When I woke up Wednesday morning, November 6, 2024, I wrote a piece entitled, “MY AMERICA DIED LAST NIGHT.”
(8) MY AMERICA DIED LAST NIGHT - by John Wilson-Bugbee (substack.com)
Over the next 48 hours, I questioned and became briefly hopeful that I may have overreacted to the emotion that had washed over 10’s of millions of my fellow countrymen and women. Today, I can conclude my gut had read the signs of our nation’s peril correctly. This nation’s experiment in maintaining a federal democracy was shattered. There’s a long shot chance it can be reconstituted, but those odds must be realistically understood as impressively long. Greed and the lust for power is an awesome force.
What tipped the scales in this direction for me came as a result of watching an interview done by two of the most intelligent observers of our times, Jon Stewart and Heather Cox Richardson.
Trump Won. What Now? with Heat - The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart - Apple Podcasts
If you have not watched this conversation, and you seek to get a glimpse into the future of this tattered nation, please, this is an investment, not an expenditure of your time.
One of the most profound takeaways for me was to have much greater empathy for a substantial portion of those citizens who voted for Mr. Trump. That may be hard to appreciate given how we have been intentionally set against one another, but for me, it’s a clarifying recognition of just how manipulated we are by today’s communications infrastructure. In the hands of those seeking to dismantle what they see as a burdensome mechanism, our legally-based and regulated democracy, by stoking the fires of fear of those “others,” Mr. Trump and his team have gained control.
Remember, we are beginning to understand who came out to vote for this man. They are generally understood to be low-propensity voters. To quote from a description of this group of citizens: [they possess] “psychological barriers like political disengagement, cynicism, or a sense of powerlessness [which] can further alienate these voters.”
This cohort of people are not stupid or bad people, they simply are living lives that are outside of the bubbles of political information streams. They are not getting their news from legacy media sources. (This is a relatively new term for me, and it reminds me that I’m from a very different generation.) These days there are dozens of other social media options that treat the idea of “news” in very different ways; if there’s any attempt at all to distribute information outside of what their acquaintances share.
My point is, that this group of people is an easy mark for those who wish to communicate lies or misinformation. With that as a potential, if they can be motivated to actually cast a ballot (a big if) due to their anger or disappointment over what they are experiencing in their America, we end up with, in part, what happened on November 5th.
The next component in the takeover of any federation of governments (the entity that prints the money, because that is what this is really all about) is a charismatic oratorically skilled daddy figure. This needs to be someone for whom “truth” is inconsequential but simply a means to the end; power. In our case, we have someone who was raised to be ruthless by being treated ruthlessly. This fairly intelligent person surrounds himself with people who are capable tools to an end (friendships are problematic encumbrances). Most importantly, this is someone who learns the oratorical skills of a polished con artist (and to be clear, it is an art form). As much as many of us find him detestable, we have to give Donald John Trump his just due, he has demonstrated himself to be a honed and skilled charlatan.
Next, this autocrat-in-waiting needs his herded sheep (the aggrieved and manipulated ill-informed masses talked about above) to launch him into elected power. This group, mind you, are not bad people who do not grasp what their role is, they simply are useful pawns to acquire the levers of control. They are working against their own best interests, but that will not become clear to them for a while.
The people who become the workhorses and enforcers of the autocrat’s revolution are the folks we saw do the damage on January 6, 2021. In Germany in the 1930’s it was the Brown Shirts. Today we have a number of similar groups; the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, various versions of Neo-Nazis, Christian Nationalists, and the list could go on. Suffice it to say they are White, they are ruthless, and they hate the US government.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR NEXT
If the dictator’s playbook is followed, the Dear Leader’s political enemies are next. Remember, Hitler did not start with the Jews, and Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi Jinping have shown the way by imprisoning or killing their political opponents. Simultaneously, the media voices who have opposed the Dear Leader in the past better get with the program or they will be put down. Control of the public’s right to know will be carefully managed. The public’s sources of information will soon be under new management once implemented. South Africa’s apartheid-trained social media mogul, Elon Musk, will certainly have some suggestions. And Jeff Bezos seems to have read the threat correctly as well.
Of course, to feed the ignorant masses their pound of flesh, Trump’s loyal fans and enforcers must now follow through with going after the dark-skinned invaders and those pesky transgender types. The for-profit incarceration industry is almost giddy as they look forward to the establishment of detention camps and mass deportation opportunities.
One cautionary note for those young Latino men who so assertively stepped into the voting booths to vote for Mr. Trump; have a copy of your proof of citizenship readily available at all times. Walking around brown will be reason enough to bring you down. And don’t get too mouthy, because you and your proof of citizenship can be easily lost or disposed of.
WHAT CAN THE REST OF US DO?
Circle the wagons within your community and your state government. Our federal laws, and increasingly our federal law enforcement divisions (starting at the top with a confiscated Supreme Court…Senator Mitch McConnell has got to be so proud for the part he has played) will not be there to protect us from our historical roots of racial and gender bias. As Heather Cox Richardson said in her discussion with Jon Stewart, your neighbors, your town, and your state’s government can (and I would plead, must) be our lines of defense against the authoritarian onslaught coming our way. America’s democratic republic, as we have known it, is officially under siege.
So, my fellow Americans, if you choose to live in a White, male-dominated autocracy, where your protection (if you are White) is assured and your individual freedoms are defined by others, you will have a majority of the states to pick from. If, however, you liked where America had been going, make that happen in your state.
We may no longer hold together as a united collection of states that became the most prosperous nation in history, where individual freedoms were guaranteed under laws not men, and where people from around the world looked to for hope and opportunity, but that’s still possible at the statewide level if we are ready to defend it.
Very good portrait of how and why we got to where we are today. I hope there are enough levelheaded people in our communities that can form a bulwark against the oncoming degradation of our democracy. Brilliant writing John!