In December, 1941, the United States, in defiance of many of her citizens, dedicated its treasure and its blood to fight the forces of Germany, Italy and Japan to stop a push toward fascism, a far-right, authoritarian and ultranationalist political ideology characterized by a dictatorial leader, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race.
Since June 16, 2015, the USA has been standing back and standing by, some incredulous, some fearful, others eager. Regardless of which camp you claim, there is no doubt but that this interesting era is giving us a front row lesson in history and a clearer idea of who we are as a people. Neither are pretty to look at.
We are witnessing, first hand, the ignoble demise of the best blueprint yet devised for governing a diverse people. While we as a nation have seldom lived up to our ideals, during those times we tried, we achieved great things, attracting to our shores peoples of other nations seeking the freedoms our constitution affords, many of them the best minds in science. We were a nation that could achieve great things, a nation respected.
We didn’t always live up to our promise, but our heart was in the right place and always we picked ourselves up, absorbed the often painful lessons and dusted ourselves off, ready for another go.
But always, there was a dark undercurrent. We in North Idaho saw much of it, Richard Butler and the Aryan Nation, Ruby Ridge and more. The righteous of pure blood in fear of a new world order led by infidels and low people intent on a Zionist Occupied government, the skinheads and the hatred. We’ve seen the white Christian nationalist churches with their sermons of exclusion, of an angry and vengeful God who would reward the faithful and smite their enemies. The “Redoubt,” where like-minded conservatives can diss the libs as they prepare for the dystopia they foresee approaching, their “prepping” preparing them for the tribulations to come.
And that’s what Donald Trump tapped into when he came down that gilded elevator in 2015 under the guise of make America great again. Enamored of the myriad lies they take for straight talk, hearing in his gibberish snippets that sound to their hypersensitive ears to be promises to their cause, be it elevating whites to their accustomed place of superiority, elevating their God and theirs alone into the fabric of our government and public institutions or simply to appeal to their desire to hate and tear things down just for the sake of destruction.
The legislative branch has long since been emasculated and the Republican Party is still tripping over itself to flatter and appease Trump, most still in office having switched allegiance from the constitution they swore to uphold and defend to the man who has promised to tear it down for the master he serves, the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.
Even the Democrats show no inclination to assert their legislative authority, stymied by a life-long liar and bully and the sycophants he helped elevate to offices beyond their wildest dreams for which the sole qualification is allegiance to Trump.
They allow a foreign national who happens to be the world’s richest man free and unfettered access to our nation’s federal offices and agencies with the only a rogue president’s okay to wreak havoc, access personal information on all U.S. citizens and all without the approval of the American people or even vetting by the legislature.
Rather than save taxpayer money through finding fraud and waste, Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency has proven a debacle — with no plan, Musk jumped straight in like a monkey with a chainsaw and began cutting ruthlessly, only to have most of his actions blocked by the courts as illegal or unconstitutional.
But as is Trump’s wont, he is again insisting that he is being persecuted by liberal leftist judges and he’s calling for their impeachment. Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Brown Nose, Ohio), who wasted four years at taxpayer’s expense digging for dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, is now promising more waste “investigating” anti-Trump judges, while DOGE Boy Elon Musk is offering to pay voters in Wisconsin $100 to sign a petition against “activist judges” (read “critical of Trump”) in their upcoming election for state supreme court.
There will always be those who like what Trump is doing, just as there are still those who like what Mussolini and Hitler did in the 1930s and those who still believe the south is going to rise again.
But they are a far smaller force than Trump likes to proclaim and a far weaker force than those we elected to represent us need worry about or hide from.
At present, only a few brave and competent individuals in the third coequal branch of our government, judges dedicated to the rule of law and not afraid to do what’s right, stand between the U.S. Constitution and the time-tested and failed ideologies found in Project 2025, the manifesto of the true “deep state” in modern American politics.
Their “Mandate for Leadership,” avers that a government of the people, by the people and for the people, as established by our constitution, is a failure, and that only a strong executive, unencumbered by checks and balances or even rules and ethics, can effectively run a government.
That they name such a weak and pathetic caricature as Donald Trump as being that strong leader isn’t coincidence. They see in Trump just what Fred Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un so readily recognized; an easily manipulated egotistical wannabe with no moral compass save for his own ego, easily flattered and easily suborned.
What they forget or discount and what MAGA seems to belittle is the power of the American people. Musk and Trump call those who are burning Teslas terrorists. Those igniting cars smile and say, “”For really really?!”
Too damned bad.