Greg Sargent has another interview at The New Republic, this time with a journalist and historian named Garrett Graff. Sargent sites something Graff wrote yesterday titled America Tips Into Fascism, which begins.
The United States, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and fascism. In the end, faster than I imagined possible, it did happen here. The precise moment when and where in recent weeks America crossed that invisible line from democracy into authoritarianism can and will be debated by future historians, but it’s clear that the line itself has been crossed.
Sargent’s interview is titled Trump’s Fury Erupts at Many Targets as Expert Fears Worsen. It strikes me that in headlines Trump is perpetually furious and raging and seeking vengeance. That much anger isn’t good for one’s health, you know. I don’t know the man personally, but I wonder if he was always perpetually angry or if this is something that’s taken hold since he’s been in politics. Chronic anger is linked to depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline, some website says. I don’t know that Trump is depressed, but I don’t doubt the anxiety and cognitive decline parts. And the cognitive decline fuels the anxiety. The psychologists will tell you that people turn into control freaks out of fear and insecurity. They need to control their environment and other people to manage their insecurities and fears. The problem for Trump is that his “environment” is now the whole planet.
The whole interview is worth reading, but this part stood out for me.
Graff: Well, it’s not even just political opponents. And this is, I think, an important part of this. It is part and parcel again of this worldview that Trump has brought into office this time where “the state is me”—the old French king line—where it’s not just that Donald Trump doesn’t like being criticized by domestic political opponents. It’s that Donald Trump thinks that he personally and his taste should dictate what is in our museums with his attacks on the Smithsonian. He believes that his taste should dictate what is performed in our theaters with his takeover of the Kennedy Center. He believes that his taste and his personal preferences should dictate what books people should read as we have seen him go after things like the Naval Academy library.
His craziest tweet of the weekend to me was him trying to dictate that Major League Baseball immediately induct Roger Clemens into the Hall of Fame because he played golf with Roger Clemens and, boy, Roger Clemens is just a great guy. This idea that there’s one true vision for America—and it is Donald Trump’s personal vision for what our life and our culture and our society should be—is to me the most clear example of authoritarianism that we could see.
It’s a clear example of authoritarianism and a clear example of narcissism and a clear example of someone with diminished mental capacity trying to pro-actively shape everything within his field of vision into something that feels safe and familiar. It’s why he wants the White House to look more like his Florida country club, for example. Everything must be forced to fit into his shrinking comfort zone.. There must be nothing in museums that upset him, no weird plays or music performed at the Kennedy Center that go over his head. And everybody is supposed to be nice to him. Other people’s anger and disapproval are frightening and threatening to him.
In a sane world, Trump probably would be confined to some kind of extended care community where everything would be familiar and he could be kept under close medical supervision. Instead, a perfect storm of circumstances came together to make him president of the United States.
Probably what terrifies him more than anything else is losing power. If he loses Congress next year, his ability to call the shots will be diminished. And of course he really wants to stay in office for life. Part of him acknowledges that he’s not supposed to be able to serve a third term, but I doubt he genuinely accepts that, deep down. That’s why he’s turned a room in the West Wing into a “merch store” selling “Trump 2028” hats. This is not a joke. Deep down, he wants to believe that he will win another term in 2028. And he’ll stop at nothing to make that happen.
The interview continues:
Graff: Complete surrender on all fronts: in politics, in sports, in culture, in business. Part of my essay today was this insanity of Trump capitalism we have seen in the last couple of weeks where Tim Cook from Apple came to Washington D.C. to hand Donald Trump literal pieces of gold in the Oval Office to curry favor. We’ve seen Donald Trump having the government take 10 percent of Intel over because Donald Trump just believes he should have 10 percent of Intel. Nvidia is paying a literally unconstitutional export tax because Donald Trump decreed that if they wanted to sell chips to China then they had to pay this export tax of 15 percent straight to the U.S. government, which I’m sure somewhere will get laundered around to end up in Donald Trump’s presidential library like all of these other fees and fines. But this is just insanity, and it is nothing like any version of America that we have seen in modern times.
Sargent: And by the way, reinforcing your point are the threats against the media. In two separate rants on Truth Social, Trump said ABC and NBC should have their licenses revoked by the FCC. He also said they should “pay up BIG.” Now, it’s true that Trump is botching things a bit here on the specifics of how FCC licenses work, but still the threatened action is a direct response to criticism of him. He’s explicit about this in the tweets. He says this is about bad stories about him. I just can’t help but notice that there’s a real snowballing here where we’re really seeing Trump get a whole lot more comfortable with making it a lot more explicit—this demand for absolute capitulation on every front.
People and institutions capitulate to him because it’s easier and less messy than standing up to him. If you’ve ever been in a situation in which you have to work with or deal with someone who is, shall we say, psychologically compromised, it can be quite remarkable how quickly everyone around that person adjusts to his or her issues. You’re not really interacting with a human being as much as with a psychiatric condition. But everybody adjusts. Or leaves.
In Trump’s case, the deeper his terror, the more extreme his response. As I said in a post last week, Trump’s approval numbers are so low you’d think there would be no penalty in crossing him. And, politically, there wouldn’t be. But Trump, and whatever True Believers or Opportunists are sticking with him, have the levers of power. And they will be used as Trump’s deteriorating mental and psychological condition demand.
So Trump is going to get worse and more radical until he’s stopped. I don’t know how that’s going to happen. The thing I most don’t want is an armed rebellion. I want to see people and institutions taking back their rightful power and just saying no to him. Until they do, he’s going to demand more and more.
Oh, and all those “second amendment” activists who have been lecturing us for years that the Founders meant for us to be armed for protection against a tyrannical government? That’s historically not true, but they genuinely believe it. They may be about to find out how little armed citizens can do against a fully equipped and trained military.
In other news: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker stands up and says no to Trump. This is a thing of beauty.
See also Dan Froomkin, We have become an authoritarian state, and our top newsrooms are in denial.
And Paul Krugman, In the Matter of Lisa Cook.
This made me laugh. We need to laugh.
Anything, well yes and no. Yes, there is no respect for things he should not do, like respect the power of the Federal Reserve and its independence. He is creating stagflation but does not understand how huge of a problem it is in a country that does rely on free markets to control a lot of prices. He has had problems with money all his life yet somehow avoids being seen by the public as incompetent with money. Most people with their last name prominently displayed on large buildings are good with money. His is on two large buildings in Turkey, I hear, the capital I think, yet that county now has horrid money problems with inflation. Krugman has referred to economic problems there for some time with graphs and the like. Its currency is a mess, yet fearless leader has one of his strange attractions to it. Is that due to his vanity and those two buildings? That would be crazy.
Crazy is not out of bounds though as are all things illegal. Sane is. What is sane can and will not be done. Hard work and diligence are the known and sane ways of making peace, with competent and knowledgeable staff well versed in the problems of both warring sides. All of this sanity fearless leader avoids completely and with hostile intent. He is not capable, it seems, of being sane.
A large part of education is just making an environment for learning. It does not make you learn, it just keeps you away from doing things that hinder learning. The concept of a garden is critical to a sane approach to education. Is the soil fertile? Is water available? Do you have sun or provisions for shade if needed? Can you keep out pests, weeds, and predators? These are sane considerations. None of them are in any of the education plans of the fearless leader or his minions. Nor is even the plan to continue educational TV or even an education department at all. Those ideas would be too sane and hence prohibited.
No. fearless leader and company are totally incapable of doing anything sane. Somehow the GOP selection and advancement process has assured us we are not staffed that way at the top at least. From the party of Brownback, Laffer, Norquist, and the like comes more insanity with much more 'talent' in the wings.
I am kind of desensitized to it having worked and lived in a red state all my life. Our motto for survival was to send nothing important to the top. Because at the top the rule was If it made sense, we cannot do it that way. All dictates were void of sanity and just made things worse. Think life was bad before in Washington D.C., try living there now. They won't go out to eat and I won't fly in or even go visit. Unsafe at the airport and crazy in the streets. Who needs that?
*I should credit the great international public educational giant Fredrick Froebel. (or Frobel mit eine umlaut)
The Trae Crowder bit was many thumbs up funny.
That link was blocked for me! ("This page has been blocked by Microsoft Edge"). Why??? I was able to get it via GoogChrome. Is MS Edge protecting me from raunchy humor? Is Bill Gates sucking up to Trump [more] now?
Some of Trump's recent behavior is probably due to mental decline. But the resentment has always been there; he was never really accepted by the NY cultural/social elite, because he's just so gauche and boorish. He hung out with New Money wannabes like Epstein because he never had the real class to get invited to the really good parties.
I also suspect that [some of] Trump's doctors have had the guts to tell him that he's not going to live through 2028, and he's lashing out at Mortality. This could get /really/ scary; 'apres moi, le deluge' is a particularly dangerous philosophy for someone with access to The Button.
But in another sense, I view Trump's lashing out at social and cultural targets as a result of delicate channeling by the GOP elite. They [now] know that they can't really control him, but they have found ways to steer him toward targets that they either want destroyed or don't care about.
Also, I don't think it's a coincidence that the Big Corps that Trump is squeezing for kickbacks are NOT part of the core GOP Donor Base. He's gone after Tech, Media, Big Law, Academia, etc, but he hasn't attacked Extractive Industries (Oil/Gas/Coal/Mining, etc), Manufacturing, and other core GOP donors.
Trump is a vindictive SOB. It's one thing MAGA loves about him. They expect retribution. He's failing them. There is the matter of coddling a convicted sex offender. Anybody who thinks the transfer of Maxwell from a federal prison to a federal camp "just happened" is loopy. The event happened less than a week after Maxwell talked to Trump's personal lawyer – the transfer was in violation of DOJ rules on sex offenders. Who ordered the exception?
MAGA believes that Trump was persecuted, not prosecuted, after the failed coup attempt of 2020. High on the revenge list is the members of Congress who investigated, including Shift and Cheney. The most energetic swipe has been to inveestigate Jack Smith for a violation of the Hatch Act. Before I comment on how ridiculous the suggestion is, let me point out that the maximum penalty Smith is facing is a fine of (brace yourself) $1000. No jail time. He's already out of federal service so he can't be demoted or fired. The WORST that DOJ is proposing for Jack Smith is a fine of $1000. Shift and Cheny have endured some name-calling, and probably the cost of round-the-clock security.
DOJ tried to prosecute the leaders of the opposition in LA who taunted ICE. There were claims of physical attacks which were flimsy and unsubstantiated. (Ever hear of body cams, ICE?) They can't get a Grand Jury to indict unless there's evidence that some bonehead threw a rock or something. Speaking of which, a Grand Jury would not indict the SUBWAY SANDWICH thrower for Assault with a Deadly Condiment. A guy who set a US flag on fire outside the White House hours after Trump signed an executive order promising consequences is being charged with lighting a fire in a DC park where it's prohibited. BFD. Trump's suit against ALL the judges of Maryland's Supreme Court was tossed by a Federal judge (who Trump nominated.)
I've talked to MAGA creeps. They EXPECTED Trump to go Hitler and do mass arrests of his opposition without due process. They want Trump to hand out revenge with the same ease he hands out pardons. It hasn't happened and IMO, it won't. Even the USSC can't go that far outside the Constitution.
Last thought: What WILL the USSC allow. More than they should – they're already there. How much FEDERAL voter intimidation and suppression will the USSC sanction against the will of the blue state governors? How much interference with the Fed will the USSC and/or the markets tolerate? Something no one lese has examined (that Ii've read) if/when federal troops violate state election law and civil rights, they may be breaking STATE law. That means they can (potentailly) be charged and extradited back to the state where the violation occurred to face a STATE jury.
"You’re not really interacting with a human being as much as with a psychiatric condition." Right on, Maha.
We're way beyond "they're weird," now it's that "they're sick."