The Grand Illusion
As regular readers of my blog doubtless know, I try hard to look at the facts in a given situation, all of the facts, if possible, rather than just those facts that support my beliefs or values. This can be difficult when you’re evaluating actions by Trump and his followers, because they have a continuing tendency to misrepresent facts, or to ignore those which are inconvenient or which conflict with their objectives.
I won’t use the terms “beliefs” or “values” with regard to Trump and company because either term implies a consistency which appears lacking in Trump and most Trumpists, with the exception that everything that Trump does or supports appears designed to increase his own personal power. Add to that the apparent fact that Trump has no fixed beliefs or values, except narcissistic self-interest, and the fact that a large segment of his followers appear to accept whatever he says as fact, even when hard and/or visual evidence contradicts what Trump has declared to be true.
When federal law enforcement agents, such as those in ICE, ignore due process, Constitutional rights, and shoot individuals who have not threatened them or who have questioned the legality of ICE actions, and Trump supports those actions as legal, it should be clear to all Americans that the basics of law and order are being trampled.
When Trump uses federal investigations as a weapon of intimidation and effectively repudiates the Constitution and the right-wing-dominated Supreme Court finds ways to support Trump or to avoid addressing the underlying issues, it becomes more and more obvious that Trump, his lackeys in government, and his supporters have little interest in either law or morals.
The great danger of this situation is that those opposing Trump may decide that facts and words – and even votes – are insufficient in stopping his erosion of legal process and human rights, and that they will have to resort to force in order to preserve those rights.
Doesn’t anyone recall the results of the past attempts of arrogant white males to impose and maintain power through various forms of dubious legal inequality?
Just wanted to add:
– Opposing law enforcement officials on Jan 6 2021 = “good.”
– Opposing law enforcement officials on Jan 7 2026 = “bad.”
“…it becomes more and more obvious that Trump, his lackeys in government, and his supporters have little interest in either law or morals.”
Ain’t that the truth.
KevinJ
As a corollary in agreement,
– Police use of force resulting in death of civilian on Jan 6 2021 ‘bad’ as defined by Trump administration providing Babbitt family large monetary award for “wrongful death”
– Police (ICE) us of force in Minn (and nearly everywhere else) resulting in death of a civilian in 2026 entirely justified because Trump administration says so.
At what point does a civilian ever get to justify their self-defense? Because compliance isn’t working.
I suspect Trump and some of his advisors have decided to adopt a two-pronged strategy. 1) Train a force willing to repress the public using violence —ICE—while cementing their loyalty through cash and alienating them from the public, and 2) Encourage greater and greater violence until the left, or anybody, fights back enough to serious injure or kill an ICE agent ,using that as an excuse to further escalate.
The problem I see is that it’s not clear adopting a purely peaceful response to escalating provocations is much of a better option. ICE appears perfectly willing to escalate and what happens when they start deporting Trump enemies wholesale, regardless of legal status? When is the right time to pull out all the stops in resistance? It’s hard to stomach the thought of waiting until rich white males are being deported before putting up a real fight. Like a lot of serious oppositions to rulers, coordination issues plague the mass public, which is why elites are usually the ones that dictators intimidate and crack down on first. I think in the short term, elections are still the only answer, but if ICE starts to show up in polling places, that could be the last straw.
It’s a nuanced thing to be sure, but basically it boils down to. Try to hold onto Peaceful resistance until midterms. If Midterms flip things enough to neutralize Trump and his insanity then we can continue with peaceful opposition until 2028 and try to start moving in the right direction.
If the midterms fail to do that, I think we’re looking at a civil war because the reality is, the “left” has a lot of people very capable and willing to fight if needed, they just don’t WANT to and want to do things the right way.
I agree, though keep in mind the Democrats being the majority party in the house is no answer to Trump’s lawlessness. If you remember last time, he just ignored congress, at the impeachment and kept on trucking. The executive branch enforces everything and that includes court decisions. I think we’re going to win back congress, and likely the senate, but it won’t help. The only question in my mind is whether our representatives will step up as viable opponents to Trump, or crumble and bend, forcing the mass public to rise up willy-nilly in defense of themselves and take a beating like the Iranian public. I’m hoping to see another avenue of resistance that will at least be public enough to give the military pause in fully backing Trump. Historically, it’s splits among elites and *within* the military that cause dictatorial takeovers to fail. The wannabe dictators calls on the military to come out and support him and some faction does, but another faction stays in the barracks, silent. The autocratic takeovers that fail are usually because the dictator can’t convince his detractors in the military to stay in the barracks.