IT’S A MAGA BROLIGARCHY!
Karl Marx famously wrote that history repeats itself, “The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce”. Many of us grew up thinking that America’s tragic era happened before we were born, when workers could barely get by, women couldn’t vote or divorce, diseases wiped out entire neighborhoods, and the captains of industry bossed politicians around with impunity. We were taught that anti-trust laws had been enacted to reign in the power of corporate interests, that labor laws protected us from the exploitation, and that government would safeguard the civil rights that African Americans fought and died for.
Nothing lasts forever. In came Trump and his great white men, revved up to Make Americans Poor and Desperate Again. We are now governed by a president who hates the idea of government and upends the rule of law. A president who bullies our allies and schmoozes with tyrants. He’s installed his lackeys, fired his critics and unleashed a bunch of techno-brownshirts on the agencies that were supposed to safeguard our security, protect our resources, and provide for our health. He’s invading our privacy, and tromping on the elderly and the poor. Thousand of federal workers who managed our pensions, tended to our taxes, protected our parks and attended to our veterans have been unceremoniously dumped without cause. So have thousands of foreign aid workers who’ve spent decades eliminating deadly diseases and caring for the destitute around the world. Say goodbye to the good will that our better selves once ensured. America has thrown in with the bad guys of the 21st century. And all of this is happening in order to line the pockets of Trump’s cronies while he of course does nothing to bring down the price of eggs.
The Trump presidency does feels like something of a farce –its interminable stream of executive actions is exceedingly dramatic. The tough guy rhetorical posturing feels overblown. DOGE’s hyperbolic claims about eliminating government waste are absurd. But this farce isn’t funny – it’s terrifying. The coup d’etat has begun and who knows if lawsuits and protests can stop it. Marx made another astute observation about history repeating itself. He wrote: “The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” The Siren is here to wake you up. Fight back and end this nightmare!
