Watching clips of Trump’s campaign rallies I flashed on a terrific movie I saw years ago about Hitler’s last days in the bunker with the Soviet Army at his door. It’s called Downfall. I watched it again a few days ago to see if I was remembering correctly. The movie is based on the memoir of his personal secretary, Traudl Junge. It opens with a documentary interview of Junge, whose loyalty to Hitler to the end she explained as some sort of madness.

In the last days before his suicide, Hitler sat in front of maps screaming at his generals and moving armies that didn’t exist. He sought only to save himself. He had already issued the “Nero Decree” of March 1945, ordering Germany’s infrastructure destroyed. Old men and boys were thrown at Russian tanks, and anyone who refused was shot on the spot as a traitor.

In the bunker were his most loyal fanatics, some who shot themselves and others who schemed to get out in time. Most believed their leader would find a way to win. Every time the actor who played Goebbels showed up, I couldn’t help but see Stephen Miller.

MAGA is now decaying like its 80-year-old leader. The president can barely keep a line of thought for a minute. I have seen clips of people reading sections of his rally speeches verbatim. Out of the mouths of anyone else, his words are insane gibberish.

In January of 2025 I published a dark essay here called: “Trump 47: Chaos is our Friend.” It is a grim forecast, not a wish. I posited a path to end the MAGA nightmare in a concept called Constructive Nihilism. Here is the crux of my argument:

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.

Can I say it now? Sure…. I told you so. The only thing I could not anticipate was a war in the Middle East that exploded gas prices. I’m prescient, but not that prescient. Now every gas pump is a democrat campaign ad America has finally reached a level of collective suffering and rage that Democrats can exploit to take back Congress. And that, kids, is the ballgame. The constitutional design of three competing branches of government will be restored.

h, don’t think the hell is over, not close. Trump and his merry band of fascists have two more years to continue to try to destroy our liberal democracy. And, like Hitler in the bunker, a demented losing Trump will only become more dangerous. The president is a sociopath surrounded by people whose entire lives are devoted to the world he has created. Get ready for the deluge.

The difference is that now Trump and his cronies will be on defense. Like Hitler’s armies, which collapsed backward to Berlin, the MAGA attacks will cause damage but fall ever back to the White House bunker.

I am a forever political junkie and election geek. Before the war started, I figured we had an outside chance to take back the House but with a narrow margin. Now, looking across the analysis, I am convinced the Senate will return to the Democrats. Oh, I know the perils of polls, but something is different this time. And, despite the common belief, polling is both pretty good and has corrected previous miscalculations. I am also a huge consumer of the hundreds of focus groups run by Sarah Longwell, the publisher of The Bulwark. The qualitative shift has been underway since the beginning of the war.

The mad king now looks like a mad king. Canceling then restarting rallies is a sign he is desperate not to look weak. But now, everyone, even the faithful, knows he IS weak. According to reports, even the evil tech oligarchs are making background calls to Democratic operatives looking for a hedge.

There is a lovely phrase that takes hold on Wednesday. Lame Duck. It will be in story after story. Trump will see and hear it every day. And… it will drive him crazy. Then the locus of power and attention will move to 2028 candidates and the next election. The first primaries will signal an inevitability. The campaign process will have its own momentum. I can’t wait.

The sinew of the republic has been stretched and torn. There are bruises everywhere. But the bones are still good – a place to begin again. Vote like everything depends on it then celebrate and double down on the counterattack on impending fascism.it. We are not done.

My usual caution: Democrats are awful at politics. (See Biden 2022-2024) If there is a way they can screw up this election, they will find it. You’ve been warned.