The Brutish are Coming!! The Brutish are Coming!!
Under Donald Trump and the Republican Party life will be “Nasty, Brutish, and Short.”
Donald Trump is understood by many as a serious threat to our democratic republic. Some understand him to be the most dangerous person in America.
But what is vastly and perilously under-appreciated is that Donald Trump is also the most dangerous person in the world . . . In the WORLD.
It is time for all of us to face this daunting reality and its implications for the electoral season we are entering.
We know well that Trump has already hijacked the presidency once for his own purposes. He engaged in transparent and massively documented corruption and self-dealing. He anchored both his campaign and his presidency in seditious consorting with the world’s most notorious dictators. He activated populist mobs and militias that he employed (and continues to employ) for the purposes of intimidation and violence. He engaged in electoral subterfuge and, when that failed, the first-ever outright violent insurrection challenging the peaceful transition of power since our nation’s founding.
And all of this wile being a novice in wielding the immense power conferred upon him.
We have also seen that, in campaigning for a second term, Trump has publicly vowed to embrace even more illiberal actions and policies. He has declared his intentions . . .
To ignore and/or reinterpret the Constitution at his whim (and his corrupt SCOTUS majority seems eager to assist);
To replace the federal civil service and key officials in all federal agencies with MAGA minions (currently being recruited and trained for these purposes!);1
To dismantle the “Administrative State” — the agencies to which the Congress and President delegate authority to oversee and regulate everything from baby cribs to our air, water, land, and health care (again with the help of SCOTUS);
To eliminate the so-called “deep state” and visit retribution on those who refuse to drink his Kool-Aid;
To abrogate and oppose climate crisis funding and agreements;
To malign, oppress, and even eliminate people with identities that he and his followers find objectionable;
To abandon the Ukrainian fight for survival and self-determination;
To further abandon NATO and other allies to their own devices;
To support and even make common cause with the aspirations of murderous tyrants like like Vladimir Putin, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, and other authoritarian thugs worldwide; and
To wreak havoc on so much more of what we know as the liberal world order.
This only scratches the surface of Trump’s (and the entire Republican Party’s) now fully and publicly fledged anti-majoritarian, authoritarian agenda.
It is indisputable that:
Donald Trump, in a second term as president, would present an existential threat to our democratic republic.
Anything on the list above should be disqualifying for a presidential bid and any political party with an ounce of respect for America’s traditions and Constitution would see to that disqualification. But not this Republican Party.
Everything on that list should also be disqualifying and the focus of intense investigative reporting for a Fourth Estate that had clarity of purpose about the freedom — and its responsibilities for standing-up for that freedom — that has been explicitly accorded to it through our Nation’s founding document.
Everything on that list should be disqualifying for a vast super-majority of the American people. But . . .
Many things on that list should also be disqualifying from the point of view of the Constitution and of federal law.
But, in our nation, the law often works in mysterious ways. Apparently, “High Crimes and Misdemeanors,” committed in broad daylight with millions of witnesses and endless documentation provided by a special House Committee and many other sources, are a heavy lift for American law enforcement, especially the Department of Justice — a lift made all the more unwieldy when the “party of interest” is being supported by a majority of our highest court that seems thoroughly comfortable with high crimes and misdemeanors committed in support of an illiberal agenda.
Much of this has been relative relatively well vetted (though I will have more to say about several of these in my next post).
But, what is under-appreciated and goes largely unremarked is the danger that Trump poses beyond indiscreet affairs, both domestic and international. To whit:
Donald Trump, in a second term, would be far more dangerous to our national interests and national security than Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping.
And flowing from all of this:
Donald Trump, in a second term, would pose the most serious threat to the future of “the free world” since Adolph Hitler or the succession of autocratic leaders of the former Soviet Union.
I’ll say it again: The prospect of Donald Trump being re-elected as president is the most dangerous threat to the future of the free world since Hitler and the Soviet Stalinists.
If you think this is hyperbole, I would strongly urge you to give yourself the space to think this through a bit more — based on the evidence — a sufficient amount of which is readily available in the public domain.
Trump has said exclaimed, repeatedly, that he would use — and vastly expand — the power of the presidency to dismantle and/or commandeer international institutions, treaties, partnerships, and relations of every sort. He would blithely compromise the basis of America’s and the entire free world’s bulwarks against the hateful designs of his fellow authoritarians.
The power of the US presidency must never again be placed in the hands of Donald Trump.
It would be a tragedy of historical proportions if “We, The People” dedicated to a more perfect union did not come together, own this menacing reality, and respond appropriately.
Trump and his Republican Party must be resoundingly defeated and repudiated in the upcoming presidential election.
Life Under Trump and the Republican will be Nasty, Brutish, and Short
The 17th Century Political Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, long ago laid-out the stark landscape and consequences for people who, in the absence of strong and stable governance, are thrown into a “state of nature:”
"Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short."2
[Hobbes was admittedly arguing for a form of autocratic leadership. But he never knew democracy nor did he ever meet Donald Trump or Marjory Taylor Green.]
As a people, we have chosen and/or inherited a mission and a destiny. These are rooted in our extraordinary legacy: the legacy of free minds wanting to be free people — a state of being and an idea that has occurred only a scant few times in the known history of human kind.
Our mission, our destiny at this time in our history and in our lives is to be on the front lines of one of not just our nation’s, but of humanity’s critical struggles. To prevail in this will require that we rip away the “camo obscura” and dedicate ourselves to fight for the future of freedom — for the future of people “Yearning to Breathe Free.”
The Brutish are coming. We must make ready to meet and defeat them.
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https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/project-2025
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/nasty-brutish-and-short.html
This article puts reality right and center.
Too, too, too, too scary to even fathom.
We are re-living The Rise of the Third Reich….
The Constitution clearly states that a Seditionist may not hold office. Why is anyone entertaining the idea that he is eligible to run? Why are Democrats not jumping up and down about this 24/7? Is there anyone in charge anymore? Who enforces the Constitution?