Memoir, from just outside the box
All Hail!
JANUARY 15, 2025
After a decade of making Donald Trump my political science project, I find myself diving for the RESET button.
I didn't intend this Substack site to be political, but after January 6, 2021, I felt I had no choice but to occasionally sidestep the memoir and embrace political relevance. I'm not burned out. I just need to refresh my fighting spirit.
In the Gilded Age (1870-1900), "greed dominated over the social compact on which this country was founded," a social compact created by enlightened oligarchs, our Founders.
Trust-busting Teddy Roosevelt pushed back against the robber barons and ushered in the progressive era.
In the middle of the Roaring Twenties, Calvin Coolidge spoke for Big Money when he stated, "The business of America is business."
From the Depression in 1932 to post-war 1952, FDR and Harry Truman pushed back against Big Money and built the largest middle class the world has ever seen.
The Sixties social revolution pushed back against the straitlaced, narrow, racist, misogynist American imperative and the three top left-wing charismatic leaders… JFK, MLK and RFK… paid the price.
"We cannot allow the rise of a messiah." -J. Edgar Hoover
Today, we are witnessing the repeal of the progressive 20th century. With his farewell speech, Biden is imploring us to hold the line. Biden is calling for political action by the citizens who still care about democracy. "Now it's your turn to stand guard." I think of the partisan fighters in WWII, hiding in the hills and mountains of Europe. We the People are now the Deep State.
We have always been contaminated by amoral oligarchs, whether they be plantation owners, industrialists, railroad magnates, corporate agriculture, big oil, big pharma, the military-industrial complex or today’s tech-industrial complex.
America's openly reactionary era began on January 20, 1981, with "the friendly fascist" and father figure Ronald Reagan starring in the role of president.
We've known from the beginning of the 21st century that the oligarchs are in charge. What we held onto for too long was hope, the stupefying hope that Democratic politicians knew how to fight. They don't. Democrats are weak. Democrats are soft on crime. Democrats are milquetoast.
And hope? Hope is creepy. Hope forestalls action. Hope is a form of crowd control.
JANUARY 20, 2025
"We are a culture awash in lies."
It is ironic that the inauguration took place in the Capitol building, "the crime scene," the edifice attacked by Trump's mob on January 6, 2021.
I am looking for new ways to resist the coming debasement. We must create fresh and unpredictable forms of dissent.
In my teens in the 1960s, there was no way for me to comprehend that what we call democracy is just a thin, vulnerable veneer hiding a massive criminal enterprise, the largest criminal syndicates disguising themselves as nations, all of them amoral and hellbent by their "greed and lust for power."
"When Trump's usefulness has run its course, the oligarchs will kneecap him, turn him into an icon and erect a few statues."
Until then... "All hail! Felonius Maximus!"
The deep state consisting of the American oligarchs and the newly elected government and appointees are now in charge. We the citizens could be called the new deep state but who will be our leaders? Putin used his oligarchs to acquire all the money and then he assassinated them all. Is this Trump’s plan?
This struck me more than ever “We the People are now the Deep State.” Finding ways to safeguard our democracy, doing the small things we can do and growing from there.