Hispanic Fanatic

One of the problems America faces is the incredulity of our citizens. Even a year into round two of Dystopia Kingdom, many of us still refuse to believe Trump is as bad as he seems. There is no way the country elected a corrupt, bigoted madman for the second time, right? He’s just playing 3D chess when he blubbers incoherently, institutes overtly racist policies, and threatens to invade allies. Yup.

But the truth is that the insanity and neo-fascism are on full display, all the time. You don’t have to dig for this.

Even when disturbing facts are pointed out, however, Americans launch into denial. Before the last presidential election, voters in focus groups were informed about the Republican agenda. When they heard “accurate descriptions of real GOP proposals, the truth struck those voters as so cartoonishly evil that they found the charge implausible.”

For example, it might strike you as unbelievable that that “with increasing momentum, voices on the Christian right are preaching that empathy has become a vice.” This is indeed confusing, because as many theologians have pointed out, empathy is “the whole message of Jesus.”

And if conservative Christians no longer agree with Christ, who are they following?

More and more, it looks like Hitler.

I know, it’s bad form to compare one’s political opponent to der fuhrer, and certainly most Christians, even the right-wing ones, are not fond of the guy.

But “a growing constituency on the right wants America to unlearn the lessons of World War II,” and MAGA influencers are actively working to rehabilitate Hitler as a misunderstood dude who may have been correct about a few things.

Consider also that “neo-Nazi voices are becoming more obvious in the MAGA party.” We’re talking about “hardline pro-Trump factions of Young Republican groups” that text each other witticisms about “slavery, rape, gas chambers, and torturing their opponents” while expressing “admiration for Adolf Hitler.” We’re also talking about White House nominees for high-ranking positions who proudly say they have “a Nazi streak.”

That can’t be true, right?

Yeah, it is.

But one can argue that the infiltration of sociopathic Christians and self-proclaimed Nazis is a relatively minor contingent of the MAGA base. I’ll grant that the Republican Party is not awash in Hitler-loving goose-steppers (even though anything above zero percent should be cause for alarm). I will insist, however, that the people at the top are, how to say this politely… fucking morons.

You see, Trump “has attracted acolytes by being the patron saint of the third string, gathering people who seem to feel, for various reasons, that they were iced out of national politics” or dissed by so-called elitists, who tend to value absurd concepts like experience, intelligence, creativity, competence, and basic decency.

The Trump Administration is an obnoxious gaggle of “crude people displaying their incompetence as they flail about in jobs—including the presidency—for which they are not qualified.” They are “people who in a better time would never have been allowed near the government of the United States,” and have provoked the “collapse of a superpower into a regime of bullies and mean girls and comic-book guys.” 

You might ask why Americans keep “electing a class of public officials who seem to be all id” and who are “driven by grievance and a continual, unfocused sense of injury.”

It’s because hardcore Trump supporters are angry Americans who “want to bring others down to what they think is their own underappreciated station and identify scapegoats to bear the blame for their misfortunes, real or imagined.” These furious conservatives “see politics as a way to get even with almost everyone outside of their immediate circle,” but the “juvenility and coarseness among both the Trump elite and its most loyal supporters” doesn’t translate into meaningful change or innovative solutions. You won’t get that from cackling jerks who “treat grave issues of national and even global importance as little more than raw material for mean-spirited jokes and obscene memes.”

Indeed, it remains “wildly ironic that MAGAs now have control of the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court, and yet they still manage to feel themselves oppressed, still picture the world as unfair, still rage against a machine they’ve made and are part of.”

As touchy-feely liberals have pointed out, MAGA is a perpetually torch-wielding mob, and “the only time they do show anything resembling joy is to reflect the arrogant, self-satisfied sneer of their leader; almost always in the face of someone else’s heartache or misfortune, almost always when someone else loses something,” and the “only happiness they seem capable of manufacturing is in response to pain.”

And since they are striving only to inflict punishment on others, and not make anyone’s lives better or improve America is any significant way, there is no end goal. There is no point where they can claim success, because there will always be another freak to attack, another culture war to ignite, another deviant who just doesn’t conform. 

They have found out, and the rest of us now realize, that getting all that power doesn’t make their misery go away.

Here’s a trivia question for you:

What’s the opposite of myopia?

Yes, it’s hyperopia. You have heard of the former because it’s more common, but hyperopia (i.e., farsightedness) is a real thing. People with either of these conditions just don’t see very well.

These terms are a nifty metaphor for our political situation, which is somewhere between authoritarian-leaning and full-blast oligarchy. We can’t be sure because we are living it, and people are notoriously bad at identifying the eras in which they exist. We need the perspective of time.

For example, baby boomers weren’t nostalgic for the 1950s while they were kids. It was only when they hit middle age that they proclaimed that those were the days and insisted on dragging the country back to this mythical decade that was vastly overrated, never mind the consequences.

So while it is perfectly obvious that the America of 2025 is a shitshow, it is unclear how much of a catastrophe we are enduring. We will have a better answer circa 2050, if the nation survives until then.

The effects of myopia and hyperopia exist on a political scale. People who are too close or too far from a situation often have a skewed perspective.

Consider the Y2K bug, that wacky relic of the Clinton years. I’m old enough to remember computer scientists who insisted civilization would collapse. They knew all the risks and potential for disaster, so they focused on that. At the other end of the spectrum, people who thought the fledgling internet was a fad and didn’t know the first thing about technology were busy stockpiling canned goods for their underground bunker. They didn’t understand how any of this worked, so they freaked out.

One set was myopic, and the other was hyperopic.

You can see the same results with the Iraq War, when experts smugly asserted that Saddam Hussien had weapons of mass destruction, while people who couldn’t identify Canada on a map yelled, “Invade somebody now.” Yeah, they were both wrong.

There are other examples throughout human history, and in our current maelstrom of misery, it is difficult to figure out who is overreacting and who is way too chill about all this.

Experts on fascism are fleeing the country. Are they too close to the situation or spot on in their analysis?

People who have no idea how tariffs work are saying everything will all be ok. Could this blasé attitude possibly be correct, or is their ignorance not just reprehensible but dangerous?

Is the right path somewhere in between, a concoction of justified anxiety mixed with Zen-like hope?

Again, we don’t know.

I will say, however, that my theory is not perfect. You know all those experts who said Covid-19 would kill a million Americans? They were criticized and ridiculed, but yeah, they were right.

Sometimes, the alarmists are absolutely correct.

If you voted for Trump because you wanted egg prices to go down, you are no doubt disappointed (which is just as well, because this was an idiotic reason).

But if you voted for Trump because you wanted to live in a police state where power-drunk government officials can grab somebody off the street at their whim, whisk him out of the country without allowing him to plead his case, throw him into a hellhole to rot, refuse to explain what crime he broke, and refuse to bring him back even after the US Supreme Court tells them to do so, then your wildest dreams have come true.

Also, you are a fascist.

Only an authoritarian could love the following developments (this list comes courtesy of NextDraft’s Dave Pell):

The sending of potentially innocent people to a gulag-like prison in El Salvador. 

The disappearing of people and due process. 

The glad-handing, jubilant Oval Office meeting with a leader who has referred to himself as “the coolest dictator” by an American president who said he’d love to send American “homegrown criminals” to a similar prison abroad. 

The ignoring of a series of court orders and the wanton flouting of a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling. 

The presidential displaying of a clearly doctored photo that makes it seem like a man sent to the CECOT terrorism confinement center by mistake was a member of a dangerous gang. 

The firing of the Justice Department lawyer who made it clear that the man’s fate was due to a clerical error. 

The sadistic photo ops from the US head of Homeland Security posing in front of CECOT prisoners.

The ceding of America’s high ground when it comes to due process and the rule of law. 

The refusal to apologize for any mistakes. 

The refusal to rectify any of those mistakes.

The celebration of cruelty.

All of this makes for a disturbingly lengthy list.

In addition, there is also the fact that government agencies are now acting like snitches, federal officials are suggesting rounding up immigrants like Amazon Prime handles packages, scientists working on life-saving breakthroughs are being detained, and people just trying to become patriotic American citizens are being arrested.

Plus, we have a president who falls for painfully obvious internet hoaxes like he’s a damn nine-year-old child.

Until recently, I thought right-wingers were against jackbooted government thugs. Clearly, their principled stance against government oppression was just as strong as their principled beliefs in freedom of speech, the US Constitution, and Jesus Christ, which is to say, all that talk was bullshit, and they believe in nothing except power.

Someone should tell those freedom-loving warriors that “if government officials can say anything, true or not, to justify their actions… what stops them from doing that to an American citizen?” In such a country, the government “can claim anything and act with impunity against anyone.”

Yes, right now, they can do it to anyone.

He’s not Hitler. More like Mussolini.

The cult of personality is the same, as is the fetishization of power. But Trump isn’t planning a genocide, at least not yet.

Should that make you feel better?

We all know that Trump is a wannabe fascist. Every journalist, political science professor, and economist knows it. Every progressive knows it. Just about every conservative — at least the honest ones — knows it.

And his base — those most ardent of his fans and followers — absolutely knows it and love him for it.

Consider that a second Trump administration would create an “imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.”

Among his goals are the following:

A deportation program, including massive detention camps, that would remove 11 million people from the country.

The deployment of the U.S. military on American soil.

The monitoring of women’s pregnancies.

The prosecution of women who violate abortion bans. 

The withholding of congressional funds at his whim.

The politicization of the Justice Department.

The gutting of the U.S. civil service.

The staffing of the executive branch with yes-men. 

A refusal to help ally countries if they are attacked.

The pardoning of every January 6 rioter.

If you look at that list and fail to see the authoritarianism, then I can’t help you.

Keep in mind that the lunacy has infected all three branches of government. Congress is shut down because Trump’s toadies refuse to let it govern. And the Supreme Court is considering “absurdist presidential immunity questions for the first time in centuries because it’s the first time we’ve had a president who was this much of a criminal and such an existential threat to democracy.”

Some will tell you that Trump has fooled millions of voters. They say he has gotten this far because so many Americans are idiotic, delusional, or tuned out. That’s true of course.

But in addition to the feeble-minded and the insane, Trump’s hardcore fans include those who know what he’s proposing and are all for it.

The fact is that “for many Americans, a turn toward authoritarianism isn’t seen as a negative.” Many Americans support the idea.

Political scientists estimate that about one-fifth of Americans are “highly disposed to authoritarianism.” Among Republicans, “support for authoritarian tendencies” is a key indicator of support for Trump. Surveys show that about one out of every seven Americans admits that Trump doesn’t respect the rule of law but still want him to be president.

If you add it all up, “roughly 40 percent of Americans tend to favor authority, obedience, and uniformity over freedom, independence and diversity.”

These numbers have led experts to conclude that “the reason Trump is doing well in the polls … is not simply that people are unfamiliar with his stated authoritarian intentions should he be inaugurated in January 2025.” The reason is that “a lot of people support those intentions.”

Indeed, when asked if his psychotic ideas would turn off voters, and why so “many Americans see such talk of dictatorship as contrary to our most cherished principles,” Trump insists, “I think a lot of people like it.”

Well, he’s finally right about something.

Some trends last longer than others.

For example, parachute pants were an instant joke and truly popular for about a week. Celebrity-owned restaurants were hot for a few years, and then we moved on. 

In contrast, classic rock had an incredible run. Whole generations grooved to the same 300 songs, until hip-hop and other genres finally vanquished the sound.

However, let me point out that Led Zeppelin still rules.

In any case, the list of fads and wacky trends that have run their course has a new entry. And that dying fad is democracy. 

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The great state of Texas is underwater, and our president thinks that desperate, devastated Americans who have lost everything — maybe even a loved one — are coming out to cheer for him.

Unfortunately, this is not a surprise, coming from the sociopath in chief.

The previous non-shocker, of course, was Trump’s pardon of the infamous Joe Arpaio.

Now, there’s not much analysis I can add to the sorry spectacle of Trump’s shady, rushed act clemency that undermines the judicial system, upends presidential tradition, and shows contempt for both the Constitution and the very concept of law and order (which is supposedly a GOP value).

Because while Republicans play their usual song and dance about being outraged but doing nothing, the rest of us wonder if this a is a test run to undermine the Russia investigation.

At the very least, we all know that this is another example of Trump’s authoritarian tactics.

It might even be an impeachable offense (a phrase that has been ascribed to Trump’s behavior so often that I have lost track of his potentially criminal actions).

Furthermore, we know that Trump’s pardon sends a clear message to bigoted cops and prejudiced government officials everywhere that there are no — as in zero — consequences for even the most xenophobic and oppressive behavior.

We also know that Arpaio isn’t just a middling bigot, but is in fact “viciously racist” on a level we haven’t seen in public officials since the Civil Rights Era.

And finally, we know that Arpaio — in addition to being a hate-filled racist and scourge to Latinos everywhere — is also an incompetent cop and flat-out evil man.

So what do I have to add to the discussion?

Nothing, really. I just want to make sure that everybody is aware of all of the above.

And if you still support Trump, think about the company you keep.

By now, you’ve seen the research that implies Trump voters were more motivated by racism than… well, by anything else when it came to casting their ballots.

We can certainly debate the root causes of Trumpism, and it’s unlikely that historians will ever agree on one concrete reason for the election of man who sounds more like an intelligible dementia sufferer than a sitting president.

Think of all the variables — from the Comey letter to Russian hacking to misogyny to American’s perpetual hero worship of celebrity. All are plausible reasons why destitute people in small towns looked at a smug billionaire with no governing experience and thought, “Hey, why not?”

But two factors seem most salient. The first is a love of authoritarianism, which many studies have pinpointed as the single most common trait of the Trump voter. People with this trait “have little tolerance for deviance. They’re highly obedient to strong leaders. They scapegoat outsiders and demand conformity to traditional norms.”

Other experts have subdivided this trait into populism, which “is a type of political rhetoric that casts a virtuous people against nefarious elites.” Populists also have a “deep mistrust of any group that claims expertise.”

However you want to define or dissect it, this all sounds like a hardcore Trump voter. Indeed, I still believe the authoritarian/populism vibe is the primary reason why we have the Orange Menace in the White House. It is also the main reason why his base continues to support him, despite the glaring lack of accomplishment in his first 100 days. They are, after all, “highly obedient to strong leaders” and don’t believe anything that experts (i.e., the mainstream media) tell them about their Great Leader’s failures.

But what about that racial thing?

Well, this recent study made the bold claim that “racial attitudes made a bigger difference in electing Trump than authoritarianism.” The study’s authors state that “we’ve never seen such a clear correspondence between vote choice and racial perceptions.”

Of course, this goes against the common refrain that Trump voters are all salt-of-the-earth types under such economic stress that they tragically fell for a con man’s bluster.

Just don’t say bigotry had anything to do with it.

Conservatives embrace this idea because it allows them to believe there is no racism in their movement (and more important, no prejudice within themselves). It also helps them in their quest to dismiss progressives as a bunch of hypersensitive whiners who play the race card nonstop.

And many liberals agree with this because they don’t want to appear to be a bunch of hypersensitive whiners who play the race card nonstop. Also, some liberals foolishly believe they can somehow win over extremists if they are just nice enough. Plus, liberals are often just wimps who don’t want to be, you know, all rude and shit by calling someone a racist.

However, a significant chunk of Trump’s supporters are indeed overt bigots. After all, those Nazis aren’t cheering for Elizabeth Warren. And our common sense tells us that many more Trump fans are, at the very least, a bit leery of ethnic minorities.

And as these studies show, the prevalence of bigotry within the Trump movement is not just anecdotal. We have statistics and everything.

“Wait a minute, you lying Latino,” says the fervent Trump supporter. “How could America have elected a black president if we’re so racist? Huh?”

I’m glad you asked. In my next post, I’ll discuss this apparent contradiction.

For now, you’ll just have to trust me when I say that there are some very good reasons.