His death does not end the national nightmare

I did get down to the Detroit Film Theater Sunday afternoon for the last show in their silent film festival. This one was Go West, starring Buster Keaton, released about 1925. It is a lot funnier and has a more cohesive story than the early Charlie Chaplin films I saw a few days ago. Keaton plays a guy who was let go from his job. He tries city life, but doesn’t like the crowds. So he hops on a train going west. As soon as I saw a train car full of barrels not standing on end I knew they were not going to stay put and that an idiot loaded them. Of course, Keaton makes good comic use of the error. He leaves the train not far from a ranch, so he asks for a job there. And gets one. But he knows nothing about ranching – told to milk a cow he puts the bucket at one end and sits on a stool at the other end and encourages the cow. After the movie I thought my dad and his father (both went to college for farming) would have loved that scene – and the whole movie. Along the way he befriends a cow (or maybe it befriends him – I wonder if one is able to train a cow to act as one is able to train a dog). When the owner decides it is time to send the herd to market he tries to protect his cow. Yeah, this was an enjoyable afternoon. Here be spoilers. The cattle are loaded onto a train, including Keaton’s cow and himself. There is a gun battle with workers from another ranch. Keaton’s boss will be ruined if the cattle don’t arrive at the stockyards and the other ranch will be ruined if they do. After the battle the train becomes a runaway, which he stops, but they’re a long way from the stockyards. So he drives the cattle through the city – with people fleeing and lots of fun when cattle wander into the various stores. Of course, he saves the day and gets to keep his cow. Kos of Daily Kos listed ten reasons why Republicans are screwed in 2026. I’ll mentioned some of them. Republicans are losing elections and losing big. The nasty guy is noticeably ill. Republicans are associated with the nasty guy and his policies. The nasty guy isn’t on the ballot and many of his devoted followers vote only when he is. The economy stinks. A historic number of Republicans are retiring from Congress. Young voters and Latinos have turned against the nasty guy. A MAGA civil war has begun. In sharp contrast to that glee... I have an idea for a post that would be appropriate when the nasty guy dies. However, Christopher Armitage of the Kos community posted one quite similar to what I have in mind, so I might as well discuss his. The basic idea is that the death of the nasty guy does not end the national nightmare. He is a pawn of the billionaires, even if he doesn’t always do what they want, and those billionaires will still be around and still be protected by the Republican Party. The billionaires and their front organization the Republicans groomed him and protected him and funded him, because they saw he would do the damage to democracy and government they wanted done. The whole goal of the billionaires and the Republican Party is “insulating Republican rule from democratic accountability.” “The party has spent decades building the infrastructure of preventing democratic functioning.” That doesn’t end when the nasty guy dies. Armitage listed some other things that remain after his death. The Supreme Court, who Republicans rigged to allow him to appoint two extra justices and who declared he’s above the law, serve for life. They will happily continue to protect conservative efforts and overturn progressive efforts, ignoring what the Constitution says. Project 2025 is partially implemented – Armitage lists 47% -- and will stay that way until actively revoked. Armitage says that 47% number comes from the Partnership for Public Service and their federal harms tracker. Project 2025 came from the Heritage Foundation, not from the nasty guy. The gutted federal agencies do not get rebuilt overnight, the 200,000 federal employees forced out likely have gotten jobs elsewhere. Dismantled regulations stay dismantled. The Federalist Society built a conservative judicial pipeline, which is still active. The courts remain captured. Gerrymandering for partisan reasons remains legal. Efforts to suppress voters continue. The John Lewis voter rights law was not passed. Dark money is still legal. The Republican method of declaring Democrats not just wrong, but evil, continues. Fox News still spews its conservative propaganda.

Trump is their most effective instrument. He normalized what was previously unthinkable. He proved what was possible. He moved the ball further down the field than anyone before him. But he is still an instrument. When he is gone, everything he proved remains proven. Every precedent he set remains set. Every norm he shattered remains shattered. The Republican Party has been building toward this for 50 years. The Powell Memo. The Heritage Foundation. The Federalist Society. Gingrich burning down congressional norms. The Southern Strategy. Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. McConnell holding a Supreme Court seat hostage for a year. Trump did not break the system. He is the product of a party that spent half a century crafting the tools to end American democracy.

Armitage wrote that while the current Republican Party exists our democracy remains under threat. While true, it misses the greater threat, that being the billionaires and their unrestricted efforts to bribe the president, Congress, the Supreme Court, and state legislatures. In the comments is another component. The billionaires have also bought the Democratic Party. They won’t do anything that would stop the flow of donation checks. They will only make small changes, not the big ones needed to protect and reinforce our democracy. We’ve allowed ourselves to focus on one guy. That way we can believe when he’s gone our job is done. But don’t wait for his death because the same fight will continue.

So what actually works? Three things. First, states must investigate, prosecute, and criminally indict corrupt politicians at every level and refuse to hand those cases up to federal jurisdiction. If we don’t hold these people accountable ourselves, no one will. This should be done through an interstate anti-corruption compact where states work together to rid our federal government of criminal actors. Second, states must build social safety nets at the state and multi-state level that actually improve residents’ lives, because the federal government has been captured and isn’t coming to help. Third, multi-state non-compliance with bulls--- SCOTUS and federal decisions. That’s it. That’s what needs to happen. It takes political will, and it takes us demanding it from every state official we can reach.

A couple items from the comments of Sunday’s pundit roundup for Kos. A cartoon by Jimmy Margulies shows a well dressed couple leaving “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The man says, “Great concert... Terrific Trump-Beethoven 5th Symphony... Sparkling Trump-Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite... Rousing Trump-Vivaldi The Four Seasons.” The other item is a pair of tweets. John Strand tweeted:

America is a Christian nation. It was settled by Christian pioneers, established by our Declaration of Independence based on biblical truth. Our constitution was designed by Christians based on Judeo-Christian principles. We must return to God. We must restore the promise.

Micah Erfan responded with three quotes:

Thomas Jefferson: “Christianity neither is, or ever was a part of the common law.” James Madison: “Religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together.” John Adams: “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

Strand’s demand that America return to God implies Strand demands America enforce the social hierarchy he claims is a central part of Christianity, but completely misunderstands what Jesus is about. Almost two weeks ago Lisa Needham of Kos reported that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which Congress created to protect historic structures, sued to stop construction of the nasty guy’s ballroom at least until they had a chance to review the plans for the building. Yeah, there is doubt the plans exist yet. But a US District just said the Trust didn’t show it would face harm while it waited to see the plans. So construction may continue. Gosh, the nasty guy didn’t have to go all the way to the Supremes.

Physical comedy

Detroit had its first major snowfall of the season. Yeah, that usually happens in December and many times in November. To have our first storm when January is about 2/3 over is rare. My exercise today was shoveling 3-4 inches off my driveway.

This storm was well predicted. So I didn’t go out today, just let it snow. Instead, I went to the Detroit Institute of Arts yesterday. I looked through the new Asian wing, which seems to have space for more art than what is actually on display.

I also went to the Detroit Film Theater to see The Great Buster a documentary about Buster Keaton. He was born in 1895 to a Vaudeville family and was part of the act at a very young age. He is best known for the comedic silent films he made in the 1920s, first films of about 30-40 minutes, then in 1925-28 feature length films. Those are considered some of the best films of the silent era and he is known as a master of physical comedy. After that he joined MGM, which was a disaster. He recovered to be featured in a few more films and was still working up to his death in 1966 at age 70.

But going yesterday meant I saw only the documentary. Today they were to also show a couple Keaton films. It would have been nice to see both the films and the documentary. So this afternoon I watched one of the films, Sherlock Jr., online. The other, Seven Chances, is also online, but will have to wait. Of course, many of his other films are also online.