Absent rule of law
An exploration of what is to come
Trump has made it clear that his goal for a second term is to toss overboard the rule of law and the international rules-based order, instead turning the U.S. government into a vehicle for his own revenge and forging individual alliances with autocratic rulers like Russian president Vladimir Putin.1
What happens now? It seems very obvious: the con man clown king will move full speed ahead with cons, clowning, and kingly duties such as breaking everything that offends him, stealing as much loot as possible, and trampling anyone who questions his kingly right to do as he pleases. The petty tyrant has a mandate. Those votes might have been counted correctly, but I find that highly unlikely.
Either American voters are delusional, or Trump cheated. This is not a binary. It could be both. What seems clear is that something in the system changed drastically between 2020 and 2024. What that was is only speculative at this point. Trump has been alluding to a “fix” for some time now. First he told evangelicals that if they vote for him in 2024, they won’t need to worry about voting anymore.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told Christians on Friday that if they vote for him this November, "in four years, you don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good, you're not gonna have to vote."2
Then he told supporters that they did not need to vote in 2024 because he already had the votes needed.
Trump said he would have “plenty of votes”—enough that instead of voting, his fans should “get out there and watch those voters,” presumably referring to supporters of his eventual opponent. “You don’t have to vote, don’t worry about voting. The voting, we got plenty of votes.”3
Whatever is going on with this election result, we can count on Trump being at the center of all Republican schemes and crimes. I am certain there were hundreds of them. Power corrupts, and Trump wants his power without any guardrails. He has been willing to ruin lives and end lives over the path to power for decades.4
The end game is to reshape the power of the federal government into a cudgel in Trump’s hand. As inept and incompetent as Trump is, he has captured enough sycophants with cunning and lack of compunctions that he may be able to achieve a great deal of unmaking, including unnecessary human suffering, in the next few months to years.
The promise to fix things is utterly hollow. The MAGA cult is absolutely incapable of fixing anything. It only eats lives and shits out poisons. America voted for (or was conned into) self-destruction. Maybe that is long overdue.
I believe there is a version of America worth fighting and dying for. I am searching for a path forward that does not end with breaking everything. I hope you will join me. What ideas do you have for salvaging something good out of this dark time we are entering?
Absent rule of law, charlatans, buffoons, and those with nothing to offer will rise to the top and exist as parasitic entities feeding off others of their own species. The only saving grace is that they will eventually prey on one another. It is up to us to survive until they have self-suicided.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-tells-christians-they-wont-have-vote-after-this-election-2024-07-27/
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-tells-supporters-dont-worry-about-voting-on-election-day/
https://www.npr.org/2024/09/11/nx-s1-5108632/central-park-five-trump-debate
HCRs recent "Politics Chat" emphasisized the bottom up idea.
Example. Francis Perkins emerged from local then state responsibilities to become the longest serving Sec of Labor...and was the driving force behind establishing Social Security.
From teacher to social worker to advocate of workers rights (the horror of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory fire) to state and the federal leadership.
We all could consider doing something, anything local now - just to feel like we are making one small difference.
The Clown Car is now so crazy, so diabolical and fucked up that it will self destruct.
Of course, millions of people will suffer or die before our gullible fools wake up.
But the pendulum will swing back to sanity. Hope I live long enough to see it.
I don't yet have solutions, but I know that any movement must be bottom-up.
The days of blinding trusting DC Democrats is well and truly over.
The days of "savior syndrome" are over (Obama-Biden-Mueller-Garland-Smith-Pelosi-Harris, etc)..
The most powerful movements are always bottom up...a true leader comes later.
Stop watching the news/reading legacy media...it will neither inform nor inspire.
Invest in alternative media that provides honest assessments, not hopium.
Limit time on social media. Start really building communities. Greta Thunberg ignited a worldwide movement as a 16-year-old. She didn't succeed, but she planted seeds.
Do not donate to the DNC, invest in groups like "Run For Something" and "States Project" who are building out down ballot candidates because they understand the bottom up strategy.
This is a marathon, don't believe anyone who tells you 2026 will magically fall to Democrats or that Gavin Newsom will "save us" in 2028 (see Savior Syndrome above)
There is infrastructure we can build on: Reverend Barber, for example.
Don't believe anyone who pretends that we'll win if we move to a mythical center.
That's all I have for now.