Those of us who have taken the American Idea seriously have to face what has previously been unthinkable: the racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny weren’t bugs–they were features. As sick as it makes me to confront that truth, it’s inescapable: the bigotry (and the accompanying ignorance) were what most Trump voters were endorsing.
In case there is any doubt, Project 2025 will be the roadmap to a second Trump administration. In addition to what that will mean for women’s rights, for LGBTQ+ people and people of color, let me remind readers of its major “promises”–promises that will affect the entire world, not just the United States.
A Trump administration will ” Restore warfighting as the military’s sole mission” and end what it calls “the Left’s social experimentation in the military” by halting the admission of transgender individuals. It will increase the Army by 50,000, bring overseas troops home, grow the Navy and Air Force, and triple the number of nuclear weapons—while withdrawing America from all arms reduction treaties, and from NATO.
In other words, Trump will make the entire world unsafe (except, of course, for Putin and other autocrats).
USAID will defund women’s rights provisions in foreign aid initiatives, withdraw from all multi-lateral trade agreements, and stop providing financial aid to Ukraine, which will be gift-wrapped for Putin.
Trump wants to institute 60% tariffs on Chinese goods and 10% on all other imports. (Every reputable economist—conservative and liberal—has pointed out that tariffs are a tax on Americans, and that imposing them would cost American families thousands of dollars a year and throw the country into recession. The economy that President Biden has made the envy of the world will tank.
In order to destroy America’s fidelity to the rule of law, Trump plans to replace 50 thousand civil service employees with Trump loyalists. The Heritage Foundation is currently “vetting” individuals in order to facilitate that replacement.
The media has reported on the proposal to eliminate the Department of Education, Head Start, Title 1, & school lunch programs. The less-reported portions of their “education” policies are equally regressive: they would eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, post the Ten Commandments in all school classrooms and eliminate any books addressing race or gender from the nation’s classrooms.
RNK, Jr isn’t the only medical moron likely to be dictating “health” measures; Project 2025 proposes to withdraw federal funding from any school requiring vaccinations. (Not sure how they’re going to remove flouride from the nation’s water supply, but reality hasn’t been a big part of Rightwing ideology.)
Kiss goodby to Medicare (they’d privatize it), the EPA, OSHA, the EEOC and the FDIC.
But it’s with the bigotries that we really see the animating message of the worldview.
Trump has echoed the Project’s promise of immediate mass deportation of (dark-skinned) undocumented persons, a massive effort that would wreak havoc with the economy. (Think groceries are high now? Watch what happens when there’s no one to pick crops.) The Project proposes internment camps and limiting lawful immigration to 20,000 annually. They’d also deport all the Dreamers (who came as children with their parents, and most of whom have never known another country. They want to ban Muslims and Haitians from entering the country, roll back gay rights, invalidate same-sex marriages, and outlaw both transgender rights and no-fault divorce.
Then there’s the effect on the already precarious environment.
Authors of the Project say—and I quote– the “climate is not changing and schools are not to teach that it is.” Since climate change is just a liberal myth, they would eliminate climate and environmental protections, eliminate the regulation of greenhouse gases, and defund FEMA. They’d dismantle the National Hurricane Center and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, halt all climate research, revoke the Global Change Research Act of 1990, withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Accords, halt research into electrical vehicles and revoke tax incentives for clean energy.
That’s just a small part of what the bigots have voted for. Of course, courts would once have declared much of that roadmap blatantly unconstitutional, but Trump’s appointment of rogue Justices has removed that pesky impediment.
And of course, his election will allow the first convicted felon to be elected President to escape accountability for his crimes.
Welcome to the new Dark Ages.
My big fear is that Trump will delegate the work of governing to Vance and other competent cronies who will see Project 2025 implemented. I think this is a reasonable possibility because Trump doesn’t like doing the actual work, but is in it for the grift, protection from jail, and public glory. Mainly, he likes being in front of the cameras, and ranting.
The main hope I cling to is that Trump is such a narcissist that he may keep himself involved, and then his stupidity and incompetence can throw a wrench into the project 2025 plans. In other words, the best case scenario is a repeat of his previous tenure. Fingers crossed….
P.S. It’s RFK Jr, not JFK Jr. (This is not the first use of JFK Jr instead of RFK Jr. Someone is clearly caught up in the QAnon-inspired “return of JFK Jr” conspiracy. :P) In case you are unaware, the province of Alberta is Canada’s Florida/Texas. The city of Calgary tried eliminating flouride from the water a bit ago. Incidence of quite serious tooth and mouth problems rose by 700% very quickly. They reversed track.
Sheer insanity ahead in the Trump administration.
No matter what any pundits may tell us, this election was lost because about 1/3 of those who could vote (mostly sympathetic and supportive of Kamala’s candidacy) simply did not show up at the polls and vote. It was not lost over concerns about inflation (like the price for a loaf of bread or a sack of groceries) or concerns over immigrants flooding our borders. The loss came from a band of voters who were motivated by fear as well as stoked by hatred and driven by racism, misogyny and white supremacy. Without any hope of viable guardrails in the new Trump administration, protection of the rule of law and of our democracy will of necessity have to fall to ourselves, a responsible press, the courts, and to those who conscientiously serve in federal and state governments. That will be a tall order in the scheme of things in holding the Trump administration accountable for its actions.
The times will likely get much darker before they get brighter.
Dear Sheila,
We wait with very heavy hearts whats in for us in Europe. We hope that for most americans it is still the economy that was deceicive for their votes and they blame Biden for their money problems. It always goes like that. Trump’s extreme program didn’t play a big role for them.
Interesting is to see how Trump is going to function as president now. The problem could be now that he has no enemies left “within”. What to do? His program is not future oriented, he is not interested in the reality. So reality will catch up with him. As long as he gets his applause every day, he will be happy, nothing else matters. He will have to create new enemies, e.g. the people around him, he can’t live without hate.
God bless America.
Proved beyond all doubt: WE BECOME THE MEDIA WE CONSUME
I saw some charts on Morning Joe today that showed how the white (and brown/black) working class people’s earning power has been in decline for about 40 years – or more. The pie chart showing which issues directed voters was the economy. Oh, and almost 50 million FEWER people voted since 2020 with males of all races trending toward Trump.
It would seem, therefore, that the hate messaging was used as a cudgel on those who feel aggrieved – and the economic trend lines validate it. Remember, Hitler used the Jews as his hate issue. Trump and the Republicans used every other bigoted messaging to stir up the aggrieved.
This election revealed who we are as a nation. These right-wing idiots are finally going to get their wish by eliminating public education. When/if they eliminate (privatize) Medicare, there will be a civic/cultural/political disaster to change our course completely. Oh, and this will probably kick off the next revolution – because that’s what it’s going to take to regain democracy after the coming years of political stupidity.
Trump is just their poster child. Now that they have all three branches of government, they’ll have no real use for Trump other than to parade him around to rally his loyalists and stroke his ego. His second presidency will be a scripted reality show like The Apprentice while the Heritage Foundation and JD Vance implement Project 2025 to dismantle our federal government and replace it with a theocratic autocracy that seriously undermines the health and wellbeing of women and children. The guardrails are off, but Trump won’t be driving the train. They’re as tired of him as we are.
And yet the stock market went through the roof yesterday. The world has gone mad.
Bizarrely low D turnout is to 2024 as the iceberg was to the Titanic. Everything else is just deck chairs.
Nothing can be relied upon until there’s an objective, fact-based analysis that explains the massive cratering in D turnout vs 2020 DESPITE record registrations, record fundraising, record endorsements, unprecedented party-crossing endorsements, and massive disparities in rally enthusiasm (Harris’s crowded, high energy events vs Trump’s half-empty, ramble-athons).
Here’s a model taught by history.
The history of the Republican Party started with Lincoln trying to hold the Union together, peaked, and ended with Trump breaking it apart again.
I am wrestling with the reality that the 74 million Americans who voted Trump back in as President DON’T KNOW ANY BETTER and see no reason to consider any unintended consequences of voting their prejudices, fears and moral indignations because they have been living in an information wasteland most likely for decades. I began worrying about this alternate information contracture in the 1980s when the evangelical Christians created their own separate music, book (including romance novels!), and “news” publishing sectors in addition to the homeschooling “textbook” publishers. Now we have cable broadcasters and the internet to further customize information delivery. It works great! Add that to the encultured attitudes Sheila writes about today, and you see the outcomes of the long game the regressive-conservatives have been playing while the liberal-progressives have been believing things naturally arc toward justice while sniping at each other about details of policy and process. No long game at all. Sitting ducks. Time for a reset. Let’s get real.
Sorry. Alternate information structure not contracture. No idea where that came from.
Or, the world is sane, and a few liberals are mad! 😉
Abandoning the left wing for Cheney and other Republican Neocons probably wasn’t the smartest move by the DNC. Running Biden in the primary was also a stupid move. Harris not separating herself from Biden – dumb.
Many lessons should be learned, but does the oligarch’s two-party rule really care? Based on the stock market response, I’d say they got what they wanted. They were going to win no matter what, but a Trump and Heritage Foundation victory only speeds things up. Don’t forget, in 2008, Obama implemented the Heritage Foundation’s health insurance plan and turned over the banking crisis to Citibank insiders – NOT very progressive for a “liberal” Illinois senator.
Genocide and unnecessary wars also aren’t very progressive. If Trump wants to bring home all troops, I’ll support that anti-Neocon move. When did Democrats become controlled by MIC?
I hoped that early voter turnout was a positive sign for Democrats, but I was wrong. It was mostly Republicans who were told there would be trouble at the precincts on election day.
While you may be dismayed by a Republican victory, know that the oligarchy got exactly what it wanted. Either the left returns to a worker’s party or losing will become more of a tradition than a blip. To get an idea, read the critique of the two parties by socialists. Clinton moved the DNC to the middle in the 90s, and Hillary and Obama have been running the party ever since. The party better make massive changes to the left, or the working class will become permanent Republican Party voters.
Our small county in East Central Indiana had a handful of no-contest victories for Republicans. In a very reliable Democratic district, only one Democrat won her election. All others lost. Red flag!!
Burt Bacharach’s Alfie comes to mind
And what’s it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What’s it all about when you sort it out, Alfie?
Are we meant to take more than we give?
Or are we meant to be kind?
And if only fools are kind, Alfie
Then I guess it’s wise to be cruel
And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie
What will you lend on an old golden rule?
As sure as I believe there’s a Heaven above, Alfie
I know there’s something much more
Something even non-believers can believe in
And I believe in love, Alfie
Without true love we just exist, Alfie
Until you find the love you’ve missed you’re nothing, Alfie
When you walk, let your heart lead the way
And you’ll find love any day, Alfie
Alfie
Anyone who thinks climate change is not happening needs to have a discussion with my snap peas and raspberries. It is time for all of us to start growing our own food.
The crazies have won and the bastards will run the show.
Blaming the voters is not helpful! Todd – gets at most of the important issues. The Democratic Party – has deluded itself for decades – “radicalism” can be embraced in some areas – when it ties in with Inclusivity and real – effective Populism. Quick – “feel good” answers – aren’t useful. The Republicans – built their power up – tied to Wealth over Decades. Fear – and dealing with a rapidly changing World – is challenging. Being an “Urban Only” Party – Being Bi-Coastal -not national – isn’t helpful. Why are Latino Voters – becoming REPUBLICAN? Why are white men – like me – “the bad ones”? Racism and Sexism – need to be addressed. Our Empire Building Needs to be addressed. Democrats – can’t be “Republican Light” – and expect to be viable. Biden hurt things – but WHY did the Dems choose him and keep him so long? Harris – couldn’t – speak to Real Change — specifics. We need to organize – we need to show love, caring and much more – …..
A good portion of those who voted for Trump thought they were voting for a change they wanted, whether lower prices and lower taxes or better jobs; let’s see how they react to what they will get. And hope the nation holds together until the tyrant’s reign ends. People disregarded the threat to democracy because they don’t know how it will feel to lose it, why it matters to protect it; that, too, they will learn and, of course, so will those of us who voted against Trump.
Unless the bottom falls out of the economy in the next four years, this lunacy may go in for several terms. The lie and fear have been empowered. Ds spent a billion dollars and had 70,000 volunteers….and the lie and fear won.
What a way to start my day! To whom do I send my psychiatry bills? Seriously,
it will take a while for followers of der fuhrer to realize they’ve been had. Unfortunately, during that ill-defined and possibly generational “while,” immense and irreparable damage will have been done. The rise of the MAGAtes is being funded and guided by deranged, revanchist billionaires (e.g., Musk) who must not have thought much about how their future world look and operate. It certainly won’t be to the benefit of the larger American citizenry (esp. women, non-whites, immigrants, low-wage earners, or the sick/disabled). As the erroneously attributed Chinese curse goes, “May you live in interesting times.” That we certainly will.
Minor correction: there is no such thing as “flouride.” The stuff in your tap water, toothpaste, and the expensive stuff your dentist swabs onto your teeth is FLUORIDE.
Hopefully, the Covid vaccinations we get this fall will last indefinitely, because they’re unlikely to be available in the next four (+) years. That probably applies to flu shots, too.
And the children? We’ll see the return of polio, measles, mumps… Let’s not forget about smallpox…
We’ll see how happy people are with the choice they made when the body count explodes. I’ll possibly be dead by then, but I fear for my grandchildren.
IF we don’t strive for some balance, that only can be created by honesty.
The future looks temporally quite dim.
No matter what happens to the economy, medical access/insurance, public education, science or infrastructure, you can be sure that his administration will never take responsibility for failures. It will always be the fault of the “other”, within or without.
I don’t think we have any idea of how bad things are going to be when they enact the changes they have promised. Until those changes start to hit home on a personal level, food shortages, higher costs for almost everything, limited medical care, nobody to mow the lawn, trim the trees, pick the crops, process the raw materials, it won’t be an issue for those who hold him as their savior.
Our relationships with allies is being eroded already. No one will ever trust our government again as we are no longer a stable democracy when every four years chaos rules. We are no longer the leaders of the free world and right now I don’t see any likely successor. Gaza, Ukraine, Taiwan are gone. Japan, S. Korea, the Phillipines as well as most of Central and South American will be looking for different alliances. Africa nations will continue to have their resources stripped away and their tribal structures exploited by the post-colonial global corporations with no allegiance to any country or government.
Climate change will make life unsustainable in many places as temperatures rise to the point where human labor becomes impossible.
Removing vaccines will cause massive pandemics worldwide as modern trade, travel and transport accelerate the spread of disease.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls…
Remembering the chaos of trumps first administration is a sickening thought for the future. The conspiring with foreign dark money agents, firing all the IGs overseeing our tax money and appointing incompetent advisors are remembered. Giving encouragement and permission to Magas to bully whoever they want and lying being the norm.
We’ve been through this before and we found ways to cope. We know people we can trust and can judiciously use our words to defend others and American values.
We need to hold on to our inherent rights in our hearts and call out when they’re being trampled. Don’t go along to get along because it’s going to no good end.
I’m really tempted to blame voters, after seeing Jimmy Kimmel’s show. They did a man on the street interview. They started each one by saying that it is Wednesday, November 6th. They asked if the interviewees were going to vote. They all said that they were going to vote.
Is it willful ignorance? Even TicToc had videos about the election. How do you block it all out? Sadly, each of these people said they were going to vote for Harris. Seems the dems need to do a lot of civics lessons for their voters, starting with the election dates and how they are determined.
“Non cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.” Gandhi
Maybe the first law the Republicans will pass will be to remove the “Have you been convicted of a felony?” box on job applications!
Greg – your first comment – kudos.
I will take the heat….Kamala’s campaign was all money, “joy”, the “middle class” and philosophical platitudes with a few nods to identity politics. All the non-political polls have shown for years that the majority of the people have lost faith in all institutions, believe the rich are getting everything and that government/;politicians are crooked and mostly focused on party fealty and getting re-elected. She offered nada to show she understand and would do real CHANGE. Her speech yesterday affirmed it all – at the elite Black “ivy league” school in front of future executives – more platitudes and never stopping grinning with joy. John Lewis is spinning in his grave.
If it’s time, it’s time!
Willful ignorance and willfully deluded, doesn’t even come close to explaining what is going through what some might refer to as a brain, but that doesn’t accurately describe the issue either.
One thing that was mentioned yesterday, when there are individuals who cannot quite comprehend what’s happening, even though they might have done good and had good ideas, it’s a lost cause! Then, on the other hand, you have those that know how to manipulate and spin reality in a manner that gets those who choose to be ignorant riled up, some benefit can be gained because ignorance is ignorance whether willful or genetic.
The interesting backdrop of all of this, is the GOP controls the entirety of government and the court. Senate, House, Presidency, Supreme Court!
So when things go south, and they will, there’s nobody to blame but themselves! It’ll be interesting to witness the psychobabble concerning that.
The Germans did it, and when it started to come apart, they started their secret police programs, and turning children against their parents! Imagine kids narking their parents out for not supporting the state. Then again, they allowed the state in the first place. They all voted for what they had, just like was done here this past week. So I would encourage everyone to really do a deep dive into history, because what’s coming is going to be worse than anybody has witnessed in history. It could still be headed off at the pass, but it won’t!
This result was a rude awakening for me. I had no idea that there were 74 million trump supporters in this country. No freaking clue. I thought he had lost support since Jan 6th. Unfortunately, the media kept showing us undecided voters and none that were certain that they needed to vote for a D rather than an R. Even though I have stepped away from social media and blogs like this, I will not restart the reading. I’ve read enough hate for a lifetime. I’m going to work on my hobbies and make new ones. The only message I want to post on Facebook is goodbye cruel world. I’m outta here. (I am not suicidal, just disgusted).
H.L. Mencken: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
We are about to see the application of Mencken’s definition. Unfortunately, there may be no recourse for buyer’s remorse, since Trumpists will control the courts and decide who “won” elections from now on. I fear that democracy has signed its own death warrant and pulled the trigger, and we are only waiting for the bullet to arrive and rip through the fabric of our “body politic” on Jan 20, 2025.
And the majority of the population thinks this is a good thing, because they want to sock it to those pet-eating Haitians, and elementary school sex change operations, and Jewish Space Lasers, and Democrat-controlled hurricane machines, and Joe Biden importing busloads of illegal immigrants that all vote multiple times, and child slavery in nonexistent pizza parlor basements. And they think that charging 10 to 60% tariffs on consumer goods and eliminating income taxes on billionaires will, somehow, lower prices.
We are a nation of morons.
From a letter to the editor in the Boston Globe:
Like it or not, most Americans were in the mood for John Wayne movies. Democrats offered “Sesame Street” episodes instead. Therein hangs the tale — and the election.
seems the DNC again gave us a loser. not that Harris isnt a good person,it was gonna be a fight with her minority status,and her sitting with the global wealth. figure the idea was genuine to have a woman,or minority as a prez,again? after Obama, America wasnt gonna just slide to,the side and let it be. instead again the DNC gave is a dead end. the fact overall was that the DNC never educated beyond centrist crap and stood with the elites of money instead of plowing under and giving the majority working class some long overdue recognition. the fact was the cost of living. well guess what, the DNC didnt want to ruffle big bad wealthy with any backlash to their game of greed. after billions spent on crap for a compaign,we could have used ot better to educate,starting 4 years ago. walk the path of wages and the greed for lifetime and watch it all that become the billionaires game of thrones. it is now your political party. we need a progressive shot in the ass. not this crap of hilary,obama and the old guard. we would have been better off using a fist like Shawn Fain over the vail of the same old crop demanded by us by the DNC and its cronies. now settle in people, we are now gonna be economic slaves to new party of musk..
The only thing that would make me feel better would be the announcement that the justice department has discovered that the election was corrupted and can prove how it was done and who was responsible. Then my trust in Americans might be restored.