Profiles in Courage (Not)

Enablers, cowards, and cynics. And a chicken.

This is the third in an accidental series on autocracy’s handmaidens. I didn’t set out to do that; it’s just that the news is making it unavoidably so.

First, we looked at the despicable role of the Supreme Court in abetting Trump’s neo-authoritarian project while trying to maintain its pose of holier-than-thou high-mindedness. Then, at the role of us ordinary Americans, on whose docile cooperation that project depends. This week, we survey a few key leaders within the Republican Party who recently have had a real opportunity to stand up and defy this far right movement, but for various self-serving reasons decided……Nahhhhhhh.

Would I prefer to finish the essay on the re-release of Stop Making Sense that I’ve had on deck for like six months? Yes. So, friends, please fix our fucking democracy so I can chill out.

The Party’s Over

Remember when Donald Trump was a parvenu in the Republican Party, widely criticized by its mandarins as unfit for office, not a “real conservative,” and an electoral disaster waiting to happen?

He now owns the Republican National Committee lock, stock, and barrel. (Look for it on the Trump Organization website, next to the steaks, bottled water, Chinese-made neckties, and worthless university…