It's a race between the poor health of the body politic and the poor health of the pathogen
The signs for America are have never been worse. Since his re-election, Trump has been riding roughshod over the so-called checks and balances of the American system.
Right now he is trying to crush the Federal Reserve. This comes after "primarying" the GOP into abject subservience, weaponising the FBI and the DOJ, sending the National Guard into several cities as an intimidatory tactic, blithely ignoring court orders and any laws he feels like, personally profiteering in every way possible, and gerrymandering the electoral maps in preparation for the mid-term elections. Not to mention supporting genocide in Gaza and stabbing NATO in the back over Ukraine!
Right now he is trying to crush the Federal Reserve. This comes after "primarying" the GOP into abject subservience, weaponising the FBI and the DOJ, sending the National Guard into several cities as an intimidatory tactic, blithely ignoring court orders and any laws he feels like, personally profiteering in every way possible, and gerrymandering the electoral maps in preparation for the mid-term elections. Not to mention supporting genocide in Gaza and stabbing NATO in the back over Ukraine!
An even worse symptom for the American system, however, is the way in which all these blatant abuses of power have been greeted with mind-numbing apathy by almost every other element of society that is not MAGA.
Really, nobody cares that there is effectively a President who is behaving increasingly like a mid-20th century dictator right in their midst. There is no real pushback and the Dems are unable to cut through and mobilise any kind of popular reaction or resistance.
Really, nobody cares that there is effectively a President who is behaving increasingly like a mid-20th century dictator right in their midst. There is no real pushback and the Dems are unable to cut through and mobilise any kind of popular reaction or resistance.
The best that America can do is a few legal challenges to Trump's arbitrary centralisation of powers. But, without a sense of popular outrage behind them, the Trump regime can push these to one side and ignore them until they can be struck down by more compliant elements of the judiciary.
What makes it even worse, is that the "supervillain" behind this formerly unimaginable coup is just a fat, bloviating, narcissistic dumbass, who is probably clinically insane. Yes, the United States effectively has political AIDs and can't even fight off the equivalent of a petty cold germ like Donald Trump that it would have chewed up and spat out years ago.
This is the unhealthiest that America has ever looked in political terms. Whatever one's political preferences, seeing a body politic that is numb and apathetic to its own accelerating necrosis is pretty disconcerting.
However, the silver lining here is that the vehicle for this sad decline of America is himself someone in a sad physical decline.
In recent months, as his power has spread like a disease through the rotting corpse of a once healthy political entity, Trump seems to be bending under the weight of his years, obesity, and shitty karma. Many have commented on his fading powers, his sagging skin, his flaccid, yet bloated appearance, and his grotesque cankles, oozing over his shoes like the fat from a melted candle.
None of this is good for Trump or his drive to impose himself on a much weakened America.
None of this is good for Trump or his drive to impose himself on a much weakened America.
Also, while America's plight is dire, not one of Trump's successors has what it takes to carry on his dark legacy. Almost all of them may be smarter, stronger, and more ruthless than him, but they all lack the appeal and the para-social connection to the base that has made Trump formidable.
They also lack unity. When Trump fades or goes, their infighting will intensify and the unpopularity of MAGA will deepen to the point where America will shake it off like a bad dream.
They also lack unity. When Trump fades or goes, their infighting will intensify and the unpopularity of MAGA will deepen to the point where America will shake it off like a bad dream.
If Trump were 10 or even 5 years younger, or else a lot healthier, America would probably be doomed to die of its political AIDs and become an English-speaking version of a Latin-American tinpot dictatorship. But thanks to his own mortality and physical frailties closing in, the Republic may have a late reprieve and even a chance to crawl off the pus-soaked sickbed back that it has found itself on.
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Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying his book here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia), or by taking out a paid subscription on his Substack.
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