STORM WARNING

STORM COMING

Today is Monday September 19, and there are 50 days left until the most momentous election in the lifetime of anyone reading this.

I am so glad I have changed professions from writer of dramatic fiction to non-fiction author. That’s because the past seven years have demonstrated the paucity of my imagination. Every time I think “This is so out there, it’s got to be as far out as he can get,” I know the next thing I read will demonstrate how little imagination I have.

And then there was this past weekend.

The rally in Youngstown that could not fill even half of the seats in the 7,000-seat arena.

The people there came to hear their leader, Donald Trump, offer his tribute to widdle Jimmy Vance, the guy who set up a fake opioid charity, and believes beaten women should stay married to strengthen family values. They saluted him.

However, Saturday night’s Ohio rally was not a typical Trump carnival; it was not just ridiculous - it was dangerous. His now-public embrace of the QAnon conspiracy theorists represents a new expansion not only of Trump’s cult of personality, but of his threats to sow violence. The political and legal jeopardy he is in now is such that he has decided to escalate his war against the rule of law, the American system of government, and the American people by embracing and potentially weaponizing QAnon. With many of his previous supporters in groups such as the Oath Keepers lying low after January 6, he made a show of recruiting from a movement whose members might include people willing to commit acts of violence on his behalf.

That kind of rally is not meant to gather voters. Instead, it’s meant to recruit a mob and let the rest of the country see who’s on your side if you are threatened in any way.

The rally had no shortage of dark and disturbing moments: He mocked GOP Senate nominee J.D. Vance for “kissing my ass,” called for Singapore-style executions of drug dealers and enjoyed a moment of ritualistic crowd adulation set to what sounded like the QAnon song, “Where We Go 1 We Go All.” The crowd revealed themselves for who and what they are when the majority gave the Qanon salute - a Nazi-style raised right arm with the forefinger extended to symbolize “1.”

Trump rambled for 104 minutes without interruption. As usual, the speech was disorganized, rambling and incoherent at a structural level, but not so nonsensical that it cannot be understood.

At one level, was a paean to victimization, a celebration of shared ‘”loserdom” and self-declared victimization. These people - all of whom come from Flyover Loserville - have found a community within the small boundaries of a wretched cause, now large enough to trigger a national catastrophe. We are witnessing an extremist hive that has long been in focus, but is just now starting to be seen by people who should have seen it coming seven years ago.

Seeing it now is what matters.

The rally presented a dark message of confrontation, hate, world war, civil war and political violence in a delusional dystopia and an apocalyptic hour of confrontation (“The Storm” isd coming) that is at hand because he was rejected and defeated by the American people, which his fragile ego cannot accept.

This is what has become of the farcical Trump Tower announcement of a presidential campaign that was complete with paid actors creating an “enthusiastic crowd.” This is what it has turned into over seven years: Heil Trump.

That is what we all saw. Isn’t it?

We know there will be no condemnation from GOP elected officials about the Thousand Year MAGA travesty in Youngstown Saturday night. The GOP leadership exists in a state of active collaboration with the extremists, the final end of a 70-year flirtation with extremists that now ends with the extremists in control, with a mix of obtuseness, obliviousness, weakness and denial thrown in for effect.

Last night was many things. A fascist rally. Horrifying, un-American and legitimately frightening.

There are no “good Republicans” left to put their foot down about any of this. The treason that began with Dwight Eisenhower denying George C. Marshall, the man responsible for every success he had gained in his Army career that led to him being the 1952 Republican presidential nominee, done in the name of political expediency and in the service of those he knew were the enemies of the country he had served so well, has devoured all of them.

Following Eisenhower’s example, supposed “Good Republican” Glenn Youngkin is holding rallies for extremist election denier Kari Lake’s gubernatorial campaign in Arizona.

Longtime “Good Republican” Rob Portman has endorsed Vance to succeed him in the Senate, demonstrating how little he cares for what will become of his reputation and his legacy. Vance, a pathetic man of no principle, so thirsty for Trump’s approval that when Trump crowed on Saturday night, “J. D. is kissing my ass, he wants my support so bad,” it would have been unsurprising if Vance had not gotten down on his knees and committed the act in front of the crowd.

Elise Stefanik, whose “Good Republican” card expired years ago, chitchatted with Steve Bannon on his podcast, declaring her belief in and agreement with every lie that traitor spouts.

Saturday night was a premonition, a picture of something growing and darkening, becoming more assertive as it feels more cornered and marginalized. It is dangerous. It requires breathtaking naïveté to believe that this is not exactly what it appears to be.

Believe your eyes. It is exactly what it looked like.

Trump is the cornered animal who knows he has only one way to avoid the future he has spent his life attempting to avoid.

As pathetic as this is, Republicans now act as if they think they will pull things out. Today, Mitch McConnell, who had previously told his backers that there was more likelihood of the GOP taking the House than the Senate, told his big financial backers that he now has cautious optimism Republicans will take the Senate in November.

He’s not wrong to believe such and to say so.

Despite continuing job growth and gas prices (mostly) coming down (except here in Los Angeles, where they went back up last week, halfway to the previous high), there are looming events that will have a political effect.

What exactly that effect will be in the next 50 days is not something I care to try and predict.

Despite record job growth numbers and the lowest unemployment rate since records have been kept, the U.S. economy has now shrunk for two quarters in a row. That’s recession territory.

The Federal Reserve is flirting with rate increases that risk more than a slight recession.

Housing loan rates are back to 6%, where they were before the housing crisis of 2008, and sales are slowing.

China is wobbling in its recovery from he pandemic and Europe faces an uncertain winter.

These are events over which we have no control. They have political consequences.

While President Biden’s approval numbers have gone up and the Democrats have experienced a resurgence in the polls in recent months, a “tailwind” if you will, the fact remains that a dramatic economic slowdown would give the Republicans new campaign fodder on top of problems at the border and crime, the two other major GOP campaign points.

Yes, we would like to think that most people can see these as transitory, that they pale in comparison to electing an anti-democratic, pro-authoritarian House majority and putting political fabulists who are at a minimum “fascist curious” in power in crucial states across the country, which could lead to a complete loss of what we have had now for 239 years of this constitutional democratic republic in the 2024 election.

But most people don’t have the knowledge, or the education to comprehend the importance of such knowledge.

And half our fellow citizens think achieving an authoritarian victory would be a good thing.

The only thing that’s for certain is that the next 50 days are a coin toss.

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