This is such an important piece, Steven. The year-by-year account of Hitler’s reign over Germany tracks with what I have imagined the intensification of Trump cruelty and degradation, should he be permitted by his unwitting and/or benevolent supporters, to take power this November. In the past, I never referred to anyone ascending to the presidency of the United States as someone who ‘takes power’. Power used to be the tool that presidents knew they possessed and could wield, but they also knew the responsibility of that power. The Presidency was to be used for the common good…full stop. We’ve had to completely revise the way we think about power in this country, since Trump and his supporters mean to use it for evil purposes…to hoard it and keep it for themselves, like the last crust of bread they will ever possess.
Now we know that unbridled power is the sole and stated goal of Trump and the MAGA movement. Perhaps we should try to imagine what would or could happen in the first year of a new Trump regime…and then the second…third…fourth…and so on. Would he turn on a lot of heat immediately, or are we in for a slow boil? We know migrants would suffer immediately. What about legal immigrants or people awaiting hearings on their cases? If his political rivals, including Joe Biden, “Marxists, Radical Left Democrats” and others are to be targeted in the first year whom would that be, and when, and why, and how? Will people be sent to internment camps, or deported, or to prisons? Would they be released if they profess their fealty to the new regime?
What will happen to the Press? Will it be targeted or just dismantled? If they intend to force a Christian theocracy on us, how will they do that? Will they start, as they have, with restrictions on women…forced birth and restrictions on contraception, perhaps even a ban on the latter? Will LGBTQ folks be sent for ‘reeducation’? Will any and all books that do not comport with their Christian view of history be prohibited?
Will the people convicted of crimes for January 6 be pardoned and freed so that they can be ready to fight Trump’s battles? Will the military be used against civilians on a routine basis?
If someone wants or chooses to leave the country, will they be permitted to do so? Will they be able to access their money and sell their property in order to leave? If they receive Social security benefits, will they be able to access them if they are not living inside the country?
Some of scenarios may seem unlikely, but all are possible. If we do not re-elect Joe Biden this fall, even as a protest vote by some former Republicans, I can hear myself thinking…”be afraid, be very afraid…”
I lived and worked in six dictator-led countries over a period of 20 years and personally know what a "knock on your door" could mean. I barely escaped Turkmenistan - this story is in the book From Democracy to Democrazy by Graham. Since 2015, I have been writing and comparing Trump to Hitler and to other horrific and historical dictators worldwide. This is because no other American writer was discussing brainwashing OR dictatorship with my past experiences.
Trump’s many-sided destructiveness is now using the power of speech to insight violence months in advance of the election. Oxford defines “brainwashing” as “the process of pressuring someone into adopting radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible means “The three phases of brainwashing are dependency, dissonance, and attitude change and is used in cult initiations and ongoing operations. Wikipedia defines brainwashing as "telling lies over and over until it is perceived as the truth." Sound familiar?
Trump is now distorting FBI standard operational procedures to mean “Biden gave orders to kill me.” He is referring to the peaceful 2022 FBI search for classified documents in which he was not even at Mar-a-logo at the time. However, it has recently been discovered that Trump has continued to keep classified documents stored in his bedroom and an aid was scanning these documents onto a disk. A total of fifteen boxes contained 197 classified documents of which 98 were SECRET, 30 were TOP SECRET, and the remainder are CONFIDENTIAL. (www.lawfaremedia.org)
The importance of this incident is clear. First, it shows the depth of Trump's fabrications. Second, "Top Secret information is national security material that requires the highest level of protection. (AI Ovrview). The U.S. government classifies information as top secret if its unauthorized disclosure could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security.” While the public is not informed of the content of the thirty Top Secret or the 98 Secret documents Trump carelessly stored at his residence, his lack of safeguarding of this material is an act of betrayal and possible treason. It is my estimate, that many of these documents were gifted to Russian operatives. Is he a traitor - you bet.
It took Hitler about ten years to solidify his power and brainwash the German people. Trump is right on track when compared to Hitler's game plan. With his "us-versus-them mentality" most of the Trumpers are now in a state of blind loyalty. The dark and dangerous world of mind manipulation was first used in totalitarian countries and began about 100 years ago - Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, China, and so on. Hitler converted an entire peaceful nation of good people into mass murderers using slogans containing hatred toward others - JUST LIKE DONALD TRUMP.
A dictatorship can be defined by a list of words: tsarism (Russia), despotism, autocracy, totalitarianism, oppression, Nazism (Germany), and domination. Can you envision the United States having: (1) No public media. All tv channels and newspapers are government and dictator-controlled. All sources of information are inhibited. (2) No independent enterprise. MicroSoft, Walgreens, Utilities and all other corporations are privately retained by the dictator who receives a large percentage of the profits. and (3) Security services are combined (CIA, DIA, FBI, and others) into one organization controlled by the dictator and like the gestapo report on private citizens, arrest and imprison innocent people, and instill fear. Anyone not loyal to the "leader" may be murdered: poisoned, shot, thrown out windows in tall buildings, etc. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a dictatorship. He has openly admitted to preferring this form of government without an inkling of what that means. Our entire Congress would operate from fear and there would no longer be a two party system.
Trump has already amassed a group of people - gangsters - who threaten anyone (and their families) who opposes him. The askew aptitudes of the Supreme Court judges already has demonstrated proclivities and partialities toward Trump, and other judges have also succumbed to delivering asymmetric justice. Many across the U.S. have lost faith in our system of justice. And during the Trump impeachment, many Republicans voted out of fear of Trump's revenge. Gonzales (R) Ohio voted to impeach. Then due to death threats, he refused to run for re-election and hired 24 hour protection for his family. WAKE UP FOLKS - OUR COUNTRY IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE.
Trump sold his soul and our country to the Russians decades ago. Trump followed Putin's example in his role-out of a meticulous PR campaign, similar to what happened in Moscow after the bombing of several apartment buildings - a maneuver to perpetuate apprehension and terror. It resulted in a national sense of emergency and instilled fear. The financial scandal surrounding Yeltsin was pushed to the sidelines, and Putin was thrust to the frontlines. The blame was assigned to the separatist rebels and Chechnya independence fighters, but in the "unofficial" word on the street, Russian people said these bombings were like the Stalin purges. (Read: Death and Redemption: The Gulag and the Shaping of Soviet Society). Putin has been compared to Stalin, and he appears to appreciate this assessment. "Could Putin's security men have bombed their own people - hundreds died in these bombings - in a cynical attempt to create a crisis that would ensure Putin took the Presidency?" (Putin's People, by Catherine Belton).
This type of deception is widely known in Russia and other dictatorship countries. It reminds me of Trump still saying the 2020 election was stolen. Trump began traveling to Russia in 1987. He became entangled with Russian business men who were all later found to be KGB operatives. This is a period when Trump was buried in debt and at the same time, the KGB was searching for new ways to transfer black cash into the U.S. instead of just bank transfers. Bayrock Group, formed with all KGB men as a NY real estate firm, was housed one floor below the Trump Organization at 725 Fifth Avenue in New York. They offered Trump multi-million dollar real estate deals and bailed him out of another bankruptcy. He was hooked. Both Trump's elder sons have confirmed that the Trump Organization has received about $100 million from Russian banks. (www.businessinsider.com)
The pieces of the puzzle are obvious and again found in From Democracy to Democracy in several charts. Trump's leadership ((or lack thereof) is learned behavior. Putin spent the majority of his KGB spy years in East Germany. There he acquired Hitler's methodologies of trapping foreigners, different forms of bribery (sex, money, etc.), and brainwashing techniques.
Since 1993, I have saying to anyone who would listen that the Cold War did not die. In Putin's People, (Revenge of the KGB, page 479) Catherine states: "Putin's security men reveled in Trump's victory. To many (Russians), it seemed like revenge for the Soviet collapse. 'While the West was playing James Bond . . .we turned our attention to gaining respect... When the West thought the Cold War competition was over, they lost respect for their opponent (Russia). Now they are waking up to this again."
Unfortunately, there are only a few Americans who have “woken up” to the reality of the Trump-Russian connection, his use of Hitler's methodologies, his obvious coercive mind manipulation, and his plans for an American dictatorship.
This upcoming November election is critical to the survival of American democracy. It Trump wins - WE ALL LOOSE.
This is such an important post, Elizabeth. Thank you for sounding the alarm.
But can you - can anyone - explain why our intelligence services haven't (re)opened investigations into Trump's servitude to Putin? Why hasn't Trump already been arrested and charged with treason? Isn't the overriding duty of the intelligence services to protect this nation and our values? What on earth is going on?
The recent ruling by the conservatives in the SC looks to be part of the plan! Gerrymandering if for a political reason is OK?! How many states will hear this and do the same?
WOW Steven this spells out in one place all that we must be watchful of. If have not read Martin Niemoller's writing in a while, look it up - exactly how demented donny thinks. Consider not just gerrymandered precints but what SCOTUS & others are doing with Constitunally given rights. Vote the person not simply an X for a party. Will be sharing today's msg far & wide.
@StevenBeschloss, you posted all we need to know when you put the following quotes from 45 into your post today: “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said during a Veterans’ Day speech last November. He added that “the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within.”
That Nazi talk about “vermin” followed attacks by Trump a month earlier that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country, “ echoing Hitler’s Mein Kampf and his discussion of subhuman Jews causing the “contamination of the blood.”
This is dangerous language. This is language that will fuel the existing anti-semitism in our country. This is language that will rile up the cult base that blindly follows 45. This languages from a very terrible time in the world when innocent people were tortured and murdered jut because of their religion.
45 CANNOT BECOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. (capitalized letters intentional). 45 does not hold the values that our country holds as its foundation.
Vote as if the future of a democratic US depend on it; because it does. Also, go out and spread the word of the danger that 45 poses for our future. We cannot let 45 destroy our democratic republic. God Bless America 🇺🇸
Biden won in 2024, but safeguards were nonexistent. Voting wasn’t enough. The GOP's grip tightened, launching Project 2025, plunging us into a hellscape Orwell couldn't imagine.
The Supreme Court granted Trump immunity, making him dictator in all but name.
America has become a grotesque caricature of democracy. Congress overturned the 2024 election, declaring Trump the victor. A swift descent into dystopia followed.
Women's rights fell first. Birth control and abortion, now illegal, force women into dangerous, clandestine procedures. Clinics shuttered, as if time reverted to a more barbaric era.
Healthcare, once a safety net, is shredded. Public health services gutted, pre-existing condition protections gone. Illness now means financial ruin. The rich grow fatter while we face the abyss.
As a married lesbian couple, we face daily bigotry. Anti-discrimination protections vanished. Employers and businesses flaunt prejudice. Hate crimes surge, tacitly encouraged. We live in fear of losing our home or jobs, persecuted for our love.
Voting rights butchered. Draconian laws make voting a mirage, especially for minorities and the elderly. Democracy feels like a relic, replaced by autocracy thriving on fear and suppression.
Environmental protections obliterated. Factories spew toxins, rivers flow with poison. The regime mocks climate change, abandoning efforts to stave off disaster. The future for our grandchildren seems perilously uncertain.
Workers' rights fade. Safety regulations dismantled, workplace injuries increase. Fair wages a distant memory, discrimination rampant. The younger generation faces harsh labor conditions and dwindling hope.
Public education is in ruins. The Department of Education eradicated, replaced by a narrow, conservative curriculum. Critical thinking and diverse perspectives eliminated. Our grandchildren are denied the broad, inclusive education we once took for granted.
Social services, lifelines for many, eviscerated. Food and housing support programs vanished, leaving families on the brink of survival. Community and mutual aid disintegrated, replaced by pervasive desperation.
Surveillance metastasized, spreading dread. Policing powers ballooned, privacy a quaint notion. Every move scrutinized, freedoms strangled by constant watchfulness.
The regime threatens our very existence. Hate crimes surge, with government complicity. Conversion therapies resurface, safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people vanish. We live in perpetual fear of assault simply for who we are.
A sign bolted to the curb in front of our house, "Homosexuals live here," delivered a stark message: we are no longer safe. Police, emboldened by new laws, dismissed our pleas. "You people should know better than to flaunt your lifestyle," one officer sneered. We're left to fend for ourselves in a hostile world where survival is a daily struggle.
Regret haunts us. We should have fled to Canada when we had the chance, but we didn't believe it could happen. We voted, trusted our leaders. Now, trapped in a country that no longer feels like home, we fight to survive in a world turned against us. Every regret, every moment of disbelief, haunts us as we face an uncertain, perilous future.
All this week I’ve been in a funk and I believe it’s because I’m feeling so hopeless about all of this and now think it’s a good possibility that trump will be reinstalled in our White House. I’ve long said that Mitch was patiently playing the long game by further manipulating the courts every time they were in the majority. Even as minority leader he still has too much say in Senate rules. Now we have an absolutely corrupt SCOTUS salivating at remaking our country into their twisted version of a white theocracy, and actually doing that bit by bit. We have Judge Cannon not giving a rip about our laws in servitude to their agenda. When our democracy is up against evil forces willing to do anything (lie, cheat, etc.) to live in their twisted utopia, I’m not sure how we can stop them. I know everyone says vote (in my long life I’ve never missed a vote), but when the outcome can be altered by their actions and lies, then what? This growing helplessness is ridiculously depressing.
I hear you, Lynn…I feel exactly the same way. I have to say the the Nikki Haley capitulation and the Alito/Leonard Leo/Mike Johnson flag-flying stories really rattled me this week.
Thank you Steven. I give great weight to your words as the historian that you are. I have also tried to limit my imagined scenarios, but as trump continues to use his hateful words and makes clear his plans I am becoming very nervous.
Normalising Trump no but recognising what he stands for and what his autocratic and even fascist intentions are, fully supported and defended by the GOP, becomes more obvious as time progresses and the choice for the voters in November gets clearer the more he, the GOP and the media at large keep broadcasting their often misleading propaganda. I assume that by election time the majority of Americans have the clarity of mind to choose for Democracy ......but they have to come out and vote.... If not, then the Americans knowingly will have voted for a fascist single-party statehood. Think about what that would mean in the context of American History as well as the future of America and the free World.
Your insights and historical references are chilling, but accurately point to what Trump's vision for America has always been since his ride down the escalator. The time to stop his destruction of our Democracy has come down to one election. Do you want to live in a country with a President who says, "if the President says it, it must be true"? It's taken him 8 years, but that's his plan.
I agree but that ship has sailed. It began with the press giving him a pass with his bizarre comments in 2015 - he was entertainment. The Fourth Estate continues to fail us by refusing to report on Trump's anti-American Xenophobic, racist, misogynistic conduct. Instead they report on the size of his rallies and the lies he tells them. The GQP REFUSES to acknowledge Trump's conduct, even going so far as having the legitimate charges that are now against Trump STRICKEN GROM THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD yesterday. They will DO NOTHING that can be perceived as anti-Trump. Nikki Haley - the cowardly lickspittle, is now backing Trump.
Hypocrisy is politics is nothing new but it has reached critical mass now on the former republican, now GQP cult side. There is no going back. The GQP cannot be redeemed and we cannot rid ourselves of them, especially if (God forbid) Trump wins in November.
As is always the case with this thug, it is worth noting that we should believe the first thing he posts or says - be it, for example, about dictatorship or abortion. The retractions that follow are merely salves to make him appear palatable to the mass of the electorate.
Beautifully stated. In the scariest times it's important to keep you mind focused on the positive vision, even while paddling furiously to hold course. Enjoy the weekend, everybody!
This is such an important piece, Steven. The year-by-year account of Hitler’s reign over Germany tracks with what I have imagined the intensification of Trump cruelty and degradation, should he be permitted by his unwitting and/or benevolent supporters, to take power this November. In the past, I never referred to anyone ascending to the presidency of the United States as someone who ‘takes power’. Power used to be the tool that presidents knew they possessed and could wield, but they also knew the responsibility of that power. The Presidency was to be used for the common good…full stop. We’ve had to completely revise the way we think about power in this country, since Trump and his supporters mean to use it for evil purposes…to hoard it and keep it for themselves, like the last crust of bread they will ever possess.
Now we know that unbridled power is the sole and stated goal of Trump and the MAGA movement. Perhaps we should try to imagine what would or could happen in the first year of a new Trump regime…and then the second…third…fourth…and so on. Would he turn on a lot of heat immediately, or are we in for a slow boil? We know migrants would suffer immediately. What about legal immigrants or people awaiting hearings on their cases? If his political rivals, including Joe Biden, “Marxists, Radical Left Democrats” and others are to be targeted in the first year whom would that be, and when, and why, and how? Will people be sent to internment camps, or deported, or to prisons? Would they be released if they profess their fealty to the new regime?
What will happen to the Press? Will it be targeted or just dismantled? If they intend to force a Christian theocracy on us, how will they do that? Will they start, as they have, with restrictions on women…forced birth and restrictions on contraception, perhaps even a ban on the latter? Will LGBTQ folks be sent for ‘reeducation’? Will any and all books that do not comport with their Christian view of history be prohibited?
Will the people convicted of crimes for January 6 be pardoned and freed so that they can be ready to fight Trump’s battles? Will the military be used against civilians on a routine basis?
If someone wants or chooses to leave the country, will they be permitted to do so? Will they be able to access their money and sell their property in order to leave? If they receive Social security benefits, will they be able to access them if they are not living inside the country?
Some of scenarios may seem unlikely, but all are possible. If we do not re-elect Joe Biden this fall, even as a protest vote by some former Republicans, I can hear myself thinking…”be afraid, be very afraid…”
Thank you, Ellen. I think we do need to imagine that grim future.
Thank YOU…for reminding us that we cannot normalize what has been, and is, happening!
I lived and worked in six dictator-led countries over a period of 20 years and personally know what a "knock on your door" could mean. I barely escaped Turkmenistan - this story is in the book From Democracy to Democrazy by Graham. Since 2015, I have been writing and comparing Trump to Hitler and to other horrific and historical dictators worldwide. This is because no other American writer was discussing brainwashing OR dictatorship with my past experiences.
Trump’s many-sided destructiveness is now using the power of speech to insight violence months in advance of the election. Oxford defines “brainwashing” as “the process of pressuring someone into adopting radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible means “The three phases of brainwashing are dependency, dissonance, and attitude change and is used in cult initiations and ongoing operations. Wikipedia defines brainwashing as "telling lies over and over until it is perceived as the truth." Sound familiar?
Trump is now distorting FBI standard operational procedures to mean “Biden gave orders to kill me.” He is referring to the peaceful 2022 FBI search for classified documents in which he was not even at Mar-a-logo at the time. However, it has recently been discovered that Trump has continued to keep classified documents stored in his bedroom and an aid was scanning these documents onto a disk. A total of fifteen boxes contained 197 classified documents of which 98 were SECRET, 30 were TOP SECRET, and the remainder are CONFIDENTIAL. (www.lawfaremedia.org)
The importance of this incident is clear. First, it shows the depth of Trump's fabrications. Second, "Top Secret information is national security material that requires the highest level of protection. (AI Ovrview). The U.S. government classifies information as top secret if its unauthorized disclosure could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security.” While the public is not informed of the content of the thirty Top Secret or the 98 Secret documents Trump carelessly stored at his residence, his lack of safeguarding of this material is an act of betrayal and possible treason. It is my estimate, that many of these documents were gifted to Russian operatives. Is he a traitor - you bet.
It took Hitler about ten years to solidify his power and brainwash the German people. Trump is right on track when compared to Hitler's game plan. With his "us-versus-them mentality" most of the Trumpers are now in a state of blind loyalty. The dark and dangerous world of mind manipulation was first used in totalitarian countries and began about 100 years ago - Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, China, and so on. Hitler converted an entire peaceful nation of good people into mass murderers using slogans containing hatred toward others - JUST LIKE DONALD TRUMP.
A dictatorship can be defined by a list of words: tsarism (Russia), despotism, autocracy, totalitarianism, oppression, Nazism (Germany), and domination. Can you envision the United States having: (1) No public media. All tv channels and newspapers are government and dictator-controlled. All sources of information are inhibited. (2) No independent enterprise. MicroSoft, Walgreens, Utilities and all other corporations are privately retained by the dictator who receives a large percentage of the profits. and (3) Security services are combined (CIA, DIA, FBI, and others) into one organization controlled by the dictator and like the gestapo report on private citizens, arrest and imprison innocent people, and instill fear. Anyone not loyal to the "leader" may be murdered: poisoned, shot, thrown out windows in tall buildings, etc. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a dictatorship. He has openly admitted to preferring this form of government without an inkling of what that means. Our entire Congress would operate from fear and there would no longer be a two party system.
Trump has already amassed a group of people - gangsters - who threaten anyone (and their families) who opposes him. The askew aptitudes of the Supreme Court judges already has demonstrated proclivities and partialities toward Trump, and other judges have also succumbed to delivering asymmetric justice. Many across the U.S. have lost faith in our system of justice. And during the Trump impeachment, many Republicans voted out of fear of Trump's revenge. Gonzales (R) Ohio voted to impeach. Then due to death threats, he refused to run for re-election and hired 24 hour protection for his family. WAKE UP FOLKS - OUR COUNTRY IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE.
Trump sold his soul and our country to the Russians decades ago. Trump followed Putin's example in his role-out of a meticulous PR campaign, similar to what happened in Moscow after the bombing of several apartment buildings - a maneuver to perpetuate apprehension and terror. It resulted in a national sense of emergency and instilled fear. The financial scandal surrounding Yeltsin was pushed to the sidelines, and Putin was thrust to the frontlines. The blame was assigned to the separatist rebels and Chechnya independence fighters, but in the "unofficial" word on the street, Russian people said these bombings were like the Stalin purges. (Read: Death and Redemption: The Gulag and the Shaping of Soviet Society). Putin has been compared to Stalin, and he appears to appreciate this assessment. "Could Putin's security men have bombed their own people - hundreds died in these bombings - in a cynical attempt to create a crisis that would ensure Putin took the Presidency?" (Putin's People, by Catherine Belton).
This type of deception is widely known in Russia and other dictatorship countries. It reminds me of Trump still saying the 2020 election was stolen. Trump began traveling to Russia in 1987. He became entangled with Russian business men who were all later found to be KGB operatives. This is a period when Trump was buried in debt and at the same time, the KGB was searching for new ways to transfer black cash into the U.S. instead of just bank transfers. Bayrock Group, formed with all KGB men as a NY real estate firm, was housed one floor below the Trump Organization at 725 Fifth Avenue in New York. They offered Trump multi-million dollar real estate deals and bailed him out of another bankruptcy. He was hooked. Both Trump's elder sons have confirmed that the Trump Organization has received about $100 million from Russian banks. (www.businessinsider.com)
The pieces of the puzzle are obvious and again found in From Democracy to Democracy in several charts. Trump's leadership ((or lack thereof) is learned behavior. Putin spent the majority of his KGB spy years in East Germany. There he acquired Hitler's methodologies of trapping foreigners, different forms of bribery (sex, money, etc.), and brainwashing techniques.
Since 1993, I have saying to anyone who would listen that the Cold War did not die. In Putin's People, (Revenge of the KGB, page 479) Catherine states: "Putin's security men reveled in Trump's victory. To many (Russians), it seemed like revenge for the Soviet collapse. 'While the West was playing James Bond . . .we turned our attention to gaining respect... When the West thought the Cold War competition was over, they lost respect for their opponent (Russia). Now they are waking up to this again."
Unfortunately, there are only a few Americans who have “woken up” to the reality of the Trump-Russian connection, his use of Hitler's methodologies, his obvious coercive mind manipulation, and his plans for an American dictatorship.
This upcoming November election is critical to the survival of American democracy. It Trump wins - WE ALL LOOSE.
Elizabeth
www.democrazy2020.org
This is such an important post, Elizabeth. Thank you for sounding the alarm.
But can you - can anyone - explain why our intelligence services haven't (re)opened investigations into Trump's servitude to Putin? Why hasn't Trump already been arrested and charged with treason? Isn't the overriding duty of the intelligence services to protect this nation and our values? What on earth is going on?
Trump & Co. have had us swimming against the tide of BS that they turned loose as he descended that god-awful escalator.
The recent ruling by the conservatives in the SC looks to be part of the plan! Gerrymandering if for a political reason is OK?! How many states will hear this and do the same?
Terrifying
Spread the word. We have been warned.
Please do spread the word.
WOW Steven this spells out in one place all that we must be watchful of. If have not read Martin Niemoller's writing in a while, look it up - exactly how demented donny thinks. Consider not just gerrymandered precints but what SCOTUS & others are doing with Constitunally given rights. Vote the person not simply an X for a party. Will be sharing today's msg far & wide.
@StevenBeschloss, you posted all we need to know when you put the following quotes from 45 into your post today: “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said during a Veterans’ Day speech last November. He added that “the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within.”
That Nazi talk about “vermin” followed attacks by Trump a month earlier that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country, “ echoing Hitler’s Mein Kampf and his discussion of subhuman Jews causing the “contamination of the blood.”
This is dangerous language. This is language that will fuel the existing anti-semitism in our country. This is language that will rile up the cult base that blindly follows 45. This languages from a very terrible time in the world when innocent people were tortured and murdered jut because of their religion.
45 CANNOT BECOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. (capitalized letters intentional). 45 does not hold the values that our country holds as its foundation.
Vote as if the future of a democratic US depend on it; because it does. Also, go out and spread the word of the danger that 45 poses for our future. We cannot let 45 destroy our democratic republic. God Bless America 🇺🇸
Our future:
>March 15, 2025<
This journal is either my lifeline or my madness.
Biden won in 2024, but safeguards were nonexistent. Voting wasn’t enough. The GOP's grip tightened, launching Project 2025, plunging us into a hellscape Orwell couldn't imagine.
The Supreme Court granted Trump immunity, making him dictator in all but name.
America has become a grotesque caricature of democracy. Congress overturned the 2024 election, declaring Trump the victor. A swift descent into dystopia followed.
Women's rights fell first. Birth control and abortion, now illegal, force women into dangerous, clandestine procedures. Clinics shuttered, as if time reverted to a more barbaric era.
Healthcare, once a safety net, is shredded. Public health services gutted, pre-existing condition protections gone. Illness now means financial ruin. The rich grow fatter while we face the abyss.
As a married lesbian couple, we face daily bigotry. Anti-discrimination protections vanished. Employers and businesses flaunt prejudice. Hate crimes surge, tacitly encouraged. We live in fear of losing our home or jobs, persecuted for our love.
Voting rights butchered. Draconian laws make voting a mirage, especially for minorities and the elderly. Democracy feels like a relic, replaced by autocracy thriving on fear and suppression.
Environmental protections obliterated. Factories spew toxins, rivers flow with poison. The regime mocks climate change, abandoning efforts to stave off disaster. The future for our grandchildren seems perilously uncertain.
Workers' rights fade. Safety regulations dismantled, workplace injuries increase. Fair wages a distant memory, discrimination rampant. The younger generation faces harsh labor conditions and dwindling hope.
Public education is in ruins. The Department of Education eradicated, replaced by a narrow, conservative curriculum. Critical thinking and diverse perspectives eliminated. Our grandchildren are denied the broad, inclusive education we once took for granted.
Social services, lifelines for many, eviscerated. Food and housing support programs vanished, leaving families on the brink of survival. Community and mutual aid disintegrated, replaced by pervasive desperation.
Surveillance metastasized, spreading dread. Policing powers ballooned, privacy a quaint notion. Every move scrutinized, freedoms strangled by constant watchfulness.
The regime threatens our very existence. Hate crimes surge, with government complicity. Conversion therapies resurface, safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people vanish. We live in perpetual fear of assault simply for who we are.
A sign bolted to the curb in front of our house, "Homosexuals live here," delivered a stark message: we are no longer safe. Police, emboldened by new laws, dismissed our pleas. "You people should know better than to flaunt your lifestyle," one officer sneered. We're left to fend for ourselves in a hostile world where survival is a daily struggle.
Regret haunts us. We should have fled to Canada when we had the chance, but we didn't believe it could happen. We voted, trusted our leaders. Now, trapped in a country that no longer feels like home, we fight to survive in a world turned against us. Every regret, every moment of disbelief, haunts us as we face an uncertain, perilous future.
EXCELLENT, Steven, one of your best! Multitudes of us need to speak out like this: loud and clear!
Thank you, Lisa. Please do speak out and share. People need to envision what that future could look like.
All this week I’ve been in a funk and I believe it’s because I’m feeling so hopeless about all of this and now think it’s a good possibility that trump will be reinstalled in our White House. I’ve long said that Mitch was patiently playing the long game by further manipulating the courts every time they were in the majority. Even as minority leader he still has too much say in Senate rules. Now we have an absolutely corrupt SCOTUS salivating at remaking our country into their twisted version of a white theocracy, and actually doing that bit by bit. We have Judge Cannon not giving a rip about our laws in servitude to their agenda. When our democracy is up against evil forces willing to do anything (lie, cheat, etc.) to live in their twisted utopia, I’m not sure how we can stop them. I know everyone says vote (in my long life I’ve never missed a vote), but when the outcome can be altered by their actions and lies, then what? This growing helplessness is ridiculously depressing.
I hear you, Lynn…I feel exactly the same way. I have to say the the Nikki Haley capitulation and the Alito/Leonard Leo/Mike Johnson flag-flying stories really rattled me this week.
Haley’s flip was unsurprising to me but I certainly agree the flag bit is beyond appalling.
I guess I thought that somehow, maybe, this time, she meant what she said about what a danger DJT is to the country. Meh.
We live in very bizarre times, unfortunately.
Thank you Steven. I give great weight to your words as the historian that you are. I have also tried to limit my imagined scenarios, but as trump continues to use his hateful words and makes clear his plans I am becoming very nervous.
Normalising Trump no but recognising what he stands for and what his autocratic and even fascist intentions are, fully supported and defended by the GOP, becomes more obvious as time progresses and the choice for the voters in November gets clearer the more he, the GOP and the media at large keep broadcasting their often misleading propaganda. I assume that by election time the majority of Americans have the clarity of mind to choose for Democracy ......but they have to come out and vote.... If not, then the Americans knowingly will have voted for a fascist single-party statehood. Think about what that would mean in the context of American History as well as the future of America and the free World.
Sadly, your reluctance and that of other historians, writers and reporters to immediately point out Trump's Nazism, cruelty, bigotry, lies, fraud
Your insights and historical references are chilling, but accurately point to what Trump's vision for America has always been since his ride down the escalator. The time to stop his destruction of our Democracy has come down to one election. Do you want to live in a country with a President who says, "if the President says it, it must be true"? It's taken him 8 years, but that's his plan.
I agree but that ship has sailed. It began with the press giving him a pass with his bizarre comments in 2015 - he was entertainment. The Fourth Estate continues to fail us by refusing to report on Trump's anti-American Xenophobic, racist, misogynistic conduct. Instead they report on the size of his rallies and the lies he tells them. The GQP REFUSES to acknowledge Trump's conduct, even going so far as having the legitimate charges that are now against Trump STRICKEN GROM THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD yesterday. They will DO NOTHING that can be perceived as anti-Trump. Nikki Haley - the cowardly lickspittle, is now backing Trump.
Hypocrisy is politics is nothing new but it has reached critical mass now on the former republican, now GQP cult side. There is no going back. The GQP cannot be redeemed and we cannot rid ourselves of them, especially if (God forbid) Trump wins in November.
As is always the case with this thug, it is worth noting that we should believe the first thing he posts or says - be it, for example, about dictatorship or abortion. The retractions that follow are merely salves to make him appear palatable to the mass of the electorate.
Beautifully stated. In the scariest times it's important to keep you mind focused on the positive vision, even while paddling furiously to hold course. Enjoy the weekend, everybody!