"Rarely in American history has democracy’s inherent messiness been more striking. In Weimar Germany, Hitler and other agitators benefited from the squabbling of the democratic parties, right and left, the endless fights over the budget, the logjams in the legislature, the fragile and fractious coalitions. German voters increasingly yearned for someone to cut through it all and get something — anything — done. They chose the strongman.
We are closer to that same point today than we have ever been, yet we continue to drift toward dictatorship, still hoping for some intervention that will allow us to escape the consequences of our collective cowardice, our complacent, willful ignorance and, above all, our lack of any deep commitment to liberal democracy. As the man said, we are going out not with a bang but a whimper".- Robert Kagan, WaPo, ‘A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending’
"Biden can claim to have been the best president elected this century: more honourable at home than Trump, less derelict abroad than Barack Obama, with nothing like George W Bush’s Iraq war to his name. But Americans next November have to decide who leads them for the following four years. The Democratic proposition — a man eight years older than US male life expectancy, with an unloved lieutenant — asks voters to accept too much risk. For the world’s sake, at least one half of that offering should be changed, not just sold better."- Janan Ganesh, "Biden Can't Spin His Way To Re-election', The Financial Times
“So we
arrive at the final battle. If your
immediate point of reference for that phrase is not the Book of Revelation’s depiction
of the apocalypse, you are probably not a Trump supporter.
The final
battle, Trump would later tell his supporters, would once again set all of this
right. By implication of its title, this is their last chance to fix what’s
broken, to intervene in lieu of anticipation of a divine hand.
Might just be rhetoric aimed at turnout. You’ll forgive me if I
take it more seriously than that”. – Philip Bump. ‘What Happens After Trump’s Final Battle’, The
Washington Post
"Trump's final battle is against the United States. He wants to execute his enemies (especially military ones, then Hillary & Obama) as he continues on his final battle against fed gov employees who do not vote for him. His final apocalypse is to install him as dictator as he destroys our country, our constitution & your lives. Count on it. Vote blue or your ass is grass!" - Commenter on Philip Bump's article in Washington Post
"I get that Joe Biden isn't flashy, but young people need to show up and vote for him in numbers if they don't want to end up living in a fascist or Nazi state." - Commenter on Philip Bump's article in Washington Post
"Old people with any common sense need to show up and vote for Biden as well. In fact, anyone who lives in a fact-based, rational universe needs to show up and vote for Biden." - Commenter on Philip Bump's article in Washington Post
“The threat Trump poses hasn’t diminished. It has increased. He’s more open about his plans to alter the country and our form of government if he is returned to the White House. And yet, some Americans simply aren’t registering that threat as having the potential to harm in the way that it obviously can. It seems, in their minds, that if the country survived one Trump term, it can survive another. And that all the Chicken Littles claiming that the sky is falling, or could fall, are addicted to worry and prone to hyperbole”.- Charles M. Blow, NY Times, ‘Electorate In Revolt Threatens Biden’s Chances’
“It’s
not just the economy, stupid. It’s the public relations war over it. But never
in my adult lifetime has that battle seemed so agonizingly beside the point,
such a distraction from the most important questions before us. In 2024, it’s not the
economy. It’s the democracy. It’s the decency. It’s the truth.
I’m not talking about what will influence voters most. I’m talking about what should. And I write that knowing that I’ll be branded an elitist whose good fortune puts him out of touch with the concerns of people living paycheck to paycheck or priced out of housing and medical care.
But I don’t see any clear
evidence that a change of presidents would equal an uptick in Americans’ living
standards. And 2024, in any case, isn’t shaping up to be a normal election with
normal stakes or anything close to that, at least not if Donald Trump winds up
with the Republican presidential nomination
Trump and his allies would upend core elements of American governance, democracy, foreign policy and the rule of law if he regained the White House, as Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman and Charlie Savage wrote in a recent Times article that all voters should read once, then read again.”- Frank Bruni, NY TIMES, ‘It’s Not The Economy, It’s The Fascism'
“Given
voters’ dispositions and attitudes reflected in polls, there may be only two
choices now for the 2024 election: Bad versus calamitous. The latter would be
the choice for Donald Trump who has vowed to tear up the Constitution. We ought
to pay attention to what he says.”
-Chris Hayes on ‘All In’
The ABC News poll on Friday night showed - incredibly - Trump ahead of Joe Biden by 46% to 44% if the election were held now. Then, hours later, Dan Balz writing Saturday night in The Washington Post, laid it all out there with his piece: 'Voters Must Take Trump Seriously and Literally, The Stakes Are That High':
"The headline in the latest issue of the Economist magazine does not mince words:
“Donald Trump poses the biggest danger to the world in 2024.”
The alarm is twofold. First, that the former president could win the election next November; and second, what he might do if that happens ...
The Economist summed up why a Trump victory in 2024 could be materially different from his first in 2016.
“A second Trump term would be a watershed in a way the first was not,”
The editors wrote.
“Victory would confirm his most destructive instincts about power. His plans would encounter less resistance. And because America will have voted him in while knowing the worst, its moral authority would decline.”
This is serious shit, especially The Economist piece, bluntly noting we in this nation are at a literal political "Defcon 2" condition, as the Trump threat magnifies - with too many Americans sleepwalking toward Gomorrah. The NY Times Maureen Dowd was also on target citing Politico's Jonathan Martin who warned how President Biden's current team appears to be missing 'beats' - especially pushing 'Bidenomics' when too many aren't feeling any benefits when they leave the grocery store a lot poorer. She notes:
"Like other pols, Biden has a healthy ego and like all presidents, he’s truculent about not getting the credit he thinks he deserves for his accomplishments. And it must be infuriating that most of the age qualms are about him, when Trump is only a few years younger.
No doubt the president is having a hard time wrapping his mind around the idea that the 77-year-old Mar-a-Lago Dracula has risen from his gilded coffin even though he’s albatrossed with legal woes and seems more deranged than ever, referring to Democrats with the fascist-favored term “vermin” and plotting a second-term revengefest. Trump’s campaign slogan should be, “There will be blood...For Biden, this is about his identity. It’s what he has fought all his life.... But he should not indulge the Irish chip on his shoulder. He needs to gather the sharpest minds in his party and hear what they have to say”
Jonathan Martin's piece ('Here's How Biden Can Turn It Around') basically lays the groundwork for a number of strategy -campaign changes that may yet save us from the ravages of a Trump dictatorship. But Biden and his WH crew have to be prepared to take the leap and make the changes. Martin's recommendations - slightly condensed from his piece- begin with a wakeup call to political fantasists (like Bill Maher) that Biden isn't going anywhere. So stop holding your breath and dreaming, like for Dean Phillips. Anyway, as Martin writes (leaving out 1' which is directed at outsiders yearning for Biden to quit the race in favor of someone else):
1') Absent a health issue or some other act of God, Biden isn’t bowing out, and he’s not going to dump Kamala Harris. We’ll skip the Aaron Sorkin cosplay here. Sorry, Democratic daydreamers and terminally online Republican presidential candidates, there’s no smoke-filled room session on the Biden calendar. The Obamas are not going to pop over from Martha’s Vineyard to Nantucket this Thanksgiving to talk Joe out of the race and plot the Michelle-led restoration any more than Trump is going to serve vegan turkey at Mar-a-Lago.
1) Change must start with Biden himself. Enough with the bravado and denialism. Also cease calling any former Dem strategists (like David Axelrod) 'pricks'. The time now is to find common ground to ward off the Trump threat - not divide.
2) Biden can do little about Jill Stein entering the race, but he must smother Manchin with kindness and keep him in the Democratic tent. While he’s at it, the president and his top aides should also woo Manchin’s Republican friend (and third-party temptress) Mitt Romney. Neither senator wants their legacy to be abetting Trump’s return. Get these two then to work as allies not as opponents.
3)On this score, why is Biden not doing more to secure the support of Liz Cheney? She has made clear she’s determined to stop Trump’s return to the Oval Office. Yet Cheney is still publicly keeping open a presidential bid of her own. Biden can let her publish her book next month, but then she should be brought into the fold. Whether it’s called Republicans Against Trump or Republicans for Biden, Cheney must be deployed and do all she can do to bring other prominent figures with her.
Democrats are sufficiently alarmed by the possibility a No Labels candidate could hand the election to Trump. But the way to preemptively undermine No Labels is to dispatch Democrats such as Manchin or Republicans like Romney and Cheney to articulate the risk they pose. These individuals may be reluctant to do so, but they can be prodded, charmed and shown the data detailing the danger of inaction.
4) The best service Rahm Emmanuel can offer Biden isn’t using his post in Asia (Biden’s envoy to Japan) to forge Pacific alliances and taunt the Russians and Chinese. The president should call Emanuel back stateside and have him chair the reelection. Doing so would demonstrate a willingness by Biden to broaden his inner circle, create a manic urgency in the campaign that is Emanuel’s trademark and, by elevating one of the most ferocious operatives of our times, signal that when Trump goes low the Democrats will go fucking lower.
5) Speaking of putting the best team forward, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon should either leave the White House and formally manage the campaign or be given the role David Plouffe had in 2012 and oversee the reelection full time from the West Wing. Having taken over Biden’s 2020 bid, O’Malley Dillon has the most high-level campaign experience of any member of the president’s inner circle.
6) There’s been chatter for months that Biden’s alter ego and ad man, Mike Donilon, will leave the White House and go to the campaign. As with O’Malley Dillon, why are Donilon’s talents not yet entirely directed to the reelection?
7) The White House must move to the political equivalent of a war footing. Biden should lure back former Chief of Staff Ron Klain in some capacity. Few modern chiefs could do as much simultaneously as Klain, and he could be particularly useful as the left grows restive over Biden’s Israel tilt.
8) On the topic of the Mideast, once the Israeli incursion into Gaza ends there will presumably be some steps toward diplomacy. Biden cannot run the country, run for reelection and oversee a new Mideast peace process. He should appoint a pair of high-level envoys for the post: Bill and Hillary Clinton. It may sound far-fetched, but this is no time for small thinking. The moment demands all hands on deck.
9) Biden cannot dedicate himself to the campaign like he could have as a younger man. So make use of all those next-generation stars scheming for the presidency and thirsting to be on camera. The way to win favor with tomorrow’s Democratic primary voters is to stop Trump now. So let them compete for who can emerge as the best advocate for Biden and against Trump. Some of these would-be candidates are coming to the GOP debates, but that’s not nearly enough. The governors, the senators, the cabinet secretaries and the infrastructure czar should be the faces of Biden’s campaign.
10) More than personnel, though, Biden must move dramatically to reshape his appeal to voters. Perhaps the most overwhelming economic messaging advice I picked up from Democrats was for him to heave “Bidenomics” into the dumpster. Attempting to make voters believe something they don’t is folly. Attaching your name to that strategy borders on masochistic. At a time when people are paying more for housing, gas and groceries, focusing on job growth and the unemployment rate is ineffective. Use that sense of empathy and acknowledge voter concerns about inflation. Take steps, with executive actions, to address costs. And brag about what you have done, not because it’ll make voters believe they’re wrong about how they feel but because it reminds them you’ve been fighting — and in the face of opposition.
Which raises one of the most vital imperatives: Go on the offensive against the GOP. Where are the frontal attacks on Republicans? Especially with Biden at risk of defeat because of slippage among working-class voters of all races, it’s confounding that he doesn’t lash the opposition for siding with the wealthy.
I believe these are all critical steps 'Team Joe' must take from now to ensure a second term, and prevent Trump gaining power which could spell the end of our democratic experiment. As Martin himself writes:
"This election will be exceptional because of the threat Trump poses. The former president is an exiled strongman who’s taken over a traditional political party and is attempting to reclaim office to consolidate power and punish his enemies with little regard for the Constitution. Just ask him."
To any sentient citizen, then, Trump's threat and his ever-increasing Hitlerian rhetoric are not hyperbolic or hysterical, they are as real as a heart attack. This is why, as one WaPo commenter put it, he must be stopped at all costs. It is also why, to help ensure this, Jonathan Martin's 10 steps (which I have condensed for this post) need to be adopted by Biden's team and implemented ASAP.
See Also:
by Michael Waldman | December 1, 2023 - 7:57am | permalink
— from Brennan Center for Justice
Excerpt:
Donald Trump has made clear that, in a second term, he would govern differently than any president in U.S. history. He has hinted at suspending the Constitution, building vast deportation camps, weaponizing the Department of Justice, and mass firing career civil servants.
Here’s one you might have missed: He reportedly plans to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to use the military as a domestic police force, on his first day in office.
In 2020, of course, Trump himself engineered a shambolic insurrection. This time, the thought goes, if he is displeased by protests, he will use the law as a way to crack down and grab more power. Think of the “Reichstag moment” reportedly feared by General Mark Milley three years ago.
Much like the Electoral Count Act—a similarly archaic and poorly drafted law that Trump attempted to exploit—the Insurrection Act was written for a different time and urgently needs reform, as my colleague Joseph Nunn writes.
And:
by Carl Gibson | November 29, 2023 - 7:32am | permalink
Excerpt:
In her forthcoming book "Oath and Honor," former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) called out the complicity of her Republican colleagues in enabling former President Donald Trump, and warned Americans to keep him away from the White House in 2024.
"As a nation, we can endure damaging policies for a four-year term. But we cannot survive a president willing to terminate our Constitution," Cheney wrote in an excerpt obtained by CNN.
And:
Trump's Speech Mirrors Dictators Mussolini and Hitler (esquire.com)
Excerpt:
Over the weekend, Fulton County (Ga.) Inmate No. P01135809, the guy who used to keep Hitler's speeches handy for bedtime reading, crossed over into a declaration of outright fascism and didn't break a sweat. What is so frightening is that it was so damned easy for him to do it.
The Washington Post at least got the headline right. The New York Times spent all weekend fumbling around the clear intent of the former president*'s remarks. The original headline — Trump Takes Veterans Day Speech in a Very Different Direction — lit up the Internet. I mean, the speech did, in fact, go in a very different direction — the general direction of Nuremberg.
The former president*'s rhetoric, coupled with his stated plans for his next presidency, should clarify for any thinking human being the fact that he must not be elected next year. There is no other issue. Not any more. It is an issue that ought to be beyond argument, beyond partisan politics. It is the very definition of the Constitution's call to "provide for the common defense."
And:
by Robert Reich | November 27, 2023 - 7:29am | permalink
— from Robert Reich's Substack
Excerpt:
The mainstream media is helping Trump and his authoritarian allies in four ways.
First, it’s drawing a false equivalence between Trump and Biden — claiming that Biden’s political handicap is his age, while Trump’s corresponding handicap is his criminal indictments.
Rubbish. Trump is almost as old as Biden, and Trump’s public remarks and posts are becoming ever more unhinged — suggesting that advancing age may be a bigger problem for Trump than for Biden.
Why isn’t the mainstream media reporting on Trump’s increasing senescence?
Secondly, every time the mainstream media reports on another move by Trump and his Republican allies toward neofascism, it tries to balance its coverage by pointing out some fault in the Democratic Party (such as the ongoing federal corruption and bribery case against Senator Bob Menendez).
And:
by Maya Boddie | November 27, 2023 - 7:17am | permalink
And:
by Jaime O’Neill | November 27, 2023 - 7:10am | permalink
Excerpt:
Perhaps you’ll recall seeing Donald Trump and his third trophy wife (the only kind of wife he ever had) descending toward us on that de-escalator back in 2016, coming down from his heights to declare himself a candidate for the presidency. Perhaps, like me, you thought that was your worst nightmare. Perhaps, like me, you might have been a bit too optimistic in that shuddering assessment of how bad nightmares could get. Perhaps, like me, you are now facing a much worse (and even worser than that) nightmare with the distinct possibility that Trump may yet win a do-over even more horrendous than what we’ve endured since he did us the first time around.
Perhaps, like me, you don’t need to be told what a calamity that was since the damage is everywhere we might look, and especially when we look to the future and see Donald Trump installed once more, but really even more whiny, disgruntled, churlish, and pissed off than he was last time. Only now, of course, we are farther down the road toward fucking up the planet beyond repair. And perhaps, like me, you just doubt you can actually do four more years of Trump’s shit even if he’s not re-elected through who knows what machinations, collusions, or subversions of the democratic process....
Few of us are actually thrilled
at the prospect of President Biden running again four years older than he was
when we worried he was too old last time, but if he is our candidate once more,
we’d better get behind him as if your lives depended on his victory, and we all
should know it’s no real exaggeration to say they do, no matter whether Biden’s
up against Trump or some other generic fascist pretending to be the best friend
Americans ever had.
And:
Here’s How Biden Can Turn It Around - POLITICO
And:
by Heather Digby Parton | November 24, 2023 - 7:28am | permalink
And:
Trump’s Second-Term Plans: Anti-‘Woke’ University, ‘Freedom Cities’
And:
by Mitchell Zimmerman | November 27, 2023 - 6:24am | permalink
And:
Trump won’t need more Black votes. He just needs Black voters to stay home again.
And:
by Maya Boddie | November 20, 2023 - 7:41am | permalink
Excerpt:
Earlier this week, ex-President Donald Trump was recently added to the top of The Economist's list of the world's greatest dangers heading into 2024.
During a Sunday morning panel, MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin referenced a recent Axios report by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, in which they exclusively report ex-President Donald Trump "allies are pre-screening the ideologies of thousands of potential foot soldiers, as part of an unprecedented operation to centralize and expand his power at every level of the U.S. government if he wins in 2024."
The MSNBC host asked historian and authoritarian expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat to "put this reporting into perspective," by explaining whether "this effort from the ex-president and his allies" is "something that is unprecedented as it seems on the surface — given the fact that our country has not had presidents who have lost and then come back to win reelection."
by Robert Reich | November 20, 2023 - 7:53am | permalink
And:
by Thom Hartmann | November 18, 2023 - 8:40am | permalink
The Nazis in America are now “out.” This morning, former Republican Joe Scarborough explicitly compared Trump and his followers to Hitler and his Brownshirts on national television. They’re here.
At the same time, America’s richest man is retweeting antisemitism, rightwing influencers and radio/TV hosts are blaming “Jews and liberals” for the “invasion” of “illegals” to “replace white people,” and the entire GOP is embracing candidates and legislators who encourage hate and call for violence.
And:
by C.J. Polychroniou | November 16, 2023 - 8:43am | permalink
And:
Voters must take Trump seriously and literally. The stakes are that high.
And:
by Heather Digby Parton | November 7, 2023 - 7:33am | permalink
And:
by Joan McCarter | November 19, 2023 - 7:10am | permalink
Fascism is on the ballot in 2024. Donald Trump has made no bones about that, and should he fail to get the GOP nomination, the Heritage Foundation is creating its “Agenda 47” to make sure the next Republican president has a fascist gameplan ready anyway. The stakes couldn’t be higher for democracy, but the supposedly “centrist” No Labels is still readying a spoiler campaign.
Despite attempts to get a No Labels ticket on the presidential ballot in all 50 states, No Labels isn’t an actual political party. It’s a political nonprofit, and it is exploiting that status to the max by raking in millions of dollars of dark money, with most of its donors undisclosed. Some of the high-profile donors are known—and notorious. For example, Harlan Crow, best buddy and benefactor to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has hosted fundraisers for the group and donated more than $130,000 of his own cash.
And:
What Would My Revolutionary War Ancestors Think Of Our Nation's Present Predicament?
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