Wow. Quite a thorough and appropriate piece in the broadest sense, and this new world shakes every soul who has taken Democracy for granted. Damn us for that.
Personally, I did not say a prayer for DJT, and had no thought of “social pardon” or concern for the discomfiture of any segment of our financial or political elites, neither was unity on the table.
Trump is a clear and potentially overwhelming danger to the people of this Country. That was unacceptable on Jan 6, and even more unacceptable now.
He is due SS(sic) protection and participation in what we all hope will be an open and fair election, and that is all. Hard stop.
Am currently reading Greg Iles Southern Man. Story takes place in Mississippi. The third party right-wing candidate, Robert Lee White, is waying the potential benefit of assassinating Trump amidst likely race riots that are fermenting. Powerful pre-war (Civil War) plantation owning families are willing to burn their stately homes and put the blame on Blacks and generate White backlash. He hopes to get enough White votes to elect him President. Creepy.
I knew Frum couldn't get through a whole piece without bashing liberals, liberalism, and, indirectly, President Biden: "The 2024 election was already shaping up as a symbolic contest between an elderly and weakening liberalism too frail and uncertain to protect itself and an authoritarian, reactionary movement ready to burst every barrier and trash every institution." FFS. If only the GOP could turn itself back into a legitimate party so all these never-Trumpers could go back home.
I guess I did not read his remarks as "bashing", although they were unnecessary IMO. I keep asking myself in whose interest is it ultimately that the democratic party suddenly fall apart and quake fearfully when the Biden administration and a majority of them have brought good things to many Americans. The gop has been a source of disinvestment and grievance politics for so long we've all internalized the feelings of fear and resentment. These are easily awakened by the wanna be dictator "for one day"...it took hitler 3 months once he was at the helm, having worn everyone down with constant street violence, confusion, the politics of hate against fellow German citizens, propaganda...the playbook is openly being displayed by the former "president", the "heritage" foundation, and other right wing "conservative" organizations. If we don't want trump and fascism we'll have to work hard to elect democrats up and down the ballot. IMO that includes President Biden and VP Harris. To run around in mindless fear serves trump and his crowd and no one else. Let's get working to accomplish what is most important...saving democracy by stopping fascism through this election.
"Bashing" might have been too strong a word -- "dig" would have been better. But the effect is cumulative: former (?) Republicans like Frum keep telling liberals / Democrats what they're doing wrong while taking minimal responsibility for their own party. Frum was a speechwriter for Bush II, for heaven's sake. Before Trump came along, the Bush II administration was in the running for "worst in U.S. history." The pundits in general are acting panicky as pundits often do, but when the pundits are current or former Republicans it's, to put it mildly, annoying.
Agree with your assessment of pundits who were formerly "republican". I no longer believe there is a republican party. It began dying before reagan...maybe nixon began the process. The struggle is with this authoritarian/fascist version. Former republicans can't face it IMO.
I can't pinpoint a date either. Dana Milbank in his very good THE DESTRUCTIONISTS: The Twenty-Five-Year Crackup of the Republican Party dates it to the rise of Newt Gingrich, though he does look at the conditions that made Gingrich -- I cannot stop my fingers from typing "Gingrinch" -- possible. I mostly trace the beginning of the end of the GOP to Nixon's "southern strategy," which brought a horde of white Southern Democrats into the Republican Party in the mid/late '60s.
And earlier than that even! I just read Jacob Heilbrunn's recent AMERICA LAST: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators, which traces it back to H. L. Mencken and others who were enamored with Kaiser Wilhelm II. Heilbrunn's book meshes well with Rachel Maddow's PREQUEL and the Ultra podcasts. I believe that behind this "libertarian political philosophy" are the uber-wealthy and mega corporations who want no checks or balances on their economic "freedom." HCR traces that tendency back to at least the Civil War.
This was a great piece, and the conclusion resonates. Frum exhorts us to find the language to explain "…how the gunman and Trump, at their opposite ends of a bullet’s trajectory, are nonetheless joined together as common enemies of law and democracy."
This will help me frame my communications with others about the continuing danger of Trump and his followers.
Thank you, Tom, for sharing this fantastically truthful commentary with us. Every word is true. Every word expresses what I really feel. This is a commentary ever AMERICAN should read - which omits and trump's gang of fascist thugs including the Federalist Society the Heritage Foundation. If we want to continue the Representative Republic given to us by the framers of the Constitution NOW is the time to keep it.
Thanks for sharing this, TC, because it vindicates my initial reaction to this incident, something that struck me as an ugly thing in myself, something to work on. But Frum is correct in reminding us that people reap what they sow. The assault weapon idolators got yet another show that probably excited some extra fascist longings in their loins. Trump got the equivalent of a bee sting that will buy him a big bump in the polls, and a basis for more of his ninny-brained comparisons with the crucified Christ which will overshadow the real heroism of the firefighter killed protecting his family. As for the kid with the gun, described by a classmate as a pitiable daily target for bullying, he left the world attempting to "neutralize" the most iconic bully in America.
TC, thank you for reposting this by From. When he says that Fascism is a secular religion, he is so correct. (I've said this more than once in comments about MAGA, et al) This means that all the rational arguments against Trump and MAGA fall on deaf ears. It will require a "conversion' process of unknown type and trajectory---and equivalent of the great religious revivals of the late 18th and 19th centuries that transformed a nation of scattered religious commitment (especially on the frontier) to the increasingly Christian America of the 19th and 20th century. Returning to what this nation was in terms of a secular belief system focused on the Constitution, etc etc (what Robert Belah rightly called 'American Civil Religion') will require a massive wave of conversions from the fascist and rightwing evangelical belief system. (for those who recognize the name, Charles Finney, 2nd president of Oberlin College and the great revivalist of the early and mid 19th century is a good example of what I mean by a wave of conversions.......conversions for him were moral as well as specifically "religious"---Oberlin was famous for its antislavery and abolitionist commitment, among other things) How this happens is cloaked, as usual, among the mysteries of the future. What is certain that the readers of this newsletter need to be constantly engaged in action. to shape that future...........
TC, thank you for reposting this by From. When he says that Fascism is a secular religion, he is so correct. (I've said this more than once in comments about MAGA, et al) This means that all the rational arguments against Trump and MAGA fall on deaf ears. It will require a "conversion' process of unknown type and trajectory---and equivalent of the great religious revivals of the late 18th and 19th centuries that transformed a nation of scattered religious commitment (especially on the frontier) to the increasingly Christian America of the 19th and 20th century. Returning to what this nation was in terms of a secular belief system focused on the Constitution, etc etc (what Robert Belah rightly called 'American Civil Religion') will require a massive wave of conversions from the fascist and rightwing evangelical belief system. (for those who recognize the name, Charles Finney, 2nd president of Oberlin College and the great revivalist of the early and mid 19th century is a good example of what I mean by a wave of conversions.......conversions for him were moral as well as specifically "religious"---Oberlin was famous for its antislavery and abolitionist commitment, among other things) How this happens is cloaked, as usual, among the mysteries of the future. What is certain that the readers of this newsletter need to be constantly engaged in action. to shape that future...........
Wow. Quite a thorough and appropriate piece in the broadest sense, and this new world shakes every soul who has taken Democracy for granted. Damn us for that.
Personally, I did not say a prayer for DJT, and had no thought of “social pardon” or concern for the discomfiture of any segment of our financial or political elites, neither was unity on the table.
Trump is a clear and potentially overwhelming danger to the people of this Country. That was unacceptable on Jan 6, and even more unacceptable now.
He is due SS(sic) protection and participation in what we all hope will be an open and fair election, and that is all. Hard stop.
Am currently reading Greg Iles Southern Man. Story takes place in Mississippi. The third party right-wing candidate, Robert Lee White, is waying the potential benefit of assassinating Trump amidst likely race riots that are fermenting. Powerful pre-war (Civil War) plantation owning families are willing to burn their stately homes and put the blame on Blacks and generate White backlash. He hopes to get enough White votes to elect him President. Creepy.
The people who should read this, won't.
I knew Frum couldn't get through a whole piece without bashing liberals, liberalism, and, indirectly, President Biden: "The 2024 election was already shaping up as a symbolic contest between an elderly and weakening liberalism too frail and uncertain to protect itself and an authoritarian, reactionary movement ready to burst every barrier and trash every institution." FFS. If only the GOP could turn itself back into a legitimate party so all these never-Trumpers could go back home.
I guess I did not read his remarks as "bashing", although they were unnecessary IMO. I keep asking myself in whose interest is it ultimately that the democratic party suddenly fall apart and quake fearfully when the Biden administration and a majority of them have brought good things to many Americans. The gop has been a source of disinvestment and grievance politics for so long we've all internalized the feelings of fear and resentment. These are easily awakened by the wanna be dictator "for one day"...it took hitler 3 months once he was at the helm, having worn everyone down with constant street violence, confusion, the politics of hate against fellow German citizens, propaganda...the playbook is openly being displayed by the former "president", the "heritage" foundation, and other right wing "conservative" organizations. If we don't want trump and fascism we'll have to work hard to elect democrats up and down the ballot. IMO that includes President Biden and VP Harris. To run around in mindless fear serves trump and his crowd and no one else. Let's get working to accomplish what is most important...saving democracy by stopping fascism through this election.
"Bashing" might have been too strong a word -- "dig" would have been better. But the effect is cumulative: former (?) Republicans like Frum keep telling liberals / Democrats what they're doing wrong while taking minimal responsibility for their own party. Frum was a speechwriter for Bush II, for heaven's sake. Before Trump came along, the Bush II administration was in the running for "worst in U.S. history." The pundits in general are acting panicky as pundits often do, but when the pundits are current or former Republicans it's, to put it mildly, annoying.
Agree with your assessment of pundits who were formerly "republican". I no longer believe there is a republican party. It began dying before reagan...maybe nixon began the process. The struggle is with this authoritarian/fascist version. Former republicans can't face it IMO.
I can't pinpoint a date either. Dana Milbank in his very good THE DESTRUCTIONISTS: The Twenty-Five-Year Crackup of the Republican Party dates it to the rise of Newt Gingrich, though he does look at the conditions that made Gingrich -- I cannot stop my fingers from typing "Gingrinch" -- possible. I mostly trace the beginning of the end of the GOP to Nixon's "southern strategy," which brought a horde of white Southern Democrats into the Republican Party in the mid/late '60s.
I suppose HCR would date it earlier to the forces opposing FDR. Timothy Snyder describes the gop an extremist libertarian political philosophy.
And earlier than that even! I just read Jacob Heilbrunn's recent AMERICA LAST: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators, which traces it back to H. L. Mencken and others who were enamored with Kaiser Wilhelm II. Heilbrunn's book meshes well with Rachel Maddow's PREQUEL and the Ultra podcasts. I believe that behind this "libertarian political philosophy" are the uber-wealthy and mega corporations who want no checks or balances on their economic "freedom." HCR traces that tendency back to at least the Civil War.
Thank you, Susanna. I share your sentiments.
Thank you, Tom, for helping promote this excellent, spot-on piece.
This was a great piece, and the conclusion resonates. Frum exhorts us to find the language to explain "…how the gunman and Trump, at their opposite ends of a bullet’s trajectory, are nonetheless joined together as common enemies of law and democracy."
This will help me frame my communications with others about the continuing danger of Trump and his followers.
Thank you, Tom, for sharing this fantastically truthful commentary with us. Every word is true. Every word expresses what I really feel. This is a commentary ever AMERICAN should read - which omits and trump's gang of fascist thugs including the Federalist Society the Heritage Foundation. If we want to continue the Representative Republic given to us by the framers of the Constitution NOW is the time to keep it.
An excellent piece by David Frum.
Thanks for sharing this, TC, because it vindicates my initial reaction to this incident, something that struck me as an ugly thing in myself, something to work on. But Frum is correct in reminding us that people reap what they sow. The assault weapon idolators got yet another show that probably excited some extra fascist longings in their loins. Trump got the equivalent of a bee sting that will buy him a big bump in the polls, and a basis for more of his ninny-brained comparisons with the crucified Christ which will overshadow the real heroism of the firefighter killed protecting his family. As for the kid with the gun, described by a classmate as a pitiable daily target for bullying, he left the world attempting to "neutralize" the most iconic bully in America.
Very good. Another, extremely well reasoned, perspective was delivered today by A. R. Moxon. Worth reading.
https://www.the-reframe.com/gambling-in-casablanca/
TC, thank you for reposting this by From. When he says that Fascism is a secular religion, he is so correct. (I've said this more than once in comments about MAGA, et al) This means that all the rational arguments against Trump and MAGA fall on deaf ears. It will require a "conversion' process of unknown type and trajectory---and equivalent of the great religious revivals of the late 18th and 19th centuries that transformed a nation of scattered religious commitment (especially on the frontier) to the increasingly Christian America of the 19th and 20th century. Returning to what this nation was in terms of a secular belief system focused on the Constitution, etc etc (what Robert Belah rightly called 'American Civil Religion') will require a massive wave of conversions from the fascist and rightwing evangelical belief system. (for those who recognize the name, Charles Finney, 2nd president of Oberlin College and the great revivalist of the early and mid 19th century is a good example of what I mean by a wave of conversions.......conversions for him were moral as well as specifically "religious"---Oberlin was famous for its antislavery and abolitionist commitment, among other things) How this happens is cloaked, as usual, among the mysteries of the future. What is certain that the readers of this newsletter need to be constantly engaged in action. to shape that future...........
Essential to read Timothy Snyder's latest post "Political Violence." Masterful. Here is a link that I hope will work:
https://snyder.substack.com/p/political-violence?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=310897&post_id=146613647&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=19k5m&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Snyder is the author of "On Tyranny" and the forthcoming "On Freedom."
Florida judge dismisses the Trump classified documents case.
NOOOOOOOOOOO, No FUCKING NO!
TC, thank you for reposting this by From. When he says that Fascism is a secular religion, he is so correct. (I've said this more than once in comments about MAGA, et al) This means that all the rational arguments against Trump and MAGA fall on deaf ears. It will require a "conversion' process of unknown type and trajectory---and equivalent of the great religious revivals of the late 18th and 19th centuries that transformed a nation of scattered religious commitment (especially on the frontier) to the increasingly Christian America of the 19th and 20th century. Returning to what this nation was in terms of a secular belief system focused on the Constitution, etc etc (what Robert Belah rightly called 'American Civil Religion') will require a massive wave of conversions from the fascist and rightwing evangelical belief system. (for those who recognize the name, Charles Finney, 2nd president of Oberlin College and the great revivalist of the early and mid 19th century is a good example of what I mean by a wave of conversions.......conversions for him were moral as well as specifically "religious"---Oberlin was famous for its antislavery and abolitionist commitment, among other things) How this happens is cloaked, as usual, among the mysteries of the future. What is certain that the readers of this newsletter need to be constantly engaged in action. to shape that future...........
Would you please send me the post about Vance? I want to send it to a friend of mine🙏
Absolute barnburner, Tom. Awesome.
Thank you Tom.