There's two streams of politicking going on, and only one has anything to do with Trump. There's no doubt that the Republican Party has become less and less democratic, less genuinely representative, over the last decade or so. It doesn't take too much Googling to uncover plots by Republicans to keep themselves in power in state legislatures even when the majority of voters choose Democrats for statewide office; lawsuits to throw out thousands of votes when it looks like a Democrat will win; frivolous challenges to elections only when Democrats win. Mitch McConnell and his allies have been working on turning the federal judiciary into an arm of the Republican Party for as long as he's been in office. The Republican Party has abandoned any pretense of working for the good of all Americans and his intent on using their hold on power to do two things (1) Further enrich the ultra-wealthy among them and (2) Play upon the ignorance and bigotry of a significant percentage of the electorate to turn back the clock and erase people's hard-won rights. The cabal behind Project 2025 and similar lines of thought see Trump as an easily manipulated vehicle to put their plans into action. They'd be there and pushing their agenda no matter what Republican was in office.
Trump on the other hand cares only about himself. He allies himself with the far right only insofar as it feeds his ego and grows his bank account. Everything that he does is to shine a spotlight on him. He doesn't care about this country or its people. He takes no time to educate himself about the myriad issues that he is entrusted with overseeing. He doesn't even take care to install people with the necessary expertise into positions that affect millions of people here and abroad. His picks for high ranking positions are nothing more than a "screw you" to those he perceives as "enemies within". So does all his talk about annexing other countries, exacting retribution on his political enemies, or slashing one third of the federal budget mean anything?
The statements that he's been making are dangerous. They're dangerous if he means it. These other countries aren't going to sit by idly as we try to take them over. What will that do to the system of international alliances? We just got done with an ultimately useless intervention in Afghanistan, does the country want another war? Already? What if it's just talk? On many occasions in his first term and during the last four years Trump made outrageous statements, but then, when challenged about them, he claimed he was "joking", or being sarcastic (think about the whole injecting disinfectant debacle). Is this what we want the president to be doing? Talking nonsense about serious issues? Either way he's going to be doing things that are incredibly disruptive to the country, or he's joking about doing things that are incredibly disruptive to the country. I guess joking is marginally better than carrying them out.
I've written a lot about Trumpism being a cult. Many people justified their vote for Trump as voting for economic stability, including low prices. He's already abandoned that "promise" and he isn't even in office yet. Some of his advisors are even now backing off the campaign rhetoric about deporting millions of people, "clarifying" that they're prioritizing deporting criminal illegals...which we're already doing. Not to mention expanding programs that will bring in more immigrants to fill jobs that theoretically would go to Americans. He'll break every one of his promises, but his cult will still love him.
The best that we can hope for is that his mental decline and overall incompetence, paired with Republican Congressional infighting and unseriousness, will result in a four-year gridlock.
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