I thought your December piece was by far the best assessment of the situation I had ever read — and I read a lot! And it still is. I agree with you completely and admire how clearly you detailed and now helpfully have re-stated your analysis and assessment. I argued in a post several months back that our democracy runs too deep, and contains multitudes of societal layers and devotees with sincerely held values and practices, for Trump to succeed in finally ‘lording’ it over our country — and our hemisphere — the way he does Mara Lago.
I’ve also been arguing in posts that his brand of authoritarianism is much more along the lines of the Cosa Nostra model than a Nazi/fascist one. And I think this matters, in part, because the vast majority of Americans are familiar with the model of a corrupt city or state ‘machine.’ This model has a long history in the U.S., and is the stuff of lore in some circles. The Don, the consiglieri (every one of his cabinet appointees, who are not area experts but just there to identify and recruit loyalists and purge anyone else), ‘made men,’ thugs, and all of the racketeering, extortion, tribute, and ‘understandings’ that go along with this. I think very few Americans look at Trump and think “OMG, he’s like Hitler!” I argue that deploying more of the critique of mafioso-style ‘machine politics’ (per the Trumps as a legatees of Roy Cohn) would help more Americans see and interpret what’s happening as something that can and must be dealt with in the ways we have always dealt with these people — and that you outline so well in your posts.
So, thanks! I will do what I can to continue to share your work and spread the insights and analysis you so clearly are spelling out.
Shouldn’t you be off somewhere running interference for the Iranian regime—you know, writing dogshit pieces arguing that they’re not killing people and, if they are, it’s actually a false flag by the U.S.?
I thought your December piece was by far the best assessment of the situation I had ever read — and I read a lot! And it still is. I agree with you completely and admire how clearly you detailed and now helpfully have re-stated your analysis and assessment. I argued in a post several months back that our democracy runs too deep, and contains multitudes of societal layers and devotees with sincerely held values and practices, for Trump to succeed in finally ‘lording’ it over our country — and our hemisphere — the way he does Mara Lago.
I’ve also been arguing in posts that his brand of authoritarianism is much more along the lines of the Cosa Nostra model than a Nazi/fascist one. And I think this matters, in part, because the vast majority of Americans are familiar with the model of a corrupt city or state ‘machine.’ This model has a long history in the U.S., and is the stuff of lore in some circles. The Don, the consiglieri (every one of his cabinet appointees, who are not area experts but just there to identify and recruit loyalists and purge anyone else), ‘made men,’ thugs, and all of the racketeering, extortion, tribute, and ‘understandings’ that go along with this. I think very few Americans look at Trump and think “OMG, he’s like Hitler!” I argue that deploying more of the critique of mafioso-style ‘machine politics’ (per the Trumps as a legatees of Roy Cohn) would help more Americans see and interpret what’s happening as something that can and must be dealt with in the ways we have always dealt with these people — and that you outline so well in your posts.
So, thanks! I will do what I can to continue to share your work and spread the insights and analysis you so clearly are spelling out.
Very interesting analogy. I think it has elements of both, but I also think the Cosa Nostra analogy captures a lot of it.
Thanks. I make this argument more completely in my Substack, Jon Thinks Out Loud . . .
I ain't reading all that. I'm happy for you tho, or sorry that happened
Shouldn’t you be off somewhere running interference for the Iranian regime—you know, writing dogshit pieces arguing that they’re not killing people and, if they are, it’s actually a false flag by the U.S.?
Shouldn't you be working on that book no one will read?