The biggest problem isn’t, to me, getting rid of good people. Worse is who Hegseth may consider an acceptable replacement. And then, if we ever get back to a Democratic president, how do they return to normalcy AKA deMAGAfication without setting up an expectation that the Republicans will replace all the generals and admirals when they regain office.
Realistically, they don’t. Now that the Republicans have learned they can get away with it they will purge the government and military of dissenters any time they have power, regardless of what the Democrats do. The idea that the Republicans will restrain themselves if the Democrats do so has been disproven again and again.
Yes. You can’t have a two-party democracy where one party is Fascist in all but name. You can have a two-party democracy where one is significantly more conservative than the other. But the entity currently wearing the name “Republican” is not that party.
First we eliminate the Fascists, their organization, their backers, and their adherents. Then we go back to having a country. Winning elections in 2026 and 2028 and believing normalcy has been restored means it’ll last until 2030 or 2032 at most. Once re-elected, the Fascists won’t be voted out a second time. And frankly I’m skeptical they’ll permit being voted out this upcoming time.
If Trump had accidentally said “Charlie Kirk” instead of “Rob Reiner,” Pam Bondi would have indicted him, Kristi Noem would have deported him, and the MAGA-sphere would have called for his Impeachment.
President Trump torpedoed MAGA influencers’ calls for compassion after the killing of director Rob Reiner, mocking the longtime liberal activist as a victim of “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Why it matters: Many MAGA influencers vowed after the assassination of Charlie Kirk that they would never celebrate or mock the untimely death of a political opponent.
The words of a pathological narcissist and genuine psychopath, full of self-praise while condemning the blameless victim of tragic violence. This is not any ordinary case of just “being an asshole”, this is a serious mental pathology.
It’s been obvious for a while now that Trump is not compos mentis, be it dementia, pre-existing mental pathologies aggravated by age or just plain power corrupting absolutely.
The question is, how far will he be allowed to go down this path?
As far as he feels like; nobody in a position to do so has any inclination to stand in his way. He’s never been unstoppable; it’s just that for his entire life everyone has stepped out of his path and let him do as he likes.
I think that will be the case until it doesn’t, at some point his enablers will see diminishing returns on their sycophancy and bail out.
We’ll just have to hope this happens before he’s done too much irreparable damage.