If You Cut Off The Head Of A Snake …

Posted on by under education, Election 2024, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Robert Reich’s piece yesterday titled “When Will the GOP Reach the anti-Trump Tipping Point?” made me think.  Although Reich predicts that the GOP won’t quit Trump just yet, I think his ship is sinking and will be shades of the Titanic by November 2024.  (Note that I predicted he couldn’t possibly win in 2016 and look how wrong I was then!) While I will be happy to see the GOP disavow Trump, they won’t be disavowing the movement he started.  Maga will be, I fear, with us for a long time to come, for like a carnival, people are drawn to it and Trump was, perhaps, only the beginning. And like a carnival, the movement has attracted a fair share of snake oil salesman and carnival barkers. Trump’s arrogance, his oversized ego, and the crimes he has committed against the people of this nation will bring his reign to an end … perhaps already have.  But others have been watching, learning, observing what it was about him that drew people, and they will use their observations to fine-tune maga into something less unsavory on the surface, yet far more dangerous.

Consider, for example, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis who is largely expected to throw his hat into the presidential ring sometime in the not-too-distant future.  DeSantis is ‘trumpian’ in some ways … he knows how to rally the people … but his public demeanor is calmer, he is more literate, able to string entire sentences together, and his ego is not as glaringly obvious.  He doesn’t make ludicrous statements such as “I alone can fix the system” or “I would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!”  DeSantis does, however, indulge in ludicrous behaviour, such as his stunt sending asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.

More recently, he has launched a campaign designed to lure the anti-vax crowd, claiming he will seek a grand jury to potentially prosecute the manufacturers of COVID vaccines.  He further claims he will set up a “Public Health Integrity Committee” to oversee the medical establishment.  What could possibly go wrong when a politician without an ounce of medical knowledge attempts to outwit the experts, the scientists, and play Russian roulette with people’s lives?  DeSantis claims that “our CDC, at this point, anything they put out, you just assume at this point that it’s not worth the paper that it’s printed on,” hence the pseudo-justification for his committee.  Two of the people on his committee are authors of an open letter, the “Great Barrington Declaration”, published in October 2020, that called for achieving “herd immunity” by letting COVID spread naturally, whatever the cost for the vulnerable, rather than implementing shutdowns and lockdowns. At this point, I can only be thankful that I don’t live in Florida!

And then there’s Senator Rick Scott, also from Florida, who is one of the most abominable men on my radar, but he seems to know how to win the maga crowd’s hearts.  During Mr. Scott’s tenure as chief executive of Columbia/HCA, once the nation’s largest private for-profit health care company, the Department of Justice won 14 felony convictions against the company, which was fined $1.7 billion in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.  That, in itself, should make him a political pariah, but not among the maga crowd.  Honesty and integrity are not among their criteria.

So yes, Donald Trump’s days are numbered, as evidenced by his utterly ludicrous scheme to sell digital trading cards with a picture of his head on someone else’s body for $99 apiece, but there are others waiting in the wings to follow the path into the culture war.  According to Christopher Sebastian Parker, professor of political science at the University of Washington and co-author of a recent research paper on maga culture …

“Right now, these people feel like they’re losing their country and their identity. They feel like they’re being displaced by communities of color, by feminists and by immigrants. These people are motivated by what they see as an existential threat to their way of life.”

Translation:  they are seeking to turn the United States into an all-white, straight, male-dominated, gun-totin’ Christian nation.  Any candidate who can convincingly promise that will stand a chance at winning the maga arm of the Republican Party over in 2024.  Governance?  Justice?  Environment?  International relations?  Education?  Civil Rights?  None of that matters to the maga crowd. They have listened to Trump & Co long enough that even when Trump is either six feet under or in a prison cell, the movement will not die out any time soon.

14 thoughts on “If You Cut Off The Head Of A Snake …”

  1. You are spot on. The world has watched as the Maggots turned the tide on truth and its spinoffs. All the copycats are well trained already. There will always be evil in the world and as you say, they will fine tune what they’ve learned already. Also, I agree with you all about Florida and the danger of the trump wannabe that has a dangerous mind plus a bigger vocabulary. Snakes in the swamp. ❤

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  2. Hi, Jll. I am impressed by the the arguments of folks like former Republican Congressman David Jolly, who says the Republicans have essentially cooked their own goose. There’s no way a non-MAGA Republican can win the nomination, meaning we’ll see more of the DeSantis horrors or someone similarly autocratic. (And his ego is pretty damn large, Jill: he ran an ad describing himself as a god.) But as long as Trump breathes, he will try to destroy his opposition, possibly running as a MAGA candidate. We’ll see what happens when the indictments begin. I understand the Democrats are planning to try to ensure that Trump never holds office again, but I don’t know how they can accomplish it before January. Monday’s January 6th Committee meeting should be interesting.

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    • Yes, there can be no doubt that Jolly is right. The few moderate Republicans that remain in Congress are far outnumbered and it no longer even matters to the GOP whether its candidates are qualified, whether they are educated or intelligent, as long as they can win votes. Integrity no longer matters, just as We the People no longer matter. It won’t be the Democrats in Congress who ensure Trump is not on the ballot in November 2024, but the Department of Justice. I still have confidence that Trump will, after all is said and done, be ineligible to run by the time of the election. Yes, I’m planning to watch the final televised hearing on Monday, though I think we may have already been told most of what will come to light.

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  3. Pingback: If You Cut Off The Head Of A Snake … — Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  4. Jill, Reich is correct, the MAGA legacy will linger on, but I feel we have reached the tipping point on the former president. There are a growing number of Republican folks who are openly criticizing his latest inane comment or action. And, when more indictments come forth, he will find himself with less support than before. Yes, he will do his usual toddler retort, “The just don’t like me” or “This is a witch hunt,” but people need to be reminded that a jury found his company guilty of tax fraud, not one person. I also read the jury was not buying the Trump Organization defense. Keith

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    • I’m not so sure we have reached that tipping point yet. His utterly ridiculous “trading card” scheme sold out within hours and he made several million dollars from fools who still think he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. They ignored his meeting with Kanye West & Nick Fuentes, ignored his call to terminate the Constitution. What more does he need to do to prove he is evil? My fondest hope is that he will be convicted on charges of sedition and that will put an end to his ability to run in 2024, but the wheels of justice seem to be turning far too slowly for me. Sigh.

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      • Jill, well I hear you. I think when the real sh*t hits the fan for him over the next couple of months, it will be interesting to see how many bail on him. He is the like the popular kid in all the movies – once the sycophants realize he is just a jerk who has gaslighted people, they leave him behind. Keith

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          • Jill, here is one response of interest courtesy of an editorial by a Republican Congressman from Florida per Raw Story.

            “In an interview with the New York Times, former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) said there was little hope of Trump coming back from the multiple self-inflicted wounds he has suffered since losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.

            ‘I don’t think that anything can save Donald Trump,’ he said. ‘He’s decidedly on the path to irrelevance. He reduces himself by the day.’

            Although Trump has been politically left for dead several times before, including when a video showed him boasting about being able to use his celebrity status to get away with grabbing women’s genitals, Curbelo said it looks like he’s finally worn out his welcome even among Republican voters.”

            Keith

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            • Let us hope that Congressman Curbelo is right. Seems like he might be, and that Trump is seeing his ship sinking right before his very eyes, given his recent rants. Fingers crossed.

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  5. GM!! My thoughts exactly, dear sister. And I know both — I live in FloriDUH!! I loathe them with a passion bc they are evil. T will go, eventually cross the bridge but all this time that he’s been allowed to freely trample over all American values, etc — have taught many others who wil follow, refine and emulate. Unbelievable and so very sad for your country — not mine anymore. I just happen to live there. 😢

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    • You are so right … others will watch, listen and learn, see what works and what doesn’t, and present an ever-increasing danger to what democracy is left in this nation. I feel the same as you … this isn’t my country. I don’t share the beliefs of those who scream so loudly, who commit violence, who feel their skin colour or religion or gender makes them somehow ‘superior’. To hell with them all. Sigh.

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