It's Too Late to Get Trump

they are lining up to take his spot

I get it, Attornery General Garland. If the Jan 6 committee won’t operate next term in Congress to harass and hobble the fascist Donald Trump, then you FEDS have to step in with a Special Prosecutor.

But the horse has left the barn, Merrick, old chap. Every Republican politician from Leader McCarthy to Congresscritter-by-a-hair Lauren Boebert knows that nationalist populism — Trumpism for short — is the new game in town, nay, the only game in town. If you take out Trump there will be a dozen candidates to fill the gap in the line.

Back in the day, armies had “file closers” to keep the line of battle intact when a soldier fell to the ground. The GOP today don’t need no stinkin’ file closers. It doesn’t need to draft anyone into the front line. It’s got a whole bunch of eager volunteers.

Yeah, imagine. Back in the day Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was regarded by true ultra-MAGA insurrectionists as a Uniparty wimp. But right how he is snorting like a bull in the arena. Yeah! He’s going to keep various ultra-extremist lefty Dems — your Schiffs, your Omars, your Swalwells — off House committees. He’s going to call on DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign or face impeachment. I wonder why? Do you think that he is doing this in order to gather enough hard-right GOP House votes to get elected as House Speaker in January?

Here is Populist Politics 101 from Salena Zito: “Trump Was Always the Result of the Conservative Populist Coalition, Not the Cause.” She notes that a “Trump 2024” flag near her home has been taken down.

The Trump flag is a phenomenon I have written about for years. I have noted that it wasn't really about Trump himself. It was mostly about the conservative populist movement, using the name of its only standard-bearer to let people know they were not going anywhere.

Look, every conservative Commoner in America understands that, to their liberal friends — if they have any left — ordinary white middle-class Americans are the enemy. What do you do if you are threatened by some well-born lefty twit? You look for a leader to defend you. In 2015 that leader was Trump. Today, every GOP would-be wants to be the new Trump.

And what each eager GOP volunteer would secretly love would be for you Dems to take Trump out so that he can be the heir to Trump and not have to deal with Trump’s mean tweets.

I know this is hard for you Dems to process. I mean, you have been taught from K thru grad-school that the racist-sexist-homophobe white oppressors (yourself excluded) are the existential threat to “our democracy” and all good people agree with this and know that nothing is more important than driving these “haters” and violent extremists from the public square.

Let us leave aside the obvious point that this vile accusation has always been a lie. After all, everything in politics is a lie, including “and” and “the.” For years and years, the accusation worked. Can’t argue with success!

But now it looks like the old race canard is losing its force. Now the ordinary white middle class has found its leader. And it looks like Latino and East Asian Americans are rallying to the colors too.

And really, the whole war on the middle class and its racist-sexist-homophobia has always been a lie. The ordinary middle class is not that interested in race, not that interested in “gender,” not that interested in LGBT. It just wants to get on with living an ordinary life, in an ordinary job, with an ordinary wife in a ordinary house and ordinary children.

I say that back in the day, when Frederick the Great led a Prussia threatened by Russia, Austria and France, the Germans had enemies and had to be ready to defend themselves at a moment’s notice. He did a good job keeping his enemies at bay. But Kaiser Bill and the H-word? Not too smart.

But today?

The US is defended east and west by major oceans.

Small minorities like Jews, blacks, and gays can do their thing and nobody cares.

Anybody can become a somebody by inventing something new, or just doing a good job.

The only problem in the world is that the educated class, all over the world, is obsessed with being relevant, with being seen to be doing good. And the easiest thing to do is to conjure up some existential peril and raise an army to defeat it. That’s what anti-racism is all about. That’s what climate change is all about.

Meanwhile, the ordinary middle class just wants to get on with wiving and thriving.

And Trump came along and said: Why Not?

All you progressives and effective altruists and Allies and activists need to know. There’s a new game in town.