On Tyranny

One day last week I received an unexpected package in the mail that I thought, at first, was something that Kim had ordered for herself from Amazon.

We get a lot of stuff from Amazon.

Instead, after opening, it turned out to be a small book entitled On Tyranny, written by Yale professor Timothy Snyder and copyrighted in 2017. The book, which I'd heard of before, was gifted to me by a friend and fellow political compatriot from out of the clear blue sky. Apparently, my friend thought it was important enough for me to read.

The book is only 126 pages and about the size of your average Christmas card. Each page contains about three paragraphs of copy, so the book (or booklette?) can be read inside of two hours.

The subhead of the book is Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, and the 20 chapters offer titles such as "Do Not Obey in Advance," "Defend Institutions," "Believe in Truth,""Be Calm When the Unthinkable Arrives," and "Be a Patriot."

You get the gist.

There are many comparisons to Nazi Germany within the pages, which is not surprising because Snyder's field of study is 20th century European political history. The first sentence in his book, in the prologue, reads "History does not repeat, but it does instruct." Nazi Germany thus becomes the primary example of tyranny for our times because Nazi Germany is still relatively fresh in our minds in terms of timeline. Nazism happened less than 100 years ago. There are still some people walking around the planet with serial numbers tattooed on their arms and impossible pain tattooed in their hearts.

So the book can be instructive. You don't have to agree with all of it, or any of it. but as we enter the second nonconsecutive term of nonConstitutionalist Donald Trump as president, the book becomes something of a field manual for democracy.

We are less than two months away from Trump's inauguration and if we believe the very words that dribble from his mouth, we are two months away from the deportation of millions of migrants. We are two months away from detention camps. We are two months away from the U.S. military rounding up citizens seeking nothing else other than political amnesty from their own repressive governments.

We are two months away from the dismantling of the administrative state that has done a pretty good job of providing us freedom and security, about 248 years worth. Now all of that is in jeopardy.

There's a part of me that wants to say Trump's agenda (in actuality, Project 2025 is about to kick in) is about as unAmerican as you can get, but the reality is that the United States built detention camps to control Japanese-Americans in World War II. You can argue that the U.S. already used its military to gentrify the country's original indigenous population. And where does American slavery fit in? It's always been about the control of other people – usually by white men and usually over the poor – and it's not just in the United States, but nearly everywhere on the globe. Governments ideally are created to maintain social order but governments almost inevitably bring on social injustice, especially when the moral compass is broken. The result is a power grab. The result is tyranny.

I think we've seen some signs of hope. Trump wanted ultraconservative Rick Scott to be the new Speaker of the House, but centrist John Thune was elected via secret ballot instead. Trump wanted right-wing radical Matt Gaetz to be his Attorney General, but a straw poll of the Senate showed that Gaetz – under a Senate ethics committee investigation for sex trafficking – revealed he would not get the votes he needed for the position.

That can't please Trump.

There is a bit of weirdness here. Trump, in spite of being an adjudicated rapist and a convicted felon, has a chance to be a real hero here if he only would do things correctly and within the purview of the law: if he nominates qualified people for his cabinet, if he abides by the guardrails, if he respects the Constitution. Instead, he appears intent on traveling down the road to retribution and retaliation like an undisciplined child.

And how is that good for the American experiment? How does that benefit the American people?

Maybe there are more surprises in store. We'll see.

 

Get ready for what's coming

Before I get into this week's blog, let me clear up a thing or two.

After my blog from two weeks ago ("Autopsy"), where I gave brief observations as to why I thought  Kamala Harris lost her bid for the presidency to the adjudicated rapist and convicted felon (say that to yourself a few times just for effect because the reality of that fact seems to have evaded many voters) Donald Trump, I apparently raised a hackle or two.

Let me be clear: just because I oppose Trump and nearly everything he stands for doesn't make me a hater.

Just because I didn't vote for Trump doesn't mean that I love my country any less than you do, nor does it make me any less of a patriot, and how dare you think otherwise? In fact, as Trump attempts to tear down the administrative state piece by piece, I consider myself to be more of a patriot now than ever.

I'm old enough to remember when those who opposed the administration in power were considered to be the "loyal opposition." Now we are told we are the enemies of the state, or the enemy from within. Good God, and you wonder where the divisiveness comes from? Seriously.

Get a grip and learn the difference between hate and dissent. Dissent gave birth to this nation. As far as I know, dissent is still protected by the First Amendment. I will continue to dissent as long as I'm allowed to in my effort to nurture the Madisonian democracy and values that I cherish.

Moving on...

Welcome to Project 2025, the right-wing Heritage Foundation's published 900-plus page Republican manifesto that Trump denied knowing about (what, do you think he lied to us?) but who is now in the process of putting into effect.

Forthwith are some of Trump's nominations for his second administration:

• Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense: A combat veteran with two Bronze Stars and with degrees from both Princeton and Harvard, Hegseth appears at first glance to be an appropriate choice for the position. But he's also been a host on FOX since 2014 (a disqualifier, in my world) and if his nomination is approved, he's a white guy who promises to end what he considers to be diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) and wokeism in the military. He wants women removed from combat roles. He also wants to fire and/or court martial top generals, including chiefs of staff, for their roles in exiting Afghanistan. As you can see, the military could be the next domino to fall in Trump's authoritarian takeover.

• Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence: A former Democrat who served in the House, Gabbard has zero experience with deep intelligence. I'd leave it at that, but she's also something of a Putin apologist. Therefore, I can't see where any of our allies in the international community would have any confidence in her, especially when it comes to intelligence sharing. She only makes us more vulnerable, in my opinion.

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: the newly created Department of Efficiency: Two guys for one job? That ought to tell you something right there. Anyway, it seems to me a government department of efficiency is something of an oxymoron at best. And now we'll have two oxymorons in government playing together in a made-up job. What could possibly go wrong?

• Kristi Noem, Director of Homeland Security: She's the governor of South Dakota who shot her pet puppy and goat because they irritated her. During the height of Covid-19 in 2020, South Dakota under her leadership (she supported an anti-mask policy) suffered the tenth highest death rate despite being one of the least populated states in the nation. That's all you need to know about her character. Feel secure now?

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Director of Health and Human Services: Great. We'll probably soon have an HHS director who is a conspiracy theorist and an anti-vaccine proponent. This is chilling. Will he suspend research on future vaccines? Will we be safe from the next pandemic? Will children still be required to be vaccinated before attending school? Too many questions for where no questions previously existed. Does anyone here believe in science anymore?

• Matt Gaetz, Attorney General: I think this nomination is Trump's joke on the rest of us. He's trolling us. He's trolling his supporters. Gaetz was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl (fits in with the Trump legacy, no?), illicit drug use and accepting improper gifts. There's respect for the law right there, huh? Word is that at least 30 Republican senators are opposed to his nomination, so that's something.

There are others, of course, but these are enough to mull over.

I wonder if Trump voters knew they were getting this kind of incompetence when they told us Harris was an awful choice. But awful is a relative term, especially when comparing these two candidates. It seems to me those voters not only chose Trump, but Project 2025 as well. 

Let's see how well Trump and his cabinet perform. As of today, the inflation rate is 2.6 percent, which is fueling a strong economy. The national murder rate is 5.5 per 100,000, down from 6.3 in 2023. It was 7.8 in 2020, Trump's last year in his first administration. The stock market, which often is influenced by international pressures, has the Dow Jones at a near-record 43,950.  Border crossings were 53,900 in September, down 7 percent from August and down 75 percent from September 2023. And gas prices, which presidents can't control but are usually considered to be an economic marker by the consumer, are $2.95 a gallon where I tank up. Let's see where Trump takes us in a year, especially if he unveils new import tariffs that many economists say could lead us into a recession.

In the meantime, let's hope we don't become sicker, dumber, poorer and more violent as a nation under Trump's proposed regime of retribution.

Autopsy

After listening to Kamala Harris' concession speech Wednesday afternoon, I was shaken with the look of despair on the faces of many of the young women in the crowd.

In the despair of adjudicated rapist and convicted felon (but not for long) Donald Trump winning a second term as President of the United States, it's little wonder tears were falling. In the wake of the demise of Roe v. Wade by an extremist Supreme Court, women's healthcare has become a top priority.

Even now, as we speak, women are finding adequate OB/GYN care to be difficult, if not impossible, in states that have imposed severe anti-abortion restrictions. Doctors are simply leaving those states in fear of being arrested for providing abortion-like treatment.

Women are dying.

Consequently, I thought the abortion issue would carry Harris and Democrats to victory, making her the first female president in the country's history. About time, I thought.

Instead, the abortion issue was a distant third, behind the economy and democracy in voter concerns. The women who lifted the Democrats in previous off-year elections – and the general election that put Joe Biden in office – simply vanished in the face of other concerns.

What happened?

I'm only a humble observer here, not anywhere close to being an expert, but it seems that Trump was able to establish a coalition among the working class that crossed nearly all demographics. The country took a decided turn to the right.

I originally thought misogyny and racism were behind this: Harris is a Black-Asian woman married to a white Jew. In any epoch of the American story, that's three strikes against you right there. No matter how well you thought Harris conducted her remarkable 107-day campaign, her battle essentially was lost before it even began.

But even that observation, while an obvious factor to me, is too simplistic.

Harris simply couldn't divorce herself from what was perceived as uncontrolled inflation. It didn't matter that inflation was world-wide and created by the pandemic, it was just that the Biden/Harris administration was seen as unable to control the high cost of eggs and gas, among other things. The real cost of living, in other words.

Never mind that inflation today is 2.4 percent. Butter still costs too much. She couldn't separate herself from Biden (and "Bidenomics") and paid for it with her loyalty.

I also thought the role of misinformation (deliberate falsehoods) and disinformation (outright lies) was critical. For a born liar like Trump, this was his ace card. His most egregious campaign ad – and his most effective – was the ad showing that Harris supported gender assignment surgery for inmates at the expense of taxpayers.

It turns out this was a bill signed during the Trump administration and it affected only two inmates. But the ad ran 30,000 times during the NFL season and it was aimed at a male audience, and it worked. The Democrats hardly ever responded to the misinformation and suffered for it.

Side note: Transgender people are just one percent of the population. Seems to me there are deeper issues facing us than reassignment surgery.

There's no doubt the Democratic Party has to  undertake massive self-assessment and find a way to reach the common working man, who thought the Dems were mostly elites. Democrats proudly talked a lot about their ground game during the election. Now they're going to have to show us an updated version that learns what the electorate really wants.

And right now, it's not a female president. It's been tried twice, and twice defeated by the willing voters of a misogynist.

As of today, a resistance movement is already underway. The ACLU is currently making preparations to slow Trump's attempts to circumvent the Constitution. Lawyers across the country are also preparing for action. I expect demonstrations to sprout across the nation by those disaffected by his election.

But as Trump prepares to take the White House for a second time, we're still in troubled waters. We already know what one Trump administration looked like with chaos swirling about like dust devils in a gutter. This time there will be no guard rails. If we are to believe what Trump already has told us, incarcerated January 6 prisoners will be freed. Muslim bans will return. Child separation will be back. There will be detention camps and deportations. Police will be given free reign to ignore the Constitution that hasn't been reduced by 10 or 12 amendments  as he finalizes his vision of the authoritarian state. His words. He can do it because SCOTUS says he has immunity.

Welcome to Trump's America? Maybe. We'll have to wait and see. But for 51 percent of you, don't be surprised. This is what you voted for.

On the precipice

With less than 60 hours remaining before the close of polls in this year's general election, there's probably little use to make another plea at this time to save Madisonian democracy in the United States.

Either we will, or we won't.

Convicted felon and adjudicated rapist Donald Trump could very well regain the presidency he lost to Joe Biden four years ago, and if you can sort through the sewage that has spewed from his mouth the past few years, we clearly know that he would have no issue suspending the Constitution (see here). He actually proposed that unAmerican abomination several years ago.

He had four years to correct the border issue and the best he could do was separate children from their families. His solution this time around – in addition to the resurrection of his child separation policy – is to to build detention camps for the millions of migrants he plans to deport. Detention camps. Let that sink in.

He has an economic plan to increase tariffs while lowering taxes. If all you see is "lowering taxes," you missed the part where tariffs would raise the price of everything this country imports by 20 percent. Nearly every creditable economist in the country has indicated Trump tariffs would lead to a recession within the year of his administration See here.)

Women's health care is on life support after Roe v. Wade was repealed. If Trump is defeated on Tuesday, it will be because women have revolted on the assault of their reproductive rights.

A few weeks ago, Trump denigrated the city of Detroit while campaigning in Detroit. I'm still trying to figure out the strategy behind that. But then in another campaign rally in New York less than a week later, the island of Puerto Rico was described as "garbage." I wonder how many votes that got him in Pennsylvania, which has a large Puerto Rican population?

In an interview with Tucker Carlson  on Thursday in Arizona, Trump talked briefly about Liz Cheney, the congresswoman who served on the House select committee and helped investigate Trump's role in the Jan. 6 riot. During the interview, Trump called her a "war hawk," whatever that is.

"She's a radical war hawk," Trump told Carlson. "Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?"

Holy crap. I don't care how that statement gets spun and  interpreted by the right, it's still describing a firing squad. This takes on further color with Trump's latest description of his opponents as "the enemy from within."

As Cheney pointed out, statements like this "is how dictators destroy free nations." 

This is how democracy's die. And keeping our democracy is the true issue here – the only issue, in my view – for which we are voting on Tuesday.

God help us all.