Tyranny Begins Today. How Will We Rise to Fight It?

Today is T-Day which could stand for Trump Day or Tyranny Day which are synonymous. He will put a hand on a Bible, probably a Trump Edition printed in Communist China, and swear before the God that he mocks, the Oath of Office that he intends to break within minutes of his inauguration. Of course he will do so inside the rotunda of the Capital which his criminal insurgents desecrated on 6 January 2021, while leaving his devoted cult to freeze far away from the Capital after spending thousands of dollars for flights, hotel reservations and tickets to the inauguration that they could have spent on eggs.

In all honesty my Schadenfreude meter is maxed out when I think about how idiotic they were to trust Trump when nothing he has ever done should cause them to have any trust in him whatsoever. Sadly, people like them screwed the half of the country who did not want him to be President, and the misery they suffer today pales into insignificance compared with how they screwed the rest of us, so I say, screw them and the horses they rode onto town on.

But like I said last night, i didn’t expect to be writing tonight but after writing two of the three midterm exams for my students today I decided to swing for the fences tonight and finish writing the last one later this morning as I prepare not to watch the Trump Turdfest in the Capitol today.

So a few tidbits of wisdom from thinkers greater than me before I take the puppies to bed and I arise to the cold dawn of Trump tyranny.

Timothy Snyder wrote: “The mistake is to assume that rulers who came to power through institutions cannot change or destroy those very institutions—even when that is exactly what they have announced that they will do.”

The fact is that for the last nine years most people who should have known better downplayed the threat of Trump, then some of them, like large numbers of Republicans including his Vice President, J.D. Vance compared him to Hitler. Others in the Democratic Party warned us about him and then went to Mar a Lago to kiss Trump’s ass in blind submission to him, thank you Senator John Fetterman, your collaboration is duly noted. Likewise, we have to devoted equal scorn to people like MSNBC’s resident turncoats Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, may Trump wipe your turgid souls off the soles of his shoes like dog shit when he is finished with you, which might be sooner than you think.

Likewise, anyone who voted for Trump, other than oligarchs like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos thinking that he actually gave a damn about them can suck it up when they discover the truth about Trump, truth that they should have known long ago.

George Orwell wrote “All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.”

Trump came to power through fraud and now that he has returned after a four year absence, he will rely exclusively on force. While immigrants, minorities, and political opponents are certainly on his target list, his supporters like Steve Bannon will find that they are far higher on Trump’s list than Trump’s Democratic and liberal opponents.

Finally as I close for the night I quote Hannah Arendt who said: “Although tyranny...may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its own people.”

Trump and the GOP succeeded in doing much of that already, but they are not done, and Trump now has no limitations. The Supreme Court majority, thank you Chief Justice John Roberts granted Trump and any future President immunity from prosecution for acts deemed “official”, essentially placing Trump above the law, something never intended by the men who wrote our Constitution or the Bill of Rights. But, Trump and his oligarch supporters say “screw them, they’ve been dead for over 200 years.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke the words the night before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee some 66 years ago: “Well I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. but it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over.and I have seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I am happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I am not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of The Lord.”

We do have difficult days ahead, but those of us who have the courage must persevere, to do less is to dishonor those who fought for freedom before us and condemn those who come after us to the wicked scourge of tyranny.