nixon believed, “if the president does it, then it’s not illegal.” And obviously we’re seeing it played out at the Supreme Court.
They and the conservative jurists, politicians, bureaucrats like Barr, and conservative think tanks and organizations like the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation, who also don’t believe in a separation of church and state.
Trump alone is NOTHING! Just another failed businessman and cheap snake oil salesman; did you get your Trump Bible or golden sneakers yet? Mine are on layaway; not to be delivered until I’m dead. And the check will bounce, of course.
Trump’s always had the money to fight his legal battles, and a slew of the sleaziest minions and villains in his corner; from the media to his sycophants. Everything occurring today is not a fight for Trump himself; its the natural progression of a group of fascists with lots of money and power trying to turn this country into a White Christian Nationalist nation, where all the power lies with them.
We’ve already seen Trump outsource the federal judiciary to the Federalist Society. Not only will they decide who owns the federal courts for the next 40 years should Trump win, but he also intends to outsource the federal institutions to the Heritage Foundation and their 2025 plan to remake the federal bureaucracy: EPA, Education, Energy, Finance, CDC, NIH, etc…
The corporations are fine with fascism; less red tape and since Trump is only a transactional president, they can buy themselves whatever initiatives a democratic government would never allow, while getting away with literal murder: from polluting our air and contaminate our water supply, to regulating themselves, while their unregulated products and services slowly poison us.
Nothing good for the citizens of the US will come of this, except a loss of guaranteed constitutional freedoms and protections, as well as violence and a loss of liberty against anyone who disagrees with their philosophy.
They will bring America to heel if we do nothing about it. Think of all the journalists and dissenters in Russia: they’re all either in jail on trumped up charges (no pun intended), or dead.
If Trump wins and you start seeing democrats and dissidents arrested, committing suicide by jumping off of skyscrapers (balconies), or killing their families, and then hanging themselves; you’ll know we’ve gone full fascist, and then its game over…:)
The Christian Nationalism is virus as deadly as national socialism was
The post needs an intervention from Jeff bezos today
Not that I expect you to notice, however when and if i change “have passport ready” to my name then I will feel secure that MAGA is dead, it is not and will not die with a wooden peg, it requires a landslide of Blue in every county of America Blue Red or Purple it is not a vote for president it is so far beyond that!
When you look at the long road the Christian Nationalists have taken to remake the country in their image, the election of a MAGA Fascist as President would be the capstone of their efforts. It started with Roe over 50 years and then ERA, and it was a slow but study accumulation of power. Like the Taliban, these fraud Christians work deliberately and are very patient. A component of it is the complete subjugation of women. No separation of church and state in a post-Constitutional era is right at our doorstep.
Christian Nationalists are America's Taliban.
America's bona fide Nazis.
Spot on 👍👍💥
Exactly
Indeed they are - minus the niqab and the hijab. And I fully expect these same so called Christians to reintroduce the chastity belt for their women and daughters.
They couldn't have done it without the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo with his billion dollar "war" chest. I think since Judge Cannon's clerks have all quit on her, she is getting some direct help from The Federalist Society. I don't think she is smart or savvy enough to have come up with her latest ruling in permitting unprecedented, live oral arguments as to why the Special Counsel is an illegal appointment, the "friend-of-the-court people" having gotten their idea from Clarence Thomas during oral argument before SCOTUS regarding presidential immunity a month or more ago. And I'm thinking Thomas got the idea from the Federalist Society. It's all so insidious! For the longest time I couldn't figure out how the MAGA people, including the likes of Leo etc., could tolerate Trump's predisposition for criminality. And then it hit me. The people behind the curtains doing all the "legal" lever pulling, like Leo, are also criminals at heart, so a Trump criminality goes over then like water rolls off a duck's back. Yeah, they may cast their theories in terms of "original intent" etc., and they're just trying to get back to what the Founders intended when they originally wrote the Constitution, but if you really look at it, those who support Trump are nothing but rule breakers, and what is a chronic rule breaker but a white-collar criminal at heart. A rogue and pirate that follows no person's rules. And when the rules no longer go in their favor, then they break some more rules. They are all criminals with evil intent is what they are!
So well said, Mary.
You hit the nail on the head!👍👍💥
The generals who served under Trump must speak out now. What are they waiting for, another insurrection?
They have spoken out, repeatedly. They have called Trump a dangerous idiot, dotard, moron and child. What can they do other than speak up? What can anyone do as long as citizens united allows corporations to control our elections? Other than suing Fox News for disinformation and getting every person on your block to vote, options appear to be limited.
AND there was reported on PBSNewshour that the Biden/Harris campaign held meetings w/ prominent former GOP office holder who are finding others who support Biden and will act. I hope this campaign is coordinated and throughout the places most needed. I live in DC so it is not likely the media coverage of their acts and words will be well covered. Still they will be heard, loudly and forcefully, I hope.
They need to make a statement as a group.
I hope they have a plan.. i hope they are talking to one another.
I read this essay, I again familiarized myself with Dr. King's six principles of nonviolence against injustice and tyranny. But before I got to the link that brought me to Dr. King's principles I broke down in tears, and am weeping as I write this. Had we acted to create "an American coalition of disagreement, united by faith in the US Constitution, our history, each other and our destiny", had we acted earlier, before allowing a Fascist Christian Nationalist to hold the seat of The Speaker of the House of Representatives, with others who have weaved themselves into many levels of government and institutions with this fascist movement at their rear, we might have had a chance to "together crush the rising fascism that is pointing a gun at all of us" with the principles of Dr. King.
But they have had a head start, allowed by the weakness, fecklessness and lack of imagination of those we elected to represent our interests. As you so often reminded everyone, there are 150 days until the November election, and we have run out of time. There must be a shift in strategy, actions must be taken that are brutal and repugnant. If we are going to "not stand for the menace." The bully has stuck, we must stand up to them, punch them in the face, breaking their nose, knocking out a few teeth while putting them on the ground. Point our collective finger at them and tell them "don't get up." Because of this, I am weeping.
MAGA has become a violent ongoing coup. Many martial arts are based in non-violence and deflection. In Karate, for instance, there is a time for a swift kick in the head to the opponent.
They’ve had centuries studying the long game. Every established religion. Every one.
And where have we been?
Every time Steve speaks out on Scripps News how the Biden Campaign should, should, should. I cringe with anxiety.
Listening to them like imbeciles? Yep
You would not believe the people I have come across that are not engaged. Weeks ago I was having a conversation with someone who had no clue. I sent him several pieces of truth, some from Steve. Yesterday I saw him, and asked had he seen what I had sent, take a guess..
Believe me I know he didn’t even look at what he was sure would even challenge the safe space he’d retreated to a long time ago. I know these people too. Only a Flannery O’Conner-level moment of traumatic insight could possibly do that.
Unfamiliar with that reference Paris, please educate me.
Had dinner last night in West Palm Beach, a golf shot away from Mar-a-Lago. We are worried; we have watched our 50-year right of Roe taken away from us- some of us had mother or grandmothers that fought for!
This is a strategic planned attack by the RW on women’s rights and human rights- and it is getting worse.
We need to stand up now before it’s too late.
Everyone reading Steve's posts will vote for Biden. No one planning to vote for Trump will read Steve's posts.
DC, Your point is taken. However, if you know any “undecideds” or younger people who are saying, “two old white guys, shrug” it would be worth sending this column to them. As well as the WaPo article. We have to try.
I still don’t understand why Project 2025 doesn’t get more press. It is literally a blue print to take over the country.
Nor do I about Project 2025. Is it a fear that by exposing it, well .. what? More "buyers"?
I too am trying by exposing ideas to others. I know there are those, prob. in my family, who will vote for fascism over democracy, while rationalizing the old GOP thinking of "good for business" while ignoring the GOP is dead and MAGA has no written platform other than showing their agenda with every act of hate and threats (I take seriously) of retribution.
The press is part of that project. I believe they say and do nothing worried if Trump does get back into our WH any who spoke against him will be eliminated how he states in Project 2025. I advise everyone to read the project because if they do not heed caution they will be under a dictator who has no respect for law, human rights, or anything progressive for our country.
It’s still a mystery to me that so many of your citizens are so blasé about the future of your country. It’s disconcerting because your allies all stand to lose, albeit not as much as you all will, but the reverberations will be felt north of the 49th as well as the rest of your allies.
I have MAGA brothers in Montana. Steve could get through to one of them. That's hopeful.
Fingers crossed and prayers said.
Steve you’re probably on MAGA’s top 10 enemy list. That’s because you’re effective and you stand for truth and the American way. Stay strong. We all support you. You are a true American patriot!
I agree 100%. Steve Schmidt is a courageous individual. Thank you Steve.
Voices of reason, like yours, are part of the battle. But as someone else commented below, most of us are talking to ourselves, in our own respective echo-chambers of right vs. left; preaching to the choir so to speak. The crucial armament is getting out the vote, and getting every human you know to register, then actually show up in November. It's exhausting- there can be no rest- but there is literally no other way to defeat fascism.
I am definitely talking to my 19 year old and 22 year old grandchildren. I know one will definitely vote for Biden. The other is apathetic. Sad…
I am also having conversations with my 20-30 something friends. I have been encouraged by their responses. I am concerned though, that so many young people in their 20s blame Biden for the inflation we’re experiencing. I ask, “So you’re going to vote for a dictator who will take away all your rights because of your frustrations about the economy and cost of living?! Are you aware that a woman’s right to make her own decisions about choice have been taken away? Did you read or watch, ‘The Handmaid’s Tales?’” I am honestly very concerned. We all need to get involved and do what we can to get Biden re-elected.
It's dark comedy, but I need it. Sorry.
I wanted to make a brand of this column and mark the flesh of every member of my family who hates Trump but won't vote for Biden. Maybe that'll wake them up.
*sigh*
I am resigned to the fact that the MAGA Fascists can win this election. It says as much about them as the people around me who voted for them. And there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it if that is what enough of them want.
Yes there is. You can register others to vote, and help them get to the polls.
Uhhh, that is a given and we have done that! Americans are determined to have Fascism take over our country. they think it is some winning game and they just are dumb enough to not research what is ahead of them if they keep voting for Trump. Stupidity is terminal.
I don’t see that. But then again my family and the friends I value are not blind.
You don't "see" fascism was in the USA in the 1900s? You are fortunate that every member of your family are voters. Unfortunately, I have two Evangelical nut cases in my family who are blind to truth.
I defer to your first-person experience. I know something about the history of fascist/racist movements in the United States, yes. But experience? Only obliquely.
so is defeatism, and you've got a terminal case of it.
LOL! this isn't the place for your ridiculous comment. Defeatism is in your tiny brain! Your stupidity is terminal. As a proclaimed writer you should know the origins of fascism in the United States date back to the late 19th century, during the passage of Jim Crow laws.
I relate to your perspective. I too have evangelicals (I was once an indoctrinated one but that’s another story) in my family who are determined to vote for Trump but I will still share Steve’s writings with them in hopes that they will eventually read his words.
I would like to also tell you there’s no need to resort to name calling when another person disagrees with you. It doesn’t help at all.
up yours troll
Yes, that is what I am seeing in North Carolina, which is an important swing state. They are dumb and determined.
That I am doing and will do. I am referring to the ones impervious to reason.
I forgot to mention I make phone calls for Dems right here on main
St. in Middletown CT, and use Uber or senior van to get my fellow senior Democrats to the polls. How is your success at converting Trumpers to vote Dem? Just wondering.
That is a good question. It would be interesting to know. It’s probably pretty low, if at all. Perhaps we should focus on those who are not involved politically and do not usually vote.
Not so long ago, it was said that, in a political debate, whoever mentions Adolf Hitler or the Nazis first loses the debate. Whether it was to preserve the singular monstrosity of that regime and mentality or to screen the growing domestic fascism from discussion, not to mention Nazis and Hitler these days is political malpractice at best; complicity at worst. The "rhymes" with 1932/3 are loud and clear - the Russ Vought possibility (and his claim that we are in a "post-constitutional phase") is but one example.
In the Sturm and Drang that characterized Weimar politics in 1932 and culminating on January 30, 1933, the parliamentary structure of the constitution, the relatively balanced but bitterly divided party popularity (Social Democrats, Centrists, Communists, German Nationalists, and the National Socialists), and the refusal of the Center and two right wing nationalist parties to cooperate enough to form an operating majority in the Reichstag resulted in a succession of Chancellors, culminating in Hitler, who ruled almost dictatorially with their cabinets, using emergency provisions of the Weimar Constitution. Despite Hitler's declining vote totals in a succession of elections that year, he claimed victory nevertheless (sound familiar?), at one point arguing that his party's 37% of the electoral vote tally represented 75% of the 51% needed to form a majority in the Reichstag should grant him the chancellorship and one-party control of the government. (Gotta love statistics - like passages in the Bible, you can make them mean anything you want.)
German President Hindenburg despised "that Austrian corporal", but acquiesced to offer him a position as vice chancellor in August 1932 to try to fashion a Reichstag governing coalition. Hitler, believing that Germany had entered (and needed) a post-constitutional phase (sound familiar?) implemented his "Alles oder nichts" strategy, declined the vice chancellorship and was frozen out of any executive power, even though the Reichstag had already elected Nazi Herman Goering as Reichstag president.
Hitler then 0lost the election for Reich President in November 1932 by millions of votes (Hindenburg - 49+%; Hitler - 30%), polling worse than in the April and July 1932 elections, but again tried to make chicken salad out of chicken sheise, stressing the millions who voted for him/NSDAP and ignoring the many additional millions who voted against him. (Sound familiar?)
Hitler blew another chance in mid-November 1932 to gain power as vice chancellor, again refusing any offer that did not grant him and his NSDAP absolute control of the government - Alles oder nichts again.
Elections were scheduled for mid-January in the small district of Lippe, where Nazis had gotten shellacked in the November elections. Recalling an adage from Frederick the Great that 'he who commits his last battalion to the fight wins', Hitler pulled out the stops and ran a full court press in the area - to no avail. The election saw the Nazis actually poll 4000 fewer votes than in November (but went from 20% to 30% share due to lighter turnout). Hitler declared victory anyway (sound familiar?) and rolled onward (despite being pulloried and ridiculed in the German press and expressing near despair and depression privately).
After 2 weeks of palace intrigue and deadlock that suggested Hitler's star was rising (or that he was simply the last nationalist party leader left that Hindenburg could consider for the position), Hitler was called to a meeting with Hindenberg on January 30, 1933. Goebbels' last words to Hitler on the way out of the hotel were, "Alles oder nichts," the same strategy that had blown up twice in Hitler's face over the past 6 months and the opposite of what Hitler had agreed among themselves and with key German politicians to do to obtain power. After some last minute brinksmanship by Hitler on the way into the meeting (using a standard last minute "walkaway" negotiating tactic) in an attempt to go back on some of the concessions he had made to get to the meeting in the first place, Hindenberg offered Hitler the chancellorship. Within weeks, however, Hitler again showed his true colors and began purging non-Nazis from the government, culminating in the Night of the Long Knives the next year.
Hitler and the NSDAP rose to total power despite never once obtaining a majority of votes cast in any election. Even the March 5, 1933 Reichstag election Hitler called as chancellor only resulted in a 48% NSDAP share - almost, but still not the 51% Hitler craved to legitimize his absolute rule. In the end, he did not need it. Flipping Bismarck's maxim, politics became war by another means - complete with violence, murder, autocratic decrees, and consolidation of Nazi control throughout not just the government, but society as well (sound familiar?).
[Read Tim Ryback's book, Takeover - Hitler's Final Rise to Power. It is as revealing about MAGA's tactics in their bid for total power as Project 2025 is about MAGA's goals and objectives should they achieve it.]
Finally, MAGA people like Russ Vought, and a well-known host of others, are not even trying to hide their destructive intent. Why? Simple - if they win the election, they can point to the many times they said what they were going to do and claim that the election provides them with the mandate of the people to implement those measures (i.e., to enslave ourselves, apparently). We saw it in Trump I.
"It's not like someone didn't warn us." If the MAGANazis win it will be because enough of us either didn't listen or thought our ideology needed to remain intact and unsullied by reality, so we voted for pure but sure loser (e.g., Stein, Williamson, Kennedy) rather than the OK but boringly competent old(er) guy. May we have the clarity of vision to see the path to victory and the lasting strength and will to achieve it.
Keep beating the drum and sounding the alarm, Steve. We are approaching the time when voters start paying attention.
Project 2025 should be required reading for anyone opposed to Trump and Ryback's book should be too.
https://www.project2025.org/
https://www.amazon.com/Takeover-Hitlers-Final-Rise-Power/dp/0593537424/ref=sr_1_1?crid=35VFW81J052BP&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.m7PUhpRmBUo_s-bozfdHV-dzojEoBzkB0B4DYHqaEXjGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.A1CvEPXLNndkgWIJ5L4lLCSiubVBdxYfT3ozmYj8C8A&dib_tag=se&keywords=tim+ryback+takeover&qid=1717878265&sprefix=tim+ryback%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1
As I sit here, I'm reminded of an old Bill Maher episode a few months before the 2020 election. His solo guest was a consultant to the Democrats whose job it was to outline for them all the potential outcomes of a Trump loss. (Bill's biggest fear was that Trump simply wouldn't leave the White House.) The guy said that as he presented each scenario to party leaders, their consistent reaction was, "Oh, that would never happen." He said he was shocked, and so was I. I couldn't believe how naive they were. (I'm a Democrat, btw.)
In recent months, I've been watching many documentaries about Hitler's rise to power. It's an absolute blueprint for what's happening now, right down to Hitler's phrase, "Make Germany Great Again." My face drops into my palms, and I cry.
Could we all somehow bombard the comments sections of right wing media, even posing as one of them, to get the truth out? It would have to be a concerted effort.
Part of this reference to losing a debate by being the first to mention Nazis or Hitler is an interpretation or extension of Godwin's Law. The TFG troll here, Frank Lee, incorrectly cites it ALL the time. However, this is just more dismissive bullshit from the Right, just like saying anyone with concerns about TFG suffers from TDS. It's all BS, and they know it, but it allows them to completely dismiss the realities of what's going on, so they assuage their cognitive dissonance without addressing the real threat TFG presents.
Thank you for this history lesson Rod Marvin
We may well need to prepare for our own display of “legitimate political discourse”. It’s clear who needs to hear from us.
Wow, Steve, WOW. Another poetic piece superbly scripted. I embrace with a sense of pride and honor that two uncles, my dad's younger and older brothers, fought in WW2 with the U.S. Army. The older brother was a career officer, retiring at the rank of Lt. Colonel in 1962, the year I joined the U.S. Air Force. Looking further back into my family history one will find that my distant paternal grandfather fought during The American Revolutionary War with the Virginia 9th Regiment.
Those kin would look in horror at what has taken hold of our republic. Evil is being unleashed across the land, ushered in and led by Trump, Johnson, and other white supremacist Christofascist domestic enemies. They promise horror and terror. They are the enemy about whom we have been warned for decades. Even Barry Goldwater warned us about "those evangelicals". Sadly, Ronald Reagan lifted them up and gave them wider voice when he appointed Jerry Falwell Sr. to the National Security Council. In fact, Reagan is the pivotal factor that put our nation on this trajectory to treachery. I fear for our republic, a fear that heretofore was absent.
I wish I knew how to break through right wing media. We're all preaching to ourselves here. Should we start a massive campaign of our own to completely bombard the comments sections with factual information, short but incisive? They're all talking to themselves, too. There HAS to be a way. What if we entered the discussions as Trump fans?
Mary, creating a false nom de plume ala Trump is not the avenue we should take. The fact is, the Democrat Party talking heads are the ones "talking to themselves". Two Dems at the moment who are doing yeoman's work are Jamie Raskin and Eric Swalwell. I am sure there are a few more, but those two stand out. Frankly, Hakeem Jeffries seems to like to talk a lot; period. The Democrats have sat on their hands watching Republicans restructure entire state and local legislatures. They should have started a ground war. Are they afraid?
Maybe I wasn't clear. As maga voters ONLY tune into right wing media, very often through YouTube segments, my suggestion was to somehow engage them directly, one on one. If I were to post and let it be obvious that I'm anti-Trump, they would shut their ears, hence my suggestion to pose as Trump supporters and cleverly work in the facts. I'm aware of Raskin and Swalwell, but their reels or shorts follow the algorithms to those who already support their ideas. What I'm suggesting is something out of the box. You didn't really say why the idea "is not the avenue we should be taking," and instead pondered why the Dems didn't start a ground war when the GOP acted criminally. We can't look backwards and instead must think of real world ideas NOW. I would suggest you not shoot down any idea unless you have another to replace it. Believe it or not, these grass roots ideas can work and work well. Remember the K-Pop fans booking all the seats at Trump's rally? That was done BY KIDS.
The verb contending for top-spot attention now is mobilize. Time to mobilize. Seek out now others who are mobilizing and join and learn. Move on from passive dwelling to active demonstrating. Up your ante. Commit to things beyond yourself and your inner musings. Join others and see your fears dissipate, giving way to sane-saving determined action. You can do nothing alone in your cocoon.
I agree!
Those of us who read and align with Steve’s excellent analyses of our current political and social divide are only urged to continue to vote for democracy and the rule of law. The numbers must go in our favor because allowing the no nothing, authoritarian and far right Christian voters to upend our way of life again, by putting a convicted felon, with diminished mental ability to take our country to the abyss, can not be allowed.
No, it cannot. But should that happen, I will be standing on the street shoulder to shoulder with Steve and anyone else in front of anything that tries to roll up into the city. What I believe is a good defense is a smart offense. I have yet to see it.
Thank you for your research, institutional knowledge, focus, clarity and determination Steve. The widespread disinterest in this election astounds me. The disinformation being disseminated through social media is disgraceful. I still engage on X rather than ceed the platform to the dark side. It seems futile, but, silence is consent.
The subject of The Post’s Beth Reinhard’s frightening exposé is a frontrunner to be Trump’s chief of staff, Russ Vought. He does not believe in the separation of church and state. He believes we live in a “post-constitutional era,” which means Trump should have absolute power to do as he wishes to make America great again. Vought is unhinged and dangerous. He should never be close to political power — or worse, hold it — yet the possibility he will walk into the Oval Office with President Trump is very real.”
And we wonder why people like Barr continually carry water for the man. Trump isn’t the man we need to fear; its men like Vought, Barr, Miller, Bolton, Pompeo, Kavenaugh, Alito, etc…These people honestly believe in the Unitary Executive Theory; Presidents have absolute power.
This isn’t a new concept; it goes back to the Nixon days with the neo-cons who like Nixon believed, “if the president does it, then it’s not illegal.” And obviously we’re seeing it played out at the Supreme Court.
They and the conservative jurists, politicians, bureaucrats like Barr, and conservative think tanks and organizations like the Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation, who also don’t believe in a separation of church and state.
Trump alone is NOTHING! Just another failed businessman and cheap snake oil salesman; did you get your Trump Bible or golden sneakers yet? Mine are on layaway; not to be delivered until I’m dead. And the check will bounce, of course.
Trump’s always had the money to fight his legal battles, and a slew of the sleaziest minions and villains in his corner; from the media to his sycophants. Everything occurring today is not a fight for Trump himself; its the natural progression of a group of fascists with lots of money and power trying to turn this country into a White Christian Nationalist nation, where all the power lies with them.
We’ve already seen Trump outsource the federal judiciary to the Federalist Society. Not only will they decide who owns the federal courts for the next 40 years should Trump win, but he also intends to outsource the federal institutions to the Heritage Foundation and their 2025 plan to remake the federal bureaucracy: EPA, Education, Energy, Finance, CDC, NIH, etc…
The corporations are fine with fascism; less red tape and since Trump is only a transactional president, they can buy themselves whatever initiatives a democratic government would never allow, while getting away with literal murder: from polluting our air and contaminate our water supply, to regulating themselves, while their unregulated products and services slowly poison us.
Nothing good for the citizens of the US will come of this, except a loss of guaranteed constitutional freedoms and protections, as well as violence and a loss of liberty against anyone who disagrees with their philosophy.
They will bring America to heel if we do nothing about it. Think of all the journalists and dissenters in Russia: they’re all either in jail on trumped up charges (no pun intended), or dead.
If Trump wins and you start seeing democrats and dissidents arrested, committing suicide by jumping off of skyscrapers (balconies), or killing their families, and then hanging themselves; you’ll know we’ve gone full fascist, and then its game over…:)
All three important stories.
The Christian Nationalism is virus as deadly as national socialism was
The post needs an intervention from Jeff bezos today
Not that I expect you to notice, however when and if i change “have passport ready” to my name then I will feel secure that MAGA is dead, it is not and will not die with a wooden peg, it requires a landslide of Blue in every county of America Blue Red or Purple it is not a vote for president it is so far beyond that!