Trump is not an aberration
With the latest shutdown in our rear-view mirror for a few weeks, the question remains whether the Democratic Party can even be trusted to fight against GOP policies - policies that appear to have been authored by Lex Luthor, himself. Whatever tactical feints the party makes in Congress, it must be made aware that this move has caused disillusionment among its base. Maybe Chuck Schumer is, in fact, a strategic genius - an institutionalist who’s experienced and battle-tested. But what if his understanding of the GOP is from an earlier century? What if what he just did was to floridly demand a duel with Mitch McConnell?
The leaders of the Democratic Party appear to be losing the confidence of its activists, and bad bad things can happen when this occurs. This is precisely what happened to the Grand Old Party and the plutocratic grandees who have traditionally run it. (think Mitt Romney)
The Trump/Bannon/Miller alt-right is an anarchist movement (see: the “deconstruction of the administrative state”). The fulfillment of the Reagan doctrine, “Government IS the problem” is one of its fundamental organizing principles. It’s not unlike other anarchist movements in history, but this time there is a charismatic spokesman at the top and a highly supportive GOP constituency holding sway in Congress and in most state legislatures.
The Republican leadership, having permitted the Koch Brothers to place compliant used car salesmen in the House and Senate, now looks dazed and confused as their original plot to Make America Safe for Plutocrats Again has been rewritten by Trump/Bannon/Miller to Make America the OK Corral Again. Can I get you a Koch while you think about the implications of fetishizing guns, Second Amendment solutions, defamation of the free press, endorsing state TV, requiring fealty in judicial nominations and among national security institutions, and scapegoating minorities? It’s a long and storied list.
Trump and Co. is not simply an aberration in American politics that will dissolve if Schumer wins a duel in the Senate. And it won’t go away if Robert Mueller indicts Trump for money laundering, perjury, and conspiracy; Congress might just round up the usual suspects and send them to jail for a couple of months while letting Trump resign. This anarchist movement operates outside of congressional politics, and the fear should be that at some point it will diverge from the donor plutocracy that funds it and slouch toward a fascist solution. Talk about a shutdown.
