Toss Up
Jim VanDeHei is a founder of the news gathering organization, Axios. He has a long career in the press with the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Politico. So when VandeHei speaks, journalists listen. Yesterday, he was on MSNBC shouting from the “hilltop”. Donald Trump, ex-President, twice-impeached, currently under indictment in four jurisdictions facing ninety-one felony charges; is, as VanDeHei sees it, a “toss-up” to be the next President of the United States.
The discussion revolved around the clear trend in “Trump World” towards vengeance. Not only has the once and possible future President threatened to “round-up and incarcerate” all illegal migrants, but he is also threatening to “scrub” the executive branch for “disloyal” members. It echoes McCarthyism of the 1950’s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy challenged Americans with a “fake list” of hundreds of “known Communists” in the government. Trump threatens: ““We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections…They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream.” (I guess this means me, too!)
Trumpian View
Trump (and his “radical brain”, Steve Bannon), have coined the term in a sentence: “I am your warrior. I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your Retribution,” (ABC). Who are the “Yous” he’s referring to? They are the aggrieved followers of Trumpism, who are convinced the 2020 election was stolen. Every institution, from the Courts to the local boards of elections and education, to even the US Military (check Senator Tuberville); is undermined. There will be nothing left standing except the “Retributioner”. It sounds like a bad Marvel Comic script – let’s hope there’s a Captain America somewhere.
Every part of our government is somehow subverted by the “Deep State” (another Bannon term), even the most conservative sections like the military, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security. And then there’s the “usual suspects”: the mainstream media, and the “RINOs” who dared stand against MAGAism. They will be “scrubbed” from the government, from governing and from influence. It makes Nixon’s IRS “hit list” look like Mickey Mouse.
Doomed to Repeat
And for those who cry that Trump sounds like a 20th Century European dictator, Steven Cheung the MAGA spokesman responded: “…their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House” (couldn’t make that up, NYT). Retribution: paybacks for all of the insults, all of the “stolen” results, (even this last week in Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky) and all of the terrible, awful new freedoms for women, the LGBTQ, and those Americans who aren’t white.
Retribution is a term with a long history in authoritarian movements. Make the “commoners” the victims, and then claim the authority to gain vengeance for them. The European dictators of the mid-twentieth century all claimed to be getting “retribution” for the common man. It’s Biblical: an eye for an eye. But it’s also American. The code name for the Confederate Secret Service plot to assassinate Lincoln: “Come Retribution”. This is not a coincidence, but it’s not about the assassination of a President this time. It’s the destruction of the American Democracy.
How does Donald Trump still have voter support, much less, remain the definitive leader for the Republican nomination in 2024? How can someone who advocates so many Un-American views, still claim 40% of the American voter as his personal property? Part of it is the seduction of “victimhood”, of blaming someone else for personal ills. It is the lesson taught in high school; when we all learned about 1920’s Germany. A democratic people turned to an authoritarian to “solve” their problems. That leader too talked of “vermin”, eating away at the core of the nation.
Common Ground
But more importantly, our Nation has lost a singular sense truth. And we’ve done so, because there no longer remains a “common ground” of information. There is a world of “fact”, and a world of “alternate fact”. The 40% believe what they’re told, over and over again. And the “alternate fact” world constantly undermines the whole fabric of our National institutions. Some of the headlines leading the Fox News website today (11/14/23):
- Female athlete forced to compete and biological male
- Longtime sorority members expelled for supporting lawsuit against trans member
- Baby baptized before being forced off life support
- Biden cracks divorce joke about NHL
- Charity with focus on women’s diseases appoints transgender CEO
- Randi Weingarten gets a lesson about who is to blame for the sudden rise in home-schooling.
Surely these aren’t the most important items in the news today. But they are for Fox.
And in that world, Trump is still the once and future King.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to govern, allowing the Trump craziness to flow around him. For him, it’s not time to campaign, yet. It’s time to try to literally solve the problems of the United States, and the world. But VanDeHei isn’t wrong. The election of 2024 will be more than just a choice of policy or strategy. It’s an election about Democracy. And it remains a “near thing”.
