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Let's start with the obvious. Yes, in the MAGA world of Donald Trump's Republican Party, white supremacism and Christian nationalism have been on the rise for years. But to be clear, Donald Trump isn't a Christian nationalist; he isn't even an evangelical Christian. He's an evangelical Trumpian. And he isn't a white supremacist either, not because he isn't "white" or distinctly prejudiced, but because he doesn't believe in the supremacy of anything but Donald Trump and whatever in the world will make him the Biggest Man Around. Whatever he says, The Donald isn't an advocate for an ultimate white or evangelical Christian right to power, even if he's lent a grotesque helping hand to both. The only power he's focused on, the one that's at the very heart and soul of the MAGA world and of Trumpism, is his own.
The Donald, in other words, is the ultimate Trumpist. If it turned out that Zen Buddhists or "the Blacks" were the key to that goal becoming our reality, he would be doing his damnedest to woo them. In fact, when it comes to Blacks, he's been doing that, however awkwardly, of late. But the remarkable thing about him is that, in some sense, he's awkward with everyone, every group, every person but himself. And yet, his appeal, explain it as you will, has been, and continues to be, stunning for someone for whom no one else in the world seems to truly exist (unless they're in his camp and dedicated to helping him 24 hours a day).
In some sense, before he ever entered American politics, in his own mind at least, Donald Trump was already the ultimate autocrat, a Power of One and Only One. Today, TomDispatch regular Andrea Mazzarino considers just what that Power of One might lead to in a future almost too close and too possible to bear. Tom
If America Were a Trumpian Autocracy
The Lies We'd Be Told About War (and So Much Else)
We should already be talking about what it would be like, if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, to live under a developing autocracy. Beyond the publicized plans of those around him to gut the federal civil service system and consolidate power in the hands of You Know Who, under Trump 2.0, so much else would change for the worse.
All too many of us who now argue about the Ukraine and Gaza wars and their ensuing humanitarian crises, about police violence and extremism in the military here at home, about all sorts of things, would no longer share a common language. Basics that once might have meant the same thing to you and me, like claiming someone won an election, might become unsafe to mention. In a Trump 2.0 world, more of our journalists would undoubtedly face repercussions and need to find roundabout ways to allude to all too many topics. A moving opinion column by the New York Times's David French, who faced threats for his writing about Donald Trump, highlighted how some who voiced their views on him already need round-the-clock police protection to ensure their safety and that of their family.
I often think about the slippery slope we Americans could soon find ourselves on. After all, from the time Vladimir Putin became Russia's president in 1999, I spent 20 years traveling to his country and back, working there first as an anthropology doctoral student and later as a human rights researcher. I've followed Russian politics closely, including as a therapist specializing in war-affected populations, asylum seekers, and refugees. Friends and colleagues of mine there have faced threats to their safety and their careers amid a Kremlin crackdown on public discussion after Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and several fled the country with their families in search of safety and a better life.
To be sure, there are many differences between the United States, with its robust democratic tradition, and Russia, which only briefly had competitive elections and a free press. Nonetheless, my experiences there offer a warning about how a Trumpian version of top-down rule could someday stifle any possibility of calling out state-sponsored violence for what it is, and what it might feel like if that's our situation here someday.
Tucker Carlson's Moscow
On first look, far-right journalist Tucker Carlson's recent visit to Moscow, covered exuberantly by Russia's state media, might seem like an example of an American tourist's naïve glorification of another country's luxuries. Carlson marveled at the fancy tilework of the city's subway system, visited the national ballet, and noted that you can buy caviar cheaply at the local grocery store. He also pointed out that Moscow's pristine streets had no homeless people and no apparent poverty.
In the gilded halls of the Kremlin palace, he interviewed President Putin for more than two hours. Despite his guileless expression, Carlson occasionally appeared flummoxed as Putin lectured him endlessly on Russian history and the centuries-old claim he insisted Moscow has on Kyiv as its protector from aggressors near and far. Of course, he never challenged Putin on his rationale for invading that country (nor did he refer to it as an invasion) or any of the Russian leader's other outrageous claims.
I'm of the school of thought that considers Putin's Russia exactly the sort of anti-woke paradise the MAGA crowd craves. Anyone of Carlson's age who grew up during the Cold War and turned on his or her television in that pivotal period when the Berlin Wall fell should certainly know that all of Russia doesn't look anything like what he was shown. He should also have known about the recent history of economic "shock therapy" that drained Russian public services of funding and human resources, not to speak of the decades of corruption and unfair economic policies that enriched a choice few in Putin's circle at the expense of so many.
Of course, something had to happen to turn the Moscow that Carlson saw into a sanitized moonscape. If you haven't been following developments in Russia under Putin, let me summarize what I've noticed.
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