by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
Trump’s evil goon of a campaign manager Brad Parscale is touting to the Republican Party faithful the idea that Trump is an American Cesar. He is the founding member of a political dynasty that will last “decades.”
Before I address this, I think Parscale is engaging in what Microsoft used to do to the software industry: FUD — fear and utter despair. As it stands, there’s a grain of truth to what he’s saying. Trump is an avatar for dark forces in the American politics. At this point, there honestly isn’t any reason not to think the Trump family is now a Royal House. They will governor us for the foreseeable future.
I don’t really have any hope that this is not the case. But there are a few things going on that might at least make it a little bit more difficult than Parscale might have us believe. One is Trump himself is obviously mentally sundowning. Also, there are a number of reasons to believe the American economy is beginning to slow down. Throw in the prospect of No Deal Brexit and that flaw in Pax Trumplandia grows more significant.
As such, one’s historical attention turns to Washington’s Ur scandal, Watergate. Nixon had half a dozen Parscale-type goons in his orbit and he still manage to resign in disgrace. Not that I think Trump’s going anywhere. The existential, tragic flaws in the American psyche he represents are too deep and systemic for him to leave office any time before Jan. 20th, 2025. Really, Trump could probably directly lead to the end of mankind and Parscale would simply hold up in the Federal Government’s Doomsday Bunker and that would be that.
I don’t really have any hope. The reason why I don’t have much hope is Trump could become a puddle on the Oval Office floor and MAGA would still vote for him. All I got when it comes to hope is time. House Trump could probably rule for 20 years until the youngest of the Baby Boomers croak. Then the browning of America kicks in and the American political system will resemble a mashup of Apartheid South Africa and modern day Venezuela. That will last until, I don’t know what.
Scrounging for some semblance of hope, all I got is Trump is such a historically bad president that no amount of FUD from Parscale can fix that. And history is unpredictable. I guess, in a sense, all I got is what might eventually overthrow House Trump might be a military junta. But even that is problematic. Maybe Blue States might attempt to secede from the Union en masse at some point in the next 20 years, maybe not.
But I again go back to what happened with Nixon. If we were having this discussion in 1971, we would still have Nixon’s 1972 landslide ahead of us. I think Trump is the primordial goo from which an Imperial American will arise. But it will hone very close to what literally happen to the Roman Republic. Roman only gradually shed the trappings of a republic. It did not happen overnight and the Empire never had a traditional Royal House like modern monarchies. We may continue to superficially be a republic, but in practice will just go from one member of the Trump family to another because the center-Left is still playing by the old rules.
I struggle to think of some reason why Parscale isn’t right. All I got is he’s right on a macro level, but the history is quirky and sometimes goes off in strange directions. And like I said, he probably is right for 20 years. So his prediction of “decades” is right. But the ability for House Trump to stay in power after the Baby Boomers dying off grows significantly more difficult. House Trump just doesn’t have demographics on its side beyond 20 years from now.
Wake me up when this dystopia is over.
