Suddenly, the mainstream media is starting to cover Trump and his minions as they should have been covered ever since January 6âas insurrectionary traitors who threaten our democracy.
Perhaps this has been kicked off by the appearance of Liz Cheneyâs new book, Oath and Honor. Cheneyâa wrong-headed âconservativeâ from tip to toeâis one of the few Republicans whose sense of disgust at Trumpâs hatefulness makes her puke at the sight of him and makes her revile her Republican fellow-travelers for capitulating to Trump worship.
Or perhaps it is just the usual media timidity finally giving way to the obvious truth. Maybe even they finally get the point that a resurrected Trump presidency will not allow them to continue their imitation âopen-mindednessâ (which is actually just the simpleminded delusion that both-sides-ism is actually objectivity). After all, Trump has recently threatened to imprison all his enemies if he ever gets the power toâand he certainly hates the real media with a white-hot passion.
In any case, the media is finally expressing Trumpâs horrific being in terms that match its maleficence. You can see the new-found willingness to speak of Trump as he really is in CNNâs interview with Cheney and in the numerous other interviews she is doing during her book tour. Do a search and many will pop up.
The New York Times recently did an overview of the fascism that will descend on America if Trump and his hand-picked lackeys get into office.
And the Atlantic is now out with a special issue called âIf Trump Winsâ that lays out the Sauronic darkness that will swallow the nation under a second Trump presidency.
Of course, as all my devoted readers know only too well, Decent America has been wise to all this since before Trump was president the first time. We came out in force to oppose him just after he became president in the great Womenâs March of January 2017. We stopped his hateful Muslim ban by pouring out to aid Muslims all across the country. Decent Americans have always seen the demon that inhabits Trumpâs disfigured, ghastly body. Indecent Americansââconservativesâ and Republicansâlook at what is manifestly a ghoul and see, on the contrary, a divinity.
So, at long last, the mainstream media is beginning to see what we decent Americans have always recognized.
The question now is, Is it too late?
Robert Kagan addressed this question in his op-ed this weekend in the Washington Post. Kaganâs analysis is difficult to dispute. The bottom line can be summarized in a few sentences. Most Americans donât pay enough attention to politics to even care where it is heading. Most Americans are taking the easy attitude that will get them put in Trump concentration camps. What passes for thought with them is something like âA pox on all their houses. What have they done for me lately? Iâll vote for whoever I feel like when I walk into the booth or I wonât vote at all because Iâm so fed up.â Most Americans just donât care.
Iâm afraid thatâs all too true. And if we Decent Americans donât make up for the apathy or antipathy of the Disconnected Americans, weâll find ourselves screwed with the rest of them. Gilead will take power, suppressing all decency and enlightened sentiments with the fist of an orange god who cares nothing for decency, enlightenment, or Gilead.
Kagan is right. It seems like it is too late to stop the coming cataclysm. Itâs not that Bidenâwho is just as obviously a decent man as Trump is obviously a malefactorâwill lose to Trump. Itâs that all the disconnected and disaffected will either sit out the election or choose niche candidates that will siphon votes away from Biden and allow Trump to claim the presidency with minority supportâjust as he did in 2016.
Only this time, the minority is much more evil than it was back then. And Trump will open the doors of hell to allow them to impose their hypocritical, Pharisaical, malicious will on the majority.
There is only one solution. When faced with overwhelming odds, the decent oppose the enemy with determination and steel. We must pour out to the polls in numbers like the sands on the seashore. We must vote only for Democrats, who are the single political force in America capable of overpowering the Trumpian hordes at the ballot box.
If we stand up and do that, we will be spared the horror of Republican malfeasance for a generation of more, because this is their final standâthe last election in which their minority status will be able to come close enough to steal the electoral college with fewer votes than the popular majority. Demographic changes alone should take care of that, but a huge loss in addition will cement their minority for a good long time.
If we do that, then the only recourse left for the despicables will be the civil war they seem to want so much.
And if they bring that upon us, we will have no choice but to beat them into submission as we did once before.
Because America, will all its faults and all its despicables, is still the last best hope of earth.