Thank you Robert for clearly defining the issues we face re our threatened democracy. These are things I am concerned about daily as the congress that is controlled by republicans has folded and let this president run uncontrolled or checked over our country. I read today we are viewed by the world as lower than Russia. Not a good thing.
Thank you for this. The line that stands out for me is: "MAGA's right-wing extremists are also relentlessly anti-constitutional." Looking ahead to this November's congressional mid-term elections, clear signs have alrady emerged pointing to another looming danger to our democracy. Trump is, once again, setting the stage for insurrrection.
A superbly written taxonomy of the most vile attributes of MAGA fanaticism that are eating away at the American substance, the strengths we count on to hold the country together. This is one of the best summations of Trump inspired anti-constitutional measures from someone who has experienced the self destruction of nations and knows the signs of decline intimately.
Excellent piece. To the extent it has a coherent ideology, MAGA seems to all about returning to the 1950s - rejecting all the changes that occurred in the US starting in circa 1960 regarding race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, the expanded role of government in trying fix serious socio-economic problems, and even decolonization and the empowering of non-Europeans.
My only quibble is that I live around a lot of Antifa-types, and most of them, despite any centrality of their organization, are authoritarian in a number of ways. Rather than frame this as them being anti-authoritarian, in many cases it's a conflict between two groups of people with authoritarian tendencies, one which reaches towards Christianity and other MAGA values, another which is a form of illiberal concerns which they see as righteous/progressive. If you disagree at all with them, they will consider you a fascist.
it flattens ani-fascist to anti-progressive, when current progressivism is often illiberal.
Although I understand your perspective, I am not in agreement. Any number of individuals might prefer authoritarians, they do not represent the main-stream of what is understood as ANTIFA thought.
Thank you for your clear thinking and your service, Mr. Adolph. Your essay offers essential perspective for the broad-based, self-organizing resistance to this corrupt, anti‑humanity, anti‑ecology, anti‑decency, and anti‑reality presidency. They claim religious motivation, but what we’re actually watching is a nihilist death cult using bad, fake‑reality‑TV dramaturgy to brainwash just enough people — and just enough members of Congress and SCOTUS — to commit an act of political piracy against the ship of state.
At this point, it seems the only nonviolent leverage democracy defenders still possess is to boycott the oligopolist funders of the cult into oblivion. Given the accelerating pace of institutional dissolution being carried out by the Trump–Vance / TV47 spectacle masquerading as governance, we may well be forced into a nationwide general strike.
We cannot allow the conditions — or the constitutional weak points — that enabled this attack to persist. We need to push these destroyers back to the margins of society while simultaneously developing new civic paradigms grounded in the reality of our interdependence with Earth’s ecology and with our global democratic allies. The path forward requires turning away from toxicity and toward cooperative regeneration.
Thank you Robert for clearly defining the issues we face re our threatened democracy. These are things I am concerned about daily as the congress that is controlled by republicans has folded and let this president run uncontrolled or checked over our country. I read today we are viewed by the world as lower than Russia. Not a good thing.
The Republicans are corrupted. The party of Lincoln is no more.
Agree 100%
Thank you for this. The line that stands out for me is: "MAGA's right-wing extremists are also relentlessly anti-constitutional." Looking ahead to this November's congressional mid-term elections, clear signs have alrady emerged pointing to another looming danger to our democracy. Trump is, once again, setting the stage for insurrrection.
We should all be concerned. Thank you Greg.
A superbly written taxonomy of the most vile attributes of MAGA fanaticism that are eating away at the American substance, the strengths we count on to hold the country together. This is one of the best summations of Trump inspired anti-constitutional measures from someone who has experienced the self destruction of nations and knows the signs of decline intimately.
Thank you Bill - much appreciated.
Excellent piece. To the extent it has a coherent ideology, MAGA seems to all about returning to the 1950s - rejecting all the changes that occurred in the US starting in circa 1960 regarding race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, the expanded role of government in trying fix serious socio-economic problems, and even decolonization and the empowering of non-Europeans.
A good point Harry - thank you
My only quibble is that I live around a lot of Antifa-types, and most of them, despite any centrality of their organization, are authoritarian in a number of ways. Rather than frame this as them being anti-authoritarian, in many cases it's a conflict between two groups of people with authoritarian tendencies, one which reaches towards Christianity and other MAGA values, another which is a form of illiberal concerns which they see as righteous/progressive. If you disagree at all with them, they will consider you a fascist.
it flattens ani-fascist to anti-progressive, when current progressivism is often illiberal.
Although I understand your perspective, I am not in agreement. Any number of individuals might prefer authoritarians, they do not represent the main-stream of what is understood as ANTIFA thought.
Thank you for your clear thinking and your service, Mr. Adolph. Your essay offers essential perspective for the broad-based, self-organizing resistance to this corrupt, anti‑humanity, anti‑ecology, anti‑decency, and anti‑reality presidency. They claim religious motivation, but what we’re actually watching is a nihilist death cult using bad, fake‑reality‑TV dramaturgy to brainwash just enough people — and just enough members of Congress and SCOTUS — to commit an act of political piracy against the ship of state.
At this point, it seems the only nonviolent leverage democracy defenders still possess is to boycott the oligopolist funders of the cult into oblivion. Given the accelerating pace of institutional dissolution being carried out by the Trump–Vance / TV47 spectacle masquerading as governance, we may well be forced into a nationwide general strike.
We cannot allow the conditions — or the constitutional weak points — that enabled this attack to persist. We need to push these destroyers back to the margins of society while simultaneously developing new civic paradigms grounded in the reality of our interdependence with Earth’s ecology and with our global democratic allies. The path forward requires turning away from toxicity and toward cooperative regeneration.
We are largely in agreement