A historical perspective, and the long view


Andrea Pitzer examines our prospects — what is likely to happen when Trump drops dead (the sooner the better), and how we’ll have to struggle to overcome his legacy.

I don’t know — it’s a depressing story, but somehow it ends on a note of optimism. Yes, let’s forget Trump and move on with rebuilding the American dream.

Comments

  1. raven says

    Robert Reich’s latest post says something similar.
    The title says it all.

    Sunday thought: Why Trump is doomed
    ROBERT REICH AUG 31, 2025

    Rest assured. The seeds of Trump’s destruction have already been sown.
    and
    He no longer has any truth-tellers to advise him — he has purged all of them. And a president who’s flying blind, without anyone around him to tell him he’s about to crash, will inevitably crash.

    I’m not going to say that I necessarily agree with him here.
    Optimism has been a losing strategy for the last 25 years.

    Then again, Robert Reich is always worth reading and Trump and the GOP aren’t doing all that well either.

    He makes some good points.
    I liked this one.

    Trump doesn’t have anyone around him whatsoever to tell the truth about anything. He’s fired them all.

    Don’t like the jobs numbers, fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CIA and Pentagon have bad news. Fire the analysts.
    If the USA runs into trouble with the economy or the military or a pandemic or anything, no one in the government is going to know or tell the president about it.
    Reality doesn’t care about their lies.

    https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-thought-263

  2. Ted Lawry says

    What I am worried about is that Trump’s policies will outlive him, and the politics of the next 20 years will be a dispiriting and only semi-successful struggle against Trumpists. We don’t just need to replace politicians, we need to replace the “narrative,” to show that Trump really was bad for everyone except billionaires.

  3. raven says

    The Democrats and the Blue states have a lot of power if they find it and use it.
    The Blue states have most of the population and 70% of the economy.

    A few Democratic party politicans have found their ovaries and a few vertebrae and are pushing back. Trump’s next invasion target is Chicago. The governor of Illinois, Pritzker, and the mayor of Chicago are resisting.

    Chicago mayor signs order aimed at resisting Trump’s planned immigration crackdown
    By Whitney Wild and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn

    Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Saturday laying out initial plans for how the city will try to resist President Donald Trump’s planned immigration crackdown in the coming days.

    “We may see militarized immigration enforcement. We may also see National Guard troops. We may even see active duty military and armed vehicles in our streets. We have not called for this. Our people have not asked for this, but nevertheless, we find ourselves having to respond to this,” Johnson said before signing the executive order on Saturday.

    The mayor’s order “affirms” that Chicago police will not “collaborate with federal agents on joint law enforcement patrols, arrest operations, or other law enforcement duties including civil immigration enforcement.”

    The order also “urges” federal law enforcement officers who operate in Chicago “to refrain from wearing masks, to wear and use body cameras and to identify themselves to members of the public with names and badge numbers.” Johnson reiterated the city’s police force will be required to wear attire that clearly identifies them.

    Johnson’s order also directs city departments to “pursue all available legal and legislative avenues to resist coordinated efforts from the federal government” that violate the rights of Chicagoans.

    Chicago and Illinois aren’t going to cooperate with the National Guard and the US army troops.

    That means when the military gets to Chicago, they aren’t going to have anything to do. They will just stand around their armored personnel carriers, MRAP vehicles, and Humvees and look bored.
    Or they can do what they did in Washington DC and pick up trash and start mowing lawns in the parks.

    If Chicago and Illinois resist, the Trump regime isn’t going to be intimidating anybody. They are just going to look dumb.

  4. StevoR says

    @ Ted Lawry : Exactly. Truth.

    Although arguably Trump’s policies where what his puppetteers & manipulators incl esp Putin & Heritage Foundation made them already even before this current Weekend at Bernies Trumpies era.

  5. raven says

    Saw this on Bluesky.

    I hope she brings a date to his funeral.

    No one needs to ask who she is or whose funeral this will be.

  6. cheerfulcharlie says

    Many political analysts are cautiously predicting that the GOP will suffer loses of Senate and House in the coming off year election. And if so, no more Mr. Nice Democrats. The latest Happiness Index surveys demonstrate the U.S. Happiness ranking has dropped from 15th to 24th. Not good news preceding the off year election. Trump will start to be reigned in if the Democrats take over House and Senate. His ego and fee fees will be hurt. Some GOP politicians are already dropping out of re-election efforts. Joni Ernst is going back to the piggy farm. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and ACA are not going over well. By election day, 2026 we can say we did try it the MAGA way and that sucked. Trump, if he is still alive by then, will be seen as a failure at best, which will crush his soul.

  7. Doc Bill says

    de Gaulle: Après moi, le déluge.

    Fact, Trump is a personality to be reckoned with – over the top, bombastic, loud, rude, vulgar, boorish and on and on. But, he is writ large.

    The rest of the GOPQ is Lindsey Graham milquetoast. The vacuum will be powerful. There is nobody to fill it. Some will try starting with JD Vance who will soil himself if someone says “Boo!” You think world leaders are laughing at us now, just wait. The GOPQ has no plan, no talent and no intellectual foundation. All they have is bombast and Jeebus, but that doesn’t make the trains run on time.

    As the collagen lady belted out, The WORST is yet to come!”

  8. John Watts says

    The average life expectancy for American men is 75.8 years. Trump is 79.2, about 3.5 years past that. Ticktock.

  9. robro says

    Death is too good for him. That’s the easy way out.

    He seems to be exhibiting signs of cognitive decline, so like his father he may slip into dementia. Father Fred was first diagnosed with some form of dementia in 1991 when he was 86 and lived another 8 years. So, if Taco follows him, he’ll finish out his term but be even more bath shit crazy.

    The other possibility is some kind of stress related breakdown. When I see him in clips on TeeVee he seems desperate. All that stress can’t be good for him. So maybe a stroke or heart attack that disables him enough that he can’t fulfill his duties and has to be replaced a la the 25th amendment. Then he’s confined to his bed or wheelchair, incontinent, deranged and babbling nonsense the rest of his days.

    That seems fitting.

  10. StevoR says

    @ ^ robro : Trump dying of covid would be most fitting.

    Him dying alone In a jail cell would be the most fitting & deserved of all but ain’t happening now.

  11. raven says

    FWIW, it has now been 5 days since Trump has been seen in public except at a long distance.

    The questions are now coming from everyone.

    And the staff at the White House don’t have any answers.
    Or at least answers than anyone believes.

    Trump could end this with a 5 minute appearance and that isn’t happening either.

  12. robro says

    raven — This is a picture of him heading off to golf: Daily Beast . I guess that’s him. He has the hat pulled down so low I can’t see his face. He’s looking portly. And he appears to carrying something with a coat hanger. That seems unusual.

  13. fentex says

    That seems too optimistic. Trump is not the cause of U.S problems, he’s the malign tumour which grows from them, but when he’s excised the cancer will remain.

  14. John Morales says

    “Trump is not the cause of U.S problems”

    Um. Have you seen his 2nd term so far?

    The appointment of anti-X ideologues to lead agencies dealing with X?

    The tariffs? The, um, diplomacy?

    None of that happened before Trump; if nothing else, he’s just shown how hollow norms and character and honesty are in terms of holding petulant blowhards back.

  15. TGAP Dad says

    I recommend that everyone read Omar Akkad’s latest book “One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This”.
    He’s an extraordinary writer, and deserves to be more widely read.

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