As the evidence of Trump’s mental illness gets stronger and more difficult to hide, and the resistance gets stronger, it’s possible to envision an end to MAGA’s horrific assault on America’s philosophy, norms and institutions and to engage in speculation about what comes next. Just how much of the damage being done is irrevocable? What can be fixed, and what harms lie beyond repair?
There is no denying the amount of damage done in just the first hundred days. It isn’t simply the “I’m king (or Pope) delusions–Trump and Musk have mostly resembled toddlers who somehow got control of the family’s technology, not understanding how it works or what the intended uses are–and are just gleefully smashing mechanisms they don’t begin to understand.
The rest of the world has looked on with a mix of horror and schadenfreude. (Our anguish has actually prompted some sanity elsewhere–both Canada and Australia have repudiated Trump-lite candidates in the past couple of weeks.) The Guardian recently reported that the United States has been added to the watchlist maintained by an international organization monitoring democratic progress and regression.
Civicus, an international non-profit organization dedicated to “strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world”, announced the inclusion of the US on the non-profit’s first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia.
The watchlist is part of the Civicus Monitor, which tracks developments in civic freedoms across 198 countries. Other countries that have previously been featured on the watchlist in recent years include Zimbabwe, Argentina, El Salvador and the United Arab Emirates.
Not exactly the company we’re used to keeping….
The decision to add the US to the first 2025 watchlist was made in response to what the group described as the “Trump administration’s assault on democratic norms and global cooperation.”
In the news release announcing the US’s addition, the organization cited recent actions taken by the Trump administration that they argue will likely “severely impact constitutional freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression, and association.”
It’s instructive that the organization cited assaults in two separate domains: democratic norms that affect our internal governing behaviors, and the attacks targeting international cooperation, because my own reading of the daily damage being done reflects a similar division.
Assuming the success of what I have been calling the resistance, We the People will face the formidable–but ultimately “do-able”– task of reconstructing our federal governing apparatus. It won’t be easy, and a lot of Americans will be badly hurt before repairs can be made. Much like the occupants of a house destroyed by a hurricane, ordinary citizens will have lost a great deal–but they can also (to use Biden’s terminology) “build back better.” (Perhaps the threatened drastic cuts to Medicaid and other social welfare programs will finally prompt us to emulate the other Western countries where citizens have access to national health care systems. Etc.)
In other words, given sufficient time, Americans can repair the domestic damage. That is very unlikely to be the case with our international stature. Trump has demonstrated–vividly–that America cannot be trusted, that we are always just one election away from irrationality and chaos. We are already seeing the EU step up to fill the leadership gap in NATO. (We are also seeing China and Russia savor the moment–a more troubling development.)
America is in the process of learning an important lesson: it’s much too late to retreat from the global economy. Trump’s insane tariffs will hurt us badly, but the fallout will also demonstrate the folly of trying to retreat from an increasingly integrated world ecosystem. We can re-enter the global marketplace and economic reality, but I am convinced that the days of America’s overwhelming global dominance are over. Permanently.
And pardon me for my arguably unpatriotic reaction to that reality: it’s probably for the best. Our efforts to control the international order have too frequently been Machiavellian rather than noble. We have certainly done a great deal of good–which is why the assault on USAID is so horrific–but we’ve also flexed our international muscle in ways that were unwise and even shameful.
A global order in which we actively participate but don’t dominate–an international order in which no one country is able to call the shots–would be a step forward.
And while we’re not telling everyone else what to do and how to do it, we’ll have a civic house to rebuild.
TOTALLY agree on your closing remarks of this post. We should not have that control anymore. I believe its part of the reason we are in this horrific mess: we think were invincible.
Great post, Sheila!
Like Lori, I definitely agree with your closing remarks, and Trump’s ineptitude has been a catalyst for bringing this new global order into being. The unipolar world setup after WW2 required changing decades ago, but the oligarchs within Western Imperialism couldn’t relinquish their control. Trump is effectuating our withdrawal, but it has been coming for a while. Unfortunately, he’s also a greedy bastard, which will most likely (and already has in some areas) negatively impact the US. It’s primarily out of ignorance, but still progress toward a multipolar world.
Speaking of soft power within Western Imperialism, Civicus, which Sheila quoted in this post, is a perfect example. I mentioned that I added an extension to my Chrome (which I won’t be using Google much anymore) called “WhoFundsWho.” It highlights text when it has a record of an entity contained within the webpage. One click on Civicus, located in the UK, is part of the “deep state” with donors from Open Democracy, Ford Foundation, NED, Gates, Packard, and Open Society (Soros). USAID also funneled money to Civicus indirectly.
For instance, I just republished an article this morning about Burkina Faso’s leader, Traore, who is nationalizing the country’s gold mines to spread wealth to its people. Almost all the gold mines were owned by French and US companies that extracted the gold and left the people poor. As a result, he’s on the hit list of the deep state. LOL
Last month, Traore’s military intercepted a coup attempt coming from Ivory Coast, a CIA/MIC base for the US. Do you think we could be trying to assassinate Traore due to his socialist tendencies of thinking about the people before US corporations? 😉
So yes, USAID was a soft power tentacle of the US deep state.
What mental state is civil society actually in to take on the responsibility of building the Civic house or rebuilding it. It’s extremely obvious that in civil society, many wish to live in an artificial reality. They wish to live in a reality that they’ve made up in their own mind. As part of civil society, they mix with and pass along willful delusional thinking, then, blame it on someone or something else.
Watch and see what happens with Bobby Prevost (St Philip’s) the new Pope Leo whatever the number is. Grew up on the south side of Chicago, went to seminary school with my cousin father Tom Corbino, (Joliet archdiocese) also from Chicago. Pro immigration and pro-inclusion, but still, against birth control, and abortion. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out in the political realm.
We can see that the smaller countries are those with a smaller footprint are banding together to fill the void of what’s happening today. We can already see the skirmishes starting. How is this going to blend in with control of vast swaths of civil society? Civics are not the same everywhere. So that’s going to be an issue! And the reason civics are not the same, it’s because civil society is not the same. One corresponds with the other! So how is all this going to be blended into a useful and beneficial human society based on human rights, human dignity, and a unified due process under the law. Maybe a law that is above all local civil law?!?!
The first thing that needs to happen, are all of these “artificial reality bubbles” need to be burst. And the second thing is to relearn what human rights are. And that’s the basic right to freedom, happiness, and well-being. Sustenance, shelter, education, and unforced labor.
If you don’t have a society with compassion and empathy, one that can deliver hope, and produce certain amount of faith in the system, then it’s doomed to failure. Every single living soul on this planet deserves the ride to health and happiness, not guided missiles from the clouds, not polluted water, not polluted land, not discrimination, not murder, not bigotry, Just a fulfilling life! Unfortunately, humanity cannot deliver on these things. It’s something that some folks can see off in the distance, but can never really reach out and grab it. It’s one reason for the artificial realities, and even willful delusion.
Is that a bridge too far? So far, historically speaking, yes it is!
There has been a shift in the reality we are experiencing. I think it is a positive thing that the US will no longer have as much control over the world’s conditions as it has had. After all, the more we do, the worse things have become. Time to let it go and see what happens.
Republicans, for most of my life, believed in the preeminence of capitalism and ignored that the only economic system that survived last century’s experimentation years, trying various alternatives, was the mixed economy coupled with liberal democracy.
Why have they always believed in preeminent capitalism? They believe humans are naturally competitive and always maintain a scoring system like points, strokes, or collections of excess currency.
Of course, believing that surplus wealth and tangible assets were a measure of worth was and is also the basis of aristocracy.
That combination is supported by a foundation of documented ownership, by which individuals or collections of individuals could possess absolute control over assets.
In other words, Republicans have always dreamed they could and should have more control.
Of course, the dichotomy of individuals in control of everything was aptly on display yesterday, with a man known for his humility taking control of 1.5B souls amid the artistic splendor of St Peter’s Basilica, the castle of all castles.
However, our liberal democratic constitution defined a complementary concept: collaborative control of the basis of life, which is temporary human individuals who jointly own their little piece of the Universe for the time they live.
We can have the best of everything, a balance between me and all humans who occupy the same space and time as I do with me in control of what I own individually, and we in control of what we share.
Extreme individual ownership has put all of that in jeopardy.
Spot on Sheila.
To add some unlikely context to your piece:
Last night we attended the Gettysburg Film Festival, which sounds like either an anachronism or some dark humor, except it was the 3rd annual event whose patron is the acclaimed documentarian Ken Burns, and yesterday was May 8, the 80th anniversary VE Day. Burns gave an impassioned talk about how horrific war is, and why it is an unfortunate feature of human character, and then offered his own observations about why WWII was something different from the Hobbesian standard with none-too-subtle digs at the present administration’s willful misunderstanding of world history and the use of power. The reason reason for and the Allies’ participation was about a higher ideal and helping one’s “neighbor” not about conquest— then showed and a composite 30 min film featuring clips of many of his former films followed by a spellbinding panel with Susan Eisenhauer (granddaughter of Ike) for their reflections on war, power, leadership, and the future. (She was incredible). One of Burns’ lines struck a chord when he said that given current geopolitics, if the US was ever embroiled in a war like Europe was, that came to US hores, “no one is coming to save us”. Sobering.
(And to finish on a up note—another highlight was the other patron of the event, Martin Sheen, also gave introductory remarks that were as politically relevant and pointed as you’d expect—made me long for the fictional President Bartlett to be back in the WH). The film festival is on for 4 days so if anyone is near Gettysburg, go.
The Democrats came into the previous presidential election riding high, from a very successful term led by a President Biden. But ever since the big shock of losing to Trump our message was forced into being largely negative in reaction to the daily atrocities of the MAGATS.
Republicans came into office with big plans – the 2025 plan. Their enthusiasm had not been anticipated. If it had been we might have expected some of what happened:
• Incompetent Cabinet members who were there mainly to destroy the civil service
• Elon Musk and DOGE
• Alienating our closest allies
• Tariffs that make no sense economically
• Deporting immigrants without due process
Because we were forced into resistance, by default our backup position appears to be the return to the status quo. But the status quo means going back to the Constitution that allowed the allowed the MAGATS to get into office.
It has been obvious for a long time that a number of amendments to the Constitution are needed. Now is the time to be positive about changes we need. After the next election we could be in a good position to move forward.
We will need to work within the current Constitution. We will need to create committees of specialists. Some of them can work on changes that do not require a constitutional amendment: Restoring and reorganizing the civil service, making changes where appropriate: Health Care, Education, Immigration, …
Many of the changes needed will require constitutional amendments:
• Bill of Rights: women’s bodies, gun laws, …
• Elections: get rid of Electoral College, gerrymandering, make primaries uniform, …
• Judicial changes: rewrite codes of ethics, term limits for judges, …
• Congressional rules: enforce their responsibilities, …
• Executive: limits to Presidential power, …
Clearly there are many of our fellow citizens who are willing to join protests against the MAGATS. Let’s get them to include signs pushing positive changes. Let’s get positive!
One thing I know about government is that it takes a long time to get from the starting point to the next starting point. I am fully aware that USAID has been used by U.S. to overthrow regimes we didn’t like. That is deplorable and needs to be stopped, but we shouldn’t just abandon the people who have relied on USAID for their lives. That’s irresponsible and not what we need.
What we do need is a State Department and a CIA that no longer suffer from Dullesism. We don’t need to fight Communism or any other economic system. We do need to continue to spend on the research that has made us the place to be for science and medicine. We need to fight for the common good, not for common goodies. It truly is a small world, after all.
Now I will turn the pulpit back to Pastor Sorg.
I heard Joy Reid interviewed by Peter Beinart – most perceptively. She spoke of polling on Trump’s efforts.
1. Economy – horrible Reviews
2. Immigrants – border – over 50% support
She posited – correctly I think – that as long as – he HATE message – and OTHERING resonates – the other stuff won’t bring Strong (counter-) efforts by most of us
related to this – Foreign Policy – Other Countries – don’t matter to most USians.
The Economic – issues – will bring us going forward – we need to reach others – on the Hatreds (which obviously tie in with fears and Racism
Wanna get folks engaged in “resistance”? Quit talking about philosophy/policy and “make it real” by giving examples of how MAGAism will affect them, their jobs, their family and their world. Without that, they will continue being uninvolved and glued to sports, celebrity and “if it bleeds, it leads”.
Provocative, sobering, sane and right on target, Sheila, as usual!!
Someone more cynical than me! Letter in the Boston Globe:
“The slew of interviews with Trump supporters, both when he’s won and when he lost; the wringing of hands about Democrats no longer connecting with working people; the persistent focus on economic woes in the face of a remarkably recovering and successful economy under the Biden administration — all distract from the major issues over which Trump supporters voted for him and continue to support him, no matter the cost, financial, legal, and ethical. And those issues are: the virulent racism stirred up by Barack Obama’s two election victories; the misogyny that surfaced during the elections of 2016 and 2024; and the grievance-driven hatred generated by Joe Biden’s inclusive and diverse Cabinet and policies as well as his push for equality.”
There’s a fair argument to be made that the election of the Pope was also a repudiation of Trumpism, and a pretty much global one at that.
What Lori said.
Some of the time, when things come apart, that can be an opportunity to change tack. Sadly, we have done some abominable things in our “exceptional” past, having held too much leverage.
ALL thriving is mutual!!
Excellent observation Pete, do you really believe that there can be a kumbaya? Closure of the dichotomy? It would be great if humanity had the ability to do something like that, unfortunately, it has never proven that ability.
Over the next few years, watch politics and religion. That will point the way to the severity of the backlash that’s coming. This new Pope being from America, even better, Chicago, it’s going to engage with the political realm. I do not think that’s going to go well. I think the lines will be drawn in the sand, and they will have at it… Someone is going to go down in flames because of that confrontation, and I doubt if it’s going to be the politicians. That confrontation is going to relegate most of the population to fence sitters or just huge mistakes which will drive the conflagration of religion. But considering the mass of amounts of moral turpitude floating around in the world today, is that going to be beneficial to mankind? Or is moral turpitude a rallying call for secular society.
John, I learned growing up how essential having the courage of our convictions is.
BTW, at 82 I’m still growing up.
First, but minor point, Pope Leo is not the first pope from America although he is the first pope from the United States. Pope Francis was from Latin America. Please don’t use America as interchangeable with the United States.
While I vote Democrat and will continue to do so, I was very disappointed in the last campaign. We chased well-off white liberals at the expense of anyone else. 19 million people who voted for Biden didn’t vote. We didn’t even try to make our political priorities resonate with our base. There’s no evidence we will gain a majority of the white vote again. Trump campaigned on hate, the normalcy of being white and male. Harris courted “Cheney Republicans” and downplayed race and gender. When Trump claimed she turned black for political gain, she had an opportunity to address race in a positive way for her campaign. Yet when she was asked about it, her response was “next question please”. Democrats can’t keep chasing voters who fled the party in the ‘60’s. She didn’t get the vote from republicans and other swing voters that she courted. Like the Republicans or not, in the last 5 to 10 years, they’ve been better organized and focused. I believe had Harris ran a better campaign she would have won. Yet there were too many people who stayed home thinking that neither party cared about their concerns.
We have demonstrated to the rest of the world that we, the U.S., can no longer be trusted as an ally, let alone partner. We did it twice in the last two decades., electing a grifter who has no wish to govern, only to “win” and garner greater wealth to himself.
Granted that we are far smaller in population than countries like China and India, the post-war years gave the U.S. a disproportional impactful due to economic and some social constructs along with a can-do attitude, problem-solving approaches and education opportunities. That position has ended, IMO, for good. Forgiveness allows renewed interactions. Trust is a very different issue. Sad to say, but HCR may be correct in that the world as we knew it on January 19th is gone, never to return. That reality may take months or even years for some to understand. I fear that until then, all of us who are not the 1% will suffer in ways we have not experienced in this country in more than a century.
Regardless of the outcomes of elections, if we even have them at all or have the kind that allows actual choices to be made without oppression, the lost trust by our former allies, friends and those aspiring to citizenship, as well as current citizens, will never be the same.
As far as the new Pope is concerned, I am not a fan so far. As a lapsed Catholic, I do not admire a man who is homophobic (I know, almost laughable knowing what we know about the number of priests who are gay), does not believe in proven science (non-binary sex does not exist in his opinion), is anti-contraception and against abortion. For too long, women have been dismissed and demeaned by the Church (as well as most other Christian denominations) as nurturers and breeders. The fact that no women were included in the last man’s funeral is just one demonstration of how the Church regards most women, unless they are virgins, of course.
The world has changed as it always has. The difference now is the speed of change and the ever-increasing number of people being affected by change. The fact that extremely wealthy men are driving change, always in their own favor, is not new at all.
Those who continue to stand with the oligarchs, whether out of fear, hate or as sociopaths, will reap the whirlwind along with the rest of us worldwide.
Pete, I I understand! I think I’ve done all the growing up I can do, I’m ready to go back the other direction, lol! Be strong Pete, I love that name by the way, it’s in my family quite a bit.
Beverly it doesn’t really matter whether it’s North America, South America, Central America, it’s connected by a single land mass.
And as far as the Catholic Church goes, It tends to be more predatory in Central and South America. The Catholic Church was extremely predatory in the early years of this particular country. They took children away from their parents in the native American population. Those children were abused, used, and many times, murdered. This has happened a lot in Central and South America. Where the population still craves direction and salvation from an entity started in Rome by emperor Constantine. And if you recall from history, emperor Constantine was a pagan, and he also was a brutal ruler. But He was still striving to expand the empire and bring in the throngs of paganists to fight his wars and receive tax revenues from. So he manipulated Christian teachings and paid off some of the original church leadership by giving them money and land, so they would vote as he directed. I guarantee you that Bobby Prevost doesn’t believe in most of the things that he claims are truth. Because he has access to documentation no one else is allowed to see. But somehow they just keep the lie moving forward! That’s why eventually, the political realm is going to wrangle in religion! He’s actually an Italian American for the most part. A perfect fit for the Church of Rome don’t you think?
I was hoping that Pierbattista Pizzaballa would be elected Pope. His name is interesting and now he gets to keep it. Anyway, an American Pope is something new, a possible counter to the neo fascist movement here and in the world. The Catholic Church is still the guarded institution, patriarchal and doesn’t acknowledge the full potential/personhood of women. It’s a men’s club.
US can’t go back pre second term trump. Too much damage has been done. It is an opportunity to really see the weaknesses in our democracy and aim to build stronger safeguards for citizens protection in the future.
Maybe US needs to focus more on problems at home before we try to go out and save the world? i.e. universal healthcare, housing and safe food and environment protections. US will have to answer for leading the world in producing weapons for wars. There’s got to be a better way.
Ms. Kennedy, good job!
I see that Mr. Patterson has already written most of my ideas on the constitution. Regardless of how hard it is to amend the U.S. Constitution, not doing so treats only the symptoms of MAGA and not the cause of its political successes. For all that Biden/Harris talked about a federal law bringing back Roe v. Wade, that was the wrong strategy. If women’s rights are not in the Constitution, then we will see an arms race in the Senate to create a Supreme Court that will strike down a pro Roe statute.
However, we cannot ignore state politics/constitutions. Karl Rove did not, and look at the statehouses controlled by the Republicans. I have made comments before deploring Indiana’s lack of more democratic features in its constitution. I suspect the same is true in other states. A federal ban on gerrymandering is a good start, but other changes in the states must come from within the states, not from on high.
Internationally, the UN still exists in all its imperfect glory. It is also an American creation. Time is long past to use it. What might have been if we had turned over Iraq and Afghanistan to the UN for rebuilding? That should have been their responsibility. Certainly, there could not have done a worse job than we did.
I did not notice anyone mentioning these items: the break-up of the overlarge tech companies, removal of federal protection for ISPs, and more antitrust actions. Antitrust might be the least known action by Biden.
Education must be changed in this country from job training to producing citizens. People cannot graduate high school without knowing US history and world history. Interesting how people moan about the inability to read and write, but never say anything about historical literacy. And what do we get for this: Trump and anti-wokeism.
Almost done, guillotines might be favored by some, but we must punish MAGA, and we must punish their fellow-travelers. Alito and Thomas must go for their ethics. I think we can go down the line from there. The trepidation of prosecuting Trump gave him and his movement strength. And I do not mean the kind of punishments Bavaria imposed on a certain leader after the Beer Hall Putsch. I mean the kind of punishments that followed in1945. Entire ecosystems have built up for native terrorists, and those need to be rooted out. Grant did it to the KKK, we can do it to The Proud Boys.
Lastly, we need to act with a purpose and a goal and educate the public on why our goals will improve their lives. The Democrats have been horrible about both fighting and educating the public.
Thank you, Ms. Kennedy. I swore I was going to mind my own business (which I have not been able to do on my own blog) and stay out of political talk, but you and your commentators do give me hope.
Another excellent post, Sheila. I totally agree.
We could have created a “soft landing” for American global dominance, but Trump has created a crash. I fear a struggle between the autocratic nations and the democratic nations will now unfold. We could have muted Putin’s ambitions, but I still worry that Trump will serve up Ukraine to him, although Trump, being Trump, may just get distracted.
The US, should sanity return, must punish the home-grown autocrats and enact new preventive legislation to prove to the rest of the world that this was an aberration that we have corrected and that we are ready to rejoin the world as “partners”. Constitution Amendments would be best, but realistically, very difficult and too easy to slow down (note the ERA). Still, we have to move forward on all fronts to make the corrections.