The warnings have become clichés. There is no bottom. When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. You can fool some of the people all of the time, etc. But as the country devolves into what the rest of world might describe as a hellhole, it is not clear what comes next after Monday. But it won’t be pretty.
There is no bottom
What to make of a man so depraved he would order peaceful protesters cleared from Lafayette Park with flash-bangs, tear gas, and rubber bullets so he could stage a crude photo-op holding a Bible in front of a historic church? Even driving a priest and a seminarian from church grounds?
Donald J. Trump drew ridicule for hiding out Sunday night in an underground bunker with the White House’s exterior lights turned out. By Monday evening he needed to prove (to himself, at least) he was in control. The man whose entire presidency has been a photo-op needed another one and relished the thought of busting heads to get it.
Or rather, asking others to bust heads. Someone described Trump as the drunk at the bar who wants to start a fight but expects his friends to fight it for him. Now he has more than shady lawyers to do his fighting. He has the U.S. military, at least those who would place fealty to him over their oaths to the constitution. Plus the armed cosplayers who back him.
In his statement Monday, Trump said, “I am mobilizing all available federal resources — civilian and military — to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your Second Amendment rights.” It was, Will Bunch writes, “not so much a dog whistle as a siren blast” to armed, cosplaying “Boogaloo Bois” to open fire with his blessing.
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time
Earlier Monday, rumors flew that Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to send active-duty troops into America’s streets to show who’s boss.
“If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” Trump said in Rose Garden statement before walking to the church.
It may once again be empty bluster. But whether or not the act allows him to do so legally is not the point. He and his Republican enablers have shown us for decades neither the spirit nor the letter of the law is an impediment their designs. This is how the extremist Republican Party rolls:
1. Find the line
2. Step over it
3. Dare anyone to push you back
4. If no one does, that’s the new line
5. Repeat
Trump has repeatedly suggested violence against opponents. He may be a coward, but by instincts a violent one. The man who swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States to the best of his ability has demonstrated none. His oath is as much an inconvenience as the laws for which his entire life he’s flaunted his contempt, save for those he can use to flog opponents.
Republican “invertebrates” such as the “bottomlessly loathsome Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida” are abetting Trump’s efforts to turn the world’s oldest democracy into a dictatorship. They will not stop him. Indeed, from Watergate to Iran-Contra to state-sponsored torture to targeting “African Americans with almost surgical precision,” they have proven their disdain for democratic processes for decades.
“History is written by the winners,” Trump’s attorney general declared recently. Principles be damned. Might makes right. Trump and his enablers have no interest in governing. They mean to rule. They mean to dominate.
You can fool some of the people all of the time
The unanswered question now is whether the country will survive until November, much less next January. A party that has demonstrated by its unwavering support for Donald Trump it will say anything, do anything, to maintain power by any means necessary. Trump means to win be keeping fooled the faction he can fool all the time into thinking this is still a democratic republic. His enablers at Fox News and in conservative media are content to remain fooled. Their paychecks depend on it. Their audience will wave flags and Bibles all the way to fascism if need be.
It’s up to the rest of us to prove to ourselves and the world we still have spines to stand against them.
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For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.
Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way by June, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.