Weekly Mind Dump, 11/12-11/18, 2023: MAGA Victory 2024: Have You Packed Your Parachute?
This is no time for sunshine patriots.
A younger cousin of mine is shelling out serious money to obtain Italian citizenship for her and her two adult sons, third and fourth generation native-born Americans. I have friends who are petitioning for Irish citizenship based on even more distant bloodlines to the Emerald Isle. Liberals in my Trumpist region casually talk about scooting the short distance to the Canadian border to seek asylum should the day come when living in America would become intolerable. In my case, three of my family members hold Dutch passports; I would qualify for immediate relative status and the Dutch equivalent of a “green card.”
Have you packed your own parachute in the event Donald Trump returns to the White House equipped with a more robust and resilient MAGA nightmare? If not, give it some thought. The day may come sooner than you think.
In my last two essays, The GOP Plot to Take Over America and Trump Victory in 2024: The Time to Plan for ‘The Resistance’ is Now, I describe Trump’s Himmler-inspired plan to impose a Fascist dictatorship — “Project 2025” — and how we who value democracy need to start planning a vigorous nation-wide Resistance movement to counter the far-right’s plot. I’m not talking about a French-style Maquis or British-modeled Special Operations Executive — yet. But we should start a broad-ranging discussion on what form it should take, beginning with Ghandian principles, followed by a range of firmer measures.
I also quoted H. L. Mencken’s dark observation, “Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.” Should Trump return to power via the ballot box and Project 2025 put into motion, I think Mencken and I could be forgiven for our deep pessimism. After all, I’d incur a double whammy under Project 2025, as a “deep state” denizen and mainstream media spewer of “fake news.” Under MAGA 2.0, I would be among the first face-down in a ditch at a cold, bleak Stephen Miller-designed gulag camp.
Notable Americans admonish us to stay on the positive side. The NYT’s David Brooks shouts, “Democrats: You Can Chill Out Now!”, assuring us that centrism always wins out and that “dull but effective government can win, and circus politics is failing.”
Respected conservative jurist J. Michael Luttig similarly counsels us that “Yes, there is always hope, even in the midst of seeming hopelessness, and we can find that hope in the American People. The American People will never allow their democracy to fail.” He adds, “I am as certain of this as I’ve ever been of anything: Once we Americans do begin to ask these questions of ourselves, the answers will come fast. We will not fail our America. We will save our imperiled democracy from those who want for its demise.”
Luttig is a very wise man. But then there is that pesky New York Times/Siena College poll showing Biden losing to Trump in key swing states.
But, let’s say Luttig and Brooks are way off the mark and (to quote Mencken again) “on some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last” and return to the White House “a downright moron” — i.e., DJT?
We will all face a choice: 1) check our brains at the door and join MAGA; 2) oppose the MAGA regime, or leave the country; or 3) do neither and simply go with the flow, keeping your head down.
A reader of this newsletter commented yesterday:
The US Republic rests on the people of the US. If Trump manages to become President it will mean that a majority (or at least a plurality) of voters are voting for incompetence, corruption and the end of the US experiment.
The people will have spoken and as far as I’m concerned, the US, as we have known it, will be over. I’m not joining your “resistance.” I will not risk my wealth and liberty in the face of a people that could not manage to support its history and traditions.
Anyone who joins the “resistance” should not delude themselves. There will be no constitutional protections. Resisters will probably be jailed. There may be civil war as the West Coast and the East Coast resist as well.
Good luck with your resistance. I hope that it works. My choice is to stay out of the path of history.
I respect the reader’s views. I don’t know his age, but older folks might be wise to hunker down. My counterpoint, however, is that, if everybody took this stance in the past, we might all now be speaking Russian — or even German — as a second language. Let us bear in mind the declaration of another of my historical favorites, Tom Paine:
These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
The choice is yours.
"My counterpoint, however, is that, if everybody took this stance in the past, we might all now be speaking Russian — or even German — as a second language."
This is a tough call. I admire those in Ukraine resisting the Russian invasion. I would want to contribute to that fight if I lived in Ukraine. If for no other reason than the fact that I would be ashamed after the war if I didn't contribute to the fight.
But on the other side: resistance in Nazi Germany was futile. Pretty much everyone in the White Rose Society, which tried to resist the Nazis, died and their deaths were useless (except for those who later wanted to claim that there were "good Germans"). Perhaps the officers who tried to kill Hitler with a bomb might have made a difference, but we will never know. They all died horribly too. Along with their families.
The problem in Germany was that Nazi government was popular, until the Germans started losing the war.
My take is that resistance to MAGA fascism would not have much effect either. A significant portion of the voters would have supported the fascists. Sadly, an increasing number of people in the US no longer believe in republican (not the small r) democracy.