Author: tristero

Michael Brenner in the Washington Post:

A mob of several thousand outraged people rampaged through the streets of the city after a long rambling speech by their leader inciting them to do so. Some used violence. Windows were broken, shots were heard, there was bloodshed. The leader of the pack demanded the political swamp be drained. After a tumultuous few hours, order was restored and elected officials emerged from their hiding places.

No, this is not Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021. This was Munich, Nov. 8, 1923. The instigators did not come to Munich to support a president who was voted out of office. They did not gather in front of the nation’s seat of power, but rather started their rally in a beer cellar where a young Adolf Hitler seized control after silencing the politicians and the crowd assembled there with a pistol shot to the ceiling. Obviously, the circumstances surrounding the storming of the U.S. Capitol are very different from those of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch. But Germany during the 1920s offers crucial lessons for us today about how democracies become imperiled.

That, to say the least, is the biggest understatement of 2021 so far, and likely to remain so.

Timothy Snyder in the NY Times:

 The lie outlasts the liar. The idea that Germany lost the First World War in 1918 because of a Jewish “stab in the back” was 15 years old when Hitler came to power. How will Trump’s myth of victimhood function in American life 15 years from now? And to whose benefit?

This is one reason I could barely sleep or concentrate last week. Not only because of what was happening, but because of what will happen.

Snyder again:

The claim that Trump was denied a win by fraud is a big lie not just because it mauls logic, misdescribes the present and demands belief in a conspiracy. It is a big lie, fundamentally, because it reverses the moral field of American politics and the basic structure of American history.

The Beer Hall Putsch. The Stab in the Back. The Big Lie. They’re terrible songs in a playlist from hell. Never heard these songs before? Then for God’s sake, for Buddha’s sake, for the sake of yourselves, your families, your friends and lovers — everything you hold dear — read The Death of Democracy now.

I love being wrong but what I’m seeing is a deliberate, carefully plotted attempt by prominent Republicans to emulate the precise, appalling steps of Hitler’s rise to power, to use the Nazis’ story as the perfect template for their own mad ambitions. And we are responding exactly the way Weimar did, with politicians extending olive branches, facile mockery, and the desperate wish that we all just get along.

Unfortunately, none of that will work. Krugman:

…if history teaches us one lesson about dealing with fascists, it is the futility of appeasement. Giving in to fascists doesn’t pacify them, it just encourages them to go further.

So why have so many public figures — who should have known what Trump and his movement were — tried, again and again, to placate them by giving in to their demands? Why are they still doing it even now?

So far, the lesson for Trumpist extremists is that they can engage in violent attacks on the core institutions of American democracy, and face hardly any consequences. Clearly, they view their exploits as a triumph, and will be eager to do more.

For this isn’t over.

Indeed, it is not. We’re only at 1923. It took ten more years for the Nazis to consolidate power and start setting up the infrastructure for the extermination of millions. But in the Internet age, unless we wake up and are very lucky, it will be 1933 again before we know it.

Dearest prodigal sons and daughters of the Trump Administration,

How wonderful that you have come to your senses. Now, get out of the way so we can clean up your messes.

No, thanks for the offer, but no need to help. You’ve done enough already.

Love,

tristero

From the Washington Post, November 10, 2020,

Speaking about President Trump’s and his legal team’s myriad and baseless claims of massive voter fraud, an anonymous senior Republican official offered a rhetorical shrug.

“What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change,” the official said. “He went golfing this weekend. It’s not like he’s plotting how to prevent Joe Biden from taking power on Jan. 20. He’s tweeting about filing some lawsuits, those lawsuits will fail, then he’ll tweet some more about how the election was stolen, and then he’ll leave.”

*If you think that [insert your favorite stupid prediction here] was even more obviously stupider, I won’t argue. There is a lot to go around (see Zappa, Frank, above). But I think you get my point.

I know, there are other things going on today that are worth attending to, but this short observation, buried in the middle of an article that was buried in the middle of the Times today, is something to ponder:

Mr. Trump is highly unpopular in Britain and, even after a $150 million renovation, the [Scottish golf] course has consistently lost money, and the president has been determined to drive business to it.

At any previous time in American history, this sleazy, wildly inappropriate and likely illegal attempt for a US president to line his own pockets would be — by itself! — grounds for impeachment and removal from office. It is simply outrageously wrong for any public servant to act like this, especially the president of the United States.

But now, it’s nothing. We expect it. It’s just a simple description of how this president acts.

We’re used to it.

Dear Posterity,

I just want you to know that the year 2020 really was as fucking awful as we said it was at the time. I know that’s hard to believe, given that so much time has past, but it’s true.

Ambitious historians, anxious to have their work stand out in a crowd, have surely staked out revisionist positions to the effect that the pandemic really wasn’t that dangerous. Believe me, it was.

Apologists for dictators have certainly worked hard to rehabilitate the reputations of Trump and the scoundrels who enabled him. Don’t believe them for a second.

By now, racists have buried the numerous state-sanctioned murders, the family separations and the officially sanctioned abuse of non-whites that happened in 2020. I am telling you to get out your historical shovels and dig it all back up. Just be sure to take a deep breath before you look because what happened this year will make you sick.

Please, Posterity, before you keep an open mind when some ignorant meathead who wasn’t alive then describes 2020 as some kind of glorious time-out— that 2020 was a time when the world joyfully rediscovered the pleasures of sourdough and solitude — please take this insignificant blog post to heart:

Anyone who says 2020 wasn’t that big a deal has no fucking idea what the fuck they were talking about.

Love,

tristero

It’s Happy Hollandaise time here at Hullabaloo. If you’d like to drop a little something in the old Christmas stocking you can do so here (or at the P.O. box shown in the sidebar):

Michael Lind restates the dumbest cliche in modern American politics: progressives can’t win unless they act like a doormat and abandon tolerance, helping others in need, free speech, justice, and equality:

…progressives must accept that they are only a quarter of the US population and cannot hope to win or exercise power without teaming up with people who reject many progressive views.

Funny. how no one makes the argument that the far right needs to compromise despite the self-evident fact that far less than a quarter of the US population is made up of white male extremists with a penchant for venality. And yet, somehow, the worst bottom feeders in America managed to take over a major political party and nearly pulled off an authoritarian coup.

But yes, things are returning to normal in America. The problem is that despite my headline, we can’t relax because “normal” in American before Trump was, in so many ways, exactly what empowered Trump and Trumpism.

Nothing is to be gained by compromising the fundamental human values that progressives rightly celebrate. And there is nothing about a refusal to compromise that even remotely suggests a refusal to engage in effective real world politics.

It’s Happy Hollandaise time! If you’d like to help keep this old blog going for another year, you can do so here:

Dearest Wall Street Journal,

In. a recent post, my fellow blogger Digby recently posted an advertisement for an upcoming Turning Point USA boredom-a-thon. Among the listed speakers is one Sebastian Gorka who, as you can see, uses the title “Dr.” despite the fact he is not an MD but instead holds a PhD in political science.

I’m curious: Do you plan to publish any op-eds that sneer at Dr. Gorka’s pretense? Or are you too scared to do so because Dr. Gorka sports a Vitézi Rend medal — an organization whose members participated in the slaughter of Jews during Holocaust — and so you don’t know what kind of sick lunacy his pals are capable of? FYI:

Vitézi Rend was created by the Nazi-backed ruler of Hungary, and many of its members were involved in the slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust. Today, members of the Order fall under an immigration watch by the State Department on groups that have violated human rights. Gorka and his father were reported to have joined (Katharine says this is false). And in photographs, Gorka has been spotted sporting a Vitézi Rend medal that, he insisted, he wore only to honor his father.

Looking forward to your response.

Love,

t

It’s Happy Hollandaise time! If you’d like to help keep this old blog going for another year, you can do so here:

Wajahat Ali has it exactly right. The whole thing is worth reading:

…we are now being lectured by a chorus of voices including Pete Buttigieg and Ian Bremmer, to “reach out” to Trump voters and “empathize” with their pain.

This is the same advice that was given after Trump’s 2016 victory, and for nearly four years, I attempted to take it. Believe me, it’s not worth it…I tried…

Those in the audience who supported Trump came up to me and assured me they weren’t racist. They often said they’d enjoyed the talk, if not my politics. Still, not one told me they’d wavered in their support for him. Instead, they repeated conspiracy theories and Fox News talking points about “crooked Hillary.” Others made comments like, “You’re a good, moderate Muslim. How come others aren’t like you?”

…I did my part. What was my reward? Listening to Trump’s base chant, “Send her back!” in reference to Representative Ilhan Omar, a black Muslim woman, who came to America as a refugee. I saw the Republican Party transform the McCloskeys into victims, even though the wealthy St. Louis couple illegally brandished firearmsagainst peaceful BLM protesters…

Don’t waste your time reaching out to Trump voters like I did. Instead, invest your time organizing your community, registering new voters and supporting candidates who reflect progressive values that uplift everyone, not just those who wear MAGA hats, in local and state elections. Work also to protect Americans against lies and conspiracy theories churned out by the right wing media and political ecosystem. One step would be to continue pressuring social media giants like Twitter and Facebook to deplatform hatemongers, such as Steve Bannon, and censor disinformation. It’s not enough, but it’s a start.

And then, towards the end, this:

I don’t need Trump supporters to be humiliated to feel great again. I want them to have health insurance, decent paying jobs and security for their family. I do not want them to suffer, but I also refuse to spend any more time trying to understand and help the architects of my oppression.

It is very simple. There is no point in arguing with anti-democrats and apologists for racists about the value of democracy and tolerance. Doing so wastes an immense amount of time that could be better spent strengthening democratic institutions and extending justice and opportunity. And we don’t have a moment to waste.

Yes, we already knew that the GOP has increasingly embraced authoritarianism and abandoned democracy, but it’s nice to have the data:

…according to data released by an international team of political scientists just before the Nov. 3 election, it’s possible to quantify the extent to which the Republican Party no longer adheres to such principles as the commitment to free and fair elections with multiple parties, the respectful treatment of political opponents and the avoidance of violent rhetoric.

“The Republican Party in the U.S. has retreated from upholding democratic norms in recent years,” said Anna Lührmann, a political scientist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and a former member of the German parliament. “Its rhetoric is closer to authoritarian parties, such as AKP in Turkey and Fidesz in Hungary.”

No kidding.

The Democratic Party, by contrast, hasn’t changed much. This is a prime example of what political scientists call asymmetric polarization — a growing partisan gap driven almost entirely by the actions of the Republican Party.

While V-Dem’s data only runs through 2018, that asymmetry has only become more apparent in the aftermath of this election, Lührmann said: “It is disturbing that most leading Republicans are still not objecting to President Trump’s baseless claims of electoral fraud and attempts to declare himself the winner.” 

As a result, she says, GOP scores are likely to sink further when 2020 data is released.

It can’t be said enough: if you have a system with only two major political parties and one of them is openly authoritarian — which is undoubtedly the case with the GOP — your country is one heap of trouble.

Last night, we watched the Sarah Cooper special on Netflix. As everyone knows already, her Trump lipsyncs border on the profound. Anna Deveare Smith and yes, I’ll say it, even Charlie Chaplin comes to my mind when I see them. After I stop laughing, that is.

In the rest of the special, we get an amazing number of cameos, from Whoopi Goldberg to Helen Mirren (!). The meta-message I took away was that these established performers were personally thanking Sarah. She came out of nowhere during a time when they (and we) were all beyond despair, and made us all laugh together.

We also hear Cooper’s real voice and can see a whole different set of mannerisms. This persona is disarming, endearing, and also poignant — a great a joy to watch! Really, it shouldn’t have taken a pandemic for Sarah Cooper to find an audience but let’s see more of her, soon.