 |
| Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (National Gallery of Art) |
It isn't as if nobody saw it coming.
Just the opposite. You could see it a mile away. On Jan. 5, 2021, I jotted in my journal: "We're quite worried about tomorrow. Yes, Trump will probably fail. But there's always that chance. History has its thumb on the scale for tyrants."
Just the opposite. You could see it a mile away. On Jan. 5, 2021, I jotted in my journal: "We're quite worried about tomorrow. Yes, Trump will probably fail. But there's always that chance. History has its thumb on the scale for tyrants."
Does it ever.
The boys were home —schools closed for COVID — watching the Congressional hearings on television. I joined them. Mitch McConnell gave a laudable speech, backing the orderly transition of democracy. At first. Then he slid into the partisanship ditch, as if by force of habit. Ted Cruz stood up and tried to use the suspicion he sowed as a reason to delay the outcome.
Then the mob that Trump had egged on stormed the Capitol.
My column in that day's Sun-Times, Jan. 6, 2021, ran under the headline, "The South shall fall again. And again. And again." It groped back to the previous enormous division in our country, the Confederacy, and how it was doomed to lose. Why is the Civil War relevant now? Because...
Then the mob that Trump had egged on stormed the Capitol.
My column in that day's Sun-Times, Jan. 6, 2021, ran under the headline, "The South shall fall again. And again. And again." It groped back to the previous enormous division in our country, the Confederacy, and how it was doomed to lose. Why is the Civil War relevant now? Because...
"It’s still unfolding. The Confederacy lost the war, but never gave up the fight — its baked-in bigotry, the proud ignorance required to consider another human being your property, marches on, from then to now. Manifesting itself plainly in the Trump era, his entire political philosophy being the slaveholder mentality decked out in new clothes, trying to pass in the 21st century. They even wave the same rebel flag. Kind of a giveaway, really.
"The Lost Cause marches on, as we will see Wednesday, when Congress faces another ego-stoked rebellion: Donald Trump’s insistence that his clearly losing the 2020 presidential election in the chill world of fact can be set aside, since he won the race in the steamy delta swampland between his ears."
I had no idea just how big that rebellion would be. A shocking moment of chaos and violence and absent leadership. Trump watched the disaster unfold, and smiled.
Nor could I have imagined its eventual success. How 1,600 wrongdoers would be pardoned without repercussions of any kind. The event itself vanishing in a swirl of lies and forgetfulness. Historians will pick over until the end of time is how, caught in such obvious sedition, Donald Trump could possibly be re-elected. How Americans could care so little for their country, its institutions and traditions, that they would blindly follow a liar, bully, fraud and traitor.
Yet they did. He won the 2024 election, fair and square. That's why I can never hate him — he didn't put himself in office. Half the country did. Or as I sometimes explain it, "If we elected a dog as president, would you hate the dog?"
The structural damage done to our nation in Trump's second term will take years to grasp, never mind reverse. Harm to the rule of law. To the federal bureaucracy that millions of American depend upon. To our health care system. To our standing in the world. To the future of science.
The structural damage done to our nation in Trump's second term will take years to grasp, never mind reverse. Harm to the rule of law. To the federal bureaucracy that millions of American depend upon. To our health care system. To our standing in the world. To the future of science.
Not that it can be reversed. We can't go back to what we were before. Honestly, given where it took us, I don't think we'd want to. The question now is: what new thing are we going to end up? Something better? That seems a long shot, particularly now, as we daily decay into something worse. As awful as 2025 was, I'm certain of this: we have not had the bad part yet. That's coming.
In my Jan. 6, 2021 column I ended, as I often try to do, on an optimistic note:
"The fight continues. In the spring of 1861, the Tribune called the Southern secession 'the most senseless and causeless rebellion of all history.' Until now. We may have surpassed it with Trump’s frantic tearing at our democracy, supported by a cast of cowards and traitors, hailed by the eternally duped. And for what? Lower taxes? A wall? Their fetus friends? An embassy in Jerusalem? I will never understand it.
"No matter. They’re losers. They lost in 1865, lost in 2020. Evil always loses, eventually. Since they continue to fight, desperate to go back to the plantations of their dreams, they’ll continue to lose. Not every battle. But their war against the future is futile, doomed. Drowned out by the swelling ranks of diverse, accepting Americans, facing actual problems with courage and candor, dedicated to helping our nation become what she is destined to be."
Do I still believe that? Yes, I do. For one, as bad as our current situation is, it could be — and might yet be — far worse. Plus there is much to be positive about. Ordinary Americans stood up to the masked thugs of ICE. The courts beat back attempts to put the military in our streets as a dry run. Some of Trump's most devoted acolytes have bolted from him. It can be done.
The second Trump term is worse than the first, and we have not yet reached the bottom. But we will. We will hit bottom, eventually. And then bounce back up, rise again. Until then, the only option is to watch, speak out, resist, hope, and wait.
The second Trump term is worse than the first, and we have not yet reached the bottom. But we will. We will hit bottom, eventually. And then bounce back up, rise again. Until then, the only option is to watch, speak out, resist, hope, and wait.
Spot on, Mr. S. Especially about the South. Too bad there's many in the North or West who voted for Dump as well.
ReplyDeleteThere always have been.
DeleteFrom Carpetbaggers to Scalawags and copperheads to secesh.
And there always will be
Let's put the blame for the return of the demented, deranged, narcissistic sociopath, child raping, fascist traitor who wants to be king on the right person, the appallingly feckless Merrick Garland, the absolute worst Attorney General this country ever had!
ReplyDeleteHe should've had him indicted for insurrection by March 1, 2021 & convicted by the end of the year & then sentenced to life in prison!
Instead of being the chief prosecutor of the United States, he acted more like the impartial judge he had been.
Easily Joe Biden's worst act was making that incompetent his AG!
Trump is a symptom and side effect of the issues.
Deletethis is republican's faults. every last one. even the chaneys and the kinzingers who refuse to shed their Rs and continue to legitimize the "good poeople" with Rs.
how many republican's would it take to get rid of trump? 7? they're ALL the problem.
I too have always maintained that Merrick Garland, timorous and cautious as he was, choked with the game on the line, when it most mattered. Such a "shonda".
DeleteBaruch is correct & BB is wrong. I believe Garland was terrified of what would happen if he were the one to be the first to send an ex-president to prison.
DeleteOh, I can think of a worse act or two. Waiting until July of the election year to drop out of the race is just one that immediately comes to mind.
Deleteworst act? Well aside from supporting a genocide Of course Trump has made it worse of course. I can only go by the group I am in. But most of them blame democrats for Trump. I would not doubt that more than a few do.
DeleteI love dogs. If we elected a dog as President who was vicious, yes, I would hate the dog as well as those who voted for it.
ReplyDeleteI can recommend How to Be Less Stupid about Racism, a book published in 2018.
I know it makes me sound like a crazy coot, but i do not think the election was fair or won justly in 2024. Elon Musk made too many comments and Donald was too quite for me to believe something illegal did not occur.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, with gerrymandering and supreme court rulings effectively gutting the voting rights act, I find it hard to argue that it was a just outcome. I would make the same argument about 2020 and probably about 2016. Heck, you can go back all the way to what was done by Reagan in the 80s to argue the disenfranchisement of voters has hindered our free and fair elections since then. but now i'm just picking fly shit out of pepper.
I also think we need to really point the fingers squarely where the need to be, and refuse to remove them until the issues are properly addressed.
Republicans are to blame, fully. every last one.
Fox, the murdochks, elon musk, youtube, facebook, cnn, the new york times, the Washington post, amazon, sillicon valley... They're all to blame. and we really don't talk about it enough.
And that's why its going to keep getting worse before it gets better. we let our representatives get off easy. we spendtoo much time appeasing the right in the name of money.
The truth is, there is right and there is wrong. No matter what your financial interests are, slavery is bad, and if you can't say that then you cannot be good. We need to treat today's "right" the same way. they are not good people, none of them. they should be treated as the pariahs they are.
Fox news needs to be wiped from existence. Nick Fuentes needs to be pulled from any "air waves." Joe rogan should be banished to shores of mordor. Mike johnson needs to be told that he is incapable of performing the duty of the speaker of the house and should resign, because if i told my boss "i don't know" i would be looking for a new job like ten years ago.
We need to start fighting the war of words to win. and that first step is to silence the likes of jeffries and schumer... my lord, even milk toast would have a hard time following them to the toaster.
Thanks, BB. Was going to say the same thing, as tinfoil hat as it sounds. Will never believe that Felonious won legitimately in '24. He boasted and bragged and smirked about the fix being in at that horrible rally in Madison Square Garden, on the last Sunday in October. And Musk just about admitted to it, as well. No way that they ran the table and took all seven swing states.
DeleteElectronics were involved, on a grand scale. The biggest scam in our long and scammy electoral history. The Royal Scam. But not being an electronics wizard, I will say no more.
Grizz, I have always been curious why people haven't pressed musk on this. "Did you not do it because you couldn't or did you do it and are too afraid to admit it because you'll do it again?"
DeleteOr even press Trump on it, "is it true that you couldn't have won the election without elon musk because you're not good enough and needed his help rigging it?"
I completely agree with both of you. The way this administration lies, cheats and steals without batting an eye and was so chummy with Musk early on has me believing that there is no way the results were not manipulated in their favor.
DeleteThank you Neil. We need to be reminded over and over. The vision of Jan 6 stays in the front of my thoughts. I for one will not be conciliatory to any who defend this regime or the events of that insurgence. I will continue to speak truth and science to those who lie and spout myths and misinformation. Your words give me courage, they give me hope.
ReplyDelete"...we have not yet reached the bottom. But we will. We will hit bottom, eventually."
ReplyDeleteWhile I appreciate your optimism, Neil, I'm afraid that there's no "bottom" with Trump.
If we were all a bit more like dogs, the world would be a better place.
ReplyDeleteA new outrage every day. The man must have attention. They are hellbound on taking over Greenland, thus destroying NATO, all western alliances, the very concept of America as a beacon of democracy. Also giving China and Russian carte blanche to expand their totalitarian empires. Ukraine and Taiwan - gone as democracies. Thanks Donald.
ReplyDeleteThen there is the administration's remarkable announcement that they plan to expel 100 million people from the country, not the 14 million previously mentioned. 100 million, coincidentally is the number of black and hispanic people in the US.
You can't hate him - I can. And you're right. We haven't even got to the bad part yet.
January 6, like December 7, was a day of infamy...one that will leave its mark (and its stain) on our future history for a long, long time. My hairstylist predicted something terrible would happen, a few hours before it did. You were right, Tommy.
DeleteBecame more and more angry as the hours in front of the TV screen ticked by. Found myself fervently hoping that shots would be fired, thus giving the police, and hopefully troops, a reason to mow down the rioters and stain the Capitol steps red with fascist blood. Does that make me just antifa? Or a patriot?
Dozens of domestic terrorist sheeple are still alive to howl at the moon, and were even pardoned from their prison sentences, mainly because they were wearing America's best and most bullet-proof body armor. It's called...white skin.
Watched the pundits and the pontificators, until the wee small hours of the morning, and stayed awake until the election was finally certified for Joe at 3:33 AM. Instead of throwing the switch, we waited for the train wreck to happen. The wheels came off the rails.
And now, despite four years of Joe, the American monster is back. The last year has been far worse than even his first four were. In the second reign of Orange Julius, America has become a pitiful, helpless, demented giant. The hulking, pathetic, miserable wretch, shuffling down the street, that nobody wants around. The ogre who causes enormous damage to whatever glittering bauble attracts its eye, no matter where it goes. Venezuela today, Greenland tomorrow, and after that, who knows?
double b I think you mean quiet- not quite
ReplyDeletesometimes i wonder... though I'm sure you are right.
DeleteWhenever i think about getting an editor, i remember what all of my past editors have said; "i don't know, maybe you should just not say anything."
the slightly good news is that some Repubs are finally starting to turn on T-if they don't get that ACA going soon or something like it, repubs are cooked at the Midterms
ReplyDeleteWell said, double b.
ReplyDeleteLiving in the USA my whole life, I took progress for granted. But things have always be dicey; ML King was hated by a lot of Americans; slaves weren't freed until after the South fired the first shot; USA did little to stop Hitler until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor; a majority supported invading Iraq . . .
ReplyDeleteI'm cautiously optimistic about the mid-terms. But we've got at least three years to go. The prediction that we haven't hit bottom will be correct.
What an awful state of affairs. Other, ostensibly "lesser" countries have recently seen their way clear to imprisoning their corrupt leaders. Yet here in the United States, the supposed beacon of democracy and the rule of law, the partisan, crooked Supreme Court has ruled that the president is ABOVE the law. His second administration has featured so much incompetence, corruption and mean-spiritedness that it boggles the mind. With almost everything this pompous, self-dealing cabal does, we become more and more like the "banana republics" that many used to ridicule.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Clark St. that the prosecution of the orange felon for January 6 and some of his other crimes should have begun sooner. But I still blame McConnell more. His powerful speech after voting NOT to convict in the second impeachment trial fully indicated why he should have voted TO convict. And, as the very experienced majority leader of the Senate, he should have been able to get enough of his members to go along with him. That was the opportunity to end the current nightmare long before it ever began.
There's a meme that's been going around for a while of a fictional Nazi sheepishly realizing what's going on and asking "Are we the baddies?" It's often used to call attention to the upside-down role of this benighted administration with regard to a number of matters. Much too often, the answer is yes.
The dog is not responsible for his behavior; an animal does not have human reasoning. Donald Trump is not genetically a dog. It would be better if we had elected a dog. Such dog would have been caged long ago or put down.
ReplyDeleteI understand pointing fingers at the many powerful thugs and officials that embraced and continue to support Trump. But it was in part the American people who allowed that to happen and even now excuse and enshrine him.
ReplyDelete