Me as well. I think that it is because not only is this not a tiny thing, but it came after a crapload of other small-to-large things.
If it had happened at the beginning of the year, it would not have been the thing that told us that we crossed a line. It would have been something else. But we did cross a line we were formerly one step away from.
What do you think that “Dems tak[ing] back the house in the mid-terms” will accomplish to reign in Trump and the people backing him?
Trump is always accusing opponents of them very things he is actually doing and criticizing them for his own displayed flaws. His hypocrisy, pathological narcissism, and utter lack of introspection are boundless.
As for expecting institutions to be the bulwark holding back the emergent fascism of Trump and MAGA in this phase of authoritarian consolidation, you can put aside that fantasy and deal with the reality that these institutions are “racing to prove their loyalty before they were forced to.”
Stranger
I don’t think you have to spend much energy convincing many of us to despair. Clearly this is the pebble that has pushed some us who had hope to that point.
Do you have any suggestions of what we can and should do about it? Or do we just fall down and mourn?
Well, hopefully they can defeat new legislation that grants unlimited power to the right, and can start impeachment proceedings against Trump and his appointees.
They could “start” them, but that’s as far as they’ll get.
Anything to disrupt things.
I always said “too big to fail” is too big to exist. Turns out “too big to fail” is also “too big to put up a fight.”
Well, I think we have to start by not assuming that institutions either within or without government are going to effectively resist compliance to and consolidation with an authoritarian regime. Government agencies and departments which would have resisted have tried and been dismantled from within, partially by DOGE (which is still here and working despite getting little press), partially by the responsible Cabinet secretaries and directors undermining their basic missions, and otherwise by the White House just illegally impounding Congressional funding; and civic and business institutions performatively prostrating themselves to preempt any persecution. Which essentially drives toward civil disobedience, both to resist encroaching fascism and to encourage the broader public that there is reason and merit to follow suit. My fear, of course, is that the broader public isn’t really that interested in resistance as long as things don’t get ‘too bad’, and by the time things are truly awful the reach of authoritarianism is complete and beyond mere civil disobedience.
If you haven’t noticed, this regime has mostly not been relying upon legislation other than for funding in the overarching H.R.1 budget act (with several prominent House Democrats complying), and has mostly been attempting to expand executive authority under the thesis of “unitary executive theory”. As are as “start[ing] impeachment proceedings against Trump and his appointees,” Donald Trump was already impeached twice without conviction by a Senate that was less compliant to the executive than this one, and despite that many of his appointees have clearly demonstrated their ineptitude, perfidy, and corruption in obvious ways there is zero chance that any of them will be impeached and removed by Congress. So, again, what practical advantage does getting a Democratic majority in Congress confer other than being able to stop up the funding stream?
Stranger
Though I was familiar with the ‘14 Characteristics of Fascism’ Op-Ed piece, I just now read it again, and wow, it is chilling how very clear, recent and egregious examples of fascist things the trump admin and enablers have done came to mind that perfectly illustrate each of the 14 characteristics. One could easily believe it had been written about the trump admin, though it was written in 2003.
That’s a very big advantage. The problem is wether they’ll have the huevos to use it
It only hurts if it’s true.
Of course, numerous items on this list could be at least partially satisfied by previous administrations, especially the George W. Bush presidency and even under Obama. The United States has been on the downslope of authoritarian slide for a while, and Trump and MAGA were just taking advantage of the public comfort with erosion of civil rights, government transparency, and progressively greater executive power unrestricted by oversight.
Stranger
Some hope is better than despair, which is what I have now.
I would recommend placing your hope for the resistance of the American people (who, collectively are not onboard with a lot of the reality of this regime even if they thought they wanted it in November 2024) rather than a toothless legislative body that has already given away most of its authority to a despot, even some of the ‘leaders’ whose resistance has added up to a stack of strongly worded letters and a bucket of warm spit.
Stranger
Exactly.
Generally, when I’m citing Britt (far, FAR too often for my tastes), I include the following:
Britt wrote this paper in the Spring of 2003, when most of us had barely even heard of Donald Trump. This isn’t Monday Morning Quarterbacking. It’s based on his in-depth analysis of "the following regimes: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia.
Hearings. With subpoena power.
You don’t think nationally televised Epstein hearings would have an impact on public discourse?
I wonder if states’ rights and nullification laws a la pre-Civil War are on their way back for blue states.
Not materially, and in fact the ‘Epstein scandal’ has mostly been used as a distraction from the real, ongoing harms of executive overreach and dismantlement of the administrative state being done by people appointed by Trump. I think that the government files on the multiple investigations upon Jeffery Epstein and his associates should be released for posterity and to hold powerful people accountable for their actions but it is not going to have any real impact on Donald Trump, because even if there were video evidence of Trump in bed with a live boy and dead girl, his followers would manufacture reasons to ignore or deny it as ‘fake news’.
Stranger
What form would that take, other than protests that accomplish little and being present at the polling places? I can personally attest that shouting at my TV accomplishes nothing. We saw in 2016 that armed revolution doesn’t work, even when there is no armed resistance. I certainly agree that the legislature has been largely absent, even among those Republicans who are not behind this president. They’re worried about their jobs, health care and retirement instead of about what’s best for the country. It’s shameful, but they won’t change unless they face replacement or recall.