READING TIME: 6 minutes
SUMMARY: Our democracy is in deep trouble. Trump is destroying it much faster than we had thought possible. In the first of two posts examining the reasons for his success and the ways he’s done it, we will look at the role of the feckless Republican Congress and his mastery of narrative dominance. Republicans are willing to cede their check and balance powers as long as they get to stay in office. The electorate remains vulnerable to the persuasive power of the mere exposure effect. Both have and are continuing to contribute to the demise of our democracy. In part two, the hollowness of the state government and the coming economic crash are examined.
KEY WORDS: Hannah Arendt, Benjamin Franklin, Trump, the Republican Congress, Mere Exposure Effect, the Banality of Evil, Primaried from the Right, the Flying Monkey Squad, the Palisade Fire, the Eaton Fire, Mexico, Canada
COMMENTS: With No Kings this Saturday and special elections continuing to go to Democrats, what do you think our chances of keeping our republic are?
- The Trump Regime in a Nutshell
- The Cowards: The Republican Congress
- The Con: The Mere Exposure Effect
- Image Attribution
The Trump Regime in a Nutshell
The Mystery of the Trading Futures
On Friday 20 March, Trump issued a social media decree that he would “obliterate” Iranian power plants unless the Iranians unblocked the Strait of Hormuz, following his favorite edict, f at first you don’t succeed, threaten them with worser things! Of course oil prices soared and markets around the world plunged.
Then on Monday 23 March mere minutes before Trump left a greasy TACO stain in his shorts, someone — or someones — began trading S&P 500 futures, the CME futures, and oil future like mad. It was almost like somebody knew that Trump was about to postpone his ultimatum and that that announcement would cause the markets to rebound.. Almost.
Trump claimed the reprieve came because of productive talks with Iran, which Iranian officials, curiously, denied. Now, who you gonna believe? The chronically and habitually lying authoritarian regime or the chronically and habitually lying authoritarian regime?
Isn’t that the Trump regime in a nutshell? You can’t trust a damn thing they say, and they’re all making a buck off whatever they’re up to in one way or another.
The Cowards: The Republican Congress
Feckless Checks and Balances
Famously, our government is a rock paper scissors game of checks and balances with every branch able to best one of the others. While the Judicial branch has done a reasonable job of checking and balancing Trump’s dumbass , the Republican Congress has been absent. Like vacuum of space absent.
Reporters, pundits, and Democrats have all speculated that there’s a split in MAGA, Republicans are fracturing, yada yada yada. Wake me up when someone actually does something meaningful to stop Trump from destroying our democracy, country, economy, and the world. Seriously.
Nearly everyday a Democratic Representative or Senator gets asked what their Republican colleagues REALLY think about Trump, and we’re assured that they hate him and wish he were gone. However, they feel like they have to vote with him and give public support otherwise they’ll be primaried from the right. And, if they’re primaried from the right, they’ll lose, and they won’t be in Congress any more.
Well, fucking cry me a fucking river.
Keeping their Congressional Seat
They’re telling us that the most important freaking thing in the whole wide universe is that they retain their congressional seat. Without them in office, well, damby-dumby, the whole world would be destroyed both literally and figuratively. They’re the only thing standing twixt us and pure evil.
Alternatively, we’re told that they fear Trump’s flying monkey squad who will descend upon them with pizza delivery orders and threats of violence, rape, and death that the Congressional security office cannot deal with. Not only do their lives depend on compliance with the destruction of the country, but so do those of their families.
Before you start feeling sorry for them, remember, they could always pull a Mad Dog Greene and retire on the day that their retirement benefits are guaranteed. Oh snap! That’s right. The only thing preventing the annihilation of the country is that Jim Risch remains in the Senate. The only thing preventing Armafuckingeddon is Trent Kelly continuing in the House. These people are super important.
The Banality of Evil
It’s what Hannah Arendt described as the “banality of evil.” They’re Adolf Eichmann processing the transportation paperwork sending Jews to concentration camps, not so much because of anti-Semitism, but because it is good for their career.
And, that’s the best case scenario. They’re willing to sit in Congress with their thumbs up their collective ass while Trump drives us over the cliff into the Greater Depression, climate disaster, and the destruction of our democracy because it is good for their career and the insider trading opportunities.
Worst cae? They want to become the Duma’s rubber kiss of Trump’s ass in our pseudo-democratic, single-party, minority-rule autocracy.
The Con: The Mere Exposure Effect
Another way the Republican Congress has been putting its thumb on the check and balance scales is by allowing Trump to rip the Executive Branch guardrails down by appointing a team of corrupt collaborators to his cabinet. Congress is standing on the Titanic’s deck taking selfies with the ice berg as Trump steers his shipwreck of state over the authoritarian cliff.
The engine that drives Trump’s authoritarian machine is his ability to sell his narrative. It is like… not his superpower… What? It’s more like he’s a Svengali mesmerizing his base and unwitting listeners into a trance. It must be his bored braying nasal tone that does the trick because, gawd almighty, for the life of me, I cannot understand how anyone who lived through his chaotic shambolic messy first term could ever have voted for him
His Braying Board Nasal Tone
The engine that drives Trump’s authoritarian machine is his ability to sell his narrative. It is like… not his superpower… What? It’s more like he’s a Svengali mesmerizing his base and unwitting listeners into a trance. It must be his bored braying nasal tone that does the trick because, gawd almighty, for the life of me, I cannot understand how anyone who lived through his chaotic shambolic messy first term could ever have voted for him again. He staged an insurrection! An insurrection! How is it possible that he got elected AGAIN?!?
The only satisfying explanation — other than having cheated, which he’s never won anything fairly or squarely in his like, so why would he have started in 2024? — is that he is the master of the mere exposure effect. He knows if he repeats the same bullshit often enough, you cannot help but start to believe it. Repetition wraps even the most outrageous lie in a veneer of truthiness (sorry Colbert).
Two of Trump’s main lies has been that our allies have betrayed us and are taking advantage of our good will and that our elections are vulnerable to being stolen and rigged. Since descending that golden elevator a lifetime ago, Trump has been hammering home the message that our elections are easy to rig — unless he wins, then they were great. He’s also turned on our liberal democracy allies, complaining that they don’t do anything for us. Recent polling shows that both messages are believed and eroding confidence in both elections and allies.
Trust in Great Britain and Canada
A new Gallup poll shows that the trust of the average American in Great Britain and Canada has fallen ten points in the past year and about twenty points from their apex during Obama’s second term. These are our two closest allies who have been with us through thick and thin, have their economies and customs closely linked to ours, and suffer the most when we blunder but benefit when we succeed. We should be holding them in the highest regard , but instead we are looking upon them with increasing doubt about their loyalty and suspicions about their motives.
They are both still viewed favorably, but the drops are precipitous and, of course, fall along party lines. They’re pretty much unchanged among Democrats but are reaching their lowest lows among Republicans with Independents landing square in the middle. If this trend continues, when Trump finally breaks with them, we’ve been primed to accept it.
Trump’s incessant carping on the unwillingness of Canada and England to help us pursue the Netanyahu-Trump Illegal War and his claims that Canada, the UK, and Europe are using us, taking more from us than they deserve both through trade and our military alliances have landed. They have found a home in the beliefs of his MAGA base and sympathetic independents.
The Palisades and Eaton Fires in California
Remember the Palisades and Eaton Fires in California? They happened in 2025, but I guess it was long enough ago to be considered ancient history, forgotten, and no longer pertinent. If you remember, they devastated parts of Los Angeles, but in days, our two close allies, neighbors, and friends, Canada and Mexico had sent aide.
Canada Sends Help
There is an agreement between the US and Canada to help each other suppress wildfires, so ground crews were dispatched between 11 and 13 January from the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. In addition, Quebec sent two water bombers in addition to the ones they had sent in August 2024. Not only that, seven of Canada’s thirteen provinces and territories offered crews and equipment. Their military, Coast Guard, and other government agencies also made crews, command center personnel, equipment, and support services available should they be needed.
Mexico Honors the Spirit of Cooperation Between Our Two Countries
Mexico also sent firefighters, doctors, engineers, and search-and-rescue teams on 11 January. I remember them marching into Los Angeles like heros come to save the day in a goddamn movie They sent them to honor the spirit of cooperation between our two countries. In other words, because neighbors help neighbors when they are in need. In part, to repay our aide and assistance to them over the years.
Exposing the Con
It once was a source of national pride to send aide to countries when disaster struck. America led the way around the world helping where we could when it was needed regardless of politics. We did it because we had so much we could be generous. We did it because it was the right thing to do. We did it because a world of strong cooperating friendly nations is a prosperous safe and secure world.
The aide that Canada and Mexico gave us puts the lie to Trump’s bogus claims of being used by our allies. The US benefits much more from NATO and our alliances because they help maintain stability throughout the world. The Russian War in Ukraine and the Netanyahu-Trump Illegal War in Iran demonstrate the futility and bankruptcy of war and the need to promote stability and trade to manage international conflicts.
A Republic If You Can Keep It
The other poll is even more alarming because it shows a drop in the trust that Americans have in our elections! A new Marist poll shows that two-thirds of respondents have confidence that their “state and local governments will run a fair and accurate election,” a drop of ten points. And, in a surprise twist that only Wes Craven could love, Democratic confidence has dropped by sixteen points, independents, eleven, and Republican confidence rose by three points.
Hunh? With this lie, Trump is laying the groundwork to challenge the validity of the 2026 elections. All he needs is confusion and chaos to declare that the elections were corrupt and to let him sort the nation’s ballots into “the right voters voting for the right candidates” and disqualifying all others.
So, while we may vote in a Democratic Congress to rein in his reckless, out-of-control, corrupt administration, we are in real danger of accepting his accusations of a rigged election and his steps for resolving the crisis he created. As Ben Franklin said, “A republic if you can keep it.”
In his first year of his second term, Trump has done much more to erode our democracy and hasten our transformation of an authoritarian oligarchy like they have in Russia. The corruption is rampant and out in the open. The defiance of the Constitution, Congress, and the law is blatant. Now we’ll see if the American people have the stomach for keeping our republic or are willing to collude with Trump in lining his pockets by selling the country.
Image Attribution
This image was found on Store Norske Leksikon and has a Creative Commons license.
Right, his executive dysfunction is makes him impulsive and emotionally dysregulated. His cognitive decline makes whatever control he once had even weaker. If no one around him will put some limit upon his actions, we’re just going to lurch from crisis to crisis.
Jack
Yes Dems are winning in this midterm but what will change?
The Dems have contributed to this decline not as much as the GOP but their ham-fisted approaches have made all this destruction possible.
The rhetoric is high but so far the actions are sadly missing…..without an active opposition then this will continue to erode the democracy we all pretend to cherish. chuq
Howdy Chuq!
I like what the Dems are doing with ICE funding, holding Epstein hearings, and passing war resolutions. I would love it if Schumer and Jeffries could get on the same page, though. Those are good beginnings. I guess advertising hasn’t really started for November, but messaging has. Unfortunately, I think the Republicans are still out maneuvering Dems on messaging.And, as prepared as Dems say they are for the election rat-fucking the Republicans are going to try, I worry that they haven’t thought of everything they’ll do. Trump is the guy who staged an insurrection the last time he lost. You really think he’s not going to this time, too? What does he got to lose?
Huzzah!
Jack
The rank and file are doing all the work and doing it well….but without the leadership on-board they are losing. A great point….Donny is not through with his antics and the Dems had better realize that. chuq
Howdy Chuq!
All the same, I’m buoyed by the special election wins the Democrats are racking up. But, I remember the blue puddle of our own piddle that we got in the 2020 election. There was no blue tsunami washing the Republicans out of Washington. Sure, we had control of Congress and the White House, but barely. Same in 2018. And, we lost control of the House in 2022. As an electorate, we just cannot bring ourselves to punish Republicans for their anti-democratic corrupt behavior. It still astounds me.
Huzzah!
Jack
I know we want to be the ‘good guys’…..I saw screw that go for the throat every time/. chuq
Howdy Chuq!
We’re in an asymmetrical unconventional fight here. We can’t be playing games while they’re playing for keeps. We’ve got to be using every tool available to us and use them in imaginative ways. Both defensively and offensively. That’s where the old farts like Schumer, Pelosi, and Jeffries can get us into trouble. They can’t imagine how bad it can be. They keep wanting to play like its 2010. It just isn’t going to work this time through.
Huzzah!
Jack
I agree….I have always said that Dems have great ideas but suck at the game. chuq
Jack, I’m trying to find where in this analysis to start talking about it. The only answer I can find at the moment is that not doing everything possible to stop Trump and the gang has to become seen as assured loss for every Republican (and, perhaps a handful of Democrats?) running in this coming election, that none such will have any viable political career after November. Only that level of fear can be stronger than their excuses for letting him do what he is doing.
Howdy Bob!
I dunno. Denial is a powerful coping mechanism. I think Republicans have found that strange growth in their arm pit and are studiously not looking at it, except for the occasional panic attack. I think they’re hoping that they aren’t the one who loses. The ones who can’t tolerate being in the minority have already left and taken their generous retirement package with them. I mean that’s quite a consolation prize for missing out on the lucrative insider trading, the Congressional retirement package and work as a lobbyest.
To back Trump means you aren’t taking the long view. You’re just hoping to still be standing when he falls. If he falls. I mean, these folks backed him after he led an insurrection. They backed him when he ran again. They’re just hoping he can do it all over again. And, who knows, he might.
Huzzah!
Jack
As the saying in AA goes, “Never underestimate the power of denial.” Too many people get a vicarious high out of watching the Bad Boy do his tricks. They even like it when they know he’s lying or not making sense. To many, it is all a show, and it’s going to have to bite them in the ass very hard to change that. Unfortunately, the rest of us bet bit too.
Howdy Bob!
After the Great Depression, the general public voted Democratic for the next forty years. We’re heading for the Greater Depression, and that will have a similar effect. Unfortunately, I don’t know if we have an FDR on the horizon. Gavin Newsom might could do it, but so many people think he is just a performative corporate Dem. I don’t know if we can assemble the coalition for electoral victory let alone agree on how to recover from the hole El Gran Jefe Estupido has dug for us.
But, from the ashes, the Phoenix rose. Something will emerge from this mess, too.
Blog On, Sibling!
Jack
Systems change when they must. The question is always what values get changed to hold others constant. That’s the fight we are in, holding constant the democratic and humane values in times of crisis and macro level change.
Howdy Bob!
I’m really spending some time studying on Woodard’s Five Nations explanation of American regional cultures. He says two things. That the people living in a region establish the culture of the institutions that govern them, including things like local news, radio, and media outlets, the ways local holidays are celebrated, and more typical institutions like policing, education, and government offices. Because new comers come in gradually in small numbers, they are more likely to acculturate to those cultures than the change the institutions with their culture. In short, while those local cultures change, they change slowly, but their values are much more constant. This was no where more evident than in how different cities and states reacted to the ICE surges with Minnesota staying true to its Scandanavian-Germanic-New England roots and reacting in a very community supporting way. While Chicago and LA were much more confrontational and Portland having thought out its response and came up with something very clever. Other ares, notably in the South were much more compliant and cooperative.
Turchin notes that when a political system changes, it is often short term and the country reverts back to its roots. A kind of regression to the norm. Thus, Egypt had a short burst of democracy and immediately returned to its strong ruler authoritarianism. That suggests that after Trump, we will return to our democratic ways.
Huzzah!
Jack
That regression to the norm was clearly a big part of Biden getting elected, and but for the chaos of COVID, it might have worked. The fact is that Trump’s second term is already more exhausting than the first and getting worse fast. The country probably needs at least a decade of R&R, not that, given the planetary level of damage, we are likely to get it.
I’ve lived in the Midwest, the Southwest, coastal California, and more briefly, a couple of other places. Yes, there are regional cultures, and some degree of acculturation happens. That includes the styles of protest and confrontation. It would be interesting to see an analysis of the style factors (signs, chants, costumes, etc.) in the NO KINGS events around the country, and elsewhere.
Howdy Bob!
I don’t know if I’m the person to make that analysis, but I’m dilettante enough to take a swing at it. I’ve read Woodard’s book “Five Nations” or whatever it was called. I watched the news coverage of the protests. That gives me some tangential authority, right?
I think Trump instinctively knows that his time is limited. Either he makes it to authoritarianism before the mid-terms, meaning he can rig the election or he doesn’t make it to the 2028 elections. His biggest priority, though, is making money, then grievance, then enshrining himself as the forever office holder.
Being elected the second time has left him completely untethered to reality. He’s been validated and vindicated. He feels like his every impulse is legitimate and perfectly acceptable. She’s completely out of control.
Huzzah!
Jack
That about covers it. Add in that his executive functioning, never a strong point, continues to deteriorate, making him more impulsive and disconnected today from whatever he said yesterday, or five minutes ago – pure id on the loose.