Don’t count on Trump 2.0 incompetence
Paul Krugman this morning offers a kind of grim good news, citing Hannah Arendt’s “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” She explained that totalitarians eschew competency and promote “crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” Case-in-point, Trump’s reign is an “autocracy of dunces,” Krugman observes:
But like all authoritarian regimes, America’s autocracy is being run by malevolent incompetents. And while our hallowed institutions are utterly failing to rise to the occasion, the sheer incompetence of these hacks is generating pushback that may yet save us.
That’s not terribly encouraging, but this morning I’ll take it.
He concludes:
In a perverse way, we can be grateful that Trump and his minions are so incompetent, because that is forcing the dormant parts of our country to push back. Let’s just hope that the pushback is strong enough and fast enough to save us all.
Over at The Ink, Anand Giridharadas has been speaking with Anat Shenker-Osorio about how Democrats should message the government shutdown. Sure, the GOP threat to people’s healthcare is important, but it’s not the most important issue to message. That is, if we want to mobilize those dormant parts of our country Krugman just mentioned. Less-engaged people have to recognize just how dangerous the Trump administration is in all its malevolent incompetence.
Shenker-Osorio recommends:
What we see in all of our focus groups and our quant is that viewing the regime as an existential threat not a right wing government you don’t like is THE precondition for activation. It is what separates the people engaged in civil resistance or amenable to it from those who disapprove of MAGA but say they’ll never act. So, if you believe as I do, and as scholars of authoritarianism counsel, that sustained widespread mobilizing is essential – you use every opportunity to say “we will not be complicit in MAGA’s attack on Americans.” If you wanna add stuff about them stealing our healthcare to hand to billionaires, great.
On the people [who] don’t know what fascism is – having tested it over and over, the “don’t know” on it is around 8%, same as other terms we try. Could people pass AP Poli Sci defining it? Probably not! All they know and need to know is – bad thing I don’t like. And some even know that fascism is a thing Americans proudly fought in our past.
Next, what we also see from conflicted voters in every group is extended wondering if things ARE really that bad or they’re the ones who are nuts. If you’re saying, as Dems are some of the time, this is dangerous/authoritarianism/wanna be dictator etc, you cannot also say we’re going to negotiate about this one (very important!!!) thing but we will sign on to fund abductions and military occupation and turning DOJ into department of prosecuting enemies.
RIGHT THIS MOMENT Trump is militarizing American cities. He just sent hundreds of federal agents to storm a Chicago apartment building, even rapelling agents onto rooftops from military helicopters. He has squads of CBP officers roaming the Chicago Loop harrassing anyone who doesn’t “look” American.
“ICE is running around the Loop, harassing people for not being white,” Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said this week.
Just their names would be enough to get Giridharadas and Shenker-Osorio detained, perhaps violently. If you are darker than the guy at the top, you’d best watch your back.
My recent experience on the streets with people under 35 is that they “need to feel they’ve been seen and heard. They need to know that they are not alone.” They need to know what they are feeling is real and shared, that, as Anat says, they are not nuts. Things are bad. Don’t soft-pedal it and demonstrate it by actions. Be there on October 18.
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Our friend Susie Madrak is experiencing a cash crunch. She’s looking for whatever help you might lend this week. Making things worse is an insurance settlement delayed on account of paperwork. Plus:
In the meantime, my neurologist suspects I have an obscure lupus-like autoimmune disorder that’s causing all kinds of weird symptoms (for one thing, she says the signals my brain are sending to my feet aren’t making it through and I’m off balance) but first she has to rule out blood cancers, etc. There’s also a lesion on my lung and they want an MRI.
Susie has been posting at Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks & Liars for 20 years. It’s a calling, not a great-paying gig. We need to stick together. Help out Susie if you can.