Ignoring what Trump says won’t work. Constant outrage is not a viable strategy either. We must find a more productive way to engage Trump’s dangerous outlandishness
Outstanding post. Also - it helps to keep in mind that Trump said, in an interview with Bob Woodward, that ""Real power is, I don't even want to use the word, fear." I think THE most important thing we can do is refuse, deep in our hearts and bones, to be afraid of him. Trump instinctively understands what brain research has shown: when something scares us, the brain's amygdala floods us with stress hormones that yank control of our behavior away from the frontal lobes - the part of the brain that reasons, makes smart decisions, and correctly assesses reality. So THE best way to fight Trump is to start within: choose not to be afraid. Be prepared for the worst, stay strong and focused, and don't let him frighten you because that's how he wins: by scaring us out of our wits and into freeze, flight, or fight mode.
Thomas, thank for trying to tackle this difficult question. To me, the answer still remains illusory. I think the reason for this is captured in this sentence from part 2 of your analysis:
"He would need compliance and active complicity from a lot of people and institutions who are under no legal or constitutional obligation to follow his orders."
The reality is that compliance and complicity are not binary, i.e., there is either enough of those to get trump what he wants or there is too little. Rather, as I see it and as I think we all see every day in the news, complicity and capitulation happen incrementally on the margins where the weakest links are found. Witness Zuckerberg's capitulation of last week. Or think of the seemingly inane Gulf of America blather. MTG makes her proposal. Then maybe Texas joins in and imposes it in their school system and then demands textbooks comply. Textbook publishers work out a compromise where they will add a note about Gulf of America being a name that has some non-trivial recognition, and so on. Now a real "issue" has been created out of utter nonsense without any clear point where the tide shifted in trump's direction. Just another illustration of how the "tipping point" argument of Gladwell was always pretty weak.
Still, your voice on this topic is highly valued and I hope you keep driving the discussion and analysis as you have been doing. Thank you.
"There is a vast gulf between Trump’s authoritarian aspirations and rightwing propaganda on the one hand and the realities of a complex modern state and society on the other. And in that space, politics will continue to happen, possibilities to resist and push back exist."
I wish I could be as sanguine as the author.
That we are even having these conversations, would have been unthinkable 10 years ago. Now we are reduced to using reason in a world that appears to have abandoned the concept. This man has had the full attention of the globe for 8 years. He (and the media, - his most willing enabler) is shaping it in ways we can't imagine. Flat earthers? Really? No REALLY! What used to be confined to the headlines of the National Enquirer, are now policy options.
Who exactly is going to stand in Trumps way? The “people and institutions who are under no legal or constitutional obligation to follow his orders” will simply comply when threatened with lawsuits and military tribunals. Countries who won’t call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America will fold when presented with tariffs. With the house, senate and Supreme Court in his hands there is nothing stopping him. Any military leader or “enemy within” who gets in his way will simply be replaced. He meant it when he told people they will “never have to vote again.”
The most dangerous thing about trump is not the media he has lying for him, but that by law he will have command of the mightiest military on earth. So the number one question everyone must confront NOW, is, will they salute and say “yes, sir!” no matter how insane the command may be? Will they invade Greenland if so ordered?
After all, we don’t need to worry about him invading Greenland by himself, as odious as that might be… we might even encourage that!
The military will soon face a crisis (a point of decision): submit to fascism or excise it with “extreme prejudice.” Much too fast for lawyers and courts. The next month will be “verry interesting.”
As I recall the idea of the US taking over Canada and Mexico was also used by some on the right to sell NAFTA. The idea was that we would essentially couple them to us economically and thus politically and so on. That didn't happen of course, but that was part of the pitch that came through to some.
To me though there is also the danger of his bluster both normalizing things that were once too extreme even for most "normal" Republicans (invading a NATO ally for example) but also that his most ardent followers will go further and further on their own and he will feel compelled to follow. Consider what happens when he pardons the proud boys and they return home to find some "illegal" in their town. will they wait for ICE to act, or will they? And once Trump has talked up mass deportations and someone takes him seriously, or the markets do and tank out of fear, will he try to patch it up? Of course not.
I don’t know why we have trouble with saying the same facts over and over, without getting worked up.
“This is another example of Trump’s deranged babbling. There is absolutely no way to tell what he intends to actually do, and what is just craziness (although I think we know what side of the line windmills are driving the whales crazy falls on). But he is a felon, a rapist, and a traitor, and even his supporters will soon turn away from his failing administration as the damage it inflicts on us all becomes increasingly clear.”
Just say it every time. It covers all manner of clownishness.
Much of your piece talks about Trumpism simply saying the quiet part out loud when it comes to long-standing right-wing aspirations. One could readily expand the idea to his approach to foreign policy: doing in plain sight what the CIA had previously done covertly.
I would add one more question: Who benefits from Trump's policies? Which of his supporters, allies and benefactors would benefit from ownership of, if not increased access, to Greenland?
Here is a list of metals found in Greenland: Copper; Iron Ore; Gold; Lithium: a crucial component in batteries, contributing to its importance in the green energy transition; Titanium: which has applications in aerospace, defense, and other industries; and Lead. a metal with applications in batteries, construction, and other industries.
I think that trump is a vehicle, a means to an end to what ultimately is a white supremacists goal to shape the United States and the world in that view. We have no real, solid opposition to maga and their capture of pretty much all of our institutions, government and otherwise. Those of us who oppose this movement are merely reacting to maga and it's an untenable position to be in. We have to be on the offense and I think mass media is a large part of that effort. As we're seeing now, our social media channels are run by individuals who go wherever the wind blows and it has become increasingly clear that social media should be a public utility and should never be owned by individuals. The mainstream media, as it were, is also very much like a weather vane and should never be that. All I want, as I'm sure a lot of others want, is a media that simply disseminates facts, nothing more, nothing less. The problem with "left" media, as I see it or the reason why it's not a money maker is because reality and/or facts are boring and right wing media offers nothing but fantasy and conspiracy and those things are fun to engage in but are entirely detrimental to our society. Anyway, just putting in my two cents.
I would submit that Trump's outlandishness is the point. It both misdirects, sending media, opponents and even his own people spinning and turning and wasting resources, as well as it informs, creating possible policy narratives no matter how improbable that resonate with his base(despite none of the benefits ever falling their way). During Trump 1.0 he claimed many things and accomplished precious little, but the key thing is he kept the base engaged and the wealthy profiting 'tremendously' as he likes to say. He didn't build a wall, didn't lower pharma prices, didn't get 6% GDP growth, didn't kill Obamacare or get cheaper better healthcare, and never even got to infrastructure week. What he did do is get a huge tax cut passed of which 80% went to the wealthiest. He cut regs allowing corps to pollute, weakened regs to protect unions and their pays, screwed workers with mandatory arbitration rulings, filled remaining regulators with Wall St. friendly people. I could spend a day listing the ways he hurt every day Americans, but that is the end goal here. Billionaires made off with Trillions. Workers were universally weakened. I would submit that if we need to find more productive way to engage with the Oligarchy, it would be to start there. As for his imperialism, history tells us many leaders have used this ploy to keep their citizens' focus away from their own diminishing margins. It doesn't need to succeed, it only has to direct their focus away. If his first term was any indication, he will fail repeatedly and his propaganda arms will work overtime to blame others. Outrage as a response isn't enough. Pols who think decorum is more important doing isn't enough. But I do think that itemizing, repeating, and focusing attention on his failures, how they hurt the many and profit the few, is a starting position against the now overwhelming odds.
I appreciate the analysis and historic context--I really value Thomas' work and perspective. I generally feel well informed, well educated and as a communications professional, thought I had a good handle on how messages have been framed by the right. I didn't/don't. The degree of polarization here in the US shocks me. What I thought were periodic anomalies in the American experiment turn out to be real differences in our values and beliefs - what I thought were shared values and beliefs shaping a pluralistic democracy are actually real, sustained differences in how we view 'community' and our relationship with our fellow humans. The 'anomalies' turn out to be fundamental differences in our views of what it means to be an American and the cultural fragmentation seems to be heading toward an apex. Any means seems to justify the end. "I could shoot someone and not lose voters" turns out to be true.
It is easy for those of us who are watching the far-right dominate our political, legal, religious, corporate and cultural institutions to feel depressed, to wring our hands, to feel dismay and sadness. I am experiencing all of those feelings; however, many of us (50%?) have a different view of how we want to live, how we want to govern and how we treat our fellow citizens across the globe. We need to re-assert our values. It would be helpful for historians, social psychologists and experts in political movements to help us steer the conversations and our actions toward strategies and tactics that counter the MAGA movement. We also need leadership- at best our Pro-democracy movement is a weak coalition of stunned advocates. Maybe a discourse on historically successful efforts to oppose authoritarian and far-right movements will help us re-create our shared values and leadership. We don't have a lot of time.
You know what it took to stop Hitler? WW2. I hope that puts our struggle into perspective. I think people believe that if we just, I don't know, have the right candidate or formulate the right message???? That all will be well. I think it's going to take a major event to dislodge Trump. Don't get me started on Musk and the rest of the billionaires bent on world domination. I don't think most people realize we may be starving and homeless soon (I mean think about what happens when we reduce what's in the grocery store by getting rid of the people that produce it AND by taxing what other countries send us) and what do we do with nursing home residents when they end medicaid? I hear a lot of boycott this or that billionaire. Like that's going to make a difference to someone who makes a million dollars a day. Yeah, I don't know what to do but realistically I wonder if there's anything we can do.
The differences in perceived values and whitewashing of cruelty and hate have been deliberately amplified by politicians, hucksters, media, and even religious figures for personal, political, or monetary gain.
Your observation about the US domination of the Americas is correct. We have a long and ugly history of meddling and overthrowing governments in the Americas we disliked. This isn’t an approval of the governments of Venezuela or Cuba, but simply an observation that our meddling has done real harm, and that Venezuela and Cuba might have had better governments had we not felt free to meddle in their governments.
Outstanding post. Also - it helps to keep in mind that Trump said, in an interview with Bob Woodward, that ""Real power is, I don't even want to use the word, fear." I think THE most important thing we can do is refuse, deep in our hearts and bones, to be afraid of him. Trump instinctively understands what brain research has shown: when something scares us, the brain's amygdala floods us with stress hormones that yank control of our behavior away from the frontal lobes - the part of the brain that reasons, makes smart decisions, and correctly assesses reality. So THE best way to fight Trump is to start within: choose not to be afraid. Be prepared for the worst, stay strong and focused, and don't let him frighten you because that's how he wins: by scaring us out of our wits and into freeze, flight, or fight mode.
Thomas, thank for trying to tackle this difficult question. To me, the answer still remains illusory. I think the reason for this is captured in this sentence from part 2 of your analysis:
"He would need compliance and active complicity from a lot of people and institutions who are under no legal or constitutional obligation to follow his orders."
The reality is that compliance and complicity are not binary, i.e., there is either enough of those to get trump what he wants or there is too little. Rather, as I see it and as I think we all see every day in the news, complicity and capitulation happen incrementally on the margins where the weakest links are found. Witness Zuckerberg's capitulation of last week. Or think of the seemingly inane Gulf of America blather. MTG makes her proposal. Then maybe Texas joins in and imposes it in their school system and then demands textbooks comply. Textbook publishers work out a compromise where they will add a note about Gulf of America being a name that has some non-trivial recognition, and so on. Now a real "issue" has been created out of utter nonsense without any clear point where the tide shifted in trump's direction. Just another illustration of how the "tipping point" argument of Gladwell was always pretty weak.
Still, your voice on this topic is highly valued and I hope you keep driving the discussion and analysis as you have been doing. Thank you.
"There is a vast gulf between Trump’s authoritarian aspirations and rightwing propaganda on the one hand and the realities of a complex modern state and society on the other. And in that space, politics will continue to happen, possibilities to resist and push back exist."
I wish I could be as sanguine as the author.
That we are even having these conversations, would have been unthinkable 10 years ago. Now we are reduced to using reason in a world that appears to have abandoned the concept. This man has had the full attention of the globe for 8 years. He (and the media, - his most willing enabler) is shaping it in ways we can't imagine. Flat earthers? Really? No REALLY! What used to be confined to the headlines of the National Enquirer, are now policy options.
I'm just not certain how we go back from here.
Who exactly is going to stand in Trumps way? The “people and institutions who are under no legal or constitutional obligation to follow his orders” will simply comply when threatened with lawsuits and military tribunals. Countries who won’t call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America will fold when presented with tariffs. With the house, senate and Supreme Court in his hands there is nothing stopping him. Any military leader or “enemy within” who gets in his way will simply be replaced. He meant it when he told people they will “never have to vote again.”
The most dangerous thing about trump is not the media he has lying for him, but that by law he will have command of the mightiest military on earth. So the number one question everyone must confront NOW, is, will they salute and say “yes, sir!” no matter how insane the command may be? Will they invade Greenland if so ordered?
After all, we don’t need to worry about him invading Greenland by himself, as odious as that might be… we might even encourage that!
I meant to say odorous. Slip of the keyboard….
Yes, they will simply do as he says. Otherwise they will face lawsuits or military tribunals
I was referring to the commanders, not the grunts. If they truly believe the American myth of moral greatness, they would not blindly burn it down.
I was also referring to the commanders as well as the grunts
The military will soon face a crisis (a point of decision): submit to fascism or excise it with “extreme prejudice.” Much too fast for lawyers and courts. The next month will be “verry interesting.”
They will fold and capitulate
T***p isn’t in charge. The CNP is:
https://dougsooley.substack.com/p/know-your-enemy-the-council-for-national
As I recall the idea of the US taking over Canada and Mexico was also used by some on the right to sell NAFTA. The idea was that we would essentially couple them to us economically and thus politically and so on. That didn't happen of course, but that was part of the pitch that came through to some.
To me though there is also the danger of his bluster both normalizing things that were once too extreme even for most "normal" Republicans (invading a NATO ally for example) but also that his most ardent followers will go further and further on their own and he will feel compelled to follow. Consider what happens when he pardons the proud boys and they return home to find some "illegal" in their town. will they wait for ICE to act, or will they? And once Trump has talked up mass deportations and someone takes him seriously, or the markets do and tank out of fear, will he try to patch it up? Of course not.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-154433504
I don’t know why we have trouble with saying the same facts over and over, without getting worked up.
“This is another example of Trump’s deranged babbling. There is absolutely no way to tell what he intends to actually do, and what is just craziness (although I think we know what side of the line windmills are driving the whales crazy falls on). But he is a felon, a rapist, and a traitor, and even his supporters will soon turn away from his failing administration as the damage it inflicts on us all becomes increasingly clear.”
Just say it every time. It covers all manner of clownishness.
Much of your piece talks about Trumpism simply saying the quiet part out loud when it comes to long-standing right-wing aspirations. One could readily expand the idea to his approach to foreign policy: doing in plain sight what the CIA had previously done covertly.
Key point: which Rs will say ‘no’ to TFG - if any. Incoming civics class on the role of Congress, and the Separation of Powers Doctrine.
Outstanding writing and read on history. This was my first essay by you. I look forward to reading many more. Thank you!
I would add one more question: Who benefits from Trump's policies? Which of his supporters, allies and benefactors would benefit from ownership of, if not increased access, to Greenland?
Here is a list of metals found in Greenland: Copper; Iron Ore; Gold; Lithium: a crucial component in batteries, contributing to its importance in the green energy transition; Titanium: which has applications in aerospace, defense, and other industries; and Lead. a metal with applications in batteries, construction, and other industries.
I think that trump is a vehicle, a means to an end to what ultimately is a white supremacists goal to shape the United States and the world in that view. We have no real, solid opposition to maga and their capture of pretty much all of our institutions, government and otherwise. Those of us who oppose this movement are merely reacting to maga and it's an untenable position to be in. We have to be on the offense and I think mass media is a large part of that effort. As we're seeing now, our social media channels are run by individuals who go wherever the wind blows and it has become increasingly clear that social media should be a public utility and should never be owned by individuals. The mainstream media, as it were, is also very much like a weather vane and should never be that. All I want, as I'm sure a lot of others want, is a media that simply disseminates facts, nothing more, nothing less. The problem with "left" media, as I see it or the reason why it's not a money maker is because reality and/or facts are boring and right wing media offers nothing but fantasy and conspiracy and those things are fun to engage in but are entirely detrimental to our society. Anyway, just putting in my two cents.
I would submit that Trump's outlandishness is the point. It both misdirects, sending media, opponents and even his own people spinning and turning and wasting resources, as well as it informs, creating possible policy narratives no matter how improbable that resonate with his base(despite none of the benefits ever falling their way). During Trump 1.0 he claimed many things and accomplished precious little, but the key thing is he kept the base engaged and the wealthy profiting 'tremendously' as he likes to say. He didn't build a wall, didn't lower pharma prices, didn't get 6% GDP growth, didn't kill Obamacare or get cheaper better healthcare, and never even got to infrastructure week. What he did do is get a huge tax cut passed of which 80% went to the wealthiest. He cut regs allowing corps to pollute, weakened regs to protect unions and their pays, screwed workers with mandatory arbitration rulings, filled remaining regulators with Wall St. friendly people. I could spend a day listing the ways he hurt every day Americans, but that is the end goal here. Billionaires made off with Trillions. Workers were universally weakened. I would submit that if we need to find more productive way to engage with the Oligarchy, it would be to start there. As for his imperialism, history tells us many leaders have used this ploy to keep their citizens' focus away from their own diminishing margins. It doesn't need to succeed, it only has to direct their focus away. If his first term was any indication, he will fail repeatedly and his propaganda arms will work overtime to blame others. Outrage as a response isn't enough. Pols who think decorum is more important doing isn't enough. But I do think that itemizing, repeating, and focusing attention on his failures, how they hurt the many and profit the few, is a starting position against the now overwhelming odds.
But if you ask the average MAGA follower they will tell you that Trump did accomplish all those things. They saw it on social media.
It's a bit like Nostradamus, you only see what was "meant" after the predictions/proclamations have come to pass.
I appreciate the analysis and historic context--I really value Thomas' work and perspective. I generally feel well informed, well educated and as a communications professional, thought I had a good handle on how messages have been framed by the right. I didn't/don't. The degree of polarization here in the US shocks me. What I thought were periodic anomalies in the American experiment turn out to be real differences in our values and beliefs - what I thought were shared values and beliefs shaping a pluralistic democracy are actually real, sustained differences in how we view 'community' and our relationship with our fellow humans. The 'anomalies' turn out to be fundamental differences in our views of what it means to be an American and the cultural fragmentation seems to be heading toward an apex. Any means seems to justify the end. "I could shoot someone and not lose voters" turns out to be true.
It is easy for those of us who are watching the far-right dominate our political, legal, religious, corporate and cultural institutions to feel depressed, to wring our hands, to feel dismay and sadness. I am experiencing all of those feelings; however, many of us (50%?) have a different view of how we want to live, how we want to govern and how we treat our fellow citizens across the globe. We need to re-assert our values. It would be helpful for historians, social psychologists and experts in political movements to help us steer the conversations and our actions toward strategies and tactics that counter the MAGA movement. We also need leadership- at best our Pro-democracy movement is a weak coalition of stunned advocates. Maybe a discourse on historically successful efforts to oppose authoritarian and far-right movements will help us re-create our shared values and leadership. We don't have a lot of time.
You know what it took to stop Hitler? WW2. I hope that puts our struggle into perspective. I think people believe that if we just, I don't know, have the right candidate or formulate the right message???? That all will be well. I think it's going to take a major event to dislodge Trump. Don't get me started on Musk and the rest of the billionaires bent on world domination. I don't think most people realize we may be starving and homeless soon (I mean think about what happens when we reduce what's in the grocery store by getting rid of the people that produce it AND by taxing what other countries send us) and what do we do with nursing home residents when they end medicaid? I hear a lot of boycott this or that billionaire. Like that's going to make a difference to someone who makes a million dollars a day. Yeah, I don't know what to do but realistically I wonder if there's anything we can do.
The differences in perceived values and whitewashing of cruelty and hate have been deliberately amplified by politicians, hucksters, media, and even religious figures for personal, political, or monetary gain.
Your observation about the US domination of the Americas is correct. We have a long and ugly history of meddling and overthrowing governments in the Americas we disliked. This isn’t an approval of the governments of Venezuela or Cuba, but simply an observation that our meddling has done real harm, and that Venezuela and Cuba might have had better governments had we not felt free to meddle in their governments.