More Notes On American Smallness
Donald Trump is trying to execute in the 2026 midterm elections the same strategy he used in the 2020 presidential election: Start telling people months ahead of the election that the Democrats are planning massive voter fraud, though without providing any evidence to support this; on election night, stand up and declare that the election fraud he predicted has really happened, though without providing any evidence to support this; lead his faithful millions to rally to overturn this obviously fraudulent election — though they have not one shread of evidence for this fraud beyond the hot air of Donald J. Trump and associates.
Pre-election MAGA: “He must know their schemes, because he wouldn’t be saying this without reason.”
Post-election MAGA: “My God, I can’t believe it happened exactly as he predicted! He saw the whole thing coming!”
The blind faith in Trump allows them to assume, following his own fragile ego’s assumption, that it is impossible for him to legitimately lose anything, ever, as well as assuming that he wouldn’t say something unless he knew it were true, whereas the plain facts are quite the contrary: Trump would say anything, and knows nothing.
Following up on a recent post, what the past year has made perfectly clear about Trump and his MAGA millions (well, it was always obvious to the unhypnotized about Trump himself, but it has now become equally undeniable about his millions) is that they are staunch defenders of the right to bear arms — for themselves, but not for anyone who disagrees with anything the Trump administration says or does; that they will defend freedom of speech, including even for the most vulgar, offensive, and irresponsible speech — for themselves and those “on their side,” but not for anyone who disagrees with them about anything the Trump administration says or does; that they despise and decry the moral and social evils of “cancel culture” and other politically correct thought police tactics — when those tactics are being used to restrict or marginalize their opinions, but not when applied by their own leaders for the sake of silencing, punishing, or otherwise marginalizing people and thoughts perceived as disagreeing with anything the Trump administration says or does; that they are deeply concerned about state corruption and manipulation of the so-called free press — when such corruption and manipulation are used to oppose their political tribe, but not when used, without restraint, against anyone who disagrees with anything the Trump administration says or does; that they warned for nightmare-filled years about the horror of the federal government using so-called “national security” rationalizations to build massive federal internment camps, to establish a nationalized police force, to equip federal agents like military units and send them into American homes and neighborhoods to terrorize private citizens with impunity — when they were fearing that “the left” was planning such things against them, but not when the Trump administration is brazenly establishing such police state and concentration camp infrastructure at lightning speed, to be used, and actually being used every day, against anyone perceived (or rather accused) of disagreeing with anything the Trump administration says or does.
Now I ask, who proposes that they, and they alone, should be allowed to have weapons, to say what they like, to attack and marginalize other citizens based on group identity, to cancel other people through firings and direct violations of rights based on nothing but accusations of non-compliance, to build a nationalized police force funded at national defense levels and answerable to no other agency, and to threaten to nationalize control of elections in states where they believe they are in danger of losing the next vote, destroying the bedrock American premise of federalism (a union of independent states) in these and so many other ways? Who thinks that way? Who abides, or even cheers on, the supra-legislative enactment and violently aggressive execution of such “policies” in the name of imposing their views on an entire nation with open disdain for the principles and salutary limits of representative government, all the while publicly branding all their opponents and critics as criminals and traitors?
Who does these things? People who love their country, its traditions, and its founding principles? Or mere patriots of convenience who hide their authoritarian impulses and fear-driven thuggery (all thugs are afraid) behind a thin, and now permanently shredded, veil of righteousness, but which in the end amounts to nothing but “freedom to make everything exactly as we want it without regard for the rule of law, the Constitution, or even basic human decency.”
People who think this way and abide such open disregard for the minimum requirements of civil society when they feel they are getting their way, would do well to consider whether they will enjoy the fruits of such a victory when it comes. History provides a few helpful examples. Many of these millions themselves used to cite those examples against the opposing party. But “winning” is a dangerous drug, and the intoxication it brings is one of the most effective memory killers — especially for those who never really believed what they were saying in the first place.
