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Politics:
What the Bestseller List Says About the Election
A check of Amazon’s “Movers and Shakers” list finds How to Stand Up to a Dictator is #1, with Handmaid’s Tale, Animal Farm, Brave New World, and Men Who Hate Women all in the top 50.
Autocracy Has Come To America And It Won’t Be Pretty
The most chilling moment of the election night carnage came a little before 1 a.m. ET.
It wasn’t yet confirmed that Donald Trump would win, but the writing was on the wall.
Assessing the newly transformed MAGA-friendly political landscape, the pro-Trump lobbyist and political commentator David Urban said on CNN: “Democracy is a luxury when you can’t pay your bills.”
Democracy as a luxury. Democracy in good times only. Democracy when it suits you.
This mindset – a precursor to fascist regimes in other countries – is why it feels like a white-wash to ascribe Trump’s victory to economic issues. It feels like a safe, socially acceptable reason to cite for rejecting Kamala Harris and the Biden baggage she carried.
Donald Trump told Americans exactly what he planned to do.
He would use military force against his political opponents. He would fire thousands of career public servants. He would deport millions of immigrants in military-style roundups. He would crush the independence of the Department of Justice, use government to push public health conspiracies and abandon America’s allies abroad. He would turn the government into a tool of his own grievances, a way to punish his critics and richly reward his supporters. He would be a ‘dictator’ — if only on Day 1.
And, when asked to give him the power to do all of that, the voters said yes.
This was a conquering of the nation not by force but with a permission slip. Now, America stands on the precipice of an authoritarian style of governance never before seen in its 248-year history.
The American people have made a disastrous choice. And they have done so decisively, and with their eyes wide open.
Donald J. Trump will be our next president, elected with a majority of the popular vote, likely winning both more votes and more states than he did in his two previous elections. After everything—after his chaotic presidency, after January 6th, after the last year in which the mask was increasingly off, and no attempt was made to hide the extremism of the agenda or the ugliness of the appeal—the American people liked what they saw. At a minimum, they were willing to accept what they saw.
This is a fair question. Kamala Harris ran, to my mind, a nearly flawless campaign. It was absurdly well resourced, had a sophisticated turnout organization, and included some very incisive and creative advertisements. She decimated her opponent in their one debate, headlined a well-orchestrated and well-received convention, picked an engaging running mate, and hit all the right themes in her speeches and interviews.
Trump, by contrast, ran a sloppy, undisciplined campaign, was massively outspent, and it didn’t seem to matter.
You may disagree with some of the above characterizations, but I’m hard pressed to name something Harris should have done differently that obviously would have helped her. That doesn’t mean the campaigns had no effect; she might have lost by more if not for the $1 billion-plus she managed to raise and spend. But it’s hard to see a whole lot of minds being changed here.
The United States is about to become a different kind of country.
Trump Voters Got What They Wanted
Those who expect that Donald Trump will hurt others, and not them, are likely to be unpleasantly surprised…
In the end, a majority of American voters chose Trump because they wanted what he was selling: a nonstop reality show of rage and resentment. Some Democrats, still gripped by the lure of wonkery, continue to scratch their heads over which policy proposals might have unlocked more votes, but that was always a mug’s game. Trump voters never cared about policies, and he rarely gave them any. (Choosing to be eaten by a shark rather than electrocuted might be a personal preference, but it’s not a policy.)
His rallies involved long rants about the way he’s been treated, like a giant therapy session or a huge family gathering around a bellowing, impaired grandpa…
…a gaggle of millionaires and billionaires grinned and applauded for Trump. They were part of an alliance with the very people another Trump term would hurt—the young, minorities, and working families among them.
Capitol Rioters Already Angling for Pardons
The legal consequences of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory start with the likelihood that the cases against him will sputter out but could also extend to the cases of hundreds of his supporters who are being — or have been — prosecuted for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump repeatedly promised to pardon some of the 1,500 people charged in connection with Jan. 6, sometimes suggesting that his clemency might extend to leaders of far-right groups like the Proud Boys and to other defendants who assaulted police officers.
Republicans Celebrate By Admitting They Can’t Wait For Project 2025
The former president spent the campaign distancing himself from the draconian policy package. He and his allies no longer need to hide
