Over at The Bulwark.com featured columnist Johnathan V. Last has posted as fine a piece of writing about Trump’s MAGA “revolutionaries” (and why we have grown so sick and tired of them) as you are likely to ever read, and much as I would like lift that whole piece of deliciousness and transport it here to Zoom for every one enjoy, fair usage rules prevent that… so the best I can do is poorly paraphrase the bulk of Last’s essay, while quoting his best and most salient observations (of which there are many) and encourage you to click over to enjoy it in its entirety.
You won’t be disappointed.
Mr. Last titles his piece “This Is Why You’re Exhausted by Politics”, which precisely describes the malaise I have found myself ensnared in as it became increasing clear last year that Donald Trump would again be the Republican nominee for President.
The author rightly points out in his opening that is the first Presidential contest in many years that is an exact repeat of the last (since Eisenhower v. Stevenson in 1956 to be precise, a much less contentious contest) and that the truncated nature of this particular primary season- due, (I would add) to Biden’s incumbency and Trump’s sense of entitlement, fundamental insecurities and constant whining about challenges to his inevitability – made it seem as if this contest was just a continuation of one long Presidential campaign marathon darkening (the following is me again) all the years from 2016 to present.
Mr. Last apparently wishes not to cloud his otherwise brilliantly lucid dissection of MAGA by bringing up their predecessors the Tea Party, but I have no such compunction, and so will add eight years to our weary toleration of this same group of jerks so (2009 – to present).
He then goes on to explain, or at least imply, that the reason so many of us trying to hold back this incessant tide of the deplorable is that we find ourselves defending the staus quo – a team many of us thought never to be a part of, while the other side imagines themselves to be donning the romantic and charismatic clock of the “revolutionary”, even if this “revolution” is dedicated not to justice but to being “a tool for minority rule and a rejection of the rule of law.”
Little romance in that.
Mr. Last then wades into the crux of this matter – the difference between real revolutionaries and this sorry bunch of hateful pretenders – and for this part only his phrases will do:
“Most revolutions are borne of dissatisfaction. Some revolutions are motivated by ethnic or religious hatreds. Every once in a while, you get a revolution propelled by a belief that something better lies on the other side. In every case, revolutions are desperate affairs because the consequences for the revolutionaries, if they lose, are dire.
The Trumpian revolution, on the other hand, seems to be the product of decadent boredom commingled with casual nihilism.
Circumstances for our revolutionaries have never been better. They are so flush that they parade on their boats. And fly upside-down flags outside of their million-dollar suburban homes. And put stickers depicting a hogtied president on their $75,000 pickup trucks. All while posting angry memes to Facebook on their $1,000 iPhones.
We are not talking about les misérables Américains.”
I would add that most successful revolutionary ultimately prevail because segments of the effected societies that might not normally side with them do so, in part, because the rebels prove their dedication precisely because they really do risk literally everything.
As Last points out, the reason MAGA/The Tea Party endures, and why we are so fu*king tired of having to battle them is that they risk little or nothing:
“Unlike normal revolutionaries, the Trumpist revolutionaries risk nothing. If their gambit succeeds, then they overturn the Constitutional order. And if it fails? They go back to their boats, and trucks, and good-paying jobs, and iPhones.
We are not talking about les misérables Américains
Mr. Last then completes his leg sweep of these idiots and jumps from the top rope:
Maybe a few hundred of them will see jail time for breaking the law. But those who merely demand that others break the law risk nothing.
What’s more, this revolution has discovered that it gets as many bites at the apple as it likes. All defeats and setback are temporary. The movement lives to fight again. They can lose a dozen times— they only have to win once more.
You can see why this revolution is so appealing. It carries the allure of the glorious struggle, without any downsides, and with as many mulligans as they want.
Trumpist revolutionaries get to tell themselves that they are part of a historic, final battle—but also that if they lose, they get to keep their normal, pampered lives. And four years from now they can try again.“
And this is the dynamic in play that our government must deal with to end the madness.
As I said at the top, if you are a part of the resistance to this “faux revolution” you should really click over and read the entire piece.
I have necessarily omitted some of Mr. Last’s good bits, and his take down of Trump’s minions is complete as it is friggin’ glorious.
Treat yourself.
Exactly! Meanwhile these evil, pampered, traitors shit on all those, who not only risked everything, but SACRIFICED EVERYTHING!!!
He does have a ray of hope.
“A revolution based on boredom and nihilism is vulnerable to boredom and nihilism. At some point the revolutionaries might simply move on to the next thing.”” like macrame”.
But I don’t think we can let the future of the country depend on that, they must be chased, charged, convicted, and imprisoned.
They need to feel the consequences imposed by the rule of law, incurred by those who challenge and try to subvert the rule of law.
Rec must read both pieces. 1 Tired and 2. Clean Up on Aisle 24..
DO NOTE at least there is little chance Trump will see 2028. Most people w Picks die wn 5 yrs of diagnosis.. and it’s all downhill from here!