America is shedding torrents of molten sorrow, tears that burn like liquid fire, searing their way through the bedrock of its democratic ideals. These are no ordinary tears but a deluge of molten despair cascading down from the heavens, each drop a scorching testament to the unravelling of the nation’s sacred fabric. They carve deep furrows into the very foundation upon which the republic stands, leaving in their wake a landscape marred by the scars of a crumbling democracy.
These fiery tears, born of anguish and betrayal, are like molten rivers of grief, flowing inexorably through the veins of the nation, eroding the once unshakable pillars of liberty and justice. The flames of division and discord have stoked this inferno, a blaze that consumes the heart of the republic, turning the ideals of freedom and equality to ash. The land itself seems to weep as if the very earth is crying out in pain, mourning the erosion of the principles that once held it together.
The molten tears fall relentlessly, burning through the marble halls of governance, dissolving the bonds of trust and fraternity that once united the people. Each tear is a drop of molten sorrow, scalding the conscience of the nation, a harbinger of the darkness that threatens to engulf the light of democracy. The molten flow cuts through the bedrock of justice, undermining the integrity of the institutions that were built to withstand the trials of time, leaving them fractured and fragile.
As these tears continue to fall, they signal not just the erosion of democratic foundations but the transformation of the American landscape itself into a molten wasteland, where the once-solid ground of civic virtue has turned into a quagmire of despair. The nation is left trembling under the weight of its own weeping, the molten tears carving out a path of destruction that threatens to engulf all that was once cherished.
In this time of reckoning, the molten tears of America cry out for a renewal of the spirit, for a re-forging of the bonds that have been torn asunder. But until that day comes, the tears will continue to flow, burning their way through the foundations of democracy, leaving behind a nation marked by the searing pain of its own divisions.
In the gilded halls of our modern age, we find ourselves adrift in the mists of a post-truth epoch, where the once-hallowed pillars of reliable knowledge have crumbled, yielding to the fickle winds of mere opinion. Yet, even in this labyrinth of uncertainty, the discerning mind may still uncover the luminous gem of meaningful knowledge. This treasure, when beheld in its true form, is nothing less than the sacred marriage between the intellect and the object of its contemplation – a union that births understanding.
However, the light of truth shines with varying intensities, casting different kinds of shadows and illuminations upon our minds. A truth may present itself in such radiant clarity that it requires no further proof, as when we recognise the simple yet profound axiom that the whole surpasses its part. This, we grasp intuitively, as if the truth were etched into the very fabric of our being. Yet, not all truths are so easily unveiled. Some remain veiled, awaiting the careful hand of reason to draw back the curtain. These truths, though not immediately apparent, can be deduced from premises that contain their essence, leading us to what we call reasoned knowledge – a knowledge not granted at first glance but earned through the diligent exercise of logic.
There are also truths that neither reveal themselves intuitively nor yield to the probing of reason. And yet, the intellect may still find itself compelled to embrace them, not out of direct evidence, but because rejecting them would unravel other universally accepted truths, leaving the mind in disarray. This form of assent, forged in the crucible of necessity, we might call the knowledge of coherence, where truth is woven into the broader tapestry of understanding.
Lastly, there exists a kind of knowledge that stands apart from evidence, reason and necessity. It is the knowledge we accept on the authority of others – a trust placed in the voices that guide us through the fog of uncertainty. This, we name faith, and though it may seem frail compared to the sturdy foundations of other forms of knowledge, it is no less essential. For in the vast expanse of daily life, where not every truth can be scrutinised or proven, faith becomes the bridge that carries us across the chasms of doubt. But the question arises: whose knowledge do we accept on faith?
The followers of Donald Trump take whatever he says on faith, even if he fails to provide any evidence whatsoever for his assertions. His followers parrot his commentaries as if they were a new brand of sacred scripture that must be de facto accepted without question. Trump understands that if he repeats something often enough, it will be regarded as truth. His followers and acolytes carry on in the same way by using his misinformation to create chaos.
In a tempestuous eruption of his signature theatrics, Alex Jones, the fervent acolyte of Donald Trump and notorious purveyor of conspiracy, commandeered the airwaves recently with a fevered, apocalyptic tirade. His voice, quivering with both fear and a self-induced frenzy, reverberated with the kind of grim portent that has become his hallmark, as though the very words he uttered threatened to unravel the fragile fabric of reality itself. His stomach churned visibly beneath the strain of his revelation, the tension in his body betraying a man teetering on the brink of some cataclysmic outburst as if he might at any moment disgorge the bile of his darkest imaginings.
With the gravity of a prophet besieged by visions of doom, Jones proclaimed a sinister conspiracy woven by the elusive architects of the so-called deep state, those shadowy puppeteers he so often invokes. ‘I’m getting chills right now,’ he intoned, his voice heavy with a pause meant to signal the unbearable weight of the secrets he was about to divulge, a foreboding silence that hung in the air like the calm before a storm.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he continued, his voice thick with the urgency of a man on the edge of uncovering a profound and terrible truth, ‘there are Democrats all over the place saying they’re going to put us in camps – they built COVID camps just to cover.’ The words seemed to hang in the air, each syllable a brick in the nightmarish edifice he was constructing. Then, as if possessed by the very fears he conjured, Jones’s voice rose to a fevered crescendo, his eyes wide with a frantic intensity as he bellowed, ‘Do you understand they are planning this?!’ The crescendo of his warning echoed through the ether, a dire summons to the faithful, urging them to prepare for the unimaginable horrors he envisioned lurking just beyond the horizon.
In a scene heavy with the weight of unspoken dread, Alex Jones, the self-styled herald of calamity, seemed on the brink of succumbing to the tempest of emotions churning within him. His voice trembled as if struggling to contain the deluge of tears that threatened to spill, each word an arrow loosed from the quiver of desperation. ‘They’re going to do a big … cyber-attack and take us all off the air,’ he declared, his tone a curious mix of defiance and resignation, as if already bracing for the inevitable storm. The spectre of an impending disaster loomed large in his mind, a ticking clock counting down the 78 days left until the election – a timeline fraught with peril and uncertainty.
Jones’s words, laden with urgency and tinged with the sour taste of fear, were not merely a cry in the wilderness but a clarion call meant to rouse his followers from their stupor. His relentless campaign to fan the flames of paranoia and unrest surged forward with renewed vigour, driven by the knowledge that the sands of time were slipping through the hourglass. As the countdown to the election ticked away, the gravity of his warnings became harder to dismiss, no matter how outlandish they might appear.
While the world may chuckle at the extremity of Jones’s declarations, there is a shadow beneath the laughter, a recognition that the forces he invokes could manifest in the cold, hard reality of a future shaped by Trump’s Republican Party. Should they seize the reins of power in the election of 2024, the fabric of American society may be stretched to its breaking point, revealing the frayed edges of a nation teetering on the precipice of an uncertain fate.
Chauncey DeVega’s Historical-Critical Warning to Americans: Journalism at its Best
This section, organised in a peripatetic jump-cut style, seeks to crystallise the haunting admonition that Chauncey DeVega so eloquently delivers in a recent piece for Salon entitled ‘Trump’s Sinister Plot to Avoid Another January 6th.’ DeVega, a skilled researcher and masterful weaver of political insight, and one of the most reliable and honest journalists covering contemporary politics today, warns us that the ominous spectre of January 6th, a day when the pulse of American democracy nearly faltered, still lingers in the air like a storm that has yet to fully unleash its fury. On that fateful day, the very heart of the nation trembled on the edge of oblivion as Trump’s unwavering devotees, a frenzied throng of zealots, stormed the hallowed halls of the Capitol, driven by a feverish loyalty that knows no bounds.
It was in that dire moment, when the republic teetered on the brink, that the true heroes emerged from the shadows. The Capitol’s defenders – stalwart police and law enforcement officers – stood as an impenetrable bulwark against the onslaught, their courage shining like a beacon in the gathering darkness. DeVega beckons us to honour their bravery, which stood shoulder to shoulder with the sharp and unwavering resolve of the Senate aides. These unsung guardians of democracy, with hands steady as the very foundations of the nation shook, safeguarded the precious Electoral College ballots, ensuring that the fragile thread of governance did not unravel into chaos.
The nation teetered on the cusp of a coup d’état, a perilous dance with the forces of tyranny that, though not as overtly violent as the siege of President Allende in La Moneda Palace, was nonetheless a very real and menacing threat to the democratic order. DeVega’s warning echoes through the corridors of time, reminding us that the danger has not passed, that the seeds of insurrection, sown on that dark day, still lie in wait beneath the surface, ready to sprout anew if vigilance falters.
In this dire moment, remarks DeVega, Vice President Mike Pence, with an uncanny solemnity, carried out the bare minimum expected of him, certifying the results of the 2020 election. Yet, the dark ambitions of Donald Trump and the neofascist movement he emboldened, determined to unravel the multiracial fabric of American democracy, were not vanquished by this brief setback on January 6th. Their malevolent aspirations persist, shadowing the future of American democracy.
And why should they have faltered? DeVega demands an answer. How could they stumble, these ruthless sentinels of the Republican Party, the unwavering soldiers of a conservative revolution, who marshal power not just within the marbled halls of Congress but also in the sacred sanctuaries of the Supreme Court and from the murky depths of think tanks and interest groups? These architects, these conspirators of a nefarious coup, those who have wielded the purse strings of dark and secretive patrons, have yet to face the full, scorching fury of justice for the treasonous acts they have committed.
More harrowing still, reflects DeVega, is the ghastly truth that the extremist justices of the Supreme Court have all but crowned Trump and his Republican heirs as monarchs in all but name, entities towering above the law itself, now vested with the dread ‘right’ to obliterate their foes – and any citizen – with terrifying impunity. The trials that remain, the accusations, the indictments against Trump, and even the conviction in the Manhattan election interference case, teeter on the brink of oblivion, poised to be diminished to mere scribbles in the annals of unchallenged tyranny. It all hinges on the upcoming election.
DeVega does not let us forget that hundreds of zealous MAGA foot soldiers, who stormed the Capitol in a deadly, insurrectionist frenzy on that cursed day of January 6th, have been tried and sentenced for their monstrous crimes. And yet, with a twist so cruel as to defy belief, a recent Supreme Court ruling has cast a pall of uncertainty over these verdicts, laying the groundwork for many to be reduced, or even entirely overturned, on a slender legal thread. And Trump, ever the maestro of mayhem, has sworn to pardon these MAGA insurrectionists – whom he hails as ‘heroes,’ holy warriors in his cause – should he rise once more to power in 2025. The grim echoes of history forewarn that these rebels of January 6th shall rise again, now as the enforcers of a newly emboldened Dictator Trump and his brutal reign.
Ultimately, as scholars of fascism and authoritarianism have long foreseen, a coup left unpunished is merely a prelude to the next, more ruinous attempt. DeVega affirms that this dire prediction has materialised with terrifying clarity in Donald Trump’s relentless quest to reclaim power. No longer flanked by the inexperienced who guided his 2016 campaign, Trump now surrounds himself with seasoned political tacticians who share his ominous vision of dismantling America’s multiracial democracy – a vision manifest in the chilling schemes of Project 2025, Agenda 47 and other dark designs.
DeVega writes:
The planning, recruitment and organising to achieve a blitzkrieg on American democracy from within is taking place right now. With the appointment of JD Vance as his vice-presidential nominee, Trump has cemented his connection to the most extreme antidemocratic elements in the neofascist movement.
So, what is the likelihood that Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans and their forces will succeed in their attempts to end American democracy if he and they take power in 2025? A new series of simulations by pro-democracy organisations suggest it is quite high.
DeVega cites David Rothkopf, writing at the New Republic, who shares his first-hand experience and what he learned:
This May and June, leaders from Washington’s policy, political, legal and national security communities got together to imagine what, for many of us, remains almost unthinkable: how the United States might change in the wake of a Donald Trump victory in November. The centrepiece of the effort, known as the Democracy Futures Project, was a series of five nonpartisan simulation exercises that envisioned different ways Trump and his administration might dismantle key elements of our democracy.
If there was one core conclusion from the simulations, which brought together nearly 200 experts, it was this: We had better do everything in our power to get out the vote for Kamala Harris and the Democrats in November because there is currently no effective Plan B on the horizon if Trump returns to the White House.
DeVega further cites Rothkopf on how the pro-democracy opposition was wholly unsuccessful in stopping Donald Trump and his regime’s most extreme assaults on democracy and the basic rights and freedom of the American people:
Each role-play exercise consisted of several rounds, in which the players representing the Trump team would begin by announcing their goals and the steps they intended to take to implement those goals – from rounding up millions of undocumented citizens to imprisoning their political enemies, from ordering active-duty military troops into American cities to replacing all civil servants who refused to follow their orders. Following those initial moves, players representing the pro-democracy ‘opposition’ would respond, trying to stop or influence Trump’s efforts by combating them in the courts or the media, or through state or local legislation. Players were asked to respond as they believed those in their roles would behave in real life.
The experience wasn’t reassuring. In none of the simulations was the pro-democracy opposition able to successfully reverse the overall thrust of the Trump team’s efforts, and, on the whole, democratic norms and institutions rapidly disintegrated. Defenders of democracy had some isolated successes in the courts, Congress, or at the state level, and, in some cases, Team Trump had to settle for less ambitious versions of their initial plans. Market reactions and decisions by foreign actors (both allies and adversaries) had some impact on the actions of the new administration. But, in each exercise, the basic rights and prerogatives of Americans were systematically stripped away, and the institutions of the US government gradually ceased to resemble what they have been in the past.
Indeed, one of the more disturbing conclusions of these political gaming exercises was that it is very hard to stop a ruthless president committed to stripping away people’s basic freedoms, especially if he or she is abetted by a compliant Supreme Court or a supine Congress. By installing loyalists throughout the government, firing or marginalising those who might resist change, taking advantage of the immunity granted by the Supreme Court, and acting through executive orders and presidential emergency powers, a president not bound by norms or law can launch a concerted assault on the rule of law in this country – and such an assault would be very difficult for even a dedicated, motivated opposition to counter.
DeVega reveals with sombre gravity that the revelations of the Democracy Futures Project are far from solitary voices in the wilderness. There have been other simulations – equally ominous, yet tragically overlooked or dismissed by the mainstream American media – that have reached conclusions strikingly similar, if not identical, in their forebodings. The very institutions designed as bulwarks to safeguard American democracy against the insidious grasp of a corrupt, fascist-authoritarian president and a political party that has woven itself into the very fabric of the nation’s core structures, would prove to be flimsy shields, offering but scant protection to the vulnerable populace.
DeVega urgently warns of the dire proclamations of Barton Gellman, a senior adviser at the Brennan Centre for Justice and a key participant in the Democracy Futures Project simulations. With a voice echoing with alarm, Gellman, in a recent Washington Post article, has laid bare the nightmarish scenarios that could unfold should Donald Trump and his regime bring their sinister designs to fruition. Chief among these is the terrifying prospect of mass deportations of Black and brown ‘illegal aliens’ and other so-called ‘undesirables,’ a monstrous scheme that foresees the creation of a vast concentration camp system – a dark spectre looming on the horizon, a chilling harbinger of the perilous path that lies ahead.
DeVega illustrates this using Gellman’s own words,
In two of our five games, Red overwhelmed Blue with an ‘everything, everywhere’ battle plan on many fronts at once.
One Red administration featured the firing of inspectors general, senior federal workers, special counsel Jack Smith and several generals. The IRS formed a task force to revoke the tax-exempt status of universities and think tanks that ‘spread misinformation’ about the 2020 election. The Education Department mandated that states withhold federal funding from schools that taught ‘critical race theory.’ The Labor Department prepared rules to ban diversity, equity and inclusion policies in public companies. The FBI and Justice Department opened criminal investigations of Joe Biden, his family and members of the former House committee investigating the January 6th, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. All ‘January 6th patriots’ secured pardons. The Justice Department held that the Impoundment Control Act was unconstitutional, and the president refused to spend appropriated funds for programs he disliked.
In that game, Blue and its allies struggled to respond. Career prosecutors who pushed back against spurious criminal charges, for example, were fired or chose to resign. The Red attorney general found willing replacements.
In another game, which focused on Red’s mass expulsion of migrants, including American-born children of undocumented parents, Blue expended the bulk of its energy on lawsuits that moved too slowly to match the pace of events on the ground.
DeVega comments that such a revelation should strike terror into the souls of all who comprehend the ominous lessons history has taught us – particularly when such a plan emanates from the likes of Donald Trump, a man whose very words have channelled the venomous rhetoric of Adolf Hitler. Trump has vowed to ‘cleanse’ the nation’s blood of ‘human vermin,’ a chilling declaration that foreshadows horrors too dreadful to contemplate.
DeVega introduces us to attorney Marc Elias, the visionary founder of Democracy Docket, who has tirelessly raised the alarm, warning that the Trumpists and other adversaries of American and global democracy have not relented since the dark day of January 6th. Instead, they have continued their relentless march, methodically embedding their agents in key positions within the very infrastructure of the nation’s electoral system at both county and state levels. These agents, like insidious seeds of discord, are being sown into the mechanisms designed to protect the sanctity of democracy, threatening to corrupt and dismantle it from within.
DeVega quotes from a new essay by Elias, emphasising the increasing boldness of Republicans regarding their plans to subvert the election results in 2014:
They now speak more openly about the need to control the certification process. They litigate more aggressively to be able to subvert election results. They enact new laws and rules explicitly for this purpose.
But it’s worse this election than previous ones because this year, the GOP is far more organised. They might have tried to subvert the results in a handful of places in 2020 and 2022, but this year, they will try to subvert them all, setting the stage now for what’s to come in November.
With fewer than 100 days until the election, Republicans are building an election subversion war machine.
They have sacrificed traditional get-out-the-vote activity to fund and recruit for their massive voter suppression program. They have a constellation of well-funded legal groups supplanting these efforts with unlimited money and grassroots volunteers. They are sending their lawyers into courthouses around the country to lay the groundwork for their antidemocratic plans.
DeVega cites further comments by Elias:
When Republicans couldn’t achieve what they wanted to at the county level, they went to the state level. When they couldn’t do that, they launched a fake elector scheme, which was just another way of undermining accurate certification of elections. When they couldn’t do that, they launched a series of frivolous lawsuits, and, finally, they attempted to block what happened on January 6th. The certification of the election. So, this has been on their radar screen for some time, and it will be on their radar screen for sure in 2024….
I had never seen it before 2020. The idea of tinkering with the certification at the local level was just out of bounds. That is part of the pageantry of democracy – it is what makes us great as a country … but as Donald Trump proved, the loyalty to his crimes and misdeeds is stronger than peoples’ instinct for self-preservation.’
The most damning and resonant warnings, as recounted by DeVega, come from ML Cavanaugh, a figure of considerable stature – a co-founder of the Modern War Institute at West Point and a US Army officer whose 25 years of service are steeped in honour and valour. Now retired, Cavanaugh speaks with the gravitas of one who has intimately known the stakes of warfare, explaining with stark clarity why Donald Trump constitutes an existential threat to the United States. His words echo like a tolling bell, a dire summons to the American conscience, urging vigilance against the looming peril that Trump represents – a peril not merely political but a threat to the very soul of the nation. In Cavanaugh’s words:
Over time, a bargain solidified. America permitted a professional military, not loyal to a party or a president, but to all the people through an oath to uphold the Constitution. The country even granted a certain amount of autonomy in strategic matters. In exchange, the military would remain nonpartisan. It would work to earn the nation’s trust and subordinate itself to civilian leadership. Military leaders engage in an ‘unequal dialogue’ with their civilian superiors, in scholar Eliot Cohen’s phrase. This preserves the best military advice possible while staying deferential to America’s civilian leaders. There is, of course, occasional friction between presidents and generals – well worth it to maintain this pillar of national defence.
Trump wanted to destroy that pillar. Given a second term, he probably would. In its place, he would enforce a subservience that would end the ability of America’s military to provide its best (or much of any) advice on peace and war. Trump would deploy the military as a political prop in service of his own brand, as he already tried to do. And he would reshape the military and the national security apparatus so that Trumpists would rise, and others would not. His second term would be staffed by those prepared to ‘rigorously review all general and flag officer promotions’ based on pro-Trump partisan qualifications, as described in the Project 2025 playbook.
This very same mistake was an enormous Nazi failure: Hitler broke the German generals, and so his decisions went unchecked and included some of the worst strategic moves in the history of warfare. The immediate threat of a modern commander-in-chief who favours the Nazi approach would be the inappropriate use of military force on America’s streets (and perhaps even at polling places). The longer threat for this kind of recklessness is unknowable but foreseeable: eroding remaining trust in the military, eviscerating the civilian-military balance, ending America’s centuries-long success story.
The way in which DeVega cobbled together these experts in warning the country of what a Trump victory could entail is a masterstroke of journalism.
DeVega tells us that the vision of American soldiers patrolling the streets, poised to quell their own fellow citizens beneath the iron fist of Trump’s regime, is not a fantastical product of speculative fiction or a mere cinematic dramatisation, as seen in the recent film Civil War. No, these are chilling realities that have loomed over the nation. During his presidency, Donald Trump, time and again, sought to unleash the might of the US military against protesters – those brave souls who dared to defy him – and anyone he branded as his ‘enemies.’ This harrowing chapter in American history was narrowly averted, not by the whim of fate, but, as DeVega tells us, through the unwavering courage of senior military leaders. These men and women stood resolute, their steadfast defiance forming the bulwark against Trump’s tyrannical commands, preserving the fragile thread of democracy from being severed by authoritarian ambition.
However, DeVega points out that the inevitable triumph of Donald Trump, the MAGA Republicans and the broader neofascist movement is not a foregone conclusion. Yet, DeVega proclaims that for pro-democracy Americans, the hour demands a response of unparalleled magnitude – an orchestrated resistance of such formidable strength that it may reshape the very fabric of the nation. This grand project of corporeal politics must be vast in its scope and unwavering in its resolve, encompassing peaceful yet powerful acts of defiance: monumental non-violent protests that flood the streets with the voices of the people, nationwide strikes that bring the wheels of industry to a halt, and other calculated disruptions that rattle the routine of daily life, all in response to the horror of a Trump and MAGA Republican seizure of power in 2025.
DeVega writes that civil society organisations, those bastions dedicated to the preservation of democracy, must marshal their resources and networks with precision, focusing their every effort on countering the ongoing coup that festers within the heart of the nation. These organisations must stand as sentinels against the relentless right-wing assaults on American democracy, their resolve steeled by the urgency of the hour, their actions designed to thwart the dark ambitions that threaten to plunge the country into an abyss of authoritarianism.
As a journalist, DeVega recognises that even as this struggle unfolds, the American mainstream news media continues to disappoint, persistently normalising Donald Trump, the MAGA Republicans and their insidious neofascist agenda. As an institution, the press has shown a troubling resistance to the demands of pro-democracy journalism, often faltering in its duty to stand as a bulwark against tyranny. The responsibility, therefore, falls to the viewers, listeners, readers and subscribers, those who consume the news and, by their support, sustain these media giants. It is they who must wield the power of public pressure, the force of boycotts, should the mainstream media – especially the agenda-setting titans like The New York Times and The Washington Post – continue to enable and amplify the dangerous Trump-MAGA narrative.
DeVega issues a clarion call, a thunderous appeal to the very soul of America, summoning the people to rise in overwhelming numbers and cast their votes with the force of a tempest. This is no time for timid victories or fleeting triumphs; it is a moment demanding nothing less than a resounding and decisive defeat of Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans – a repudiation so absolute that it reverberates through the annals of history, a rejection of their antidemocratic politics and the menacing shadow of American neofascism.
DeVega’s demand is unwavering: the Republican Party, now a hollow shell fully consumed by rock-ribbed extremists, conspiracy peddlers and the toxic fumes of MAGA ideology, must be dismantled. Its crumbling edifice, soaked in the bile of division and lies, must be torn down to its very foundations. From the dusty rubble, a new entity must emerge – rebuilt or perhaps entirely replaced – one that is firmly rooted in the fundamental principles of democracy, grounded in an unyielding respect for the rule of law and the sanctity of civil society.
DeVega’s message is clear: this is a fight for the very soul of the nation, a battle that must be waged with all the fervour and might that can be mustered. The time for complacency is over; the time for action is now. We must rise, vote, and reclaim our democracy before it is too late.
We are at an inflection point of existential proportions, reminding us that we cannot remain idle while Donald Trump weaves his dark promises of transforming America into a ‘unified Reich.’ Robert Reich invites us to consider this stark reality: a mere 813 US billionaires now control an astonishing $5.7 trillion in wealth, a sum that eclipses the combined fortunes of the bottom 50% of Americans. Such egregious disparity is not merely a symptom of economic imbalance; it is a signal of systemic rot, a corrosive force eating away at the very core of American democracy. The policies championed by reactionary Republicans, far from achieving their professed goal of societal stability, have yielded the opposite. Their relentless tax cuts have not brought prosperity but have instead driven the nation into a staggering $34 trillion of debt while simultaneously eroding the foundation of the middle class – the very backbone of the American dream.
In the tumultuous landscape of modern America, where the very essence of democracy hangs by a fragile thread, we find ourselves at a precipice unlike any in recent history. The looming election is not merely a contest of political ideologies but a battle for the soul of the nation. We face the spectre of a self-styled authoritarian controversialist, scruffily brazen in his intentions to trample upon democratic norms, aided by a cadre of far-right zealots who have meticulously crafted a blueprint for the dismantling of the republic. The US Supreme Court, in a move that has sent shockwaves through the very foundations of justice, has flung open the gates to an era where presidential criminality may go unchecked, a grim omen of the lawlessness that could be unleashed.
Amidst this ominous tableau, Jill Filipovic, Sami Sage and Emily Amick warn us that here lies a sinister undercurrent, a force as ancient as it is insidious: misogyny, entwined with the fetishisation of a return to a patriarchal, male-dominated culture. This yearning for a bygone era, where men ruled unchallenged and women were relegated to the shadows, is not a mere cultural oddity – it is a cornerstone of the antidemocratic movement that is surging throughout the United States. The authors report that the ‘tradwives’ (traditional wives), with their polished veneer of domestic bliss and subservience, have become the darlings of this regressive crusade, embodying an ideal that seeks to strip women of their hard-won rights and autonomy.
Filipovic, Sage and Amick remind us that this movement is not confined to the fringes. It has seeped into the mainstream, its tendrils wrapping around the hearts and minds of many, pulling them towards a vision of society that is as restrictive as it is outdated. The tradwives, and the men who champion them, are not merely symbols of a personal lifestyle choice – they are harbingers of a broader societal shift that threatens to unravel the fabric of democracy itself. If left unchecked, their influence could tip the scales towards a future where authoritarianism, bolstered by patriarchal domination, reigns supreme.
The US is facing the most important election in its history, the results of which could truly turn the US into a version of The Handmaid’s Tale, which is why we need to have faith that our journalists serving as public intellectuals can help us navigate the current corridors of truth, of reason and help us understand how they impact contemporary politics. We are at a crossroads in history, and we are fortunate to have journalists such as Chauncey DeVega, who can offer us an uncompromising vision of what awaits us as a country if we fail to prepare ourselves for the fight that is now. It is a fight that requires more than just a new political party. It demands that we confront and reverse the catastrophic effects of Citizens United, that landmark decision that has unleashed a flood of dark money, corrupting the political landscape and tilting the scales of power. Far from stabilising American society, the policies of the Republican Party have only served to deepen the chasm of inequality, plunging the nation into unprecedented debt and fanning the flames of a dangerous resurgence of fascist ideologies that the mainstream media is in danger of normalising.
In a grand display of bravado beneath the desert sun of Arizona, Donald Trump proclaimed to his fervent followers that victory in the forthcoming November election was already nestled securely within his grasp, like a jewel claimed before the battle has even begun. He thundered that defeat could only emerge from the shadows through the deceitful machinations of the Democrats: ‘Our primary focus is not to get out the vote. It’s to make sure they don’t cheat. Because we have all the votes we need.’ These bold assertions stirred the cauldron of concern, evoking spectres of past turmoil akin to the upheaval witnessed on January 6th, as whispers of election subversion once again danced through the air in this pivotal battleground state – a stage where he previously sought to overturn the tide of results with unsubstantiated claims of rampant electoral deceit and by promoting conspiracy theories asserting the election was ‘rigged.’
In the corridors of presidential power, where the whispers of past glories mingle with the dark promise of what’s to come, a figure looms – a man whose demeanour suggests the weathered grit of a truck stop hustler, long past his prime yet still hungry for the game. With eyes gleaming with a dangerous fervour, he speaks of a coming ‘bloodbath,’ a cleansing of the nation through a grand and ruthless purge.
In his grim vision, detention camps would rise like ominous monoliths across the land, where millions deemed unworthy would be corralled under the watchful gaze of his militarised enforcers. These forces would not merely guard the borders but would penetrate the very heart of the nation, ensuring that no immigrant escapes their relentless pursuit. The red states, bathed in the glow of fervent ideology, would become the vanguard of a new order, policing women’s bodies with an iron hand, hunting down those who dare to resist.
With the capriciousness of an autocrat, he would lay claim to the nation’s coffers, seizing funds that rightfully belong to the people and redirecting them as he sees fit. The very bedrock of American justice, once a hallowed institution, would quiver beneath his scrutiny, as laws are bent and twisted to serve his will. Yet, in a cruel twist of fate, those who stormed the Capitol in a treasonous fervour might find themselves forgiven, their transgressions wiped clean by the stroke of his pen, as the world looks on in disbelief.
America’s allies, once cherished partners in the global order, would be reduced to supplicants, forced to pay tribute to secure even a moment of his attention. His admiration for autocrats like Putin and Kim Jong Un would only deepen as he seeks to reshape the world in their image. The civil servants, those steady hands who have long steered the ship of state, would be cast aside like the detritus of a passing season, replaced by loyalists who echo his every command. The bastions of public health, already battered, would be left to wither, their warnings drowned out by the din of chaos.
The guardrails of democracy, painstakingly built over centuries, would be shattered under the weight of his ambitions. Should he reclaim the mantle of power, unburdened by the prospect of another election, he would be free to unleash his most unbridled impulses. In his hands, the future of the nation would hang in precarious balance, teetering on the edge of a precipice from which there may be no return. And we will be to blame for not fighting harder to stop him.
The once-proud Republican Party has become but a shadow of its former self, a hollow echo resonating with the dissonance of a tin-pot dictator’s whims. Donald Trump, a figure draped in the gaudy regalia of a self-fashioned monarch, has razed the party to the ground, stripping it of its principles, its dignity and its very soul. No longer the bastion of conservative ideals, the GOP now festers as a den of sycophants and yes-men, their spines bent and broken under the weight of a cult of personality that has poisoned the well of political discourse.
The Republican House and Senate, once hallowed halls where the fierce spirit of debate and reasoned thought reigned supreme, have become the gilded cages of toadies and supplicants. These individuals, who once swore to serve the people, have instead pledged fealty to a man whose orange-tinged visage has come to symbolise the degradation of their party. Like moths to a flame, they are drawn to his bombastic rhetoric, eager to kiss the ring of the bloviating braggart who has captivated their imaginations and shackled their consciences. They bask in the glow of his narcissism, mistaking his bluster for strength, his petulance for resolve.
This, then, is the tragic tale of the Republican Party brought to its knees by the very man who claims to have resurrected it. Not only has he shifted the Overton window in terms of what is acceptable politics, but, in truth, he has destroyed the ideological foundations of Republicanism, leaving in his wake only the smouldering ruins of a movement that once stood for something greater. It is in these ashes that the future must be forged, for there is no redemption in the twisted remnants of a party that has lost its way so completely. To save the ideals that once defined conservatism, the Republican Party must be burned to the ground.
Do we remember the harrowing theatre of American politics that existed in 2020 as it unveiled itself as a tempest of chaos and malice, where the spectre of violence loomed large, fed by the very figure sworn to uphold the sanctity of the nation’s democratic process? The winds of discord whipped through the vast expanse of Texas as a Biden/Harris campaign bus, carrying the hopes of a divided nation, was besieged by a caravan of Trump loyalists, who, like wolves in a frenzy, sought to drive their quarry off the road. The threat of death hung thick in the air, as these modern-day marauders believed they had cornered none other than Kamala Harris, poised to ascend to the highest echelons of power.
As the country watched in stunned silence, the commander of this feral pack, Donald Trump, added fuel to the fire, sharing an image of the beleaguered bus on social media, emblazoned with his gleeful proclamation, ‘I LOVE TEXAS!’ With those three words, he cast aside any pretence of statesmanship, instead embracing the role of provocateur, delighting in the chaos his words had unleashed.
But the dark undercurrent of violence did not ebb there. It coursed through the veins of the nation, finding its next target in the quiet, hallowed halls of Nancy Pelosi’s home. There, under the cover of night, a crazed zealot, consumed by the poison of extremism, shattered the peace of her sanctuary. Armed with a hammer, he delivered a brutal assault upon her 82-year-old husband, an act of savagery that echoed through the corridors of power and sent a shudder down the spine of the republic.
Yet, instead of a sombre reflection on the depths to which the political discourse had sunk, Trump responded with callous indifference, making light of the attack, his laughter a macabre accompaniment to the suffering of an elderly man. His words, dripping with disdain, seemed to sanction the unthinkable – violence against the families of those who dared oppose him.
And as if these horrors were not enough, Trump escalated his rhetoric to new, terrifying heights. In a chilling display of cruelty, he posted an image on social media that could only be described as a vision from a nightmare – Joe Biden, bound and gagged in the back of a pickup truck, a bullet hole marring his forehead, the crimson stain of violence a stark contrast against the pallor of his face. This grotesque image was not just a political statement but a sinister invitation to the darkest elements of society, a rallying cry to those who would see blood spilled in the name of ideology.
In these acts, Trump did more than merely skirt the edges of decency; he plunged headlong into the abyss, dragging the nation’s political discourse with him. The year 2020 will be remembered not just for the election that it brought but for the violence that it unleashed, a violence that was nurtured and encouraged by the very leader who was supposed to safeguard the principles of democracy. The imagery of that year remains seared into the collective consciousness – a haunting reminder of a time when the line between rhetoric and reality was not just blurred but obliterated entirely.
The Great Pretender
Trump pretends that he has been chosen by God to lead America to greatness, yet he is unable to quote a single Bible verse. He is a phony, a fraudster, a grifter and a dangerous madman who has been set loose on the country. MJ Lee writes: ‘He doesn’t have a hometown church, and a months-long examination of the congregations he had ties to throughout his life found no evidence that Trump put down permanent roots in any of them. Congregants at his childhood church in Queens say Trump might not be welcome there today. The midtown Manhattan church he attended later in life has denied that he is a member there, and the son of its famous pastor, Norman Vincent Peale, has denounced Trump.’
People frequently ask me how I envision the existence of God. Some find it strange that a man who quotes Marx can also be a Catholic (at least tries to be Catholic). Philosophers sometimes ask how I envision God and the cosmos. I have come to the conclusion, late in life, that the temporal existence of God is a reflection of the divine mystery that surpasses the limits of human comprehension, manifesting as the eternal act of pure being, where the divine essence dwells in the boundless ‘now,’ a reality unshackled from the linear confines of time. In this sublime existence, God reveals Himself not merely as the uncaused cause, the prime mover of the cosmos, but as the very fountainhead of existence, the eternal and immutable source from which all that is, and ever shall be, flows forth. In the grand expanse of being, God stands as the ultimate and indivisible unity, a presence that transcends both space and time. He is not confined by the dimensions that bind the material universe but rather exists in a realm of pure actuality – a state of absolute perfection, where potentiality is rendered obsolete, for there is nothing in God that is not fully realised. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning without beginning, the end without end – a being whose existence is self-sufficient, needing nothing outside of Himself to define or complete His essence. God, as pure being, embodies the quintessence of agency, an agency that is neither contingent nor derived but intrinsic and eternal. His will is the very engine of creation, the force that brings forth all that is from the void of non-being. Yet, this act of creation is not a momentary occurrence within the temporal stream but an eternal emanation, a continuous outpouring of divine energy that sustains the universe in every instant. In contemplating the nature of God, one must grasp the profound metaphysical truth that He is not merely a being among other beings but the very ground of all being. To speak of God is to speak of the essence of existence itself, the necessary being upon which all contingent beings depend. His existence is not a mode of being but being itself – pure, unadulterated and absolute. Thus, God is not only the uncaused cause but the ultimate source of all causality, the origin of all that is and the final end toward which all things tend. He is the eternal now, the ever-present presence that pervades all of existence, and yet remains distinct from it, transcendent and wholly other. In His divine simplicity, God encompasses all that is, all that was and all that will be, not as separate moments in time but as a singular, all-encompassing reality. In this light, to understand God is to glimpse the eternal mystery, to perceive, however dimly, the infinite depth of a being who is at once utterly transcendent and immanently present. He is the eternal act of being, the pure agency from which all creation springs and the ultimate end to which all existence is drawn – a mystery that defies full comprehension yet invites endless contemplation.
Today, we are being besieged by fanatical Christian nationalists who spend less time contemplating God, preoccupied as they are with their obsession with harnessing religion to American governance guided by a MAGA ethics. Trump welcomes them because he knows their votes are essential to winning the 2024 election. Donald Trump, a figure draped in the tattered robes of delusion, parades himself as a messianic saviour, anointed by divine providence, yet his claims ring hollow, a cacophony of blasphemous deceit echoing through the hallowed chambers of democracy. He is no chosen one, but a madman ensnared by his own delusions of grandeur, a charlatan whose silver tongue spins webs of falsehood and manipulation. His is the grift of a malignant narcissist, a dark soul who casts himself as the architect of a new era while wielding a sledgehammer to the very foundations of the republic.
In the grand masquerade of power, Trump plays the role of a demagogue, his visage a grotesque mask of piety, concealing the festering rot beneath. His every word, a venomous serpent, coils around the minds of the vulnerable, hissing promises of a golden age that will never come. He welcomes with open arms the Christian nationalists who march to his twisted tune, a legion of zealots who seek to transform the land of the free into a sanctuary for the unhinged, a dystopian realm where conspiracy theorists and QAnon fanatics reign supreme.
These followers, ensnared by the mirage of divine favour, are blind to the malevolent force that drives their leader. For Trump, the gospel is but a tool, a means to an end, wielded not for the salvation of souls but for the consolidation of power. He wraps himself in the sacred mantle of religion, not out of faith, but as a cynical ploy to draw the devout into his orbit, turning churches into echo chambers of his own egomania.
Under his influence, the once clear waters of political discourse have turned into a fetid swamp, where reason drowns, and truth is lost beneath the mire of lies. His reign threatens to reduce democracy to ashes, a burnt offering on the altar of his vanity. He is not the harbinger of salvation, but a dark conjurer of chaos, invoking the spectre of authoritarianism with each spiteful utterance.
In this unfolding tragedy, Trump is the malign star, a false prophet who leads his followers not to the Promised Land but to the brink of an abyss, where the pillars of democracy teeter precariously. The republic, once a shining beacon, now flickers under the storm clouds of his ambition, its light dimmed by the shadows of fear and division that he casts.
Trump’s legacy, should it be written in the ink of his own making, would not be one of greatness, but of ruination. It would be a chronicle of a man who, driven by an insatiable hunger for power, sought to carve his name into the annals of history, even if it meant carving through the heart of the nation itself. He is not the chosen one, but the great deceiver, a figure of ruin masquerading as a saviour, and, under his sway, the very soul of the nation trembles.
By failing to confront the many-headed hydra of MAGA in all its insidious manifestations – including its perverse entanglement with religion – we are teetering on the precipice of a cataclysm that threatens to overturn the very foundations of our democracy. The consequence of our inaction looms like a dark cloud over the republic, casting long shadows of dread across the land, where the light of reason grows dim, and the air is thick with the stench of decay.
In our reluctance to challenge this malignant force, we risk descending into a miasma of political putrefaction, a foul and fetid swamp where the ideals of liberty and justice are submerged beneath the murky waters of a cult that exalts cruelty as a virtue. This is no ordinary cult but one whose idol is a grotesque parody of leadership, a bloviating figurehead whose every utterance drips with the bile of arrogance and deceit.
This orange-tinged demagogue, this lunatic clothed in the trappings of power, demands not merely obedience but the surrender of the soul itself, for his is a god of destruction, who feeds on the fears and hatred of his followers, leading them in a perverse worship that mocks the very essence of faith and morality. In this twisted theology, cruelty becomes a sacrament and the degradation of others, a form of prayer.
The danger we face is not merely political but spiritual – a descent into a kind of collective madness, where the lines between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, are deliberately blurred by those who would reshape the nation into a grotesque reflection of their leader’s darkest impulses. The risk is that, by our silence and inaction, we allow this cult of cruelty to solidify its grip on the body politic, poisoning the wellsprings of democracy until they run dry, leaving only a barren wasteland in their place.
In this grim scenario, the republic is transformed into a theatre of the absurd, where the lunatic rants of the orange-hued idol are treated as gospel, and where the instruments of state are wielded not for the common good, but for the aggrandisement of the few at the expense of the many. The very air grows thick with the suffocating fumes of corruption and despotism, as the cult’s influence spreads like a noxious miasma, seeping into every crevice of society.
If we do not rise to challenge this monstrous perversion of democracy, we shall find ourselves drowning in the political slime of a new tyranny, one that cloaks itself in the guise of patriotism and piety while crushing the life out of the republic. The time to act is now, lest we find ourselves consigned to a future where the once-vibrant landscape of American democracy is reduced to a desolate swamp, choked by the tendrils of a cult whose god is nothing more than a madman, enthroned atop a mound of ruin.
Trump’s presence is a malign force, a shadow that stretches across continents, gnawing at the very fabric of humanity’s already fragile condition. This figure, a madman by every measure, embodies in his thirst for the accumulation of wealth the grotesque overproduction of capital, a monster that swells with wealth while millions are cast into the abyss as expendable surplus.
In the heart of this global inferno, the engine of capitalism sputters, its pistons misfiring in the face of a looming epochal crisis. The rot of neoliberalism has seeped into the bones of society, its poison eroding state legitimacy, destabilizing the political order, and cracking the foundations of elite control. The aftermath is a breeding ground for the neofascist Right, a new spectre haunting the world.
William I. Robinson warns that even as the system crumbles, transnational corporations and financial behemoths rake in record profits, a paradox where wealth balloons even as the rate of profit shrivels. Investment falters, and the once-mighty engines of capital stall, ushering in an era of chronic stagnation. The transnational capitalist class, now bloated beyond reason, finds itself drowning in riches it cannot possibly reinvest. They embark on increasingly desperate ventures, clawing at any outlet to unload their over-accumulated wealth, their actions becoming more violent, predatory, and reckless by the day. Markets, once the playground of infinite possibilities, now choke on their own excess, suffocated by the unprecedented levels of inequality that have turned the world into a pressure cooker. The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risk Report sounds the alarm – a ‘polycrisis’ looms, a tangled web of economic, political, social, and climatic disasters converging to shape a decade of unparalleled turbulence.
Yet, as Robinson maintains, the masters of this crumbling empire, driven by the insatiable hunger for capital accumulation, are blind to the solutions this epochal crisis demands. They march forward, oblivious, unable or unwilling to halt their relentless expansion, pushing the world closer to the brink of chaos. In their hands, the future is not a promise, but a threat – a violent, unpredictable storm on the horizon.
Robinson describes the phrase ‘surplus humanity’ as a hollow euphemism that barely scratches the surface of the deep, festering wounds inflicted upon billions. It is a sterile abstraction, a clinical term that cannot begin to capture the crushing weight of poverty that grinds spirits into dust, the silent march of disease that decimates without mercy, the cold terror of unemployment that leaves families adrift, or the gnawing hunger that carves bodies into shadows. Homelessness turns cities into graveyards of forgotten souls, malnutrition is the silent thief of futures, and social exclusion locks the doors of hope for entire swathes of the population. Racism and xenophobia corrode the heart of societies, while forced migration scatters lives like leaves in the wind. Incarceration traps millions in a web of dehumanization, and state violence – alongside the myriad other forms of social violence – beats down any who dare raise their voices. ‘Surplus humanity’? No. This is an ocean of misery, each wave a new horror, and billions drown daily in its depths.
One of the answers provided by the global police state for managing surplus humanity includes the expansion of mega-prison geographies. Robinson writes:
In 2023, the Salvadoran government inaugurated its draconian mega-prison, Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, the largest in the world, locking up 40,000 prisoners, virtually all of them young unemployed and impoverished. Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele enjoyed overwhelming popular support for this ‘get tough’ program of mega-imprisonment without trial. If Gaza shows us the extermination option, El Salvador provided a model of control over surplus labour based on manipulating insecurity and inducing fear in the face of crime and social violence, themselves the consequence of chronic poverty, unemployment and deprivation.
Mega prisons as a method of containing surplus humanity have spread very rapidly around the world. After the Salvadoran prison was opened, Brazil, China, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippines, and India, among other countries announced similar plans for prisons holding tens of thousands of people. Between 2016 and 2021 construction began in Turkey on no less than 121 new prisons. In Sri Lanka, the government announced in 2021 plans to build a 200-acre prison complex that would allow 100,000 people to be detained across the country – more than three times the prison population in that year. Egypt announced that year it would soon open a new prison to lock up 30,000 people. Prisons are increasing not just in scale but in geographic remoteness – the better to keep surplus labour far away from the centres of power and wealth. While there were already some 200 private for-profit prisons around the world, many of those under construction were to be ‘public-private partnerships,’ with corporations contracted to build and run prisons – for a handsome profit, of course. In Kazakhstan the government entered into such private corporate deals to build no less than 40 new prisons by 2025. Virtual cities warehousing surplus labour point to new forms of spatial control over a mass of dispossessed humanity, part of a larger movement towards authoritarian, dictatorial, and even fascist systems to legitimate and develop the global police state.
Historically, war has been the devil’s bargain that capitalism strikes to break its own chains. Wars have been the infernos that melt the iron bars of economic stagnation, providing the twisted elixir of destruction to reignite the fires of profit. They serve as smokescreens, deflecting attention from political rot, buying time for a system whose legitimacy is crumbling like ancient ruins. But now, something more insidious is at play – what we witness is the rise of a global police state, an apparatus of oppression on a scale that dwarfs the past. The limits of growth have been shattered by new technologies of death, as capitalism reinvents itself in the fires of destruction. Each new conflict becomes an engine for profit, feeding not only the arms dealers but an entire constellation of industries – engineering, construction, high-tech, energy – all bound together with the tentacles of transnational finance and investment conglomerates.
The crucible of war has served as both economic catalyst and smokescreen, propelling the capitalist juggernaut forward while diverting the gaze from simmering political tensions and legitimacy crises. Yet, a sinister evolution now unfurls with the ascendancy of the global police state – an iron-clad leviathan tightening its grip around the world’s throats. The insatiable hunger of capital seeks to transcend the natural limits of growth through the alchemy of death and destruction, birthing new technologies of annihilation to sate its voracious appetite. Each spark of conflict ignites fresh avenues for profiteering, as the endless cycle of destruction and reconstruction sends ripples through the arms industry, engineering marvels, construction behemoths, high-tech innovators, energy titans, and myriad other sectors – all ensnared within the labyrinthine embrace of transnational financial conglomerates at the heart of the global economy.
In this grotesque cycle, notes Robinson, destruction is no longer the endgame; it is a prelude to profit. Each bomb that falls is an opportunity, every shattered city a blank canvas for reconstruction and renewal, with ripple effects that grease the wheels of capitalist accumulation. The machine churns forward, leaving in its wake devastation that is systematically monetized, blood and rubble transformed into spreadsheets of growth.
But beneath this monstrous machinery lies a seething undercurrent – the global proletariat, rising up, fists clenched, from Kenya to Argentina, France to the United States, Bangladesh to Nigeria. They stand on the precipice, facing down the ruling classes and the states that serve them, eyes burning with the fire of revolt. What are the possibilities now? Can this system be reformed, or has it become too monstrous, too entrenched in its own hunger for accumulation? Can resistance from below force a restructuring of capitalism itself, redistributing wealth downward, instilling some modicum of control over the implacable march of capital?
Without radical reform, the fascist storm clouds on the horizon will not dissipate. Far-right populism will continue its insurgent march, its fires fanned by the failures of the global system. The question now is whether humanity can wrestle this beast to the ground before it devours what remains of our shared world. Whether Kamala Harris can help fight the surge in far-right populism both in the United States and beyond is unknown. But what is known is that Trump will only exacerbate these global trends.
