This Is What Happens When America Goes Mad
Vote in Donald Trump, surround him with sycophants, expect an insane circus. The lawlessness and chaos was so knowable, alas.
Most days it takes serious effort to confront what our eyes and ears are telling us—What the hell is happening? What does it all mean? What do we do about it?—and not lose our minds. But that’s the task that our current mad, mad world demands as we sort through the reality of Trump’s America. “The best way out,” poet Robert Frost advises us, “is always through.”
Yesterday Secretary of State Marco Rubio was questioned by NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. One minute Rubio was justifying the regime’s decision not to seek Congressional approval before invading Venezuela because it was simply a law enforcement operation. The next minute Rubio acknowledged he’s been charged to “run” Venezuela and take control of the oil business after kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro and flying him to New York to face drug and weapons charges.
This is what happens when you are the obedient servant of a malignant narcissist, determined to please this felonious, failed businessman who’s easily bored by strategic planning and driven by whim, vengeance and a bottomless desire for money, power and attention.
Five years and one day ago, on Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump convinced thousands of people to believe his lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him—and to storm the Capitol to express their anger and obstruct the election’s certification. He fed them those lies, he fueled their anger and he incited them to violence with an additional lie that their participation in a deadly insurrection was a patriotic act, not a criminal one.
This is what happens when a skilled con artist, malignant narcissist, pathological liar and lawless criminal cannot handle losing, rejects the Constitution and is determined to hold onto power by any means necessary.
Just over two weeks ago, on Dec. 19, workers affixed the name Donald Trump onto The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts after the White House occupant had taken over the previously honored institution, installed partisan sycophants onto its board and feigned surprise when they voted to add his name to what once was a vital hub for creative expression. Now the center’s facing a mounting number of performer cancellations and dramatically declining ticket sales, leading its Trump-installed boss to threaten performers with lawsuits for refusing to go along with the hostile takeover.
This, too, is what happens when a deeply delusional man is convinced of his own talent and surrounds himself with people who refuse to tell him the truth.
On New Year’s Eve, at Mar-a-Lago, Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller—the two key drivers of Trump’s lawless and abusive deportation agenda—were seen dancing with pleasure and singing along as Robert Van Winkle, AKA Vanilla Ice, performed live his trademark song, “Ice Ice Baby.” Two days later, after their boss’ physical and cognitive decline was chronicled by The Wall Street Journal, Trump was proudly boasting that he takes extra Aspirin, refuses to wear compression socks and “aced” once again a cognitive test. Failing to grasp that this information particularly underscores doctors’ doubts about his mental state, he blared on Truth Social: “I strongly believe that anyone running for President, or Vice President, should be mandatorily forced to take a strong, meaningful, and proven Cognitive Examination. Our great Country cannot be run by 'STUPID' or INCOMPETENT PEOPLE.”
Let’s say it again: This is what happens when over 77 million people vote for such a man, some 89 million choose to stay home and John Roberts’ Supreme Court supermajority hands him near-total immunity.
Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt
Honestly, it’s hard to write rationally about a regime that has abandoned its duty to serve the Constitution, follow the law, tell the truth, work with allies, model positive behavior, uphold democratic values and principles, treat people with basic decency, and focus on making lives better—and does so with such cruelty and obvious sadistic pleasure.
What we are witnessing, day after day, is an utter outrage. It continues to amaze me that so many of our fellow Americans can respond with indifference or a willful commitment to ignore all this.
But the makings of our predicament came crashing back in recent days when Congressional Republicans released Special Counsel Jack Smith’s closed-door testimony on New Year’s Eve (to ensure limited attention). Smith delivered the headline: “Beyond a reasonable doubt,” Donald Trump “engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.”
And yet: By the time Smith had gathered the necessary evidence, Trump had long declared his intention to run for president again and Attorney General Merrick Garland took too long to ensure the criminal prosecution of Trump, what we now know was a fatal mistake. Add to this the Roberts court slow-walked its immunity decision until July of 2024.
And, please, let’s not fail to note—as the 5th anniversary of J6 is upon us—that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to do his part to ensure that the second impeachment of Trump in 2021 was followed with a criminal conviction. Had that happened, this profoundly unprincipled man would have been unable to run for president or any public office ever again.
Rant, rave and seek repair
On another day, I intend to share some detailed thoughts on the 77 million-plus Americans who decided to pull the lever or scratch into an empty circle their belief that Donald Trump should inhabit the White House again. I will try to do it rationally, even though faced with another anniversary of J6 and yet another example of this man’s abandonment of the rule of law and the international order makes me want to scream: How could they, goddamnit?
Yes, some days ranting and raving seems like the only sane thing to do when the world has turned upside down. Is it not clear that a muted response to Venezuela—a failure to push back by those with powerful platforms—will further convince Trump that he can keep going and invade another country?
Did we not learn the pattern in 2016—the lawless privilege—from Trump himself when he confessed in the Access Hollywood recording that he’s a sexual predator? “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” he boasted. “You can do anything…Grab ‘em by the pussy.”
But if we are going to overcome this depraved and degraded chapter in our nation’s history, it will take a combination of rational thought, intensified opposition, real accountability for the corruption and criminality, renewed civics education and expanded public education, serious decision-making and collaboration by Americans who are dedicated to our system of self-governance, and an electorate that grasps the need for ethical leaders and fierce advocates for a progressive future based on equality, justice and basic human rights.
I think that’s worth fighting for this year. What about you?
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We saw the “mortal storm” coming. We hid under the blankets, hoping it would pass. It won’t. My fury has no bounds…for the administration, for congress, for, as you so rightly state, unlike Kamala Harris voters, for the people who voted this guy in thinking he would lower the price of eggs. I hope those voters like their omelets made with greed, avarice, and corruption, with a side order of cryptocurrency fried in crude oil. I feel a cup of lowered currency and a dollop of desperation coming, even though I didn’t order those either. Gawd, where is this taking us????
Here is some of what Cory Booker had to say yesterday:
“The Constitution is unambiguous: Congress has the power and responsibility to authorize the use of military force and declare war. Congress has a duty of oversight. Congress must serve as a check, not a rubber stamp, to the President. . . . We face an authoritarian-minded president who acts with dangerous, growing impunity. He has shown a willingness to defy court orders, violate the law, ignore congressional intent, and shred basic norms of decency and democracy. This pattern will continue unless the Article I branch of government, especially Republican congressional leadership, finds the courage to act. . . . What happened today [in Venezuela] is wrong. Congressional Republicans would say so immediately if a Democratic president had done the same. Their silence is surrender. And in that surrender lie the seeds of our democratic unraveling.”