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.
The Psy of Life 