Jonathan Last has written a brilliant article. I’ll give you the essence of but then run over to The Triad and read the rest. America is in difficult straits right now, as we enter the final act of The Apprentice: White House Edition, which could then spin off into The Apprentice: Prison Edition. In any event, we are in the beginning of the end of Donald Trump. Or, maybe just the end of the beginning of fascism. Because one thing that is obvious and this is the tragedy of this era, the GOP seems to have latched onto fascism as the next best way to go. Again I quote David Frum, “When conservatives realize they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will abandon democracy.”
That was a dire warning in 2018 and the fact of the matter now is that the GOP is abandoning both conservatism and democracy. What Ron DeSantis talks about is not conservatism. It’s autocracy. What Mike Pence talks about is not conservatism. It’s theocracy. And whatever Vivek Ramaswamy is talking about at any given moment is pure batshit. Here’s Jonathan Last’s take:
For the uninitiated, the Kobayashi Maru is a test given at Starfleet Academy in Star Trek. In the test, cadets participate in a simulation where everything goes wrong; no matter what they choose, the simulation ends with their deaths. The point of the Kobayashi Maru is to impress on students that some games cannot be won, no matter what you do. In some situations every decision—either wise or foolish—leads to a bad outcome.
Which is where we are with the 2024 election. A couple weeks ago I sketched out a number of scenarios for 2024:
(1) A jury finds Trump guilty in the months before the general election. Trump’s support falls dramatically. Biden wins a safe re-election.
(1a) A jury finds Trump not guilty, Biden wins safely.
(2) A jury finds Trump guilty before the general election and even so, Trump wins a clean victory over Biden.
(2a) Trump is found not guilty and wins a clean election.
(3) Trump is found guilty, but the election results are contested as they were in 2020.
(3b) Trump is found not guilty, with contested results.
Of these six scenarios, all but one—Trump guilty/Biden safe win—lead to crisis.
And even that one outcome would be fraught. You saw how Republican voters and elites behaved in the aftermath of 2020. Do you think that if Trump is convicted and then loses the election these same people will say,
Well, daggum it. I guess the jury has spoken and people didn’t like us running a convict. We’ll have to try something else.
Because I do not. Instead, these people will think,
Thank God Jack Smith and Biden took care of Trump for us. Now we can complain about how unfair and corrupt they were without losing any of the MAGA mouthbreathers while we pivot to Youngkinism.
And that’s the best outcome for the best-case scenario.
We’re in a tremendous Catch-22 here. The GOP has allowed Donald Trump to run amok lo these past seven years. It could have stopped Trump on many occasions, certainly removed him from office after either one of the impeachments. Mitch McConnell, if he had it in him, could have done what Barry Goldwater did to Nixon back in the day and walked into the Oval Office and said, “Dick, you’re finished.” Goldwater had the Senate behind him. The decision that Nixon had to resign or he would be removed from office was made by the GOP. It was the only sound and moral decision to make and it was made. Goldwater was just the messenger. The party had spoken. Not today.
Nowadays, this iteration of the GOP is a bunch of jellyfish, spineless creatures who have no interest in making a moral decision, only exculpating themselves of responsibility for their own, and trying not to upset the MAGAs, who terrify them.
Trump opened a Pandora’s Box and let out the crazies. They have no respect for the rule of law, they want anarchy, they want to burn it all down and they want Trump to orchestrate it. Bread and Circus time. And the Republican party says, fine. Let us help undermine respect for the rule of law any way that we can. Sure thing.
I don’t know how we’re going to get through this. But it won’t be unscathed, that much is certain.
All of those knobs: Trump, De Santis, Pence, Ramaswamy, and other associated mischievous miscreants etc., etc., are hell bent on depriving democracy of its constitutional health, progress and opportunities. They individually and collectively don’t want democracy to be a healthy balance of being free, equitable, and fair – by the people for the people. You’re right when you say “… I don’t know how we’re going to get through this. But it won’t be unscathed, that much is certain…” but surely, with enough hand wringing, foresight, strategy and resilience the light at the end of the tunnel will be there waiting and welcoming, for all concerned – after these arseholes and the troubles they’ve caused are successfully dealt with, in due course.
Cadet James Tiberius Kirk was the only cadet to ever beat the Kobayoshi Maru by hacking into the computer and changed the outcome of the test……he was awarded a commendation for his original thinking.
As Mr. Spock said….., “There are always alternatives.”.
Let’s see if the Great Sceenwriter In The Sky throws us a plot twist — as she is known to do. :))
I’m guessing the plot twist is going to be that Trump is not on the ballot.
This was arguably the best of the Star Trek movies. Yes, sometimes no matter what the choice are all are hopeless yet it doesn’t always work out that way. I’m reminded of a section from a Stephen Coonts Book (The Intruders) where the main character has a deadly catapult problem during a night launch. The “hold back” bolt (it keeps the aircraft mated to the catapult shuttle with the engines revved up to full power) broke a split second before the cat “fired” and the jet came loose, sliding down the deck and would fall off the front of the ship & be run over by it. Ejecting was a bad proposition because it was night and the seas were really bad. “Grafton’s” BN tried it and having been a recon Marine somehow managed to land on the deck! Grafton chose to ride the A-6 and somehow got it sliding sideways and stopped just short of the front edge of the deck. They had to secure it in place before he could even climb out. Later, the squadron CO after looking at the tape decided any sane person would have taken the gamble of punching out despite the bad, deadly odds. BUT he thought great pilots/aviators have a knack for, when all is going to hell and they are going to die figure out some way, sometimes in violation of every known procedure and rule in the book to not only survive but save the plane.
So I’m not so sure things are as dark as you feel. Bad? Yup. But getting to Star Trek and that infamous test remember Kirk’s “I don’t believe in the No-Win scenario.” Take a look:
All may seem hopeless if not lost, but sometimes someone finds a way.
One thing is certain: Today is only August 30, 2023. A LOT is going to happen in the next 14 months. So we’re speculating from where we are today, but we don’t know what’s going to be revealed in the course of the legal cases. And Trump is flipping out today. He had 49 pieces up when I wrote about that, and then he’s still posting. He’s got diarrhea of the phone going today.
Well, it seems Trump is a “special” physical specimen in one regard – he’s able to sh*t (copious amounts) out of his thumbs!
I’m 77 and I’m f**king tired of cleaning up the messes these a$$holes keep leaving us. Nixon, Rayguns, Bushes….
It’s time to kick ’em to the curb and keep them there for awhile, a long while.
That’s the best idea 💡 I’ve heard of for quite some time.
Yes, all these outlooks are possible. But they are not all equally likely, nor are they equally dangerous. Plus the situation is dynamic, because the predicament of the MAGATs at the end of any of these is different and will lead to a different responses from the anti-MAGATs, including GOP voters (as distinct from politicians). So I don’t understand why we should expect to die no matter what happens.
I came across this comment by Ari Melber, an attorney as well as a journalist (The Beat, August 29), that I think eloquently illustrates my point :
“If you think about where we started, in 2016, the start of this sort of Trump era in government, in 2020 after he lost and then was linked to this insurrection and all the questions about accountability with that — so now, just these past few months, it really is reversing. And sometimes we struggle, in life, in media and news, in narrative, to adjust our premises, and our lens, and our narrative. The old narrative was, he, and they, are getting away with everything. Well, something else seems to be happening here. If you look at the mounting cries and protestations and objections, quite literally, of these Trump lawyers, you can see that they’re not pretending otherwise. Their client may post and lie and bluster, but they understand these trials are scheduled, some of them are clearly scheduled, to land before the election, some of them carry stiff jail time if convicted, and some of them are in places with facts and evidence that this defendant may find becomes a barrier not only to the white house but to his own very liberty.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF2bFqjY_V4
I don’t see a 3a, only a 3b. ??? I’m confused.
I think the writer made a typo. I didn’t catch that. I copied and pasted the whole sequence.
But you can click the hotlink and check out if something was missed. I don’t think so.
You have a sharp eye. Good for you.