Disasters like this are horrific. They do, though, have the potential to pull Americans together. There has often in the past been bipartisan incentives to deliver aid quickly and efficiently to affected areas, whether in red or blue states. Local officials may reach across the political aisle to coordinate with national leaders, as when New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie praised Barack Obama for the prompt federal response to Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In the MAGA era, however, this kind of unity, or neighborliness, is anathema. Former and now incoming President Donald Trump and his cronies consistently treat national disasters as opportunities to sow division, to demonize and immiserate enemies, and to blackmail opponents.
This newsletter post is just one more reminder of how malevolent Trump and his cult are in almost every way. Empathy does not exist for these people. That context is essential to keep in mind as they move back into power.
If Democrats hope to take back power again, they are going to need to do more than wait for Trump’s policies to create chaos and failure. Even if that happens—and, yes, it will—working-class voters who are clearly in revolt against existing institutions and arrangements are unlikely to shift their support to a party they see as representing that failed establishment. Instead, Democrats are going to have to take to heart, more seriously than they have, the true conditions, opinions, and interests of rural and working-class voters—and convince members of their coalition to do the same. And they’re going to have to offer plans for more thoroughgoing change than they have up until now considered.
The quote above is from the editor of the Washington Monthly, introducing a remarkable package of articles offering ideas on how the Democrats can create a new agenda for America's future – an agenda that could bring back the broad coalition they need to win again. The framing is problematic in several cases, but that's not surprising in such a broad look. In the next several editions of this newsletter, I'll pull out some of them for a closer look. I encourage you to read them all.
There will be no meaningful religious liberty. There will be essentially a two-tier society between the quote unquote, real Americans—those who buy into this, or pretend to — and then the rest of Americans. If you’re a person of no faith or a Muslim or anybody deemed not a true Christian, you will have a place, but you will not have a voice. The laws will be rewritten across the board. Rights as we understand them will cease to exist and instead, we’ll have the framework of biblical law.
I recommend that you read this fascinating CNN interview with Kristin Kobes Du Mez, one of America's top scholars on Christian nationalism. She offers one of the clearest explanations reflecting the absolute incompatibility of democracy and the form of Christian nationalism that Trump's religious acolytes want to install nationwide. The quote above is a statement of fact, not speculation, if these people get their way. There are some barriers, not least Trump's own blatant lack of religious faith. When push comes to shove if they become inconvenient to his other goals, such as self-enrichment, he'll be as likely to jettison these folks as keep them around. One of my endless puzzlements is how thoroughly they've hijacked Christianity from people who actually believe in the teachings of Jesus.
Joseph Goebbels...would later marvel that the National Socialists had succeeded in dismantling a federated constitutional republic entirely through constitutional means. Seven years earlier, in 1926, after being elected to the Reichstag as one of the first 12 National Socialist delegates, Goebbels had been similarly struck: He was surprised to discover that he and these 11 other men (including Hermann Göring and Hans Frank), seated in a single row on the periphery of a plenary hall in their brown uniforms with swastika armbands, had—even as self-declared enemies of the Weimar Republic—been accorded free first-class train travel and subsidized meals, along with the capacity to disrupt, obstruct, and paralyze democratic structures and processes at will. “The big joke on democracy,” he observed, “is that it gives its mortal enemies the means to its own destruction.”
I'm highlighting this piece in the Atlantic for obvious reasons. If we don't learn from history we are all too likely to repeat its worst outcomes. It's remarkable how quickly Democrats and our (always vapid) political press have normalized the radical right-wing times ahead. The warnings before the election were not overwrought. They were right on point, but somehow everyone is treating what's coming as business as usual. It won't be. Trump is looking for justifications for a dictatorial clampdown. He will find – not least in the laws Congress has passed in recent years to give presidents untrammeled power in "emergency" situations – that he has the means to destroy the American experiment.
This newsletter is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money. For more details, please read my About page.
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Noah Berlatsky
Paul Glastris
John Blake
Timothy W. Ryback
