(Trigger alert: I am in a very pessimistic mood today.)
Earlier this morning, the deranged demented madman who has a nuclear trigger following him everywhere issued his latest “warning”: Iran War Live Updates: Trump Issues Grave Threats as Hormuz Deadline Draws Closer:
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” the American president wrote, adding that he hoped “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen” to avoid the attacks. “We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”
Trump is, as usual, wrong: A whole civilization has already died: ours. It fell ill a long time ago, when plutocrats and fundamentalists schemed to take over the Republican party (not very hard to do, since it had made it clear it was for sale). They were gearing over for the final takeover in 2016, when Trump came along and stole their thunder.
Back then, he didn’t understand the powers of his office, so he placed people around him who did — but, because of that, they also understood the responsibilities of the office and were determined not to let him ruin everything.
Trump was determined not to make the same “mistake” this time around. Also, he’s older, crankier, even more vengeful, and falling to pieces mentally and physically. The one thing he did right — from his perspective — was to make sure there was no one in his way this time, no one who would tell him NO, no one who was willing to hold him to account.
That needn’t have happened. The Supreme Court, whose justices hold lifetime appointments precisely so they should not be swayed by outside pressures, let themselves be swayed by exactly that. Congress, which is supposed to be the highest branch of government, bent the knee to him. The press has never let itself speak truth to poweras l (ong as the power is a Republican; Democrats are more than fair game). Now he is openly plotting to destroy our elections. (The fact that he is so open about it, and so clumsy at it, is the one slight ray of hope that he will fail at this as he has failed at everything else.)
All of these are necessary for our civilization to function. For purely selfish reasons (the reason for everything he does), Trump has dismantled them. There is no one left to rid us of this troublesome king.
Paul Krugman shares this pessimism: Our Darkest Hour: The civilization we destroy may be our own
I don’t need to say how vile [Trump’s latest screed] is. It is shocking, although at some level, if you didn’t see this as a real possibility, then you weren’t paying attention. Not much to say here except to talk about how those of us who are not Donald Trump should behave. . . .
Damned if I know what’s going to happen. I mean, at some level, I think that the civilization that may be destroyed tonight is our own. I mean, are we civilized if we do this kind of thing? If America as a nation doesn’t stand up against this, what are we?
At last report, Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 39 percent — which is at least 35% too high. This is the real marker of a dying civilization: Not just that he is promising war crimes, not just that he wants to destroy everything we cherish, but that more than 1/3 of the country is OK with that. Or that they aren’t paying enough attention or just don’t care, scenarios which are just as bad.
Civilizations are not perpetual motion machines; they run, and continue to run, only so long as its members are active participants in it, are willing to work and perhaps even die to keep it going, are constantly on vigil for dangers outside and within.
We are watching the country slowly wake up to the dangers it has brought upon itself — but so is Trump, and he sees that awakening as a danger to himself (as well he should). For all his denials, he can read the polls, he can see the No Kings marchers, he can hear the calls to release the Epstein files. He is becoming more and more desperate as well as demented, determined to silence those voices and bury those images, no matter the cost to our civilization or the world.
Even if now, somehow, we manage to turn him from his promise of destruction, the damage he has done is already so great that I really think we may not be able to recover as a country, as a civilization.
