Last night at a rally in New Hampshire, former president Trump repeatedly confused former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who is running against him for the Republican presidential nomination, with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House.
Thank you for this clear and accurate description of what Trump and the Republican Party are trying to do to our institutions and to our republic. God help us.
Heather, Thank you for this stellar overview of right-wing/GOP anti-democracy goals. I encourage everyone to read ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, a short and powerful book by historian Timothy Snyder. The book tells us how to fight the insidious horrors that Heather describes. We have our work cut out for us this year, but we can defeat Trump, MAGA, and authoritarian wannabes. Yes we can!
"The first is that Trump always blurts out whatever is uppermost in his mind, suggesting he is worried by the fact that large banks will no longer lend to him"
Is there room in there for an upper and lower? I think his ego consumes every bit of the oxygen.
Saw Oppenheimer this evening and Killers of the Flower Moon a few days ago. At heart the two films are about the same thing - the corruption of powerful people. Oppenheimer goes one step further talking about how nuclear weapons pretty much have single handedly made our lives untenable. The A-bomb never caused the atmospheric chain reaction that some scientists feared would destroy the earth. But, it did bring on massive expenditures for war both actual and in the name of preventing it. I was shocked when I heard that the recent Congressional budget agreement was based on an estimated $800+ billion for the military and $700+ billion for everything else. No wonder we can’t take care of human needs when more than half of the money allocated to the Federal government is for war (“defense”). Trump and his MAGA buddies are becoming more unhinged, but we need to be honest and recognize that American politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, are trapped in old ways of thinking that benefit those who traffic in, and profit from actual and moral death and destruction.
I’ve been thinking about the Nikki thing. Those who might be considering a vote for her and don’t pay attention, might think she actually did all of that (it’s a pack of lies in any case), and then decide to vote for him in their primary. So I think it was deliberate and also serves another purpose. Should he lose the general election, he can try to get out of some of the cases against him on the grounds that he is clearly not of sound mind. I might be wrong but I don’t think he does anything accidentally. Another point when he says Obama is the president now, conspiracy people conclude that Obama is making the decisions, not President Biden. He planted that seed. Deliberately.
The great Roy Blount, Jr., who is a fellow subscriber here at LFAA (and he honors me as a subscriber at TAFM), read tonight's post and posted the following at his Substack, "Take Another Piece of My Heart":
"Heather Cox Richardson is the Walker Cronkite of today. Her post today about Trump’s cognitive decline is the equivalent of Cronkite’s signal that the Vietnam War was no longer viable."
I keep saying to my readers that 2024 is the most important worst year of our lives. Every time the orange menace opens his mouth, he proves again there is no bottom to him.
What she has described here tonight sounds a lot like the description of Germany 1930-33 described to me by a certain "Hollywood Legend" I was privileged to know who saw it all firsthand. This is right out of what Dr. Snyder talks about describing how a fascist takes power and destroys a democracy.
One approach to defeating TFG is to plant information inside the MAGAt camp. For example (to the gun crowd):
“Trump has said many times that he will be a dictator. The first thing a dictator must do when seizing power is crush opposition and potential (future) opposition. As a dictator he will come after your guns. He will mobilize the military as Commander-in-Chief to disarm his potential opponents. If you love the Second Amendment, you must never let Trump win the White House!”
Who knows how well it would work? Maybe not at all but it’s a thought.
I am starting to think the MAGA crowd would vote for Trump even if he were in a coma. If Kubrick were still alive he could make a great movie about it. But then so much is at stake I don’t think I would enjoy it.
"Tearing apart the fabric of democracy invites an authoritarian to convince his followers that democracy is weak and that only a strongman can govern."
According to Masha Gessen's The Future is History this is the Putin strongman takeover playbook in a nutshell. The Orange Grump's mentor.
An analysis I read today said (how I wish I could identify the author) be cautious about saying his misspeaking is a cognitive deficit. More likely he pointedly and intentionally named Nikki Haley three times because he knows his followers don’t need context. They just need to hear his rage speech in order to identify the enemy. He also intentionally mispronounces her given name as a form of mockery. And remember Ted Cruz was called Rafael by Trump. DeSantis is DeSanctimonious. It’s trump playing to his base’s angry, bullying, mocking attitudes. They really couldn’t care less what his point is. They just want to see him behave badly.
Thank you for this clear and accurate description of what Trump and the Republican Party are trying to do to our institutions and to our republic. God help us.
Heather, Thank you for this stellar overview of right-wing/GOP anti-democracy goals. I encourage everyone to read ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, a short and powerful book by historian Timothy Snyder. The book tells us how to fight the insidious horrors that Heather describes. We have our work cut out for us this year, but we can defeat Trump, MAGA, and authoritarian wannabes. Yes we can!
"The first is that Trump always blurts out whatever is uppermost in his mind, suggesting he is worried by the fact that large banks will no longer lend to him"
Is there room in there for an upper and lower? I think his ego consumes every bit of the oxygen.
Saw Oppenheimer this evening and Killers of the Flower Moon a few days ago. At heart the two films are about the same thing - the corruption of powerful people. Oppenheimer goes one step further talking about how nuclear weapons pretty much have single handedly made our lives untenable. The A-bomb never caused the atmospheric chain reaction that some scientists feared would destroy the earth. But, it did bring on massive expenditures for war both actual and in the name of preventing it. I was shocked when I heard that the recent Congressional budget agreement was based on an estimated $800+ billion for the military and $700+ billion for everything else. No wonder we can’t take care of human needs when more than half of the money allocated to the Federal government is for war (“defense”). Trump and his MAGA buddies are becoming more unhinged, but we need to be honest and recognize that American politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, are trapped in old ways of thinking that benefit those who traffic in, and profit from actual and moral death and destruction.
I’ve been thinking about the Nikki thing. Those who might be considering a vote for her and don’t pay attention, might think she actually did all of that (it’s a pack of lies in any case), and then decide to vote for him in their primary. So I think it was deliberate and also serves another purpose. Should he lose the general election, he can try to get out of some of the cases against him on the grounds that he is clearly not of sound mind. I might be wrong but I don’t think he does anything accidentally. Another point when he says Obama is the president now, conspiracy people conclude that Obama is making the decisions, not President Biden. He planted that seed. Deliberately.
The great Roy Blount, Jr., who is a fellow subscriber here at LFAA (and he honors me as a subscriber at TAFM), read tonight's post and posted the following at his Substack, "Take Another Piece of My Heart":
"Heather Cox Richardson is the Walker Cronkite of today. Her post today about Trump’s cognitive decline is the equivalent of Cronkite’s signal that the Vietnam War was no longer viable."
I keep saying to my readers that 2024 is the most important worst year of our lives. Every time the orange menace opens his mouth, he proves again there is no bottom to him.
What she has described here tonight sounds a lot like the description of Germany 1930-33 described to me by a certain "Hollywood Legend" I was privileged to know who saw it all firsthand. This is right out of what Dr. Snyder talks about describing how a fascist takes power and destroys a democracy.
One approach to defeating TFG is to plant information inside the MAGAt camp. For example (to the gun crowd):
“Trump has said many times that he will be a dictator. The first thing a dictator must do when seizing power is crush opposition and potential (future) opposition. As a dictator he will come after your guns. He will mobilize the military as Commander-in-Chief to disarm his potential opponents. If you love the Second Amendment, you must never let Trump win the White House!”
Who knows how well it would work? Maybe not at all but it’s a thought.
Let’s hope we “can heal our broken land” 🙏
Thanks for writing this piece Heather.
You've framed the major facets of the all-out assault on our democracy by the republican party.
Let's destroy them at the ballot box this November.
This one, Dr. Richardson, should be printed on the front page of the NYT, the Washington Post and every newspaper in the land. Thank you.
I am starting to think the MAGA crowd would vote for Trump even if he were in a coma. If Kubrick were still alive he could make a great movie about it. But then so much is at stake I don’t think I would enjoy it.
"Tearing apart the fabric of democracy invites an authoritarian to convince his followers that democracy is weak and that only a strongman can govern."
According to Masha Gessen's The Future is History this is the Putin strongman takeover playbook in a nutshell. The Orange Grump's mentor.
I wonder what Trump acolyte Jamie Dimond will think, of his bank being attacked by MAGA.
Who here doesn't read the letter as a battle cry and want to grab a spear and follow HCR into battle?!?
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
An analysis I read today said (how I wish I could identify the author) be cautious about saying his misspeaking is a cognitive deficit. More likely he pointedly and intentionally named Nikki Haley three times because he knows his followers don’t need context. They just need to hear his rage speech in order to identify the enemy. He also intentionally mispronounces her given name as a form of mockery. And remember Ted Cruz was called Rafael by Trump. DeSantis is DeSanctimonious. It’s trump playing to his base’s angry, bullying, mocking attitudes. They really couldn’t care less what his point is. They just want to see him behave badly.
What, a Saturday night letter? Hallelujah...haven’t read it yet, just saw it drop in the inbox...am I blessed or what?!😃