Wow, That Was Fast

It’s already happening.

The Gish-Gallop of right-wing insanity that anyone with half a brain could see coming from the moment der Sturmtrumper was declared the winner of the Electoral College vote is now well underway.  His plan – or at least the plan of the malignant people actually pulling his strings, since Trump is mentally incapable of planning anything more complicated than his next tweet – is to overwhelm rational thinkers with an avalanche of nonsense in order to create the kind of Fascist regime that Sinclair Lewis tried to warn us about in the 1930s.

It can happen here.  It is happening here.

If you’re not worried about the increasingly erratic, authoritarian, and dangerous course that this country is hurtling down this week – and bear in mind it has been less than a week since this thin-skinned vulgarian took over – then you’re not paying attention.

I said this before the election, and it is rapidly becoming apparent that I underestimated the danger.  Trump represents an existential threat to the survival of the American republic, and it is incumbent on Americans to do all in our power to deny this threat. 

His administration is already unraveling.  The new White House leaks like a sieve, which is unprecedented for this early in an administration, and the portrait that comes out is remarkably consistent – a demoralized and frightened staff of people who had supported him but are now desperately trying to hold things together in the face of a deluded, ignorant, unpredictable, and vindictive president who may well be genuinely mentally ill and whose primary advisors are either actively evil or unconscionably opportunistic.  He’s nominated people for less than 20% of the posts he has to fill, and qualified non-partisan people are jumping ship like it’s the Titanic – the entire senior staff of the State Department resigned en masse today, for example.  By many accounts the man is perilously close to mental breakdown, and this is the guy with his finger on the nuclear button.

Keep that in mind.

Trying to fix this – even if you forget about the aggressively vicious, morally bankrupt, hyperpartisan positions being put forward and just focus on getting the nuts and bolts of American government functioning again – is not going to be easy.  Nor, on the current trajectory, will it be anything like the well-established republic the Founding Fathers built for us once all is said and done.

I have no faith that the modern GOP will be willing or able to play any positive role in this.  They sold their souls to absolute power and authoritarian dictatorship long ago, and however many times they repeat the word “freedom” it will still be a lie on their lips. 

I haven’t much more faith in the Democratic Party, which hasn’t been able to organize anything more significant than a fundraiser in years.

It’s going to be a bumpy ride, folks.

In less than a week, Trump has already managed to establish a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny.

These are the times that try men’s souls.