There have been a spate of articles trying to stoke terror at the prospect of a Trump dictatorship
The extreme demonization of Donald Trump continues, with articles such as this one by Robert Kagan. Oh, the horror of a possible Trump presidency:
Republicans who have tried to navigate the Trump era by mixing appeals to non-Trump voters with repeated professions of loyalty to Trump will end that show. As perilous as it is for Republicans to say a negative word about Trump today, it will be impossible once he has sewn up the nomination. The party will be in full general-election mode, subordinating all to the presidential campaign.
Kind of like with most candidates? Oh, but with Trump, it’s done out of terror of what this Caligula-like figure will do to anyone who defies him.
More:
But Trump will not only dominate his party. He will again become the central focus of everyone’s attention. Even today, the news media can scarcely resist following Trump’s every word and action. Once he secures the nomination, he will loom over the country like a colossus, his every word and gesture chronicled endlessly.
Probably the case, but whose fault is that? Not Trump’s. Even Kagan is participating – already.
This next is almost humorous in its Orwellian twisting:
Trump intends to use the trial to boost his candidacy and discredit the American justice system as corrupt — and the media outlets, serving their own interests, will help him do it.
Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because the trial is a bogus Beria-like show trial on its face. Maybe that’s the thing Trump is “using” to “discredit the American justice system as corrupt.”
More:
Biden, as some have pointed out, does not enjoy the usual advantages of incumbency. Trump is effectively also an incumbent, after all. That means Biden is unable to make the usual incumbent’s claim that electing his opponent is a leap into the unknown. Few Republicans regard the Trump presidency as having been either abnormal or unsuccessful.
That’s because it wasn’t unsuccessful, especially compared with Biden’s term. Was it abnormal? Yes. It was abnormal in what the opposition did to try to frame him and destroy him.
Further:
Biden must carry the world’s problems like an albatross around his neck, like any incumbent, but most incumbents can at least claim that their opponent is too inexperienced to be entrusted with these crises. Biden cannot. On Trump’s watch, there was no full-scale invasion of Ukraine, no major attack on Israel, no runaway inflation, no disastrous retreat from Afghanistan. It is hard to make the case for Trump’s unfitness to anyone who does not already believe it.
Oh, unlucky Biden and lucky son of a gun Trump! Fancy that; none of those things happened on Trump’s watch, but only on Biden’s. What a strange coincidence. What an odd set of circumstances – and yes, it is hard to make the case for Trump’s unfitness, and just as hard to make the case for Biden’s fitness. Even Kagan isn’t doing a very good job of it.
Kagan doesn’t even seem to really believe Trump is guilty of the crimes with which he’s charged – certainly not all of them. His defense of those who have charged Trump is that Trump is so terrible they really must try everything to stop him:
It is hard to fault those who have taken Trump to court. He certainly committed at least one of the crimes he is charged with; we don’t need a trial to tell us he tried to overturn the 2020 election. Nor can you blame those who have hoped thereby to obstruct his path back to the Oval Office. When a marauder is crashing through your house, you throw everything you can at him — pots, pans, candlesticks — in the hope of slowing him down and tripping him up. But that doesn’t mean it works.
Caesar, Hitler, Napoleon; the comparisons keep coming. Trump won’t obey the Supreme Court – although he always has. Trump will try to run for a third term, because he doesn’t care what the Constitution says. The scaremongering goes on and on, but this fits both the mood and the belief system of most Democrats today.
Here’s one more quote to give you a flavor of the sort of thing Kagan sees as something Biden and the Democrats would never, never ever, do:
So, the Trump administration will have many avenues to persecute its enemies, real and perceived. Think of all the laws now on the books that give the federal government enormous power to surveil people for possible links to terrorism, a dangerously flexible term, not to mention all the usual opportunities to investigate people for alleged tax evasion or violation of foreign agent registration laws.
No, that’s not a joke, although it reads like a roadmap of what Democrats have done lately to the right. But in Kagan’s universe, only the dangerous would-be dictator Trump would stoop to such tactics.
I voted for him twice, do not regret at all those votes. I will vote for him again because any Dem will be so much worse. But, I do not want him to run.
But if he does win, I hope that he throws them all in jail, without trial. Deep dark pits of prisons.
I assume many here have seen already, but I thought this was good.
https://thefederalist.com/2023/12/05/democrats-are-afraid-trump-will-do-to-them-what-they-have-done-to-him/
On Trump’s watch, there was no full-scale invasion of Ukraine, no major attack on Israel, no runaway inflation, no disastrous retreat from Afghanistan.
OMG. Biden was fully and deeply responsible for that disastrous retreat. Almost certainly, he was receiving strong warnings from military advisors not to do what he did.
“On Trump’s watch, there was no full-scale invasion of Ukraine, no major attack on Israel, no runaway inflation, no disastrous retreat from Afghanistan. It is hard to make the case for Trump’s unfitness to anyone who does not already believe it.”
Hmm, did Kagan accidentally praise Trump, or was it intentional?
Hard to believe this is not tongue in cheek. I know it’s not, which points to the seriously deranged thinking on the left.
Mr victoria nuland who has failed upwards iraq libya ukraine
Kagan pere would have seen this as terrible poppycock
Most of the liberals I am in contact with express this exact idea: Trump will become a dictator. Not only is he a criminal, but has terrible plans to take over the US and turn it into his own dictatorship. This line of BS is obviously resonating well with the base.
They are so out of touch with the other side. Maybe I’m naive, but even if Trump had such designs, I can’t see the Republicans and the conservative ever letting that happen. But then, we are just his minions willing to do anything.
It’s morbidly fascinating reading articles like this. It’s amazing how this author has to swing from grudgingly admitting certain obvious truths while simultaneously attempting to maintain largely disproven hyperbolic nonsense about Trump. You almost feel bad for him since it must be very exhausting.
The great problem for the mainstream media continues to be how to stop Trump without promoting him. They hate him so much and they can’t stop talking about him. But the more they talk about him, the more they reveal of their own absurd viewpoints, provably false narratives with their deranged conclusions, as well as the obvious weaknesses of the current Regime and the deep corruption of the forces alligned against him. It’s a real conundrum for them.
I’m (at least one of) the resident “OMB” sufferers around here, and even I think this is a load of BS.
Trump wasn’t particularly effective against the “deep state” and other checks on his power the first time around. In the (unlikely) event that he is elected again, he’s going to be starting from a worse position because the universe of appointees who are both (i) competent and (ii) willing to work in his administration is much, much smaller than it was in 2017.
And the left has had four more years (now 12 of the last 16) to embed their partisans in the administrative state. When Trump was last president, you had the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs undermining him behind his back to our greatest adversary when the Chairman believed that Trump was off his rocker. The military in 2025 will be the same military that we have now. Even we end up with a few Trumpy generals, does anyone really think that the current officer corps will be all-in on Trump’s agenda? I doubt it. And its going to be the same way at every single federal agency.
And that’s before we start talking about the press. Can you even imagine the sturm and drang if the federal government tried to shut down or punish MSNBC or another leftist outlet? Can you imagine more than a half dozen of the current federal judges who wouldn’t reverse that action in about half a heartbeat?
And how is Trump going to react to all this? He’ll send a bunch of angry tweets to his supporters. Then he’ll fire people. Then he’ll have to get new people confirmed by the Senate. Remember how two Democratic Senators nearly crippled the Biden administration? I’m sure that would never happen to Trump. Well, then Trump would have to get by with “acting” appointees. Do you think a unruly bureaucrats who believe themselves to be on the “right side of history” are going to respect the authority of a bunch of acting appointees who have no chance of actually being confirmed by the Senate? Me neither. (Think Matt Whitaker at DOJ. I have nothing against Whitaker, but Mueller wasn’t leashed until Barr came on.)
Kagan’s case is absurd. But it’s not useless. It’s more about GOTV for Democrats than anything else. Don’t underestimate the tactic. It was very effective in 2022.
Mollie Hemingway called it assassination prep.
In 2017 maddows madness provoked hopkinson to try to take out the freedom caucus including our future government
Durbin and duckworth knew this was happening this psycho that blew up his house in arlington was another this isnt just idle talk it is incendiary
Meanwhile real horrors on our border in southern israel in kabul happened on purpose
CC™ give it a rest, even you can’t “out Kagan” Kagan.
The Great Orange Whale succeeds again, bringing out the clueless frothing hate from the left and the aparachits. Dunning-Kreuger x 11.
I remember an off broadway play by schenken who did some good work (hacksaw ridge) the gist of it was trump ordered a nuke detonated on us soil for reasons
I know Liz Cheney doesn’t actually believe the nonsense she is spewing, but I would like somebody to ask her just exactly how she envisions the Trump as eternal dictator thing working out. Assuming Trump wins and then manages to to get the 22nd amendment repealed, he would still be 82 when he finishes his term. How long does Liz think Trump will live? Does she think Don Jr. will replace him? Although I have to admit it would be kind of awesome to live in a country where the dictator was a 7 foot tall giant named Barron Trump. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll live long enough to see it.
What are they so afraid of?
They have the vote fraud thing down pat, they have silenced any protest or questions about it, and the screwy laws allowing unvetted mail-in voting are still in place as far as I know. Nothing has been done to ensure that voting is secure, that only registered citizens vote, vote once, and that their vote gets counted, once.
It doesn’t matter who is or who is not on the R ticket – the flash drives full of Biden votes are as easy to “find” in 2024 as they were in 2020. Good grief – I still can’t believe they allowed the old white guy to get more votes than the Historic Obama.
Well don jr would be the next in the dynasty sarc
Sessions was fooled just like ashcroft and barr was not much better
https://twitter.com/lukerosiak/status/1714769461834633687?
This is what they do even on leave
We have never seen this much damage to our supply chain to our transportation system to the cognitive welbeing of our youth
@neo
One of the ugly secrets none of those involved want to address is the fact that none of those leaders overthrew a functioning “our democracy” or the like. Not even Hitler. Though you can argue two out of the three deserve partial credit and made the situation worse.
Caesar was just one of three Populares leaders party to the Triumvirate, which saw them take over Rome from within. By the time he was returning, however, the Optimates had managed to persuade Pompey to ditch the agreement and had opened prosecution against Caesar on what I can best describe as “Questionable” terms. Even Cicero admitted that the Optimates were not fighting for the rule of law or to restore the Republic, but merely over which strongman would rule it.
Napoleon overthrew the Directory, which was basically a hideously corrupt authoritarian dictatorship comprised of the people too pragmatic to be Jacobin fanatics and too corrupt or venal or bloody minded to meet Robespierre’s support (which is often overlooked; a bunch of the members like Fouche were arguably even worse than Robespierre was). There was not even a semblance of law or orders, and while the worst of the Terror was over it was unpopular, inefficient, and corrupt.
Hitler is probably the most arcane of these, especially since we tend to visualize him as a singular evil. But there’s a downright mythology about him, from the Reichstag Fire to the Enabling Acts, and his propaganda about being a Great Man and a Great Leader did not help.
But the reality is that the Weimar Republic and Constitution had died about a year or so before he came to power, and he wasn’t the one that did it in. For starters, the Weimar Republic was already more authoritarian than pop culture remembers, with the Chancellor having broad powers to rule by decree (which explains why Hitler coveted the position). But at least it was a Republic that functioned. When Hindenburg and Papen took power in 1932 from an admittedly not stellar Bruning, authorized the destruction of the SPD in Prussia with the support of both the KPD and NSDAP in the Prussian Coup. They then proceeded to gut the functioning of the German legal system and legislature by moving as much as they could out of the purview of the Reichstag. And then they and their allies like General von Schleicher fought among themselves for power, with Schleicher briefly toppling Papen, who turned to Hitler to challenge Schleicher’s dictatorship from below. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The moral of the story is that dictatorships rarely emerge completely out of the blue.
And the bitter irony is that given what people like Kagan are, they’d be giving plenty of justification for Trump. If “Our Democracy” destroys the constitution and pursued baseless and corrupt political witch hunts, it isn’t a Democracy worthy of the name. It’s also not giving Trump any incentive to play along. When you get a choice between Prison or Worse (and not just for yourself but likely for your family and friends) and a Crown, one does not have to be a cold blooded Putschist or natural autocrat to know what people are naturally inclined to favor.
The Left does this because it works on some people.
It’s why Nigerians still make money on all sorts of email schemes in the US.
Fools/knaves like Kagan run a profitable Kool-Aid franchise.
mmmmwah!!!! I send you a great big hug and kiss!
Thank you for this piece!
I will not only vote for him a third time, I will try to help in the campaign.
I did not want to vote for him the first time but I did. So glad I did.
“You! I learned it from you, OKAY?”
I have a good friend who was a state Rep for many years and is an insider in state Republican politics and told me he feared that Trump would not leave office if elected again.
I don’t know if he believes that or is just politicking, but he didn’t have much of an answer when I asked him exactly how would Trump do that.
It is bizarre how intelligent people can be so rigid in their thinking. So the propaganda is working, even with moderate Republicans.
“Mollie Hemingway called it assassination prep.”
Exactly. All you have to do is read the first few paragraphs & you know what Kagan is both saying AND hoping someone will do, All the other BS he writes is just smokescreen for, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”
of course, Germany was doomed because the alternative to Hitler, was the communist Thalmann, Stalin made sure the Social Democrats wouldn’t get traction, Jan Valtin (aka albert krug) gave us a notion of the street battles in Late Weimar happening on the Hamburg docks,
going back to Mr Jones, his collaborator Ada played by Vanessa Kirby, had found her way to Berlin by 1934, this story was not going to end well, he died in Mongolia about his 30th birthday because Duranty’s whitewash had worked out so well, Hearst as with the Nazi prologue was willing to publish some of his work, in stark contrast to the Times, many political pilgrims like Dubois having tasted Fascism’s regimentation, found Stalin much more congenial
its not accidental these same coin keep flipping
https://twitter.com/JCAndersonNYC/status/1732118092447129605
Bauxite, just change Trump for Any Republican.
so the woman’s march which was so agita over something trump had said a decade ago, which wasn’t even deemed relevant to air on prime time, is one that finds not mere denial but erasure of actual sexual violence as a text, as they do so in every blue berg, as well as the territories, not Judea and Samaria, in case the illusion that they only care about those enclaves, but that exhausting catalog, of atrocity,
Now we have discovered when push comes to shove, both general sisi hides his uniform in his closet, and prince salman goes basenghi with the hypocracy
of one who doesn’t expect to be called on even more agregious practices in the
South Arabia, Yemen,
now this pathology is not unique to the US, since Berlusconi reassembled the center right alliance almost 30 years ago, with his corporate stance, against the resurgent Communists (down as the Democracy party, they spent nearly 20 years trying to bring him to heel, they eventually got him on the equivalent of a parking ticket, he was the bane of Camillieri, noted mostly in the footnotes of his inspector Montalbano,
Assassination prep? Maybe. That’s how far off the rails the Democrats have gone in just 50 years. I am quite sure there were some who talked in private about doing that to Nixon, but they wouldn’t have followed through. On the other hand, I have no doubt at least some would think that rubbing Trump out was a praiseworthy goal, if they thought they could get away with it. And you would have plenty in the GOP who would just go “tsk tsk, isn’t that a shame? But you know, he did having it coming” (think Liz Cheney, Mitch McConnell, Nikki Haley, the Bush family, etc. etc.).
“Liz Cheney, Mitch McConnell, Nikki Haley, the Bush family, etc. etc.)”
These mongrels would either shun POTUS Trump’s funeral or do just as you described with big crocodile tears in their eyes. But you can be sure they’d toast the hitter in their hearts.
after that sham, that was eventually reversed by the Courts, in a glacial timetable,
the anti globalist nationalists fell to salvini who challenged the deep state player which were eventually fronted by Draghi, as if Jamie Dimon were Prime Minister if needs must, in the merry go round, Salvini fell out of power, just before Fauci surprise was released through Tuscany,
was it a coincidence that the epicenter of the Covid epidemic was not only in New York City, but in Trump’s beloved Queens I somehow don’t think so, of course most of the people toasting Kagan fils degringolade, probably have matching sets of Fauci and Mueller candles, what a waste of wax
I once thought well the loss of those two seats, were significant then we saw up to 20 republicans willing to put their stamp on the wurst nominees, austin mayorkas garland and their deputies like Monaco, and Clarke, so Einstein’s jibe about insanity comes to mind
funny how this works, or doesnt
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/05/congress-ev-chargers-billions-00129996
Seems the zeigiest wants an monarchical figure to take over the “empire.”
In modern America politics there is no one more monarchal figure than Trump. Funny how the practical effectiveness matters not for the winds of change are upon us.
Lololololololol, I love the Left!!!!
…he will loom over the country like a colossus…
As it is written, so shall it be done. Behold, God Emperor Trump!
Kagan. So irony challenged.
“On Trump’s watch, there was no full-scale invasion of Ukraine, no major attack on Israel, no runaway inflation, no disastrous retreat from Afghanistan. It is hard to make the case for Trump’s unfitness to anyone who does not already believe it.”
Did he read these two sentences he wrote?
Probably not
https://www.racket.news/p/cti-files-4-the-hamilton-68-connection
Bauxite, first of all, I have no idea what “OMB” stands for. Please enlighten me.
As to your argument that the bureaucracy is so overwhelmingly on the left as to be monolithic, I would like to take issue. Many of us (recently retired State Dept. Foreign Service Officer – FSO) within the bureaucracy are (were) there because we love out jobs. Being a diplomat in the far-flung corners of the world was a dream-come-true for me and many others, and to keep my job and maybe even rise in it I kept my opinions largely to myself. Not often enough to stay out of trouble, but I tried. I was far from alone in that, and that applies across the board in the federal bureaucracy, not just at State (and we were/are one of the most leftist).
This is all to say that there are many extremely talented and qualified people in the ranks ready to serve in a 2nd Trump administration. Trump (or DeSantis) needs someone who can ferret out those people. There are FSOs at State and career folks at all of the agencies anxious for a chance serve, and maybe even strike back. Ask us and we’ll help him find like-minded souls. A huge problem Pres Trump faced in his 1st term was, IMO, one of poor personnel choices led by functionaries such as Priebus, Christie, Kushner, etc, who didn’t share his vision, or the vision of the electorate who put him in the White House. Call me a dreamer, but I believe he knows that now, and will not make that mistake again.
Much can change with the right people at the top. The 4 years of the Trump presidency were the best 4 years in my career at State – the changes were visible, positive, and in private even some of my leftist colleagues acknowledged this.
One last note, which seems to be required on blogs nowadays – I voted for Trump 2X in the general elections, and will do so again should he be the nominee in 2024. However, I will vote for DeSantis in the primary because I believe he will make a more formidable President and can serve 2 terms.
Telemachus – OMB is “Orange Man Bad.” It’s an om thing. I had to ask too.
I hope that DeSantis or Haley get the nomination, but if they don’t, I hope you are right about a second Trump administration.
The Democrat Party is now entirely made-up of mendacious liars, gullible fools and the ignorant. Self-delusion is what binds them together.
Christies offerings were his lawyer wray and his campaign manager stepien priebus came from wisconsin as party chair
Telemachus, what you say about serious civil service people ready to serve is encouraging. Thank you.
Telemachus, good post! And I agree, Trump is not a dummy and won’t rely on government types with unknown agendas the second time. And I also prefer DeSantis, but will vote for Trump if he’s the nominee.
I also hope and believe that he won’t be snowed by the ‘expert’ Fauci-types the second time either. There’s been so much ‘trust the science’ bull that both physicians and scientists have been knocked off the list of people to implicitly trust.
Haley is a neo-con of the type that is indistinguishable from most of the democrats. Desantis is cut from the same cloth as Trump but with a less bombastic and more thoughtful approach.
I prefer Desantis but will vote for Trump if need be.
Haley destroyed herself over internet anonymity and saying that (state) governments should let the transitions continue. None of their business. Just call her Toast from now on.
Bauxite and Telemanchus:
OMB has been an Interweb meme/caricature for people who reflexively find the worst in any and every thing that Donald Trump has done since 2016. As long as Donald Trump was a media personality it was safe to ignore him as a clown of no consequence. Things changed when rice bowls were threatened?
Meanwhile, in the world that actually exists, some new whistleblower information about information-manipulation efforts:
https://public.substack.com/p/us-government-officials-sought-to
https://public.substack.com/p/the-censorship-industrial-complex-c21
These are for paid Shellenberger subscribers only, which I just became…haven’t read the Substack yet, but there are summaries at Twitter.
Very, very disturbing.
Regarding assassination fantasies, suggestion by the left and the Kaganites, they ran this play against the SCOTUS after the landmark abortion decision and a perp was caught trying to do the deed outsite Kavanaugh’s house. Somehow, illegal protests and harassment of the SCOTUS justices preceeding the attempt couldn’t get any LEO actions in the Washington DC area.
They’re pulling out the same crap they did last time. I lost acquaintances from all the “fascist”, “Nazi”, “dictator” stuff then.
Funny, how we don’t have any Trump in front of Roman style columns a la Obama or like that red shot of Biden which looks for all the world like a Goebbels PR still.
The Atlantic is into it in a very big way.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/01/donald-trump-second-term-policies/676176/
Oligonicella: ” I lost acquaintances from all the “fascist”, “Nazi”, “dictator” stuff then.” In 2016 a guy I knew (note past tense) to be intelligent and non-crazy, and as far as I knew at the time not a political fanatic, started posting pictures of Holocaust survivors with warnings about Trump. He unfriended me on Facebook when I scoffed at the idea that Trump was Literally Hitler.
First of all, I enjoyed this article more than any other you have written. I can almost see you giggling with delight as you write it.
I believe the democRATS were trying to overthrow Donald Trump after he assume office. It take nerve to say Trump was doing the same thing.
We already live in a dictatorship.
The definition of a dictator is one who has control of both the legislative and executive branches of government.
We have all manner of laws duly passed by the legislature that are ignored by the executive, particularly regarding illegal immigration. The executive simply implements ‘executive orders’ that violate the laws that are on the books. The only remedy is impeachment and removal, but that is not going to happen.
The legislators keep demanding new legislation tying foreign aid to border security. Why? What is that going to do if the executive declines to recognize legislation and enforce the law?
We already live in a dictatorship.
Erronius
I too have friends who have “drunk the koolaid”. I talked to them about Trump becoming President for life. These are smart, rational people-except about Trump. They believe he’s going to declare martial law the day after he’s sworn in. No answer when I ask “How?” One of my friends directed me to web document by some conservative think tank that was all about making sure that the Executive Branch would actually listen to the president. They saw it as a foundation for dictatorship. I got no response when I pointed out that the president is the head of the executive branch and they should follow his policies. Crickets. I never get a substantive answer when I ask how will Trump do these things they’ve afraid of. Really, all I can think is that it’s some sort of mass insanity.
}}} Trump will try to run for a third term, because he doesn’t care what the Constitution says
Well, THAT idea is major fucktarded. Unless Trump gets total control over both houses, this cannot possibly happen, because he would need to REPEAL the law that applied term limits to the President, passed after FDR violated (possibly with decent reason) the standing precedent of Washington, to only stand for 2 terms.
And that concerned even Democrats enough that they made it “never” happen again. His popularity don’t enter into it. TRUMP CAN’T DO IT.
*Period*.
JFM
You will never get an answer. They don’t have one, all they have is feelings!
Karen looks into a mirror to see his enemies
}}} However, I will vote for DeSantis in the primary because I believe he will make a more formidable President and can serve 2 terms.
Agreed. My own bet, at this early point, is Trump + Vivek. Or, possibly, Desantis+Vivek.
Vivek handled himself a lot like a younger Trump when he went after Nikki Haley.
I’ll want to know more about what he really stands for, but I do like what I’ve seen so far.
I liked Trump far more than I expected to when he got elected. BUT, I fear he’s a bit old now, and, much more importantly, think he is much much better as a lightning rod and gadfly to the Left — that way he can attack and hurt them, but their attacks will be able to do nothing, effectively, to him… meanwhile, other serious conservatives can Get Shit Done while he distracts the Left from their interference and obstruction. And if it’s Desantis + Vivek, Vivek should be able to back up Trump and be a secondary gadfly gnawing at their vitals.
Robert Kagan—in his wisdom, intelligence, attentiveness, caring, concern, compassion, consideration, thoughtfulness and SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY—seems to have no problem in demonizing Donald Trump and, presumably, ALL those DEPLORABLES and WHITE SUPREMACISTS (of ALL colors, creeds and ethnicities) who DARE support Trump.
Oh, and “in his creativity” as well, so gobsmackingly imaginative, so luridly bizarre are his mercurial accusatory efforts to slander, besmirch and befoul Trump (and those who support him)—so reeking are his grotesque rationalizations, redolent with foul projection and fetid dishonesty.
As such, he—and those who swallow the swill he spreads far and why (which swill he seems to enjoy casting over already impossibly muddied waters)—really SHOULD BE OK with all other forms of DEMONIZATION (creative and otherwise), including the variety that seems to be enjoying an energetic run at the moment.
‘Twould only be fair, right, just…and UTTERLY APPROPRIATE.
Hold on: “…at the moment…”???
Oops: “…far and why…” should be “…far and wide…”
OBloodyHell, getting control of both houses of Congress wouldn’t help a president who wanted to run for a third term. The limit is a constitutional amendment, not just a law.
Kate – Trump will also be 82 in 2028. He looks much less vigorous now than he did a few years ago. Assuming that he serves another four years as president, the chances of him being fit to serve a third term from the ages of 82-86 seems small.
Telemachus – I’m interested to hear more about your experience at State. In my field, radical progressivism is so common that it’s like fish in water. People completely take it for granted. Most of the leftists I encounter have almost zero awareness that their opinions are controversial or that intelligent, educated people might disagree with them. To them it’s all a struggle against the forces of “darkness and ignorance.”
I suspected that federal agencies, also full of educated professionals, have similar environments. I’m glad to hear that I may be wrong, but I’m still skeptical.
And frankly, my own experience has a lot to do with my opinions on Trump. Trump is a blunt object. The progressives I encounter react to Trump by becoming more convinced of their own righteousness, more convinced that Trump really is “Hitler come to America” and more determined to defeat Trump by “whatever means necessary.” This includes progressives who wouldn’t otherwise even consider themselves political otherwise.
It’s kind of like trying to remove a hornet’s nest by beating it with a stick. There are better ways. Not to mention that the person or people wielding the stick are likely to be incapacitated by stings well before they succeed in removing the nest.
If it is even possible to defeat modern leftists, some level of compulsion is going to be necessary (i.e., firings, requiring bureaucrats to imlement policies that they don’t like). Trump’s diarrhea of the mouth and low standards of behavior, however, creates a path of maximum resistance.
My sense is that he’s wasting our last, best chance of avoiding a leftist dystopia. Especially given what he’s done to DeSantis, who I believe has (had?) a chance to actually make progress against the left, which I do not expect Trump to do even in the unlikely event that he is elected again.
Third term, eh?
That is so….cute!
But who’s talking about a third term for him???
Oh, right!
But hold on… If Obama can have one, I suppose why can’t Trump…
In 2016 a guy I knew (note past tense) to be intelligent and non-crazy, and as far as I knew at the time not a political fanatic, started posting pictures of Holocaust survivors with warnings about Trump. He unfriended me on Facebook when I scoffed at the idea that Trump was Literally Hitler.
==
Just out of curiosity, how was your friend earning a living in 2016?
Art Deco – A lot of people here scoff about “mean tweets,” but they have an effect. How do non-political fanatics become convinced that Trump is “literally Hitler?”
The left and the press (but I repeat myself) have a lot to do with it, but so do the so-called “mean tweets.” Other Republicans do not tweet about executing generals for treason, post pictures of themselves taking a baseball bat to a prosecutor, or threaten to use the government to punish media outlets. Trump does that. It has an effect.
For reference, DeSantis is not actually “banning books.” Trump really did threaten MSNBC with government penalities. The left is going to accuse both regardless, and some half-wits are going to believe that DeSantis actually is banning books. But the truth matters. With Trump, we don’t even have truth.
Bauxite,
I agree. The Left will go completely insane (OK, even more insane than they already are) if Trump is re-elected and all of our lives will be much the worse for it. Fear, intimidation, blackmail… those are no reasons to vote for or against a candidate; and I would not avoid voting for a candidate out of fear of what his or her opponents may do if their candidate loses.
However, I think Desantis, and perhaps one or two others, would do better in the role than Trump. Yes, the Left will lie about Desantis and protest his policies also, but with Trump they’ve got it all ramped and amped up and ready to go.
Let’s say you and your spouse have to do a long drive and your infant child often throws tantrums while in the carseat. The drive is to a vacation destination that the whole family will enjoy, including the infant child, but the infant child is too young to understand that. You could do the drive in the middle of the day, when your child is wide awake, thus ensuring that you will have the extra challenge of remaining calm and focused, navigating your vehicle while a screaming, wailing child is throwing a tantrum in the back seat, feet away from you. Or you could do the drive after the inftant’s bedtime when the baby will sleep on the trip. My wife and I never caved to our kids’ whims or emotions when they were irrational, but we also never invited trouble when it could be avoided.
Again, I’m not advocating voting for a lesser candidate because of what the opposition will do, but why invite chaos when there are strong, capable, proven alternatives?
There are a lot of people claiming Trump will know how to navigate the “Deep State” and the D.C. swamp this time, but we know Desantis and Haley have years of experience doing that successfully, as well as being well networked within the party to staff vital positions. Maybe Trump has learned. Maybe he hasn’t. Why roll the dice when it’s not necessary?
Regarding my comment above:
I’ve mentioned before that I almost always have music playing in my mind, even when asleep. As we live through this election cycle and careen towards the seeming inevitability of Donald Trump being the Republican nominee I keep hearing the opening bars of Holst’s “Mars, the Bringer of War” and a little voice in my brain thinks, “Trump, Bringer of Chaos.”
https://youtu.be/L0bcRCCg01I?si=PpZK01AAo4xiOLX0
CC™ has Stockholm Syndrome?
CC™ has to finish his latest with the obligatory OMB. The Great Orange Whale is ever in his thoughts.
Come on CC™, Shirely you can give reasons or explain why General “White Rage” Miley’s actions didn’t deserve a Court Marshal? Or for that matter why Clapper, Brennan and the other big brained “patriots” in the “intelligence community” still have their clearences and pensions?
Stockholm Syndrome.
CC™ has to finish his latest with the obligatory OMB. The Great Orange Whale is ever in his thoughts.
Come on CC™, Shirely you can give reasons or explain why General “White Rage” Miley’s actions didn’t deserve a Court Marshal? Or for that matter Clapper, Brennan and the other big brained “patriots” in the “intelligence community” still have their clearences and pensions?
Stockholm Syndrome.
om,
Not to answer for someone else, but my response to your questions:
It doesn’t matter if someone “deserves” a court martial, or deserves to lose his job and pension. What matters is how and why someone is actually court martialed or fired.
We have learned that you get put in a cage and lose your livelihood and contact with loved ones if you go into the Capital building in support of something Joe Biden, Liz Cheney and Nancy Pelosi do not like.
We have learned you are left alone if you commit arson or larceny (why isn’t it “arsony?”) while shouting words that Kamala Harris and Maxine Waters like.
om – It’s entertaining to see you criticize me for being obsessed with the “Great Orange Whale” in a thread about Trump. Should I have instead opined about the NFL playoff races?
To answer your questions, if Milley deserves a Court Marshal, then implement a Court Marshal. If Clapper, et al., deserve to lose their clearances (and I think that they do), then implement process to take their clearances. Don’t rage tweet about it. Don’t threaten executions.
I guarantee you that if a Republican does take the White House in 2024 and implements proceedings against Milley, Clapper, and the like, Trump’s tweets will be Exhibit A in their defense. The “but Trump’s enemies really are bad” defense really doesn’t work. His behavior actually makes it less likely that his enemies will receive any justice.
On Trump’s watch, there was no full-scale invasion of Ukraine, no major attack on Israel, no runaway inflation, no disastrous retreat from Afghanistan. It is hard to make the case for Trump’s unfitness to anyone who does not already believe it.
This reads like an endorsement of Trump. If you have to already be biased to see something, is it really there? It’s a “Who are you going to believe — Robert Kagan or your own lying eyes?” strategy.
There’s been some controversy about whether “mass formation psychosis” actually exists. It’s not a recognized psychiatric term, and in general the regime wants apathy and compliance more than it wants anger and mobilization, but when it comes to the rage against Trump there does appear to be much validity to the theory.
This will all get worse next year. The Atlantic is promoting the heck out of the big panicky Jan/Feb 2024 “If Trump Wins” issue.
Trump didn’t appoint a goose stepping Teutonic order following goon to destroy his enemies now did he?
“ In 2016 a guy I knew (note past tense) to be intelligent and non-crazy, and as far as I knew at the time not a political fanatic, started posting pictures of Holocaust survivors with warnings about Trump. He unfriended me on Facebook when I scoffed at the idea that Trump was Literally Hitler.
==“
Ironic when one considers that the vast majority of survivors and their descendants are Trumps Jewish base
While Blinken and Kagan have finished the job by marrying gentiles
Art Deco: “Just out of curiosity, how was your friend earning a living in 2016?”
A pretty ordinary skilled job involving electronics. Nothing to do with academia, journalism, law, or government, if that’s what you’re wondering. I didn’t know him that well but nothing in his background or current circumstances made me think he was a political fanatic of any stripe, much less a prog.
Bauxite: “My sense is that [Trump]’s wasting our last, best chance of avoiding a leftist dystopia.”
Mine, too. I’ve said here before that I think Trump’s presidency will in years to come be seen as a tragedy, at least by those who can see clearly what was happening in our time…if there are any such. He had some sense of what was wrong with the country and managed to break through the establishment wall. But for all the many much-discussed reasons he was not a person who could make lasting change.
Avi: just fyi, the guy I was talking about is not Jewish. Pretty much a cracker, actually, ethnically speaking 🙂
And yet The Great Orange Whale forever swims in CC™’s tun.
And yet The Great Orange Whale forever swims in CC™’s tun.
Now CC™ is predicting the future, or just wishcasting? Stockholm Syndrome.
As the guy in the movie said, are you talking to me? What is CC™?
Mac, Yes I ditto your questions!
In my “personal life vernacular” , CC is “credit card”.
I suspect it may have a darker meaning to Om. Maybe?
LoL.
Concerned Conservative™ – aka Bauxite when he goes into OMB mode.
A “cracker.”
Why not a “red neck?”
In my youth in northern VA a “red neck” was a rural, poor, ignorant, and often violent individual. This given to me from my father, a working class retired US Army sergeant, not college educated elite.
Saying someone is a “cracker” may not be neutral.
Some S. Floridians see cracker as a personal identity verging on a term of endearment even. Historical roots, sez them, going back to cow herding times.
om: “Why not a “red neck?””
No reason. Redneck would have been better, actually. “Cracker” just popped into my head, I don’t know why. Around here “redneck” is one of those terms that may or not be an insult depending on who’s saying it to whom. Maybe the same is true of “cracker.”
I love how imaginative and creative people are on the blog. I definitely learn a lot.
Too bad nothing can change the territory we are moving through.