The Trump administration is an autocratic regime, and since the current Congress and, worse, the Supreme Court actively enables the administration, that means the nation itself is an autocracy.
The latest example is at the State Department, where top officials have reportedly informed staff that the only candidates considered eligible for the mid-to-upper level foreign service roles are those who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024. I’m still not sure that even Secretary of State Marco Rubio qualifies as a three-time Trump voter, but he can easily just lie. This isn’t about the truth, so much as an assertion of blind obedience.
According to the Washington Sun, the State Department also told candidates that “their campaign donation history would be examined and any donation to Democrats would be disqualifying.” It’s effectively MAGA Only at the State Department.
Yes, this is obviously illegal. The government’s workforce mostly includes permanent, career staff who are supposed to remain shielded from political interference as parties come in and out of power. That’s why federal law prohibits making personnel decisions based on political affiliation. Of course, federal law doesn’t mean much these days. The Supreme Court has granted Trump immunity for any so-called “official acts,” and Trump will just pardon everyone in his regime anyway, including himself in an erotically corrupt “self-pardon.”
The longterm precedent set here is that only Republicans can reliably thrive in the State Department. It doesn’t matter if President Dream Democrat “restores norms,” as Joe Biden did during his single term. Sure, Republicans will feel free to donate to right-wing candidates and causes and even show up for work with Vance 2028 bumpers stickers on their car. The next Democratic president might even nominate an actual Republican as Secretary of State in a glowing demonstration of “bipartisanship.”
However, President Dream Democrat will eventually leave office, and because Republicans only get worse after an election loss, like already bad fish left out on the kitchen counter, the next President Nightmare Republican will just revert back to the previous “liberal purge” standard.
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Democrats want to reassure us that they’ll get to the bottom of this seemingly bottomless corruption. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Washington Sun, “The Committee has been following allegations that the Trump Administration is making political affiliation a factor in employment for some time now. These are critical national security positions and individuals should be chosen for their experience and ability, not their political loyalty. We are working with the House and other relevant committees to thoroughly investigate all such claims.”
The House is currently under MAGA control, so a “thorough investigation” seems unlikely as long as Mike Johnson is the speaker. Even after Democrats regain the majority, what would a “thorough investigation” even look like? Rubio — who every Senate Democrat voted to confirm — would probably just mock Democrats during a congressional hearing, if he even bothers to show up. (Republicans often ignored subpoenas from a Democratic-controlled House during Biden’s presidency.)
Once again, the looming question is how do we convince Republicans to stop all this — and by “convince,” I mean “force,” as persuasion involving basics appeals to decency is a sucker’s game when dealing with the current GOP. They’ve already set the precedent that under a Republican president, the federal government will openly torment Democratic-run states. Trump’s armed goons have occupied Democratic-run cities and executed citizens. Trump has also delayed and outright denied disaster relief to Democratic-led states, despite agency recommendations clearly showing that the states more than met the financial and damage thresholds. Back in July, Trump rejected $227 million in federal disaster relief requests from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island following a major winter storm — overruling recommendations from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
On the campaign trail, Trump has threatened to withhold disaster aid from North Carolina if Democrat Roy Cooper wins the upcoming Senate election. He made the same threat about Georgia if Jon Ossoff wins re-election. (He claimed he was “joking,” like a gangster creating plausible deniability for his obvious blackmail.) He’s even denied disaster assistance for Colorado families impacted by the Aspen Acres and Gold Mountain fires, despite Gov. Jared Polis shamefully submitted to his threats.
President Dream Democrat will probably give a stirring speech at their inauguration about how the days of “politicizing disaster relief are over,” which would be true for as long as President Dream Democrat is in office. During that time, Republican-run states won’t have to worry about pacifying a sociopathic administration. Republican governors can call President Dream Democratic a “communist” or a “jihadist” and still receive their checks. That’s how a civilized society operate, where citizens don’t exist in fear of political retaliation and can freely exercise their First Amendment rights. But a society that’s civilized only when Democrats run the government is actually not civilized.
Biden appointed Merrick Garland as attorney general to restore the Department of Justice’s “independence” after Trump, and the Republican response was to smear Garland as a liberal partisan actor (a laughable lie given his actions and the fact that he’s probably a Republican himself). When Trump returned to power, he picked attorney generals — Pam Bondi and now Todd Blanche — who make Bill Barr seem objective.
Blanche doesn’t even hide the fact that he effectively serves as Trump’s personal attorney. During a recent interview, which was on video and everything, Blanche said, “There was this misperception that there’s this ‘separation’ and ‘independence’ between the Department of Justice and the White House and everybody likes to accuse me of not suffering from independence. I don’t. I work for President Trump.”
The next Democratic president should accept this precedent and appoint a junkyard dog prosecutor as attorney general who’ll go full Amos T. Akerman on MAGA (especially Elon Musk), but it’s unfortunately more likely that President Dream Democrat will overcorrect and we’ll end up with someone even more timid than Garland.
Donald Trump’s approval rating is below 30 percent and falling. A tremendous Blue Wave could put Democrats back in control of the House and Senate, but it’s important to understand that most voters are rejecting Trump because his ego-driven stupidity tanked the economy. If Democrats flip Alaska, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, and Texas, it won’t be because voters believe Trump was unfair to California.
Well-meaning liberals will insist that Democrats shouldn’t “respond in kind,” as that would be petty revenge, but this ignores the increasingly hot war that MAGA America is waging. We have to neutralize the threat a rogue federal government poses. In the short term, I’d suggest making disaster relief a state-level matter, which ironically would benefit Democratic-run states, as they tend to be the ones with the most money. Trump has weaponized federalism, but he didn’t do so single-handedly. Republicans — yes, the voters, as well — have enabled it, looking the other way while Trump kicked Democratic-run states and cities in the teeth. That’s just not neighborly.
No one should desire an ongoing war with half the nation, nor should we relish in the suffering of fellow Americans, no matter how annoying they are. But in any war, a true “ceasefire” is only achievable when both sides believe a continued conflict would lead to their destruction. Right now, MAGA has no reason to surrender or even negotiate. That has to change or more people will suffer.
MAGA, as presently constructed, doesn't exist without Donald Trump, nor does he really care if it does or not. It's not like he's grooming a successor (he's clearly pretty contemptuous of both leading candidates Vance and Rubio), or that any of the ol' MAGA magic is transferable to anyone else. In fact, Trump doesn't even really have it anymore, as his desperate plays in 1,000 seat venues shows.
But that doesn't mean the fight will be over. "Normal" isn't coming back, as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris painfully found out. Normal pre-2016 is how we got Trump in the first place. The next Democratic leader needs to make it very clear they understand that, while also making it plain the corruption and criminality of the past decade will not stand. We blew it once, the country cannot afford to blow it again if we want to survive.
If Democrats were not such a pack of impotents, they’d say this repeatedly and unanimously: “If you want to end this corruption and criminality, vote us into power. We promise to immediately and harshly prosecute everyone up and down the line who participated in even the slightest way. Every line attorney at DOJ who was part of this will lose their job, bar admissions and be blackballed by any law firm that wants any access with the federal government. Every functionary will face civil and criminal prosecution, swiftly. No quarter. And anyone penalized or persecuted by the Trump regime will be made whole, promptly, so your resistance will not be in vain. Just get us in there and we will make it right.”
Better than Kamala “gee I wonder how I lost” Harris telling everyone we don’t have the votes for impeachment so I guess Trump can crime away.