Where the current political theater stands today
"If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
For more than 20 years, I’ve followed the career reporting plus media critiques of Dan Froomkin, who writes PressWatch. The one-time WaPo reporter has been so adamantly scoring the mainstream media for its kid glove treatment of political and monied scoundrels, its neglect of describing baldfaced lies as ‘lies’, its treatment of political parties with the bothsiderism of fake neutrality, and its seeming indifference to its own survival in the face of brutish threats and the ongoing advance of violent fascism nationally and globally.
The two party system is dead, per Ike’s definition. The Democratic party is the only major party left. Fascism-embracing influencers like the ex-convicts Dinesh d’Souza and Mike Lindell regularly trot out conspiracy theories, claims not supported by any known facts, and history twists that never hold up under examination. Such as the ‘truth’ that Southern Democrats were the worst racists in the country well into the 1960s while Republicans were generally more supportive of civil rights for Black Americans. Which completely ignores the greater truth that most of those Southern Democrats became Republicans after LBJ got the Civil Rights and Voting Rights passed in the 1960s.
That switch began the process of pushing the GOP to extremism which has accelerated dramatically in the past 30 years.
In the past month ex-Alaskan-Governor Sarah Palin called for a civil war if Trump is defeated in 2024 or is legally blocked from the ballot.
Ex-Arkansas-Governor Mike Huckabee on his show last month told his audience that third world dictators, banana republics and communist regimes prosecute and jail their political opponents. Then said President Biden "is using those tactics" to defeat Trump in 2024. He asserted that if Trump doesn't win the 2024 election because of his court cases "it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets."
It was Trump who campaigned steadily against Hillary Clinton with calls to ‘lock her up’ because of personal emails her staffers removed from her email account. He tried to use his Justice Department to steal the 2020 election from the majority of US voters and the DOJ guy he tried to appoint as AG is now among those indicted for that conspiracy.
Biden has never directed his current AG to do anything against any political opponent. Many Democrats have accused AG Merrick Garland of footdragging on going after those who tried to thwart the peaceful transfer of power. But now, as Congressional and DOJ and state investigations have yielded indictments against the ex-president, most elected Republicans are saying they’d pardon Trump (no matter what jurors decide) and more than a few are provoking and encouraging violence.
That’s not how legitimate political parties function. As Eisenhower said, it’s ‘a conspiracy to seize power.’ Being right and moral is no longer in their playbook. It’s pretty bad when a guy who claims to be a man of the cloth is claiming Biden is acting outside the law (with zero evidence) and legitimizing a violent response. It really makes me wonder if Huckabee has ever read the New Testament or if he’s sold his soul to the underworld.
Another former Arkansas governor, Asa Hutchinson, doesn’t support Trump. Former NJ governor Chris Christie doesn’t. Former MA governor/former senator Mitt Romney, NH Governor Chris Sununu, Current Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, plus former Reps Liz Cheney, Will Hurd, Denver Riggleman, Barbara Comstock and Adam Kinzinger are the only notable Republicans opposing Trump because of his obvious and blatant criminal actions. But only two of those ten are currently in office.
The others claiming to be part of the party formerly known as Republican are actually anarchists trying to delegitimize government, eliminate the FBI, DOJ, and our laws, and several additionally continue to promote further violence and insurrection.
The scant few claiming to be Republicans while opposing Trump are trying to save a party unmoored by ethics or objectives that simply no longer exists. And polls show the majority of Republican voters support anyone who’ll grant them tax cuts, no matter who they’ve harmed nor how many laws they’ve broken.
It’s been two decades since respected economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
Political messaging has for centuries relied on the manipulation of greed, selfishness and fear in the voting public. Often it’s done quietly and moderated by ethical standards. But as we see today in numerous countries, few quietly moderate leaders remain. Ethical standards have been scrapped especially by leaders across the globe who want to rule autocratically. Like this loudmouth self-contradicting liar Donald Trump.
More than once he’s proclaimed he hires ‘the very best people.’ Yet those same hirees keep piling on about his weaknesses and deficiencies.
In 2020, his then-White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin is now saying: “Despite publicly praising the military and claiming to be the most pro-military president, there’s a demonstrable record of Trump bashing the most decorated service members in our country, from Gen. Mattis to Kelly to Milley, to criticizing the wounded or deceased like John McCain. Donald Trump will fundamentally never understand service the way those who have actually served in uniform will, and it’s one of the countless reasons he’s unfit to be commander in chief.”
The same news source for that quote has quite a bit more.
His former secretary of defense, Mark Esper, told CNN in November 2022, “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”
Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, told CBS in June that “he is a consummate narcissist. And he constantly engages in reckless conduct. … He will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. Our country can’t, you know, can’t be a therapy session for you know, a troubled man like this.”
The lede for that story today was this:
CNN —
John Kelly, the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, offered his harshest criticism yet of the former president in an exclusive statement to CNN.
Kelly set the record straight with on-the-record confirmation of a number of damning stories about statements Trump made behind closed doors attacking US service members and veterans, listing a number of objectionable comments Kelly witnessed Trump make firsthand.
“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.
“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”
With most of his supporters from what used to be a respected political party, it’s clear they do “not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral” per Ike’s definition. They’ve dissolved their party by failing the Ike test. And the crooked guy they uphold is facing the worst peril he’s ever been in, in the NYC courtroom he’s spent much of today in.
On his way in, he insulted the judge, called the state AG a racist and called it the worst witch hunt in history, demonstrating again how consistently he lies in his ongoing propaganda campaign. He complained that he didn’t get a trial by jury, but his own lawyers didn’t request one. Longtime observers of his theatrics believe he’d have a harder time convincing his supporters that a jury made the wrong decision than it would to just claim the judge is anti-Trump. Which is consistent with what we’ve all observed over the past 8 years.
The Guardian provided a brief bio of the AG today, which included this:
She started her law career as a public defender before entering New York politics as a councilmember and then as public advocate, the first Black woman to hold the watchdog role. James’s passions were clear from the start – she filed a record number of suits on behalf of tenants, seniors and people with disabilities. James became New York state attorney general in 2018.
Trump is trying to portray her as an anti-white racist driven by political ambition which belies the fact that she also has an ongoing investigation of New York’s Democratic ex-governor Andrew Cuomo. There’s nothing at all in her legal record to support the claim that she’s anti-white.
Trump already has lost the central portion of this case. He and his older sons have lost their licenses to do business in NY and the Trump Organization fundamentally no longer exists. The judge ruled several days ago that he’s guilty of vastly overstating the values of his properties when acquiring loans for several decades.
Trump today unwittingly confirmed that, scoffing at the idea that Mar-A-Lago was valued at $18 million by the judge, saying the real value was between 50 times and 100 times more than that number. His math means he’s claiming it’s worth $900 million to $1.8 billion. There’s not a banker in the world who’d accept such a range in estimated valuation on a loan application. Has any real estate evaluator ever accepted either of those numbers?
Hardly.
In 2020, a Florida tax assessor valued that Florida estate at $26 million. And Trump appealed that as being too high. There’s no way any judge could deny evidence like a defendant’s proven actions.
Marcy Wheeler pointed out today how much of the mainstream media plays to Trump’s acting strengths, letting him dictate the outlines of his defense narrative.
Which is exactly right.
It’s what Dan Froomkin has been excoriating a lot for several years, like the lack of coverage of that important warning. But as a media critic, he also praises when they get it right like this ProPublica interview of President Biden.
The NY trial is just the first domino. Whether the GOP continues as a party is not the decision our democracy depends on.
It rests on you and the decisions you make. You have about 13 months left to do it right.
[Note: finally gearing up again to regular writing. Last summer demanded the time necessary to move two households, to get situated in a new place and to deal with a medical issue that’s understandably unsettling.