Power To The People – The Trumplandia Report

A Theory About Why Democrats Are So Bad At Defending The Republic

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The Republican Party is now a “violent cult,” and, as such, they’re hell bent on an existential level, on forcing us to the breaking point. The Republican Party is involved in an extended, existential power grab. A lot of people like me are looking at the actions of the Democratic Party and struggle to understand why they’re so limp wristed.

A lot is going on as to why this is the case. One is, as the Republican Party grows more deranged and alienates people, the people the Democrats represent are large and diverse. This makes it more difficult for Democrats to have a cohesive, potent counter-message to Republicans who have an entire propaganda infrastructure designed to tell their faithful what to think at any particular moment.

But, I also think on a systemic level that Democrats know that if they play dirty like the Republicans that such behavior will only accelerate our current drift towards the existential choice of civil war or autocracy. Democratic leaders would rather delay the inevitable by playing dead than risk forcing the issue sooner than it would happen anyway. So, I guess, in a sense, Democrats are engaging in a form of political appeasement.

I don’t have a ready answer for that. The reason — I hate violence and it’s not like I want a civil war, either. And, yet, there’s a part of me that would rather we at least put up a fight against the autocratic leanings of Republicans. But I’m gradually coming to believe that the center-Left just doesn’t have it in them to do what is necessary to stop the United States from slipping into autocratic managed democracy.

In the end, MAGA Republicans are going to be just too much for people who believe in “the American way’ of liberal democracy. ICE will be weaponized and I’m going to get pushed out a window.

But no fate but what we make, as they say, so, lulz, who knows?

Sometimes, They Come Back

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As of Monday (at the latest) I’m throwing myself back into the novel I’ve been working on the last few years. Everything is in place — I should be able to write the first draft very, very quickly.

I’ll always be the guy in the circle. Me, 2032

What started as me raging against the Trump Era now has a very different context — it’s going to be a lot more character based, a lot less preachy and…also a warning of what might be to come.

I really just want to forget the Trump Era ever happened. And, yet, given Trump’s apparent interest in the “Patriot Party” concept, I have decided to read up on Hitler. My fear is because of the “megatrends” that caused the rise of Trump in the first place, that he and his movement will come back in a big way far, far sooner than any of us might otherwise believe.

So, in preperation for the rise of honest-to-God-American MAGA-Nazism, I’m going to start to study Hitler, his rise and his use of power once he got it. My fear is that Trump — or a “velvet fist” of, say, President Lara Trump and Vice President Mike Pompeo — may finally turn us into an autocratic managed democracy like Putin’s Russia.

America is currently an autocracy without an autocrat and something pretty huge would have to happen for our democracy not to go the way of the Weimar Republic within no more than 10 years. But, let me make it clear — Trumplandia’s Fourth Reich wouldn’t be expansionistic. It’s not like Trump or Lara Trump would want to take over the world.

It would be an implosion, not an explosion.

The United States would collapse in on itself, maybe even to the point that there was a complete re-imagining of the world order. The United States would leave NATO, pull all its troops out from South Korea, etc and also have some sort of “Final Solution” for the “Liberal Problem.”

Or, to put it another way — there are some fucking dark forces at work on a macro level in the United States.

Weirdly enough, there really hasn’t been much discussion about how Elon Musk is just a few years away from ending the trucking industry as we know it. When 3 million high paying blue collar jobs fashion overnight, there are going to be a shit ton of angry men and women who might embrace neo-Luddism. And that would cause a massive jiggling of our political economy.

The Patriot Party might fuse the far Right and the far Left into an anti-technology party while the corporate elements of the Democrat and Republican parties might fuse together in response.

Anyway.

The point is — Trumplandia ain’t dead yet. Sometimes, they come back.

The 5 Stages of MAGA’s Potential Coming COVID19 Death Rattle

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, let me be clear — the only way we get rid of the death cult that is MAGA is, well, the biggest catastrophe in American domestic history since the Civil War. And, even then, there’s a 50/50 chance that we’ll endup with some Handmaid’s Tale level bullshit.

But, since Don Jr. thinks I’m looking forward to such an enormous clusterfuck because…I’m as big a dick as he is? — let’s go through what the MAGA death cult death rattle would look like.

Denial
This is where we are now. They beat impeachment, they beat TrumpRussia, they beat Stormy Daniels, they beat EVERTHING. So, the idea that essentially fucking God himself would stab them in the back is a little too much for your MAGA death cult thought leader. So they say it’s all a liberal media conspiracy to hurt Trump. It’s nothing more than the flu, fuck you, Rachael Maddow. So, their denial is mixed with hate.

Anger
This the most dangerous step. This is when MAGA will start to lash out and murder people in frustration. When it comes obvious that the jig is up, they probably will become transitional, at last. They will settle some scores once and for all. I’m thinking by about Wednesday we’ll reach this point.

Bargaining
This will be the most pathetic part of all of this. Suddenly, all the hateful badfaith thought leaders of the MAGA death cult will switch gears rather abruptly and say it’s time for us to come together as a nation and give the Dear Leader the “thoughts and prayers” he needs. This will probably happen about the time the significance of the Gray Plague begins to sink in. Maybe the end of next week?

Depression
This is when Sean Hannity breaks down in tears and goes all Jimmy Swaggart on us. Hugh Hewitt might also get rather mopey on TV at some point. Matt Schlapp, meanwhile, will continue to be quite content with MAGA even as the dead and dying grows more and more tragic

Acceptance
For us to have gotten to this point — sometime within the next two weeks, things will have had to have gotten so bad for MAGA that, at last, the hate and rage that is at the core of MAGA will, at last, be squelched. This would be maybe a month or two from now when the old order has finally collapsed and a new on is slowly beginning to come together. Suddenly all the MAGA thought leaders will be thinking about how they can explain the many, many, many, many, many, many, MANY lies they told for Trump so they can act as if nothing happened the last four years.

The above is, for the moment, a delusional liberal fever dream. And, even if we finally get Sean Hannity to shut the fuck up about Hillary’s email server it will simply not be worth it to me, or any other American. That’s why it’s a tragedy.

Wargaming The Coming Trump Whistleblower Clusterfuck

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Some observations.

This news broke the night before the first serious impeachment vote. This gives all House Republicans more than enough cover to vote against it.

Republicans may have learned the wrong lesson from the Mueller Report. They think this will drain support for impeachment. They think everything will go back to normal and Trump will be politically pardoned AGAIN so he can turn around and to exactly the same shit by Friday afternoon. While this is — I guess – at least a possibility, it seems at least from what I can tell that the impeachment train has, in fact, left the station.

There’s a real danger Trump is both so stupid and so craven that he will tweet out a 21 Century version of, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” He will “accidently” dox the poor guy and he ends up dead. The Republican talking points will be three fold. Trump was “joking,” he can’t be held responsible for the actions of a mentally ill person, and we have to end the impeachment process because people are starting to die.

This may work with The New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman for about 24 hours. But I suspect that this won’t hold much water with the average person who is isn’t on Twitter and is too busy paying their mortgage to care about impeachment. Should there be any type of impeachment-related violence then guess who most people will hold responsible — it’s not going to be Nancy Pelosi. Though you know that’s exactly what every Republican is going to scream at the top of their lungs. I guess it might work? But I have at least a modicum of faith in my fellow Americans not to fall for that bullshit.

But, really, the battle lines are now drawn. Either you are so partisan that you think it’s “game over” for impeachment because the whistleblower worked with Joe Biden and Susan Rice as part of his job, or you don’t. Either you believe in the rule of law, or your a Republican MAGA fascist.

We’re entering the political equivalent of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Two Tribes video. This is now a political war for the ages. I still suspect that Trump is going to completely lose his fucking mind in a rather spectacular fashion before all of this is over. But I could be wrong.

Buckle up.

‘Disco Sucks, II — Electric Trump Boogaloo’

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme. I’m not saying that Trump being jeered will be anywhere near as historically significant as the Disco Sucks riot of 1979, but…it makes for great TV. It’s memorable and easy to understand. It may fade very quickly, or it may linger in the popular imagination.

What The Tipping Point On Impeachment Might Look Like

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

One thing about impeachment is it’s so alien to how Americans think about their relationship to the president that they just don’t really understand it. A president is elected for four years and that’s that. But if Trump keeps it up, there’s chance we’ll reach a tipping point.

The tipping point can be summed up with people going from, “Oh, why would we get rid of Trump early? The election is next year,” to “You mean we could get rid of Trump immediately?” The would be a macro change in public opinion. It would be how the press frames the debate. It would also mean that Trump’s support among Independents had finally jumped off a precipice.

But it’s debatable as to how likely it is that this would actually happen. Yet, Trump is really bad at his job and he hasn’t actually lost his mind yet. So, maybe?

(Radical Resistance) American Carnage: The Republican Party No Longer Believes In Liberal Democracy

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

In the lead up to the 2016 election, I frequently said I’d rather have a Nixon-level crook (Hillary Clinton) president than an alien space hugger on fire with acid dropping off it (Donald Trump.) No one listened to me, probably because they took the metaphor to be too ridiculous to be taken seriously.

Flash forward three years and it turns out I was right. Trump through the Republican Party is an alien xenomorph incubating in our nation’s political abdomen. How else do you describe an organization that so values Trump over all other parts of our society, politics and culture that they would continue to support him even now. When he rants about “civil war” on Twitter, not only do they defend it, they embrace it — Newt is out there calling the current Democratic impeachment effort a “Constitutional coup.”

It’s growing apparent that two things are fusing into one — Trump’s criminal incompetence and is growing mental instability. Republicans are no longer moored to any form of political reality other than protecting Trump going forward. What’s growing more serious by the moment is things are growing darker by the moment because of Trump’s deranged tweets. But Republicans feel the MAGA base will punish them if they don’t support Trump, so they are willing to ride this pony to the bottom.

It all grows even more serious when you realize that even if we somehow miraculously end Trump’s deranged, tyrannical rule, the conditions that created him aren’t going anywhere. There are a half a dozen younger, more passionate Trump-like political figures chomping at the bit to finish the damage that Trump has begun. In a sense, American democracy may get a second chance for the sole reason that that Trump’s deranged and so incompetent that he is brought down not by any external force but by his own epic self-own.

It pains me to say this, but if we actually do want to honor the hundreds of thousands of people who have died to protect the Union and its Constitution, we will have to begin to look at the Republican Party as a fascist enterprise. We will have to do it collectively. We will have to en masse simply agree never to vote for another Republican candidate for the foreseeable future.

Republicans got their smash and grab plutocrat tax cut and they got their dozens of young hack judges on the Federal bench. Addressing those issues, given that Trump won his election under false pretenses is something to consider. But this “nuclear option” comes with a serious danger — about half the population actually agrees with MAGA.

If we want to keep the country together, we’re going to have to figure out a way to bridge the divide between those who believe in liberal democracy and those who don’t. I’m not smart enough to figure that one. Maybe Maggie Haberman can use her access journalism to save the day.

Mapping Out America’s ‘Glorious Revolution’

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It’s difficult to articulate how bad a Sunday Republicans had today, at least superficially, when it came to messaging a retail political defense of the president. The reason it was so bad is here it is Sunday afternoon and nothing really stands out. Both sides haven’t really rally around any discernible argument beyond the basics.

Yes, Democrats have cold hard facts. But we’re still in the gobsmacked stage of the scandal. Meanwhile, Republicans are not only attacking on just a tactical level, they are resorting to rhetorical bobbing and weaving not done in good faith. If Sen. Lindsey Graham is resorting to “let’s agree to disagree” on TV after spending the previous day golfing with the president, well, that’s a pretty powerful statement of how bad things are for Republicans right this second.

I’m extremely reluctant to suggest Trump is anywhere near facing a final existential threat. Hillary hasn’t done her gloating “victory tour” on TV this week. She could very well change the narrative from “oh my god the president is a traitor” to “Hillary Clinton is going to jail.” She is so bad at some very basic elements of being a public figure that it’s a tragedy. Yes, she’s a historic trailblazer for the status of women in politics, but she’s a problematic one. So, in that sense, I’m holding back any judgement of how serious things are for Trump.

And, yet, I have to go back to something very basic — Trump is an idiot. He is such an idiot that he literally found the only thing that could possibly force Nancy Pelosi’s hand in impeachment — allowing her to lean into her status as a Constitutional official. Trump is so very, very stupid. And I still don’t feel that he, himself, is taking this seriously. He’s not freaked out yet. When it happens, we’ll all know it.

One of the reasons I would be very worried if I was a Republican proxy for the president is how easy to box them in rhetorically. Even if you give them that Hunter Biden is some sort of criminal mastermind, that Trump would use the office of the presidency to find that dirt is a grave abuse of power. And that they would put that transcript in an eyes-only server is even worse. That House Trump would be so detached from any connection to the normal rules of government behavior that they would feel it was “totally cool and legal” to do this and then turn around and release the rough transcript and the complaint itself is rather embarrassing.

And we’re just at the beginning of this process. We have weeks for Trump to continue to self-own in various ways. One could make the case that at this point there’s a chance America might have its own “Glorious Revolution.” This was when the British ruling class politely invited William & Mary of Orange to take over the country in a peaceful coup / invasion. If as many people really are implicated in all of this as is feared, there’s at least a chance that a few powerful bolts are going to pop off the government before it’s all over with.

I’ve not forgotten that Pence apparently was bribing House Trump to keep his place on the ticket by going WAY out of his way to stay at Trump property in Ireland. If the American people finally get riled up boot Trump, there’s at least a chance that Pence will be bounced in short measure as well. But he’s likely to name Ivanka or Nikki Haley his replacement with lighting speed if that seemed a possibility. I wouldn’t suggest Nancy Pelosi start measuring the curtains in the Oval Office quite yet.

But for House Trump to implode so completely that even Pence could not escape its black hole would be the single most astonishing event in American political history. We are not prepared for that. It’s not an event that we should be looking forward to. I just want Trump out of office and politically ruined.

The rest we can deal with as necessary.

Republicans Are Careening Towards Only One Option In Their Defense Of Trump: Being A Cult

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I’m going to work with what I know as of the time I write this. Things are growing so extenstially bad for the Republican Party, I’m growing nervous that Bill Barr is Q and he’s going to jump out at some point and say “babbabooy.”

That that is growing to become the only good scenario for Republicans is very bad news. But let’s go through what I can tell of existing Republican defenses of Trump.

This Is A Deep State Attack
Their argument is none of this is valid because it’s a partisan attack on the president orchestrated by a deep state operative with a grudge against the president. It’s based on “hearsay.” Ok, this argument is bad for Republicans because it doesn’t really do what they need it to do — own the moment. Much of the complaint itself is being proven correct from other sources. And even if you could prove any sort of partisan motive does that mitigate what Trump actually did? If a Democrats sees a Republican murder someone, we don’t prosecute the Republican because the Democrat might gain a political advantage?

The Bidens Are Corrupt
While House Trump is great at branding, their ability to use their usual mind fucks on us is beginning to unravel a little bit. What they want to do is recreate the conditions of 2016 with 2020. But things are moving fast with TrumpUkraine. We’re pretty much in a political war and that particular type of messaging only works in political peacetime. If every time you get asked about TrumpUkraine you pivot to a non-existent scandal involving the Bidens, you got a problem. The sheer astonishing scope of the TrumpUkraine criminality overshadows anything the Bidens might be accused of doing. Again, if you commit a bigger crime to look into someone else’s crime, you still committed a crime.

Fuck You, The Base Loves Trump
If we get down to this argument, then the next step is The Pence Pivot. This argument removes any pretence of working within the bounds of a liberal democracy with a social contract and civil society. This is when the wheels fly off and we go from a pitched battle to all out political civil war. In a sense, this is something that the average person doesn’t realize. Something about Obama’s second term drove the Republican Party completely insane. It has no shame and it craves power for power’s sake. As such, if they run out of arguments, they simply deny that there are any arguments that they will listen to. The only reason why this might not work is if things have gotten this bad, Trump will be at the point in his cognitive decline where he’s tweeting out dick picks and tweeting out the n-word to Obama.

After that, it’s The Pence Pivot. They stop talking about Trump altogether and simply say they really voted for Pence. Though, in a sense, Trump will have lost the mandate of heaven even with Republicans, they will still support Trump staying in office. They just will talk about Pence whenever he comes up.

A Game Plan For Radical Resistance To End The Trump Presidency Sooner Rather Than Later

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

No one listens to me. No one. Absolutely no one. But one thing I am good at, at least I like to think I’m good at, is strategic thinking. I’ve mentioned the concept of Radical Resistance before and it was promptly ignored. But I have a bit of time on my hands and so here we go. Here is how I would push Donald J. Trump out of office sooner rather than later.

Pick A Leader
I propose Jon Stewart. He’s the perfect guy to serve as the pointman for what happens over the next few days. And this plan would have to take place ASAP. If you wait until the politics are right, Trump will be comfortably in the middle of his second term. Anyway, someone ring Jon Stewart up and ask him to save the Republic. The hardest part might be getting him on Twitter.

A United Message
Right now, Democratic candidates for president are in different universe. There’s a brief window of opportunity. If just a few days all the Democrat candidates for president united against the common foe of Trump in a demonstrative fashion, then there’s a chance they might be able to break through the white noise of modern life to get people to sit up and take notice. We’re in extraordinary times and extraordinary measures are needed. Rallying around someone like Jon Stewart would be a good way to put aside the native intercen conflict of the upcoming primary season. The key point of this share message would be: as a matter of principle, Trump has to go. Full stop. Screw the six dimensional chess. It’s time to act.

The point of Radical Resistance would be to focus the obvious public outrage over TrumpUkraine to a very specific point — building public support to impeach Trump even if he tries to slow walk release of the complaint against him. The law is clear — the DNI has to turn over the complaint. The administration is trying a bullshit interpretation of the law to weasel out of ever releasing the complaint. If Democrats could impress upon the public how urgent this crisis is, maybe we might get one of those moments like we had during the kids-in-cages crisis. For a day or so, the entire country stood still as everyone freaked out about that situation. Now, to be clear, Trump is never going to release the complaint, just like he will never release his taxes. But if you could rile people up enough, then that refusal to release the complaint would, in itself, be an impeachable offence. (The slow walk of its release is all part of the Stormy Daniels playbook that TrumpWorld is so fond of.)

Weaponise The Inteligenta
While generally getting writers to do anything collectively is like herding cats, if you could kind of gently point the in the same direction with their columns, you might have a fighting chance to bend the arc of history towards justice.

It’s clear that we’ve reached a crucial moment in our nation’s history. This is an existential moment. It’s a moment when the ultimate judge of our success or failure will be history. Do we want to be remembered as not being willing to defend an attack on the Constitution by a TV Game Show host elected president with the aid and comfort of a foreign power, or do we want to stand our ground, damn the consequences?

I honestly don’t think this will happen, though. The DNI hearing on Thursday will be a dud, the energy for impeachment will fade and MAGA will crow about yet another “lie” on the part of the “lamestream media” has been exposed.

Anyway, I guess it was worth a shot to articulate a vision.

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