Overwhelm… Overreach… Overthrown.
How Trump Is Cooking His Own Goose.
Nobody, especially Trump, knows it yet.
His fate, his downfall, and his doom is, as we speak, being set in stone. And considering the roll he is on, few will believe what I am writing here. Just as well. Best not to believe or repeat what I’m telling you. Fortunately, Trump is so full of himself and too stupid to see what he is doing to his sweet victory. He will continue to do what he’s doing — shock and awe, slash and burn, rape and pillage, a collective cattle-prod to us all — because he believes he is seriously wounding what he considers to be the “enemy from within.” You and me. But what he is actually doing, and what he doesn’t understand, is that with every drop of blood he takes from the collective liberal American soul, he is carving out a pound of his own flesh, large self-inflicted wounds, many times each day, every day, right now, at such a breathtaking pace. He is incapable of moderation — “I must not let up!” “I CANNOT LET UP!” — even though he is digging the graves of perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans as Gravedigger-in-Chief (with his Mad Enabler, the new Secretary of “Health,” who has guaranteed there will be no vaccines available for the massive and deadly bird flu that may be on its way — over 150 million chickens in the US have already been euthanized). He will, in his own fevered mind, not be interrupted. He will be cheered on by his sociopathic handlers and his sad and frightened MAGA Nation followers who know deep in their bones that they have so little time left before the Orange Man’s reign comes to a screeching end. Trump does not even understand how he is creating his own ultimate doom.
I’ve debated whether or not I should be writing this, first because I want to see no harm come to a single individual anywhere on this planet. But I also know, as do all of you, the awful truth that in these early weeks, in the very short term, we hold little or no power in our hands to put a stop to him immediately. But that doesn’t mean we should not be using all parts of the apparatus to do exactly that. Yes, I worry that he will find out too soon that he has cast the die and has sealed his own bitter fate. For he has committed the Original Sin of the megalomaniacal and the malignant Super Narcissists: He thinks he is King. He believes he has the powers of God. He has already said there will not be a need for another election. He means it.
So perhaps it’s best that the Trumpsters don’t know yet that the jig is up. Actually, they’re so high right now, they will never believe that Trump has lit the fuse to their demise — even if I showed them the physical evidence of Trump himself with the match in his hand.
It has only taken him three simple moves since Inauguration Day to get to this heady place. You have all been a witness to it. I know, it has not been easy to watch. Painful, in fact. Every day since January 20th has been filled with numerous sick and cruel actions as Trump and his henchmen have been furiously trying to dismantle our government, blow up our Democracy and crush our spirit.
They have already mostly succeeded on that last point, sensitive souls that we liberals are! We’ve never met a defeat we weren’t sure, in advance, would be handed to our sorry, sniveling, woe-is-me defeatist ass. Only a group like us would let a lame Party, which calls itself “Democratic,” time after innumerable time, snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. Future historians will never understand us.
Here are Trump’s three mistakes he’s made in creating his own demise:
1. Overwhelm.
Trump knew that, in order to pull off his coup, he would have to act fast and without mercy in order to catch the country off guard with a massive assault of illegal proclamations, firings, crazed appointments, attempts to rewrite the Constitution and the use of armed goons to round up the “illegal” Brown and Black people of this country — and to try and arrest those who impeached and indicted him! This vengeance and retribution tear he is on is unlike anything the country has ever seen. His hand-picked Supreme Court has ruled he has the legal right to break any and every law he desires. And so when a psychopath is given unlimited power to commit harm — and soon, perhaps, death — he will act like a rabid animal and seek the blood and the destruction he believes is rightfully his. No one dares get in his way. Liberals, Independents, Democrats are all paralyzed, unable to fight back. Few believed this would actually happen. And nobody has put together a plan to prepare for the onslaught. Everyone in the opposition is in a daze, their/our heads spinning, confused, disoriented, gobsmacked… OVERWHELMED. Overwhelmed with a sickening sense of dread. Overwhelmed with no one to turn to. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run. Filled with fear, your heart ready to explode. You try to calm down, to breathe, but you are feeling physically choked, can’t breathe, “why are the uniformed men pulling that family next door out of their home?!”
“Why did my child have to witness three classmates hauled out of school in chains?”
“I AM SO OVERWHELMED I CAN’T THINK STRAIGHT! WHAT DO WE DO? HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP US! I CAN’T BREATHE!!!”
2. Overreach.
A President out of control has now upset the millions of people who didn’t vote for him. He is happy about that. My guess is that he is just a little bit too happy. He has convinced himself that he won in a “landslide.” He has called it “the most epic political victory our country has ever seen.” Both of those claims are false. He won by a miniscule 1.5% over Kamala Harris, one of the smallest percentage presidential wins ever. Only 2.2 million votes separated the two candidates. Back in 2020, Biden beat Trump by over 7 million votes! In November, Trump couldn’t even get 50% of the vote in his victory. We can call it an anemic win, but it gave him all three branches of government to rule with — and he is hell-bent on ruling with might and brute force.
But I am convinced that it will not be long before this wannabe dictator overplays his hand. Trust me, there is a point where the citizenry will have seen enough. George W. Bush had a 70% approval rating after he invaded Iraq. 70% of the country supported his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Things looked bleak. But within 2 years, and after a narrow re-election win, the voters turned on him — and in the 2006 midterms, the voters took the House and Senate away from him. I believe Trump’s Overreach will face a massive backlash, even from some of his own voters. The day will come where he will have insulted enough law enforcement officers and first responders just one too many times. The day will come after his hundreds of insults hurled at the men and women in the armed forces, including those whom he calls “suckers and losers,” — the dead on the battlefield — where the volunteer members of the military and their families will have had enough.
I can’t predict what the topic will be or at what moment the majority of the country will turn on him, but I believe his Overreach will do him in. I know many of you don’t believe that because so many millions in November said that Trump is exactly what they wanted, but I’m going to go with my belief that there is such a thing as a bridge too far for most people. We won’t know until it happens. Will it be him throwing the nation back into record inflation thanks to his unnecessary trade war with its insane tariffs? Will it be his continuing disrespect of women, all women, and which of their rights he next plans to extinguish? Will it be when he debases for the last time our veterans, the FBI or the Catholic Church, or simply his giving the finger to the Rule of Law? I don’t know. But I do know most of you hope I’m right.
3. Overthrown.
And when that day arrives, it will be then that Trump will realize he may have gone too far. A big clue to his awakening might be when he sees the Joint Chiefs of Staff entering the White House with armed MPs and officers of the court. “Oops,” his miniaturized brain will say to itself. “Uhh, these guys look like they mean business. Somebody call Roy Cohn!”
The Supreme Court did issue a pretty iron-clad Get Out of Jail card for Trump last year, but they are only one-third of the government. Our military, which has already stood up to Trump in his first term, is that one part of the Executive Branch full of serious thinkers, women, Black Americans, Muslims and the occasional General with a PhD in Philosophy. The days of the Vietnam War and Colin Powell being ordered to lie to the U.N. about non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are over. The Generals these days have not been afraid to call Trump a fascist. And the United States Congress — the Senate and the House together — they write the laws, and they hold the purse. In other words, their one-third of the government holds a fuckload of power. And there are ways and means in both Houses of Congress where the minority party can throw up massive roadblocks to mitigate the damage that the majority party lusts for. So this is not “game over.” In fact, the Republicans have not even begun to see what we plan to do. They will rue the day they took us for granted. Maybe it has worked in our favor to look like a bunch of weenies. Because right now the MAGA-heads have let their guard down. We are the TRUE fighters. It is the liberals and progressives that have won all the big fights throughout American history. We won the Civil War. We got women the vote. FDR (and the Soviet Union — 25 million dead) won WWII. Civil Rights. Gay Rights. Labor Rights. Again, the big battles have all been won by us. The losers? Slaveowners. Bigots. Homophobes. Nazis. Segregationists. Anti-Education Teacher-Haters. Union-busters. Child-labor Enthusiasts. Anyone who has tried to force us to say a prayer, to go to church, to salute a flag, to post the 10 Commandments, cut our hair, wear our skirt below the knee, get on our knees and bow to authority, “Every house in zee neighborhood must be painted white!” — this and so many other things have been met with historic and epic resistance. What is it that we say? Oh yeah, “THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY!” We learn that by the time we’re 5! Autocracy has always felt like poison. And yes, even now the majority of our people will not be force fed a meal of conformity, cruelty, obedience and apathy. Those who were Overwhelmed at first, those who know an Overreach when they see one... NO King is going to be allowed to overplay his hand. We don’t know how this will happen, but we should know how this will end. We’ve seen far lesser men — and far stronger men — brought down in humiliating defeat, crumbling under the weight of what we still call Democracy. We are lucky to be living in a moment where we get to be witnesses once again to the power of the people.
What if I, and a whole bunch of others are, right now, devising a plan for all of us to Take America Back Again.
I’m up for it. How about you?
Photos by Andrew Harnik and Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
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I'm sorry, did I read that right? You're writing that our salvation will come from the Joint Chiefs of Staff marching in with a praetorian guard? Well, maybe that would happen (these days are so nutty it's reckless to say anything is impossible) but that would not be salvation. It wouldn't even be salvation for us if half the Republican caucus in both houses of Congress joined Democrats and impeached and convicted the worm. (And I will go out on a limb and say THAT is impossible.)
It wouldn't be salvation if we somehow survived the next 4 years and the Democrats got voted in, maybe with AOC at the head of the ticket, and the GOP never won another election in 30 years.
The only salvation I see is for the working class to organize and get organized and through unions and other workers-power organizations get rid of capitalism and its phony "democracy" that lets billionaires of different philosophies play chess games with our lives and our planet. Workers power! That's our salvation.
He’s already succeeded to defund, close many outlets that help people so the money 💰can be diverted to his rich donors and himself. I read that Musk has become $290 billion richer since donald reentered the White House. Yes, I’m dejected. I expect to see military tanks lining up and down the streets soon. I worked for over 40 years and retired recently hoping for a much deserved rest with peace. As I awoke once again this morning thinking about the destruction of our country, my hope now is to outlive my dogs. There will be no sanctuary for dogs in this country that is obliterating sanctuary for people.