They are afraid of us. There is no other way to explain the insane MAGA talking points — we hate America and are Antifa terrorists all being paid by a mystery billionaire. The American people, in the millions, on the streets on 10/18, will shake the dictator and his fascist enablers to their core.
Right now, the forces of liberal democracy and decency are losing the battle for America. All three pillars of our constitutional balance of power design are compromised. Congress, under the MAGA thumb, is castrated and afraid to assume its Article I mandate. The dictator is inventing powers with no checks, no balances. The Right’s 50-year plan to install federalist Quislings in the courts is mostly in place. The Supreme Court is a rubber stamp for expanding executive power. We must give the authoritarians and Christian nationalists credit. They have been working toward this moment for decades. The rise of Trump and the complete collapse of the Democratic Party are the lucky circumstances that merely used the nascent authoritarian infrastructure.
Thugs and brownshirts in masks are just beginning their reign of terror. The Democrats’ failure on immigration gave the fascists the opening they needed to build the Army of the Interior, a feature of every authoritarian regime. The endless infusion of your taxes to build out this internal terror infrastructure is only beginning to come online. For every outrage you see in your social media feed, know that this is as weak as they will ever be. This is the moment to put our counterrevolution into the streets. They know this and are afraid.
It’s our turn now. Across the world, popular uprisings have been an essential feature in taking down dictators and fascists. I think especially of the brave people of Ukraine and the relentless thousands who occupied Maidan Nezalezhnosti or Independence Square, the central town square of Kyiv. The dictatorship, with Russia’s overt support, was deeply entrenched and the heroic, relentless protests brought down the evil regime. And today, Ukrainians are dying to hold a newborn democracy. They don’t have our 250-year tradition of liberal democracy. But it’s the newness of the idea of freedom that empowers their fight. Maybe we got lazy and forgot that the American experiment, from its founding, was a precarious choice. Now that we are on the verge of losing our democracy, can we revive the steadfastness that the baby democracy in Ukraine has embraced?
To the streets. What we have now is the undeniable power of millions of Americans across the country. We MUST practice non-violence because the fascists are dying to create a broader imaginary emergency. Pause with that idea. Their emergency is Americans using their First Amendment rights. That is not strength. That is weakness. At some point, the thrashing MAGA regime with increase the violence. This has always been true when dictators fall. Stay brave. Those spasms are the thrashing of a dying beast.
You don’t need a sign, don’t have to march. The power of this movement is in the simple act of being present and pumping millions of pictures out on social media. Small towns, big cities, a country road — anywhere. Our standing up will shatter the confidence of the royal court of the fascist wannabe king. WE are what is inevitable, not them. Don’t wait for the midterms and vote. Vote now with your feet.
I have been obsessed with political messaging since I was a child.
Great messages win.
“Nixon’s the One” beat “Come Home America”
“We Shall Overcome” beat “State’s Rights”
It’s the Economy Stupid” beat “A Proud Tradition.”
“Yes We Can.” beat “Country First”
“Right to Life” beat “Choice”
Make America Great Again” Well, that killed us… twice.
When I worked in City Hall, my boss, Nick Fish, and I were fanatics about always knowing your clear message. In campaigns and governing, the message is the thing. When the public forgets the policy, the vote, the promise, they will remember the message or slogan. Entire campaigns have been won and lost on the message. Do you remember Kamala Harris’ message? Nope. But you damn sure know what MAGA and the red hat mean.
Out of the box, the organizers of the advocacy group Indivisible stumbled upon the simple message: NO KINGS, I was excited. Simple. Clear. Fits on a hat, a sign, a hand-drawn poster. It has historical and patriotic meaning. The sub-messaging anyone could do under the No Kings slogan was endless. I, and 2 other neighbors, still have those signs up in front of our homes.
Out for a walk last week, I saw new neighbors moving in and walked up to introduce myself. I tried to tell them I lived around the corner, and they looked confused. Finally, I said, “It’s the house with the No Kings sign in the front yard.” They both lit up and smiled. “No Kings,” said the gentleman. “We like that sign,” said the daughter. We shook hands and had an immediate bond.
On the day of the No Kings national rally, millions of people across America took to the streets under that banner in big cities and small towns. They took that slogan and made their own variations on the theme. It was invigorating and unifying. So, what did the progressive leadership do with all that energy? What did they do with that message? NOT A DAMN THING.
The resistance movement froze like Bambi in the headlights and moved on to new rallies with different messages. Attendance collapsed. They sucked the energy out of the movement by slicing up the opposition to the new dictatorship into discrete causes, all worthy of attention and already forgotten. The left’s genetic desire to include a diverse base is the deadly flaw.
Look what happened to the historic and powerful Rainbow Flag. Now, it’s covered with multicolor chevrons that dilute the power. They had the perfect, universally known symbol and turned it into an identitarian mess. Kind of like HBO becoming MAX and now, realizing the mistake, changing back to HBO. Capitalists are dumb too. To win, and only winning and power count, the left must suppress the desire to please everyone. Hard, I know, but we are at war with MAGA, and they are as focused as assassins with our country sighted in their scopes.
My plea is simple. When you have a winner, a single symbol or message that works, for all our sakes, stay with it. Encourage people to improvise on specific issues under that common banner. Make it simple for people who don’t want to carve up their advocacy. Post one thought, carry one sign: NO KINGS.
This morning, I did my usual dive into the news and realized that we may have already lost the war to save our liberal democracy. Today is 200 days into the MAGA dictatorship, and the losses are all around us. Then I read this new Andrew Sullivan piece, and he said the same thing. Still this afternoon, I feel liberated. I enjoy being a guerrilla fighter underdog. You should too.
Here is my dream. On election day, November 4, the Democrats are going to win crushing victories in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races. Count on it. My dream is that on Friday of that week we all go into the streets in a national strike to drive home the wins with the message: NO KINGS. We are coming for you.
“Everything else—the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy—is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration.” Vice President, JD Vance.
You probably didn’t see that tweet. But I did—and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. It may be the most honest and dangerous thing anyone said about the MAGA budget bill Trump signed on July 4th.
America can survive another dumb tax cut. The damage to Medicaid will be real and heartbreaking, but for most people, it’ll happen quietly, invisibly. The deficit? Just one more can kick toward the cliff, waiting for the next president—Republican or Democrat—to finish the crash. But J.D. dropped a truth bomb. This wasn’t just a budget bill. It was about power. It was about building a permanent internal army, one that answers only to the president. A force that can be aimed inward, not at enemies abroad—but at us.
Every authoritarian regime builds an internally focused army. Consider:
China (Xi Jinping): Ministry of State Security – 110,000 to 800,000 operatives
North Korea (Kim Jong-un): State Security Department – possibly 100,000+
Russia (Putin): FSB – ~200,000 agents + 2,000 elite officers
These forces report to one man. They operate black sites, prisons, and torture chambers. What J.D. Vance is saying—intentionally or not—is that America is building its own version of the East German Stasi or the Nazi Gestapo, and everything else is “immaterial.”
In America, our internal army comes disguised as immigration enforcement. The new MAGA bill funnels $170 billion to the Department of Homeland Security—making immigration departments larger than the entire U.S. Marine Corps, and more expensive than Israel’s entire defense budget. ICE alone receives $30 billion. And here’s the trick: the $46 billion earmarked for “the wall” is completely fungible. They can spend it on anything. They are anticipating 10,000 new soldiers with loyalty to Trump being the primary vetting.
In MAGA-speak, every undocumented immigrant is a criminal. So, when Stephen Miller says, “We’re going after criminals,” what he really means is everybody. First, it’s “illegals,” then green card holders, then naturalized citizens. Those are American citizens. And if them—why not journalists? Protesters? Judges? You? Authoritarian internal armies don’t disappear when the job is “done.” They grow, adapt and find new enemies. Vance told us what’s coming. Believe him.
Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol wrote:
“Immigration is an area where the U.S. President can exercise virtually unchecked legal coercive power, especially if backed by a Supreme Court majority and a corrupted Department of Justice. … much of this windfall to be used for graft with private contractors Trump patronizes, but lots of it to hire street agents willing to mask themselves and do whatever they are told against resident and fellow American citizens. The Miller-Trumpites are not interested in only rounding up undocumented immigrants.”
We’ve already seen the outlines of what this looks like:
An Iranian woman, quietly living in the U.S. for 40 years, taken from her garden. A man with three sons in the Marine Corps, detained at a work site. In Los Angeles, Monday (Fox News embedded), masked and heavily armed officers—some on horseback—conducting a coordinated sweep of MacArthur Park. They made no arrests. When confronted by the Los Angeles mayor, Border Patrol leadership said they did it to prove they could go anywhere, anytime.
It’s not about protecting Americans. It’s about setting the terms of obedience.
My family, proudly, has 5 generations of law enforcement. I spent eight years as a public safety liaison to a city commissioner, working to keep Portland inside the Joint Terrorism Task Force. The essence of good law enforcement is a strong desire to do public service. However, there is always a dark current in some of law enforcement, a frustration that because they live the front lines, they know best. Civilian authority and that pesky constitution are unwelcome limits. You see it in Border Patrol leadership interviews. They are gleeful they “finally get to do their job.” Behind many of those menacing masks are smiles. Not because they’re proud to serve, but because they feel unleashed.
Authoritarians understand how to manipulate the culture of law enforcement. They’ve done it repeatedly. The Netflix documentary “Ordinary Men” examines how the Nazis turned everyday German police officers into roving death squads—the Einsatzgruppen. Many weren’t soldiers. They were civil police. The regime exploited their unit cohesion, their separation from civilian life, and their training to follow orders without question.
That may sound extreme, but history is full of examples—from Serbia to Syria—where the line between policing and brutality dissolves under authoritarian rule.
Let me be clear: Biden and the Democrats left the door wide open for all of this. Remember 2016? Democratic candidates lining up on stage, raising their hands for “open borders.” I can only imagine the glee Stephen Miller must have felt. Democrats gave the far-right exactly the justification they needed. Americans believe in borders. Always have. Democratic leadership, bowing to the fringe left, forgot that.
Today, there is an authoritarian infrastructure inside the executive and legislative branches. Trump’s personal bigotry isn’t the point—it is merely a tool. I’ve read the academic philosophers of the MAGA right. They don’t see liberals as opponents. They see us as existential enemies. And they’re disciplined. Relentless. Strategic.
What we are confronting is not a political problem; it’s a moral collapse. That’s what makes it so dangerous.
MAGA leadership can no longer tell the difference between truth and lies. The Republican Party, as an institution, is gone. Its leaders fear their own base. Trump is running wild, and he’s winning. And yet—there is still hope. Millions of Americans who voted for Trump are feeling uncomfortable and we can make that feeling grow.
The Democratic gerontocracy is lost in their wilderness of consultant talking points. They seem to be stuck in the old paradigm of waiting for their next turn. The reactionary left wants to re-fight a culture war. The courts are lost. The Republican Senate majority is locked for two more cycles.
That leaves us with one last opportunity: Take back the House in 2026. If Democratic leaders, all of us, aren’t waking up every day working toward a House majority, then the American experiment—250 years in the making—is over. The fight is now. Democratic leaders need to think like a guerilla force, constantly probing for weaknesses in the MAGA defenses. Nobody really cares if they are good at making long speeches on the floor of congress visible only on CSPAN.
Here’s where we start: Democratic members of Congress—majority or not—have the legal right to inspect ICE detention centers. They need to invoke that right. Loudly. Publicly. Every damn day. If they’re denied entry, make that denial the story. Every day. These are black sites. Concentration camps. Exposed, these are places that would offend most Americans.
Sunshine is our weapon.
Call and write your representatives. Demand they do their job. Demand they expose what’s being done in our name. Tell them to form oversight strike teams and go to every ICE holding building and camp in the country. Make the revulsion you feel universal.
This is a long fight. As shocking as it may be, MAGA is just getting started. The Project 2025 checklist is not nearly complete. But we win this one battle at a time.
Under the great comb-over weave, there is no policy. No economy. No separation of powers. There is no republic or federalism. There is no religion or science. No justice. No education or compassion. There is only pathology.
Oh, our lives go on in families and small communities. Babies arrive. People die. Dogs smile and crows squawk. Little things and big ones seem much like before. But the whole, that essential flawed nation, forever seeking renewal under 250-year-old aspirations, has no existence apart from the rotting mind of one man. We are all living in Trump’s brain.
My Proof:
Asked on Wednesday how he would decide on any further exemptions, Mr. Trump said: “Instinctively, more than anything else. I mean, you almost can’t take a pencil to paper. It’s really more of an instinct, I think, than anything else.”
Trump claimed: “I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make a deal.”
Mocking the pleas of foreign leaders, he parodied: “Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir!”
Definition: Megalomania — a delusional mental illness that is marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur.
The president has a hole in his being that he knows, to his core, can be filled with the love of others and the exercise of singular power. Nothing else matters. He is incapable of compassion or empathy. Starving hundreds of thousands in Africa gets no more attention than deciding on his blue or red tie in the morning. Crashing the world economy has no victims but him. Facts, data, charts, graphs are only useful if his courtiers can contort them to fit his most recent thought.
We have known this for years, but for me the tariff episode and those quotes from his 2-hour speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee two days ago erased any self-delusion that systems and rationality, of any sort, will save us from Trump’s decaying mind.
Look closely at the words. This man has at his fingertips the vastest information processing power in the world. ANY question can be answered in minutes based on some of the best minds in the world. But that isn’t necessary. Look at the simplicity of his formulation, “can’t take a pencil to paper.” When is the last time you sharpened a number 2 yellow pencil? He says the word “computer” as if an object appeared in front of him from a red smoke cloud.
No, for the president, his “instinct” is the ultimate arbiter of every decision. His two victories (thank you Democrats) and surviving a bullet have only reinforced the narcissistic surety that his every thought is truth. He is the divinely anointed king. I just finished the terrific book “Fight” about the 2024 campaigns. His campaign, now White House, team knows they can never change his mind, but occasionally, over time, they can erode his thinking to a different conclusion. They are all Cromwell in service of Henry VIII. Their heads, one day, will roll too.
The impending crash of the international order and economy is the best thing that Trump has ever done… for Trump. At long last, he has proven that he, alone, is the world’s essential man. He was joyful saying “kissing my ass” followed by acting out, begging and submission. This is everything he ever wanted, and yet, watching clips from the 2-hour sycophancy that is his cabinet meeting, he seems to go through the motions. The 78-year-old man is tired and all the slobbering over him is not having the vital palliative effect. Even his cabinet seems baffled. After all, all this obedience and narrow focus love is what he requires… isn’t it?
Because I am that guy, I also just read “Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future,” by Patrick Deneen. It’s graduate school dry, but I wanted to understand the philosophical essence that is driving the most dangerous Trump artifacts, the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society courtiers who created and are now enacting Project 2025. These are smart, committed people who have been preparing for this moment for decades. The Democrats, god rest their souls, don’t have any apparatus that approaches their single-minded, detailed planning.
I won’t bother going into the reasons for Project 2025 from the book. You can see the results in your daily doom scroll. What is most interesting is how they view Trump. In 300 pages, he is barely mentioned. They needed two tools for their plan, a populist revolt (thank you NAFTA and Woke overreach), and a demagogue to capture all the rage. Clearly, for them, Trump was merely an ‘as good as any’ option. Trump is a tool, a step needed to change society and overthrow the Enlightenment constitutional core that has sustained America since the founding. Trump is not the plan. He can’t be. They fear his erratic nature because they are rational. However, if a mentally ill old man births regime change, then so be it. The fact he is ancient is the icing on the cake. The plan will outlive the puppet.
I went to the Tesla takedown and will continue to take part in rallies not dominated by the progressive fringe. It was heartening. I mean that literally. Waving at smiling people in passing cars was good for my heart. I can’t recommend this sort of action enough. Beware, I am sure that when the numbers are in the millions, as they need to be, Trump will take actions he has learned from dictators everywhere. Don’t let that stop you.
But in the end, I am even more convinced that my original solution is the only way out. Constructive Nihilism is how we put down this rabid, wasted brain dog. The courts will not save us. Trump long ago mastered the judicial branch. The Republican party is dead. There are no good Republicans, only MAGA. They crave power like I do late night french fries after a club show. They are terrorized. As much as Trump scares us, he scares them more.
Sorry. I have no ponies to give. This will only end through pain. We had our chance to stop Trump, and Biden ripped it away from us. The more widely Trump’s empty soul vacuums up people’s lives, the better for us. The rich soil of rebirth builds layers in what Trump lays to waste.
Take care of yourselves. Be active. And… wait like a guerilla army of insurgents watching for the first signs of weakness in the enemy. Yea, we are at war now because they are with us and we have no choice.
The constitutional crisis is here. Most Americans do not know what that means, so let me break it down. For 250 years, what has made America special is that we don’t pledge allegiance to a place or a person, we pledge to a document. The Constitution. All our elected officials swear an oath to uphold that document. Our army pledges to defend that document. It is the one idea that has kept us from the despotism that has plagued the rest of the world. This week, that’s right, this week the fiber of our Constitution could be torn apart by the act of one man, Donald Trump. This is how it will happen.
The founders were careful to write checks and balances into our national plan by having three co-equal branches of government: The Executive, Congress and Courts. The theory that has worked until now is that should any of the three try to take too much power, then one, or both, of the other branches will step in to thwart the power grab. In all cases, the power of only one can stand against the excess of any two other branches. Right now, we are in utter imbalance.
The Congress has been ceded power to the presidency for decades. Why? It makes their lives easier. The less they handle, the better their chances of offending no voters and getting reelected. But even with that dynamic, Congress has remained stubborn about it fundamental powers. No more. The new Republican Congress has abdicated its oversight powers in favor of fealty to President Trump. As an example, the president has no power to end agencies created by congress, but as Trump/Elon run wild, congress says nothing. In fact, they are more likely to line-up behind the executive.
Elon Musk, acting for Trump, has triggered the crisis that will break America. Many people were relieved when the courts issued temporary restraining orders (TRO) to halt the illegal work of DOGE. But for Trump, this is exactly what he needed. The TRO, and any subsequent court orders, are the lever he needs to finally, and fully, remove the executive branch from constitutional control. This morning, both Elon and VP Vance have said that the courts have no power over the executive. They simply don’t recognize the Article III branch of government. What is most frightening is that they may have the power to ignore all court orders. How does that happen?
It is an oddity of our system that the courts depend upon the executive to enforce their orders. It works like this. If Musk/Trump defy a court order and continue DOGE access to computer systems, then the court will say that they are in contempt of court and order the US Marshall Service (USMS) to enforce the order. Here’s where it all breaks down. Even though marshals have sworn to defend the constitution, they are part of the Justice Department under Trump AG Pam Bondi, who has will do anything Trump says. Even if the individual marshals attempt to do their job, they are likely to be removed by a series of Trump loyalist bosses. Once the first order is rendered dead, the entire system of justice collapses. It doesn’t matter if the order comes from the Supreme Court. If there is no one to enforce the order then there is no order. We have entered a lawless state where the constitution no longer applies and one branch, the executive, Donald Trump, has absolute power. At that moment of that first defiance, America is a dictatorship.
Let’s be clear, read Project 2025, this was always the plan. The new framers are steadfast believers in the unitary executive. Trump’s appointees to the courts are vetted to support this theory which states that the president has powers that are superior to the other two branches of government. So, America, enjoy the super bowl. Keep an eye on the prices of those eggs. We are, at most,days from finding out if America is still America. And, when Trump does what he has said he will do, as they say when the final whistle is blown: ballgame!
I can’t look away. Trump is back and for my mental health, I would be better off digging a bunker in my backyard by hand, then crawling into it with a bottle of pinot noir. As a political normie, one who loves the noble experiment in liberal democracy and occasionally flies the stars and stripes next to my garage door, I am fearful that all the guardrails are now gone. A well-oiled team of authoritarian adjacent apparatchiks will join Trump’s malfeasance and blundering stupidity in this second term. Hell, the arrogant pricks published the plan of how they will dismantle our state. While Trump will be the headline, the real threat is, as is almost always the case, the true believers whose names you and I may never know. However, given what is coming (multiply your worst case by 10), I have a plan and you will not like it.
First define the terms:
Constructive: Serving a useful purpose; tending to build up.
Nihilism:The rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.
That’s right. I am going to approach Trump 47 as a constructive nihilist. Hear me out.
Because Biden and the Democrats ignored the voters, MAGA is now in charge. They have all three branches of government. I don’t believe Americans were fooled or are vile morons for supporting MAGA. I believe the data shows that in a change election; they were not offered a change. The MAGA victory resulted from Democratic hubris. But here’s the good news: Trump and MAGA oversee EVERYTHING. At noon on Monday, there is no hiding behind the Democrats. Pottery Barn rules. When they break it, they own it.
This is also why I want Trump to get all his cabinet picks. We need the most refined and potent form of MAGA on the front lines. They need to follow all Trump orders and Democrats, weak as they are, need to stay out of the way. The key to successful Constructive Nihilism posits that the American people have to suffer. MAGA voters, Democratic voters, no one can be exempt from the results of the malign forces that are about to be unleashed. It must be so bad that people yearn for the humble bureaucratic public servant. In essence, MAGA must make government great again.
No matter what the opposition to MAGA does, there will be casualties. Constructive Nihilism makes every loss a victory. We play the long game now. All eyes need to be on the 2026 and 2028 elections. To take down MAGA we need measles outbreaks across the country that kill children. We need endless videos of sprawling migrant concentration camps and American troops standing on the border. More crying children as their parents are hauled away. Medicare and Medicaid on the chopping block to secure tax breaks for the wealthy. Shut down every clean energy project and ramp up carbon extraction with hopefully worse air quality in our cities. Tariffs everywhere. Crash the economy. Shut down more rural hospitals, especially in red states. Show endless pictures of celebrating oligarchs at the White House. Make our water less clean, our drugs less reliable, our press less free. And most importantly, the Democratic opposition needs to track every Trump campaign promise and, on a daily basis, remind America about failures to meet those promises.
The awful things are coming anyhow, so why not embrace and exploit them to take down MAGA. Make American Miserable Again. Here’s the good news. The actual window for this damage is 2 years. Ignore the Trump bluster about running again. He has to say that because he knows on 1/20/25 he is a lame duck. Worse yet, for Trump, about the time of the midterms, an internecine war will erupt in the Republican Party as ambitious acolytes fire up campaigns to replace him. This will drive him nuts and there isn’t a damn thing he can do about it. Ambition is the one true drug of politicians. Enough damage will have been done in 2 years that new wave MAGA will have to throw shade on the aging despot to claim they are now the change America needs.
All of this seems an odd philosophy for a student of Zen. Yea, I can see that. Where is the compassion for others? I believe the path to a better future comes by embracing and exploiting the pain. This is a political war. Like the American founders did, I have been studying the ancient Roman Republic and its fall. Madison and Jefferson had almost no historical models for a representative democracy, so looked at Rome’s failures to design their constitutional safeguards. It has worked for 250 years, admittedly a long in the tooth test. But my read also tells me that there were several points in the collapse of the Roman Republic where defenders were timid and bargained for power, made deals with the devil to save the republic. Those defenders ended up hung on crosses or beheaded or bleeding out in their own bathtubs with a knife in their hand. If we are to save our republic, we need to be as clear-eyed and ruthless as our opposition. One founder, Thomas Paine was a fanatic for democracy and freedom. He wrote, “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country.”
It’s past time to purge the cautious and the politically correct from the Democratic Party. Dump the old folks and promote a new generation of leadership steeped in the last decade of MAGA vileness. You can read my call to Democrats here. MAGA is not designed to govern. It only thrives as outside anger. When in power, these fanatics will overreach repeatedly. Constructive Nihilism is an ugly philosophy for an ugly time. Exploit every horror so we can retire the concept in 4 years.
Maybe the best thing for America is that Trump crushed the Democrats hopes and dreams on Tuesday. When America needed a genuine opposition party to stand against the march of populist authoritarians, the Democrats responded with… well… nothing. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I sent the Harris campaign money, got the hat, put up the sign and hoped. But by looking at the Times county by county map, I realized by 6:30 PM that Harris was toast. Trump ran up 2 to 10% margins over the 2020 Biden numbers. In the end, Harris did not beat the Biden 2020 vote totals in ANY county.
For almost 2 years, about 70% of Americans said they did not Biden to run for a second term. His approval rating hovered below Trump. Biden’s hubris and narcissism lost this election before it began. His staff hid his infirmity. He lied to America. Yesterday, it was revealed that as early as last January his internal polling said he would lose by 400 Electoral votes and his staff was badmouthing Kamala to reporters on background. America spoke and arrogant Democrats ignored it. And when, at the debate, he showed he could not run, he waited another month then anointed Harris. Here’s the cold, hard truth. If a hotly contested primary process had resulted in a younger male candidate, Trump would not be the president-elect. I can hear the yelling at me now….
Already, Democrats are blaming the loss on racism and misogyny. I don’t doubt there are maybe 3 points in the final totals that may reflect long held American beliefs. Let me repeat that LONG HELD AMERICAN BELIEFS. You don’t have to like American attitudes about a female president. But if your party says Trump is a fascist, then you damn sure better take that issue off the table. Running a woman was a mistake. I am a cold-hearted old political hack and I never give the enemy a running start. In fact, I have long held that the first woman elected president in America will be a Republican. Yup, ala Maggie Thatcher. It’s the Nixon goes to China of gender politics. Win first. Change opinions later.
My lifetime worst president is Gerald Ford because he cut a deal to pardon Nixon. (BTW, if we had tried Nixon, the current Supreme Court would have had no basis to declare presidential immunity.) Now Biden joins Ford on my lowest ring of presidential hell.
Care to guess what the most effective, most run, Trump commercials were? Yup, the trans adds. Those ads disgusted Democrats as hateful. News flash, those ads were not about trans people, they were about fairness. Given their rising rents, that a criminal gets transitioning surgery free was insane to most Americans. Penises in girl’s locker rooms was disgusting. Trans girls in boys’ bodies beating biological girls in sports was simply unfair. The Trump campaign didn’t have to run against ‘woke.’ They only needed this one signifier to demonstrate that something was deeply wrong, utterly unfair, about Kamala and Democrats. It worked.
What the left doesn’t understand is that most Americans do not hate trans people. If you started the entire conversation about gender dysphoria from a different place, they would be on your side.
Try this: We all know that some people have a condition that tells them they are in the wrong body. It isn’t a choice. This is painful for them at first and makes other people uncomfortable. But we can agree that we don’t want to have people in pain all the time. What can we all do to help make their lives easier?
Instead, the academic left has declared that trans boys and girls are actual boys and girls. This is the radical construct of critical gender theory shoved down people’s throats. I said over a year that this issue alone would kill the Democrats in the election, and guess what, it did.
Why didn’t the Democratic party fight back on the Trump commercials? I heard Rick Wilson from the Lincoln Project say that they expected the Republican trans attack and brought Democrats an ad package to counter the hit. Democratic leadership rejected the offer. They said people don’t care about that issue. And there it is, the elite Democratic party at work. Broad swaths of America feel like Democrats only punch down. Donald Trump became their champion because he called bullshit. Admit it, the inherent disdain for blue collar America reeks from Democrats. From Hillary’s ‘deplorables’ to Biden’s ‘garbage’ the voters got the message loud and clear.
How many Americans can define the word fascist? Can you? Even when General Kelly told the reporter he thought Trump was one, he had to read the Webster’s definition to clarify what he meant. Yet, the Harris campaign ran on that for almost 3 weeks. In focus groups run by the Bulwark, participants were not sure what authoritarian meant, let alone fascist. Democrats design their messages for other college educated Democrats.
Harris never came up with a simple message to describe Trump’s tariffs. Imagine if the messaging geniuses at the Harris campaign had said this:
I like to watch Sunday football on a big TV. I bet you do too. So, Walmart or Costco has a good sale on a 72 inch beauty and you go down to pick it up on sale for 800 bucks. Except when you get there the Trump tariffs have gone in effect and now it costs $960. “Hey, what happened?” you as the clerk. “Tariffs,” she says. “But China has to pay those.” “No, the TV maker pays, so does the shipper and to pay me the same salary, the price has to go up. I hate it too, but there isn’t any choice”.
See how simple that is. No economics lecture. Just tell people straightforward stories. If the Democrats don’t take this as a lesson, they are done.
I know that people on the left are yelling at Trump voters. How could you!!?? Well, here is the one the Democrats didn’t expect. Trump has assembled an economically diverse, multi-ethnic coalition anchored by the American working class. Yea, those are the Trump voters. Sure that are MAGA lunatics, as surely as there a progressive Hamas lovers. Extremes gonna extreme. But Trump’s new coalition is exactly who Democrats claim they want. The arrogance of coastal academic elites sitting around talking about poor people or the brown wave that was going to save them has come home to roost. Identity is not predictive and people shoved into identity holes will rebel.
What now?
Democrats are now fully a traditional parliamentary opposition party. Powerless to stop the government. Opposition is about pouncing on every misstep of the government. It requires cold hearted unity of purpose and messaging. It requires political operatives who are natural born killers. No, they can’t duplicate the media bubble that the right has, but they can pierce it repeatedly. And no, the Democrats don’t have to go further left. Bernie lost twice. Two members of the ‘squad’ lost in primaries. Harris had the right idea with a new center coalition but there was no way in hell a California liberal could sell that. Democrats have an impressive bench in the states. The phoenix must rise from there, not DC
There will be casualties to Trumpism. I ache for the brave people of Ukraine who lose citizens every day to a fascist, Putin. But in opposition, your job is to catalogue and publicize every MAGA victim, every day. Hammer away and get ready for the 2026 midterms where the battlefield is more friendly.
I hope MAGA takes the House. I want the public to see unmitigated Trump. He won it fair and square. This is his time. Let him destroy enough government for Americans to demand more government. And, for god’s sake, stop talking to Americans like they are all from another planet.
In other words, stop being THIS accursed current Democratic Party. Wake the fuck up!
I am a political wonk and an unabashed patriot. When everyone I know has had it with campaigns and politics, I am still digging in. I can’t help myself. National election day is Christmas and Opening Day and perfect tacos all rolled into one.
In 2016, I wasn’t following Trump; I was getting way into the weeds of the Clinton campaign and saw it for the hubristic disaster it was. I knew she was going to lose. This time? In the middle of last week, I relaxed. I saw that what the Harris/Walz team was doing was working. And on Saturday, with the drop of the Selzer Iowa poll I was done. Harris has this.
I think the endless polling is missing 3 critical things. Women are fucking pissed off about Dobbs and body autonomy. Harris is genuine on this issue and has given a home to the rage that so many women feel. (Yes, and many of us men.) She gave them something they can do, and by god, they are doing it at the polls. Trump doubling down and taking credit for Dobbs was bear putting its face in the trap. National polling is using 2020 models as a base. Nonsense. Those models grossly underestimate the women’s vote. The gender gap is stunning. Trump’s ‘bro’ strategy is a loser. Bros Boast. Women Vote. Simple as that.
If you are not looking at the right sources, it hard to see the killer instinct of the Harris ground game in swing states. I look at Threads to see the stories from actual canvassers across the nation. In 2008, because I the policy guy on the Nick Fish campaign, I was mostly at my laptop all day at our way too big campaign headquarters. We got a call that the Obama field warriors were parachuting in and they needed a place to crash as they were ahead of the getting homes lined up. All that day, they kept arriving from states that had already voted. Mostly young people, but few elders, I helped lay out sleeping bags and showed them where they could get a cheap burrito. They were exhausted, unkempt, unshaven but full of conviction that they were on the right mission. When the room settled, they mostly fell asleep. Back at my laptop, I fought back tears seeing our democracy kept alive by those kids crumpled up in sleeping bags around me. The numbers of calls and door knocks for Harris is beyond even Obama 2008. People come from all over the country, burn their vacations to door knock. Hell, I saw a crew that came from London to Pennsylvania because they felt they were needed. If there is a vote to be had, the Harris foot weary team will find it.
My third solace? Republicans. What? I am an independent who for years has lived in the land of the never Trumpers. What they say most clearly is that the Republican party is dead and not coming back. MAGA is the party now. But this is an enormous opportunity for Harris/Walz. About 15% of old school Republicans will not vote for Trump. Once, not twice. They were Haley protest voters in Republican primaries. By the lights at the Bulwark and other anti-Trump Republicans, Harris has played their outreach almost perfectly. Canvasers who have gotten the wink and the nod at doors and neighbors who report that Trump signs and flags have suddenly disappeared from their neighbor’s yards corroborate the Harris commercials about secret Trump voters. I think that when the story is written about this campaign we will all owe a debt to Republicans who voted their values and not their cult.
What were you doing at 4 PM on Saturday? I was refreshing my phone waiting for the Ann Selzer’s poll to drop from Iowa. So were all the other political wonks. I had to read the topline numbers several times. She has Harris up 3 in Iowa. Trump won Iowa by 9 in previous races. Selzer called that too. Her method that is the gold standard as she does not use the past to study the future. She looks at what is. Her poll in 2016 was the death knell of the Clinton campaign. Believe Selzer. What was driving her numbers? Women, especially white women over 65. Every male advantage in the poll was blown away by angry conservative women. Sometimes 2 to 1. All older women know the world before Roe, and guess what, they are telling those stories to their daughters and granddaughters.
Anger is the white hot emotion. It has fueled Trump and MAGA, and don’t get me wrong, with isolated information bubbles, it still works. But Trump is fading. His closing argument is all anger. It is an emotion that burns itself out. His rallies are a death march of half full arenas and bored cult members. The show is played, and he knows it. Stories inside his campaign smell of panic as they turn on each other. Fire up the schadenfreude.
So, there it is. So I have been sleeping easy. Oh, there will be endless fuckery by MAGA to reject the results. But Congress changed the electoral college act to block the paths of 2020. And, the Harris campaign is insanely lawyered up with go teams in every critical state. Trump has no new tricks and even the early attempts to mess with our elections have already been rejected by courts. Keep Calm and Carry on.
This is my very educated guess. I also think Democrats will take the House and lose the Senate. And… if I am correct, trends will tell us by midnight tomorrow if I am right. If Trump is underperforming in red states, watch out kids….
Vote. Take care of your friends and family and most importantly… Know hope.
Surrounded by venal enablers, our two candidates have morphed into the same person. Oh, we always understood Trump’s pathology, fully on display in his convention speech. No amount of praise and false love will fill the hole in his soul. But Joe Biden fooled us, didn’t he? Clearly in steep mental decline, he has become what he claims to hate, the grasping narcissist, demanding we ignore what we see and exclaiming to the sky, in a messianic pose, that he is the only who can save us from evil. Saying only god can dissuade him. Think of it, “only God above.”
As I watch this tragedy unfold, I am drawn constantly to my recently departed father. We are car people, the Blackwood family. Dad was the icon. He and mom travelled hundreds of thousands of miles side by side. Going for a ride was how you relaxed, how you talked it out, and how you absorbed the world around you. In his mid-80s, dad decided he was going to drive from Southern California to Phoenix to see his beloved Dodgers at spring training. So, I got his tickets for him, then he loaded his walker in his car and set out. He saw the Dodgers, then made a side trip to see the Grand Canyon one more time. He was in his element behind the wheel.
One day, after that trip, dad announced he was selling his car because the pain in shoulder was so aggravated by the seatbelt. But here’s the nature we don’t see in Biden. He said he could bear the pain, but he needed to stop driving because he was worried his pain would distract him and he might accidentally harm someone else with his car. This is the grace Biden does not have. We should all be so aware of ourselves and others to make such a momentous decision.
Millions of Americans have experienced the dynamics that faced my father. There is that moment that for the sake of others, the family gathers and tells their elder that it is time to take the car keys. We all have seen this happen or heard the stories of friends who have had to do this. It is through these eyes that people, not elites, not the media, we normies living our lives, now see Joe Biden. He is a man who has done good work, and now, like all of us one day, the debt to father time must be paid.
Here, the stakes are mindboggling. It’s America that will pay if the other mentally decaying old man is elected. I called for Biden not to run in an essay over a year ago. I have gone from concern to frustration to rage at seeing him the last few months. How dare he say that if he loses, he will be satisfied if he did his best. That is a narcissist speaking. Worse, Joe Biden will be fine if Trump wins. He is just another rich, old white guy completely insulated from the impending disaster. I don’t give a damn about his feelings, Jill’s problem or the goals of is sycophants. If he is in anguish, he brought it upon himself. Be gone or be damned.
Clearly, the only path to stop Trump is a younger candidate. This was always true and is now in stark relief. Last night, in his speech, the evil MAGA icon rolled over and exposed his belly. He is vulnerable, waiting for a political pummeling. Yet today, what do we hear from Biden? He’s still in and will be back next week. NEXT FUCKING WEEK!!!? America has to wait for yet another recovery as Trump gains more momentum?
This is time for bold moves and chaos. The media loves chaos and dumping Biden for a new, younger candidate would suck in all the air in the race. Embrace chaos. Embrace change. The contrast in age and energy alone will give any candidate a 5 point bump. Harris? For every racist, misogynist we lose, we retake young people and independents among the 70% of voters starved for someone new. Right now, all is lost. President, House and Senate. We have the history. A presidential wipeout destroys layers of down ballot Democrats. If a new candidate merely keeps it close, we would could take the House as a bulwark to Trump. The math in the Senate was always awful. Democrats are toast there. But there we have the filibuster if we can keep it in range.
Since I was 12 years old, I have been a political junkie. I love it. I love America. I love the business of campaigns. But now, if Biden stays in, I don’t know. I may have to walk away from my passion to save my soul. We are hanging by a thread. Don’t ignore the evidence of your eyes. Contact your representatives and tell them Biden is done. This is a change election. Either Trump can be the change or a younger Democrat. Time to choose.
Typical Memory Care resting face. Copyright Guardian
This morning, I woke up livid. I am angry that Joe Biden has revealed himself, not as a patriot, but as the most typical, hubris infected narcissist of a politician. Last night, the mentally ill Trump rolled over and exposed his belly before Biden and his doddering, clueless opponent could not get off a single attack line. Nothing but gibberish and over-prepped 1 and 2 and 3 and 4… who the fuck cares!? I am almost inconsolably worried that in his aged incompetence Biden has now made us all vulnerable to the evil around the world. I mean, what America hater with ill-intent wouldn’t exploit this moment? As an independent voter, I depend on the two parties to bring me suitable candidates. The Democrats, faced with an existential threat to our republic, brought me that sad, barely functional mess of a man. Damn them for putting millions of us that this position.
I was texting with friends last night. One by one, they said they couldn’t watch anymore. Not me. I stayed for the end and beyond. If you kept watching, here is what you saw. Typically, after a debate, the two candidates walk forward to take applause and greet well-wishers. The room was empty. For a moment, both candidates stood at their podiums, looking out at nothing. Wisely, Trump turned on his heal and left. Jill suddenly appeared at Joe’s side. Again, they stood staring at nothing. Then Joe decided to shake the hands of the CNN reporters. Jill reached and took a firm hold on Joe’s left hand. They walked forward and Joe turned sort of sideways, staring down at the first step. Jill studied the president as Joe hesitantly reached his foot out for the step. Jill guided him all the way down. Holy fuck, I thought, I have done that same thing with my 90-year-old father. Jill knows. The staff knows. Everyone around him knows. Joe can no longer function in the world without help. If he was a retired bus driver, we’d say, good for the loyal Jill. But he isn’t. His wife is the chief enabler of this charade.
The power of the presidency is a narcotic. The addiction’s most obvious symptom is a creeping narcissism. In the bubble around the White House the occupant comes to believe they are essential. Joe now believes he is the only one who can save us. He’s wrong. We would be fine without him. But the rationalization means he ignores what he knows about himself. The people around him, without considering it, become his props. They adjust presentation and schedule. They make excuses in the wake of mistakes. And, especially in this case, because he has had success and is a genuinely good guy, they don’t want to fail or abandon him. Who wants to tell grandpa it’s time to hand over the keys to the car for the safety of him and everyone else on the road?
Remember, Biden demanded t his early date to address the age questions. Sequestered away at Camp David, Biden staff saw for days what we saw last night. They knew he was finished. Do you see now why Biden has fewer open press conferences than any other president. Even Reagan, in early-stage dementia, gave more access to the media. Everyone in the White House knows. Democratic leadership knows. America suspected, but after last night we know. Joe Biden cannot serve another 4 years as President. Age comes to us all. In Joe’s case, it yelled from the screen at 45 million viewers last night.
Today, every rational analyst is calling for Biden to step down and give way to the next generation. Still, this morning he went to North Carolina and reading from a teleprompter was coherent if not feisty. Fools’ gold. His spontaneous remarks were seconds long. To counter last night’s disaster, he needs to do 4 events like that a day followed by national press conferences and one-on-one reporter interviews. He needs a hectic campaign schedule with complete openness to the public. But that will not happen because he simply can’t do it. Everyone around him knows. We now know.
The polls, which are already awful, will only get worse. I just listened to focus group analysis where potential Biden leaners all said they like him but will not support him. The only chance we have is for someone new to jump in at the convention and completely change the narrative. That’s it. Otherwise, we hand our sweet country over to Trump and the fascists. Hell, almost any other Democrat would be up 10 points today!
The two-minute ending statement at a debate is the most painfully, carefully crafted speech any candidate will ever deliver. It must be about the future. The messages are clear and repeatable. No 2 minutes ever gets more loving attention. Biden’s statement last night was utter gibberish, delivered with no clarity or passion. It was the rant of an old man too long at the bar after last call.
For me? I will not vote for Biden. Oregon is not a swing state, so my vote was always merely a signifier. Now, I will not lower my political candidate standard to support Biden. And, don’t tell me about the last 3 years. This election is about the next 4 years, even the next 100 years. If Biden stays in, well, America had a good run, didn’t it.
NO CLOCK 