Sometimes, when there’s no better way to say it, you just need to spread the word. In case you haven’t already seen it, this is from Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack Letters from an Americanposted on July 7:
“At about 10:30 this morning local time, heavily armed masked agents in trucks, armored vehicles, a helicopter, on foot, and on horseback, accompanied by a gun mounted on a truck raided the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles. Journalist Mel Buer reported that agents from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the National Guard, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brought what she called a ‘massive federal presence.’
“Fox News Channel personnel were embedded with the raiders and broadcast throughout the operation, suggesting that it was designed for the media as a show of force to intimidate opponents. CBP brought its own press team, and its people were also taking photos of bystanders. After Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass arrived and spoke with Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, the agents left. It is not clear that there was a specific target for the raid, or that anyone was arrested.
“Later, Bovino told Bill Melugin of the Fox News Channel, ‘I don’t work for Karen Bass. Better get used to us now, cause this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles.’ (ITALICS MINE) ”
The argument I was making last week is that Trump’s massive deportation efforts are part of a strategy to erase the darker hues from the American fabric, and he’s not being subtle about it. Now that Congress has passed his budget, there is a surplus of dollars to cause as much pain and destruction as he possibly can, and with the help of the Supreme Court, the laws are now making it easier and easier for him to have his way. From PBS White House correspondent Laura Barron–Lopez:
“So, total, there's more than $160 billion that are going to immigration enforcement and the deportation operation. So when you break it down, that means $46.5 billion to building the rest of the border wall, $45 billion to immigration detention centers, nearly $30 billion to hiring and training ICE staff, and $3.3 billion to immigration court judges and attorneys.
“Now, some of those pots of money can be moved around. If they don't want to spend that much on the border wall, they don't have to. They can transfer it to other parts of ICE. But ICE plans to hire an additional 10,000 new agents to the tens of thousands they already have. And also they want to have at least 80,000 new detention beds.”
Sure, it’s true that Trump himself is historically unpopular, his policies are just as unpopular, and more than a few pundits are suggesting that his maniacal actions are the signs of a desperate man flailing about as he sinks below the polls, unable to understand why his incompetence isn’t serving him well. And he keeps getting slapped down in the courts – except, of course, for the Supreme Court. He is a laughingstock around the world. But still, yes, he is failing. That is, if you use the metrics by which most people would gauge failure.
But this is Trump. Which means the usual rules and measures don’t apply. So then we have to ask ourselves the question: does his ‘failure’ as president actually result in a better outcome for the country? For the world? And is what we would normally call a failure actually more of a success from the vantage point of Trump world, where what he can’t make happen he simply imagines that it has already happened? What is failure to a delusional dictator wannabe with no guardrails?
How much longer can this go on before it can’t? Because even if Democrats manage to take back the Senate and the House in 2026, defying all the dirty tricks that will be targeted in their direction, they won’t be able to actually get to work until January of 2027 when they take office. That is roughly 18 months from now. Trump has already severely destabilized the country in one-third of that time.
“Later, Bovino told Bill Melugin of the Fox News Channel, ‘I don’t work for Karen Bass. Better get used to us now, ‘cause this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles.’ ”
That happened this week in Los Angeles; the leader of an emboldened and federally authorized gang of armed thugs who just got a massive cash infusion to wreak even more havoc. And that’s just to enforce his deportation goals aimed at erasing brown people. Combine that with everything else he is tearing apart, and what do you think the country is going to look like in 18 months?
I know the way it’s supposed to go with posts like this, after sounding the alarm, is to try and present a workable plan for how we can prevent the worst-case scenarios from happening, and I wish I could. I did feel some optimism after the historically massive No King’s Day protests showed the world just how outraged so many Americans are at what’s happening to our country. But then Congress passed Trump’s budget anyway. And the Supreme Court made it easier to deport more non-white people.
I’m clinging to faith because I don’t know what else to do. But honestly? This isn’t getting better, it’s getting worse. Because Trump’s sheer incompetence and evil intent dictate that the best we can hope for right now is a standstill, while the best of us man the barricades against the onslaught of destruction in the hope that help is on the way. Except I don’t see the Cavalry in sight.
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I feel the same. They have been planning this for a generation, and they're having a very nice time. Trump has been a godsend to them; he's not the one in charge, but he's the one the voters love. The cavalry is more and more unlikely to arrive.
I think our only shot is the 2026 midterms. We only need a few seats (and there are cracks in the MAGA block). It will be difficult to convince the low-information voters because many of the most outrageous changes in the Big Beautiful Bill don't take effect until after the midterms, but if we can't stop them now it seems unlikely that we will stop them at all.
We also have to support independent candidates. The Democratic Party machinery is not designed for warfare.
I feel the same. They have been planning this for a generation, and they're having a very nice time. Trump has been a godsend to them; he's not the one in charge, but he's the one the voters love. The cavalry is more and more unlikely to arrive.
I think our only shot is the 2026 midterms. We only need a few seats (and there are cracks in the MAGA block). It will be difficult to convince the low-information voters because many of the most outrageous changes in the Big Beautiful Bill don't take effect until after the midterms, but if we can't stop them now it seems unlikely that we will stop them at all.
We also have to support independent candidates. The Democratic Party machinery is not designed for warfare.