Opinion :The Trump nightmare looms again
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
www.washingtonpost.com /opinions/2021/10/11/trump-nightmare-looms-again/
The Trump nightmare looms again
Michael Gerson 5-6 minutes 10/11/2021
It is increasingly evident that the nightmare prospect of American politics — unified Republican control of the federal government in the hands of a reelected, empowered Donald Trump in 2025 — is also the likely outcome.
Why this is a nightmare should be clear enough. Every new tranche of information released about Trump’s behavior following the 2020 election — most recently an interim report from the Senate Judiciary Committee — reveals a serious and concerted attempt to overthrow America’s legitimate incoming government.
At roughly the same time that Trump was gathering and unleashing his goons to intimidate members of Congress on Jan. 6, he was pressuring Justice Department leaders to provide legal cover for his effort to prevent certification of the election. When they refused, Trump conspired with a lower-level loyalist to take over the department and run it according to the president’s dictates. Under the threat of mass resignations, Trump eventually backed off.
This led to one of the lamest excuses in the long history of lame political excuses. Trump defenders such as Brit Hume want to award Trump kudos for desisting in the end. “Trump decided against it,” Hume tweeted . “It is not to his credit that he even considered it, but his rejection should be part of any story on it.” But this retrenchment, on Trump’s part, was a recognition of positional weakness, not a display of public virtue. The thing that matters most is this: The current front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination would have broken the constitutional order if he could have broken the constitutional order.
Meanwhile, it is clear that this same lawless, reckless man has a perfectly realistic path back to power. The GOP is a garbage scow of the corrupt, the seditious and their enablers, yet the short- and medium-term political currents are in its favor.
This is not simply a problem of the Biden administration’s messaging. It reflects deeper political challenges, recently and vividly described by Ezra Klein and David Shor . In my woefully condensed version of Klein’s column based on his interviews with the data analyst: American voters are increasingly polarized by education (which is really a proxy for complex issues of class and race). Whites with a college education have lurched Democratic. Whites without a college education have lurched Republican.
This presents Democrats with disadvantages. Significantly more voters lack a college education than have one. And voters with a college education tend to be located in urban areas, which centralizes and thus diminishes their influence. Both the electoral college and the constitutional method of Senate representation reward those who control wide open spaces.
What does this mean in practice? It means Democrats need to significantly outperform Republicans in national matchups to obtain even mediocre results in presidential and Senate races. It means that Democrats, to remain competitive, need to win in places they don’t currently win, draw from groups they don’t currently draw and speak in cultural dialects they don’t currently speak.
This analysis has sparked a predictable intramural debate. Some Democratic activists want the party to relentlessly pound its support for popular policies while de-emphasizing its association with divisive issues (such as immigration and climate change). Others discount the possibility that policy messaging can change many minds, putting their faith instead in stoking Democratic enthusiasm.
Klein’s main complaint, however, is that few Democratic lawmakers at the national level — who mostly live among like-minded, college-educated, liberal peers — are paying attention to the urgency of the task. This type of shift in electoral focus would likely involve major ideological and strategic adjustments. But who in the national debate among Democrats over budget priorities has demonstrated the slightest interest in these matters?
This is a national, not just a Democratic, emergency. Trump has strengthened his identification with the seditious forces he unleashed on Jan. 6. He has embraced ever more absurd and malicious conspiracy theories. He has shown even less stability, humanity, responsibility and restraint. And his support among Republicans has grown. Trump and his strongest supporters are in a feedback loop of radicalization.
If Trump returns to the presidency, many of the past constraints on his power would be purposely loosed. Many of the professionals and patriots who opposed him in his final days would have been weeded out long before. There is no reason Trump would not try to solidify personal power over military and federal law enforcement units to employ as a bully’s club in times of civil disorder. There is no reason he would refrain from using federal resources to harass political opponents, undermine freedom of the press and change the outcome of elections. These are previously stated goals.
What attitudes and actions does this require of us? Any reaction must begin with a sober recognition. Catastrophe is in the front room. The weather forecast includes the apocalypse.
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And the Democrats are such paragons of virtue, yeah right! (no pun intended)
Conservatives, Trump style , don't care that Trump made "a serious and concerted attempt to overthrow America’s legitimate incoming government." They are silent, enwrapped in nonsense about Biden having "dementia" or crying about "wokeness".
They are hopeless cases. I just turned 71. I am starting to fear that I will die with trumpism in full force in this country, which would be the saddest thing I have ever seen.
The author of this article is neither a liberal, a leftist, or a radical. He is a moderate conservative who was a speechwriter for George W Bush.
Conservative or not, that in no way means he is correct.
And where would the author of this article be incorrect?
The present is the nightmare. The Biden regime and its voters are the bane of America. CNN The return of President Trump to the White House as #47 would be a dream come true and a blessed relief to working and middle class America. I can’t wait!
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Comment 5 is sick and deluded. The return of Trump to the White House would mean the destruction of the American way of life. The Trump regime was un-American/anti-American, and its voters are increasingly the same.
How? Lets be specific shall we.
It won't. They said that for five years and two years ago today, we had the greatest economy in history. And then came the China virus.
They couldn't stand the success.
Decent Americans are going to have to make a choice. Right now too many are blase or apathetic about Trumpism.
The orchestra on the deck playing happy songs as the Titanic went vertical ?
John, what is your definition of decent Americans?
I suspect I probably will not get a reasonable answer from John if any.
I don't give "reasonable" answers to people that support Donald Trump. He tried to overthrow our government for his own benefit and he belongs in prison.
Where have I ever said I support Donald Trump because I do not. I am on record repeatedly as saying I cannot stand the individual and never voted for him. Now, can you answer the question in post #5.2.4 or not?
Stop talking about how the Democrats are worse. Its fucking nonsense. Trump tried to steal the god damn election. Nothing is worse.
John, did I state anywhere here that he did or did not? Again, I simply asked what your definition of a descent American was. You made a statement in post #5.2.3. I'm simply asking you to back it up. Why is that so hard?
Just like another on NT we go round and round with because she absolutely detests me and those that do not share her narrow minded views.
The attitudes required is the attitudes needed to remove the incompetence from the POTUS and VPOTUS.
As far as the "sober recognition". I've yet to see ONE example of Biden doing ANYTHING to benefit the country. Unless abandoning US Citizens in Afghanistan, open borders and Kim, Jong Un style leadership is a benefit.
Trump is only a nightmare because so many people are so fed up that they'll accept Trump as a sane alternative. Or accept Bernie Sanders as a sane alternative, for that matter.
The intellectuals, technocratic liars, and financial cheaters are talking up another Civil War. But what we're actually seeing is the beginnings of another American Revolution. A government of, by, and for aristocrats won't stand in America.
What are we going to have with Trump? A government ( and a political base) of morons, liars, cheats, crooks and racist halfwits?
So, democrats.
Same song, different singer?
What have we got to lose? At this point the political class is tearing down America anyway. The political class is turning government into an aristocratic institution for their own benefit. The aristocrats are treating the working class as enemies of the state.
Trump's Big Lie is a direct attack on the political aristocracy. You think a Socialist Revolution would be any different?
Trump is a lifelong crook, pathological liar, diseased narcissist, racist, and moron. You are badly and disastrously misinformed about Trump.
I have never seen a post from you Greg that indicates you have even the slightest grasp of facts about Trump.
Isn't that why Trump became a politician? You are only listing the necessary skills for a career in politics.
You know, Joe Biden isn't asking us if he's doing a good job. Biden is telling us he's doing a good job. That's what all the politicians in Congress are doing, too. Politicians don't have to give a damn what we think.
You seem to think I'm trying to make Trump more than what he is. What I'm saying is that Trump ain't any different then the other politicians running the government for their own benefit. Joe Biden is just like Donald Trump; Biden has only done it longer. None of them give a damn what we think.
Complete nonsense. Trump and trumpism has eroded the moral character of our country.
You're mistaking "slightest grasp of facts" for "zero shits to give".
A predominantly white society of genocidal, slave owning, Bible thumping Fascists doesn't have any moral character to erode. Didn't you get the memo?
It's 1619, get with the program. The only way to build moral character is to burn it down, defund it, and demand reparations.
America has made a lot of progress since the 1950's when many Southern States were still pushing segregation and turning fire hoses and police dogs on black American children simply trying to access an education or sandwich at a lunch counter. Sadly, the recent resurrection of such vile bigots under Trumps banner has begun to erode the progress that had been made.
Donald Trump tried to steal the last election. How much moral character do people who support him anyway actually have?
Yep, they're deplorable. That's what a career politician from Arkansas told us, it must be so.
Yep, we've progressed to race riots in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and any number of other cities north of Mason-Dixon. Since the Democratic Party was created in 1964 things have gotten so much better.
They have for millions of Americans who previously were treated as 2nd or 3rd class citizens not eligible for the same rights as the '1st class' white Christian conservatives. When people look back fondly at the 1950's it's pretty much guaranteed they're not black, gay, trans, just about any other minority or non-Christian, and few women look back at those times fondly either.
The fact is there were riots and violence and vandalism and looting back then as well, just look at Tulsa in 1921 when whites murdered, looted and burned a black neighborhood down with little to no consequences.
We have made a lot of progress since then and life is better for more people today then worse. Sure, there are always those right wing white conservative Christians who bemoan the fact that most of society around them no longer celebrates their white conservative Christian lifestyle like they used to with few representations of the white bread "Leave it to Beaver" family as the American ideal.
the moral character of this country was being eroded long before trump became a household name , or started living rent free in peoples minds ...
Anyone with more than half a brain can clearly see that the white Christian conservative Southern Democrats of the past have been fully integrated into the current white Christian conservative Southern Republicans of today. Trying to claim some false equivalence between the diverse progressive liberal Democratic party of today and the confederate loving conservative Christian Democrats of the past simply because they share the word "Democrat" is beyond ignorant, it's intentionally obtuse.
It has always only been a battle between ideologies, right wing Christian conservatives who have always fought to conserve the status quo of systemic racism and prejudice versus progressive liberals fighting to change that status quo and make America more accessible for all regardless of race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, faith or lack thereof. Anyone telling you anything different is either too fucking stupid to bother debating or intentionally dishonest and trying desperately to hide the truth.
Doesn't matter. Trump's greatest fear is the prospect of testifying under oath----ABOUT ANYTHING----with the cameras rolling. He won't do it because he can't--because that would diminish the effectiveness of the Trumpian grift. Not to mention the criminal enterprises he would be forced to use The Fifth Amendment on. His crash would be immediate.