Some Difficult Questions lie ahead
Project 2025 has a ton in it. There is a mention of detention camps for certain people. I will simply quote his own words from his crappy little app and let them stand on their own.
“2024 is our final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the Deep State, we wll expel the warmongers from our government, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the Communists, Marxists, and Fascists, we will throw off the sick political class that hates our Country, we will rout the Fake News Media, we will evict Joe Biden from the White House, and we will FINISH THE JOB ONCE AND FOR ALL!”
It gets worse from there. I could go on and I’m certain we will hear more in the coming weeks and months, but instead I wanted to ask a series of rhetorical questions. This isn’t just for conservatives or just for liberals. Everyone needs to be asking themselves these questions.
Are we taking him seriously?
The answer for most is likely no. He is a known liar and for those that follow him they will talk about the fact that we really can’t take everything he says seriously. He is inartful in his speech. He doesn’t use precise language.
Admittedly, there is an aspirational nature to it all. He wouldn’t be competent enough to do this. Some people might consider it more than aspirational. Some people might want to do it and not just talk about it. Would a second administration have the constraints of the first?
Would he do that to me?
The quick and easy answer is no. I’m a white guy. Obviously, he’s not talking about me right? The trouble is that there is frequent talk of vanguishing enemies. Who exactly are those enemies? Are we talking about just recent immigrants? Are we talking about all non-white people? Are we talking about anyone in the LGTBQ+ community? If you don’t think someone would be perusing these pages to find people aligned against him you’d be nuts.
If I don’t want that to happen to me then what am I prepared to do? This is the scary part. Do I buy a red hat and a bumpersticker just so I can pass as an ally? Would more be required of me down the road? Would I need to help round up “undesirables” for these camps?
What do we do now?
Most people are not evil. Even if there are people we don’t like, few of us would ever dream of doing something like this. So, hearing someone else talk about this has to be somewhat jarring. Even if we acknowledge that he is most likely not serious, there is some stuff you just don’t joke about. You certainly don’t do it in public speeches in front of people. So, there is an element of honesty here woven within the lies and farce.
This is quite literally a fight or flight situation. If we are not prepared to fight on the political arena or maybe even the real one then we better be prepared to find a new home. Obviously, in the political world it means beating Trump at the polls. This is where we get a ton of disagreement. Is Joe Biden the best fit to beat him? Are there any other options at this point?
The worst thing we can do right now is divide our forces. A vote for Joe Mancin (for instance) only works if it were someone that would have voted for Trump but decided not to. He has a solid 35-40 percent ready to vote for him. So, you only beat him by uniting behind one man (or woman) that can get more than that.
How many times have citizens of a country been in denial and thought “it can’t happen here?” And even when it did happen, they tried to convince themselves it wasn’t that bad?
For years before the 2020 election Bill Maher said he didn’t think Trump would leave the White House, even if he lost. I found that implausible, even Trump understood there are laws and mechanisms in place, right? Wrong. Plenty of information has come out that Trump wasn’t going to leave. A second time around if he wins in 2024, and he’ll have years to figure out how to make the presidency permanent, not months.
1I do well know that tRump is exactly the dictatorial type who would trash democracy forever for this country. If he says he is going to do all the damnable things he has spouted, it is not silly to take him seriously. And serious is the way I am thinking of getting a new passport. I have plenty of contacts elsewhere. And if he is not in jail and does run and actually loses again, he and his crowd won’t stop their rampage.
2Exactly right, Nick – they would target enough opponents to intimidate the rest. If you still persist in vocal, visible opposition, expect to make the blacklist.
It’s happened before, even in America. The blacklist based on “subversive organizations” in the McCarthy era cost a Quaker friend his public school job – for his pacifism. Nixon’s “enemies list” caught up people like Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, as well as a ton of journalists. During the Iraq war protests, the GW Bush administration maintained a list of subversive organizations that included groups like the American Friends Service Committee, and they went so far as to spy on multiple local Quaker meetings – a dozen people talking about peace? https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna10454316 DeSantis and his minions are conducting purity tests for university employees, public health experts, and more.
So don’t think you would be safe as an older white male – or an older white female Quaker – or a doctor, professor, etc.
3After 9/11 when Shrub announced the Patriot Act, my mother’s comment was “I’ve heard all this crap before.”
4When he announced the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, her comment was “That’s a direct translation from the German.”
She knew, she lived under Hitler from 1938-45 in Vienna.
Agreed. They’ll make a number of high-profile arrests, then work their way down to the local level over time. They may decide to keep a few dissidents around to pretend we’re still a democracy, but anyone that might gather a following would be accused of a crime-to which they would eventually confess, or suffer a fatal illness during “rigorous interrogation”.
5This reminds me of the old “First they came for the X-but I am not an X. Then they came for the Y. But I am not a Y. And so on.
6“Most people are not evil.”
Oh, yes, they are.
7Do they imagine we won’t fight back? Or does the thought of violence excite them? (Trump is a draft-dodging coward but he likes to watch.)
Manchin. Not Mancin.
8His ability to intimidate is too well documented to ignore. As is his success in exciting persons of limited ability to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong. I hate to think that I may have to choose between facing the consequences of speaking up for democracy or remaining alive and out of prison to help my grandchildren grow up understanding the imperative of being part of the whole world, not just the 1%.
9What should we do?
“Early to bed, early to rise, work like he’ll and organize.”
10Your comments about trumpf being inartful and not precise in his speech makes me think he has a staff of writers for such statements as the one quoted in the article. Me thinks it’s Stephen Miller writing.
11The audience he’s appealing to are being set up to do his violence if he gets convicted before the election and a much bigger insurrection if he loses. It’s also taking attention away from all his criminal history.
If you’re interested, read Jeff Tiedrich the last 2 days because the subjects are just what we’re discussing here only a lot more colorful as you can imagine.
Well, he’s in a meltdown rage, and he lives for revenge, so I wouldn’t put much past him. I would not care to test the theory in any event.
12Steve,
Cogent yes. Artful no. His inaugural read like a fifth grade essay contest on who could come up with the best dystopian version of America. Of course, you can’t use terms like dystopian with fifth graders or Trump for that matter. That speech offended me on so many levels but more than anything it was incredibly sophomoric and shitty writing.
If I downed a fifth of Jack Daniel’s and you gave me three minutes I could do better and I’m not nearly the best writer here.
13RE “He has a solid 35-40 percent ready to vote for him.”
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/n5xrmszzSL3PoD4PPDYHNQ-1024-80.jpg.webp
14This isn’t about what Trump will or will not do. He’s a malignant narcissist but he’s also just a tool. Project 2025 is the work of the Heritage Foundation and about 85 other radical organizations, and even though their policies read like a D movie script, they are deadly serious. If the Washington Post article is correct and a reelected Trump does invoke the Insurrection Act on January 20, 2025 to use the military against his domestic enemies, do these psychos really believe military leaders will follow that executive order? These people are not conservatives and we need to stop calling them that. They are reactionary radicals and they may one day regret their unrestricted support of the 2nd Amendment.
15“Most people are not evil.”
I agree, but far too many of them can be swayed, without all that much trouble, by people who are. Many, many of Trump’s cultists are evidence of that.
16It’s a dangerous cocktail of decades of frustration, repeated disinformation, and natural distrust of the other. Most the Germans did not see or pretended not to see what is going on. It will be the same here.
17A Safe and Blessed Thanksgiving to all who visit here.
18In breaking news, Tim Alberta of The Atlantic reports that the orange shitgibbon actually got something right in 2016. Trump told one Iowa Republican official, ‘You know, these so-called Christians hanging around with Ted are some real pieces of shit.’”
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