The ruthless cruelty of ICE is not incidental. Cruelty is the point.
The lies of Trump and his accomplices are not random. Lying is the point.
The corruption of Trump and his cronies is not a fluke. Corruption is the point.
The chaotic blitz of Executive Orders is not haphazard. Chaos is the point.
The inconsistency of Trump’s statements and actions is not gratuitous. Inconsistency is the point.
The routine disregard of court rulings is not coincidental. Contempt of court is the point.
The sidelining of congressional authority is not a side effect. Contempt of Congress is the point.
The smug defiance of the Constitution is not arbitrary. Contempt of the Constitution is the point.
The repeated violations of the Bill of Rights are not collateral damage. Governing “by contempt of the governed” is the point.
Territorial aggression is the point; insulting allies is the point; grade-school name-calling is the point; scapegoating people of color is the point; dehumanizing the victim is the point; pandering to dictators is the point.
The overt outrageousness of the Trump regime’s every move is just as sadistic and pathological as it seems. But it is also a strategy, designed to bombard, confuse, intimidate, discourage, overwhelm, fatigue, divide and conquer. It is intended to send a message that intentionally doesn’t bother to be subtle. Not bothering to be subtle is the point.
On the surface, the message is that Trump is not merely a king, but a god – not just above the law but above the scurvy multitude of mortals like you and me – and Vance, Miller, Voight, Roberts, Hegseth, Blanche et al are just eager acolytes, scurrying to do His Omnipotent Majesty’s bidding lest they displease him.
But beware. This is all an act. Trump is an entertainer, first and foremost and forever. His administration is a reality TV show, a riveting sequel to “The Apprentice.” Though he plays the leading role, appearing as himself, his virtuoso performance is a devious diversionary feint – a colorful front for the radical right’s covert strategy in its carefully plotted war against America.
So don’t get sucked in by The Donald Trump Show. React with the appropriate moral outrage and the necessary coordinated resistance, but pay attention to the pattern behind the shock tactics, the social-media spectacle, the surprise plot twists, lurid subplots, cynical sideshows and comical asides.
Remember, Trump’s reign is temporary, whether he wins or loses a third term, chooses not to run, or dies in office. Behind the scenes, the real objective of the right-wing offensive is to permanently disable democracy so that that when the time comes, they choose his successor, not We the People.
No one has the brute charisma and the celebrity appeal to take Trump’s place on the ballot and win on a platform of transparent lies, and they all know it. Regardless of the success or failure of Trump’s agenda, the entire circus is a smokescreen for the underlying drive to turn the electoral apparatus mandated by the Constitution against the Constitution itself.
How do we stop them? Start by switching channels from the Donald Trump Show to the bigger picture, the long game of the conspiracy to dethrone democracy – the true “Axis of Evil” of omnivorous billionaires, Christian theocrats and white-power extremists.
The Real “Enemy Within”
For half a century now, the white-supremacist evangelical mega-corporate right has been laying the groundwork for a pseudo-populist Trojan Horse like Donald Trump who could breach the Constitutional walls protecting the machinery of majority rule. They are now charging through the gates, bent on seizing the citadels of power before the dust clears and the dawn reveals a victorious “enemy within.”
How did they accomplish this? Their response to the contentious 1960s was diabolically far-sighted. While condemning Hollywood as elitist, immoral, socialist, etc., they quietly acquired a majority stake in the media industry. They took advantage of our consumer conditioning and entertainment addiction to feed us a steady diet of amusement and propaganda.
Republicans have won elections only by repeating ad nauseum the lies of Reagan, Limbaugh, Karl Rove, Pat Robertson, the NRA, the Heritage Foundation, Fox News, etc. Democrats provided “balance” by opposing conservative talking points while taking money from the same big donors. The “defense” budget, militarized police, citizen surveillance, the War on Drugs and the prison industry all expanded year after year with bipartisan support.
Then came social media, the ultimate tool for social engineering. By exploiting the lucrative cult of the individual, long before Trump arrived the algorithms had already split us down the middle. Trump found a ready-made divide ripe for conquering – and the radical right found their Trojan Horse.
How did they pull it off? Ask George Orwell.
They used the accusation of “fake news” to fabricate an elaborate fake reality.
They accused Democrats of “voter fraud” to justify taking control of elections.
They labeled pluralistic democracy an “ideology” to mask their ideology of the worship of wealth.
They perverted the charge of “racial discrimination” to restore the reign of white supremacy.
They purged the universities of “anti-semitism” to camouflage their Nazi genealogy.
They painted immigrants as “criminals” to divert attention from their own crimes and corruption.
They invented a “homosexual agenda” to disguise their agenda of persecution.
They twisted the leftist slang term “lawfare” to cry victim whenever the courts ruled against them.
They weaponized the very word “weaponize” against anyone who attempts to hold them accountable.
And they framed a nebulous “enemy within” to take the heat off their own premeditated acts of treason.
It reminds me of one of those war movies where the Nazis dress up in captured American uniforms and practice talking “yankee” so they can sneak through the Allied lines and turn the GIs against each other.
Adolf Hitler came to power with the help of wealthy right-wing power brokers who thought they could use him to achieve their own ends, only to be sent to the concentration camps if they stepped out of line. Trump’s situation is the opposite: he thinks he is using others to achieve the power he craves. But he is old and declining, and they are patiently waiting to inherit that power and run with it.
Capitalism vs. Democracy
David Korten’s 2000 book The Post-Corporate World begins by summarizing where we stood at the turn of the new century: “In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy and the free market economy.”
In the 2000s, we can now add, capitalism triumphed over the Bill of Rights when Congress passed the U.S.A. Patriot Act – not because of 9/11, but because mass protests had shut down the World Trade Organization’s 1999 meeting in Seattle.
In the 2010s, capitalism triumphed over government regulation when the subprime mortgage meltdown handed billions of bailout dollars to the same financial giants that had profited from creating the bubble. And then came the pandemic.
In the 2020s, capitalism has triumphed over the U.S. Constitution by revoking its explicit separation of powers and subordinating all three branches of government to autocratic billionaires.
Trump’s hyped-up “crisis at the border” targeted the wrong immigrants. An Australian billionaire controls the minds of nearly half of America’s voters. A South African billionaire demolishes the government agencies that are investigating his corporate crimes. A billionaire from New Zealand sells surveillance technology to government agencies to investigate us. Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are all naturalized citizens, but based on their anti-democratic actions I would argue that none of them is truly an American.
But by the same logic, neither are Donald Trump and his billionaire cabinet – all descendants of immigrants, all co-conspirators in the plot to overturn the Constitution. They do not behave like politicians who expect to face voters at the ballot box ever again. Republican-led states have already set the stage for minority rule through a combination of gerrymandering, voter suppression, and control of the ballot count.
How bad can it get? Thanks to Hitler and Orwell, we already know.
What if the plan is to deliberately crash the economy in order to spark riots – then bring in ICE and the army to “restore order” and “temporarily” postpone elections?
What if they deport enough farmworkers, construction workers, meatpackers and household domestics to create an unskilled labor shortage?
What if they intend to cover the shortfall by filling ICE’s concentration camps with nonviolent protesters convicted of anti-American and anti-Christian “terrorism,” and feed them into the prison-labor system?
Why not shift Social Security and Medicare to a voucher system, and privatize – i.e. pocket – the Social Security fund? There’s a fresh supply of cheap labor right there, formerly known as the Baby Boom.
If we let it get that far, we will have no excuse. Unlike Germany, Japan, Russia and China, we have a tradition of protest and a system of justice to protect it. We will see whether the American people will meekly accept a coup d’etat of the One Percent, or re-kindle the spirit of rebellion 250 years after 1776.
At this point, everything depends on a massive turnout in November’s midterms – enough sheer numbers to overwhelm every barrier the anti-democratic conspiracy has erected against the right to vote. Tell every unregistered voter you know.
If you don’t think voting counts, look what the voters accomplished by electing Trump!
Note: As always, these are my personal opinions and do not represent any organization I’m involved with. If my words resonate for you, please share widely. You can subscribe at StephenWing.com (and unsubscribe at any time). Read previous installments of “Wingtips” here. Contains no AI ingredients!
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As usual, an excellent essay. Thanks, Wing! I’m glad you are still hopeful about the midterms!