When he says you are fired. We sit down and say let’s see you enforce that. And then we do it again. We strike. We occupy. We encamp. We sanctuary.
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The administrative spectacle now unfolding in Washington exceeds all expectations. How should we respond? What is appropriate? I remember Abbie Hoffman and the general inclination of those New Left times, and other situations as well, when people tried to extinguish evil with ridicule and satire, with facts and debate, or with ridicule and facts both at once.
But what Donald Trump and his allies undertake, with who knows what precise calculations, is beyond the beyond. How should we respond to that?
Imagine you hear his press secretary. She says she exists to tell the truth. About a minute later she brazenly lies. She says $50 million goes from Joe Biden to Hamas for condoms that Hamas then turns into bombs. Could any satirist come up with that? How should we respond to that?
Or suppose you hear Trump’s medical guru who accurately says processed foods kill kids, and two minutes later delivers bubble gum-level commentary that, despite having no medical provenance, would bring back polio and measles. How should we respond to that?
Then Trump himself says a horrible crash of a military helicopter and a commercial plane was, of course, the fault of DEI. He works to eliminate DEI so we can have only the best and brightest responsible — presumably like his team of highly accomplished Cabinet appointees. He wants top-flight geniuses of the highest moral quality, like himself. How should we reply to that?
All that was in a span of, what, three days? I don’t think a comic — to get laughs, much less to delegitimize a target — could dream up hypothetical lunacy to use to ridicule our politicians that exceeds what they routinely, daily, ridicule themselves with.
Can He Win the War After Losing Every Battle?
One way to respond to Trump and Company’s tsunami of vile nonsense is of course to dissect the words. We might with the utmost calm civility reveal assumptions, discern implications, and logically reject it all. Indeed, countless commentators have been doing just that really well. The critics’ assaults are intellectually definitive. So why should I repeat the shellacking? You have likely all seen plenty of it. And plenty of comic-infused ridicule as well. I certainly have. But how is that going?
Who has the upper hand? The maniacs who projectile vomit what seem like total inanities that should bring them unlimited disdain and kill their legitimacy? Or the critics and comics who calmly provide carefully verified facts or hilarious jokes that, if it hadn’t already been established without their help, should certainly provide the final nail in Trump and Company’s political coffins?
To my eyes, the critics and comics keep winning specific battles — but by the time they do, the maniac has moved on. So too have all who heard Trump and Company’s later demolished utterances. We critics and comics win but only after the fact. Hooray for critical civility and raucous satire! Those who listen to the logic and laugh at the jokes think the Trumpian spectacle must be unravelling. We exult and we laugh. Surely the absence of any grip on actual circumstances is too great to persist — isn’t it? Trump is circling the drain, isn’t he?
Trump is flexing. His point is to scare everyone into submission. He opts to be unpredictable and excessive, the better to establish his power.
However, I can’t avoid also seeing that, barely deterred, the maniacs continue to spew. Their supporters still smile.
From their political and financial thrones, Trump and Company implement this or that favored program while they set aside other favored programs met by popular outbursts. They don’t seem to care that one program quickly succeeds but some other program doesn’t. Vice versa would be fine with them. One more or less, no big deal.
They only care how well they are tightening their grip, one squeeze at a time, on unstoppable power.
We watch them advocate this and advocate that and we focus on each new insane issue. Collectively, we have no choice. We must do so since otherwise it will all happen.
But, for them, whether they win or lose a particular issue doesn’t matter as long as they win enough issues to claim often enough and loudly enough that they are more impactful than anyone has ever been.
Trump is flexing. His point is to scare everyone into submission. He opts to be unpredictable and excessive, the better to establish his power.
If Greenland isn’t subsumed, no problem, forget about it. Instead we axed evil inspectors. We decimated wind farm plans. On the other hand, if we can get Greenland, then it is one more reason everyone has to run scared. None of his efforts have anything to do with the well-being of anything other than Trump and Company.
Threaten Canada and Mexico. Canada and Mexico do what they were already doing. Claim bullying worked. Their grip tightens. They assault what they call despicable departments like USAID and Education. If they don’t manage to immediately entirely shut them down, they leave them to languish on life support. Next, all means of life support enter Trump’s target list.
Trump and Company mean to conquer the boring structural stuff as quickly as they can while they demonstrate their willingness to punish and repress anything they wish. The more outlandish they are deemed, the better. Unpredictability means everyone has to watch out. The only implication they care about is entrenching their freedom to act however they wish. That in hand, they expect to implement more later. That is their game plan. And what is the more they lust after? Whatever Trump can parlay into personal wealth and even more personal power for Trump and Company.
“Drill, baby, drill” has to be one of the single most suicidal, maniacal, slogans ever put forth by a human. It is right up there with “we destroyed the village to save it,” and “everything that flies on anything that moves.” But there’s a key difference. The earlier vulgarities are rationalizations about specific targets. His fossil fuel vulgarity instead says “Look at me, I do and I get whatever I choose. Watch out, I could come for you next.”
Drill, baby, drill is the orange man’s suicidal mantra. Meanwhile, California insurance companies cut off those whose houses are cinders and at the same time invest in fossil fuel. Yes, I read that just a few hours ago. And no, I am not going to fact check it. Why bother? It could be true. Would it surprise you? It could be false. Surprised? I could have made it up. Or not. Isn’t it evident that nothing surprises? And isn’t that the point?
Trump doesn’t just lie. Trump systematically makes truth irrelevant. Truth counts less than zero. In its place, Trump’s wildly unpredictable whims dominate everyone’s concerns. His words, however vile and stupid, have automatic provenance. That is their power. We are supposed to give them dignity and fealty. That is their effectiveness. How should we appropriately respond to that?
Trump wants us all worried about what he will do next. He wants us to think how do we conduct ourselves to avoid his wrath? How should we change our agendas to avoid provoking him to scorch us? Let’s cut abortions in our hospital that might piss him off. Let’s eliminate history that he would reject from our curriculum. Let’s not use the word gender in a medical article. When fired, let’s leave. Let’s do his work for him.
Trump wants us to abet a maelstrom of vicious violence and monumental greed sufficient to reduce interest in, provenance of, and the dignity that is due to truth. Trump doesn’t just lie. Trump systematically makes truth irrelevant. Truth counts less than zero. In its place, Trump’s wildly unpredictable whims dominate everyone’s concerns. His words, however vile and stupid, have automatic provenance. That is their power. We are supposed to give them dignity and fealty. That is their effectiveness. How should we appropriately respond to that?
When the Will to Power Runs Wild
Let’s retain a degree of sanity about all this. Grotesque lying isn’t new. Insane divergence from actual, humane reason and caring isn’t new. The brazenness of how Trump does it, however, is new. The destination it is all headed toward is also new.
How long until Trump encounters a court that tells him, cut that out? The court passes an injunction to stop some act that Trump wishes to undertake. We will know that fascistic tactics have birthed fascistic circumstances if Trump says to such a court, “nice decree, now let’s see you enforce it,” as he proceeds to do exactly what their injunction forbids.
That is the goal Trump has in his sights. Trump in total charge. The rest of us on our knees.
He is not vested in every little thing that he throws against the wall. He is not even vested in his overall impact on the wall. No, he has his eyes on the extent to which he can remold government, reorient police and military, and retain and enlarge support among sufficient population to successfully bully or repress anyone who disagrees with him. Then he can play whatever tune he wants, mostly to engorge himself.
Have I exaggerated? You don’t know, do you? Well, I don’t know either. But the above possible scenario could be precisely what Trump has his eyes on. It would make sense of all his seemingly crazy choices for Cabinet and policies.
If they think I am a madman, great. They will then cower and cringe as they prophylactically do whatever they think I want. If I run into bumps along the road? No problem. I will just replace rejected Cabinet choices with new ones equally or more servile. I will in any event wind up with someone on my leash.
Trump doesn’t care about the individuals. Trump cares about successfully reorganizing the context. He cares about servility. He will move on from policies he can’t implement without even a slight pause, and if he really does seriously especially like one or two, he won’t worry since in his mind he will return to those the first chance he gets.
If this assessment of his intentions may be even roughly right, we have to act to stop Trump’s plan until we are sure that people of good will and solid soul are dancing on his plan’s grave.
So what is the appropriate response to today’s unfolding nightmare? Well, partly the response is being undertaken already, and again, and again, and will undoubtedly keep being undertaken. Hear each utterance and drown it in contrary evidence. Broil it in unchallengeable logic making clear its abysmal implications. Ridicule it as well. And, especially, actively oppose it. That much is happening. It has a significant role and it will keep happening. From all kinds of directions.
Beyond Facts, Evidence, Logic, Patient Refutation
But will that much be enough?
I fear it may not be. I don’t know, but I think fact, evidence, and logic won’t alone slay the monster when the monster so ignores truth and moves on from whatever stance it might have tentatively taken at the slightest sign that that stance might not prevail.
I think there is a connection between Trump and his most devoted acolytes and even many of his not quite as devoted voters that rests on entirely different grounds from those we so easily rip up. If that is so, then we may need to address those additional factors even beyond evidence and logic. Rip up the nonsense, to be sure. But then what do we do about the stronger connection? How do we respond appropriately to that?
First, to stop Trump we have to create fear in Trump’s nearly impenetrable mind that our actions are going to cost him more than he is willing to endure, so that he curtails his choices to reduce his personal risk. We scare him more or less like he wants to scare us.
For that we may not need to address the connection between Trump and his allies. If we can grow sufficient resistance, with sufficient breadth of focus and depth of commitment, with a growth trajectory that threatens ever more resistance, that may be enough. That may deter, deflect, and finally stop his efforts.
But hold on. Our goal isn’t, or it shouldn’t be, only to stop Trump. We don’t want to return to pre-Trump repressed, unequal, grossly denied, malevolently antagonistic conditions in which we are still obedient to elites beyond our reach. We want to stop Trump and then continue on to make society finally great, at last. We want justifiable equity. Empathetic solidarity. Respectful diversity. Sustainable ecology. Wise peace. And collective, participatory, self-management.
To do all that we will need most Trump supporters to cut loose of him even as they retain their passion and anger at their actual circumstances and align with the equally rightful passion and anger others have, as well.
So, what is the appropriate response? To raise the cost we need to scream “No!” When Trump and Company say do this or do that — we need to refuse and rebel.
To critique the lies and reveal their true implications is good. To bring lawsuits is good. But to say, no you can’t come in here, and then block his access is better.
When he says you are fired, we sit down and say let’s see you enforce that. And then we do it again. We strike. We occupy. We encamp. We sanctuary.
But to fuel all that, and to break through the defensive walls of the deep rabbit holes many have climbed down, we not only provide fact and logic, we also redefine the conversation with committed emotion.
Passion doesn’t have to be dismissive. It can embrace at a whole new level. You are angry. Me too. You feel disrespected. Me too.
We agree there’s a problem. You think I am the problem. I think Trump is. Let’s sort it out.
That conversation, however, doesn’t change who and what Trump is. Trump deserves nothing but disdain. Trump is a liar. Trump is a self-centered monster. Trump and his billionaire friends are the opposite of what we all need. When Trump swings, okay, we have to parry the blow. But the best defense is a good offense.
Respect? Trump deserves none. Legitimacy? Trump deserves none. Not even civility. Trump is not even contemptible. He doesn’t rise that high. We need to couple facts, logic, and humor with total impassioned organized rejection.
Trump deserves total disdain, dismissal, and disobedience. He says jump, we sit. He says sit, we jump. Strip Trump of his weapons and bluster and he is a tiny, little cancer that we must medicate to oblivion before he gets any bigger. We should respectfully reach out to his support — we need that to beat him and win much more beyond. But we should not play nice with a poisonous snake.
Originally appearing at znetwork.org. Reprinted by permission of the author and LA Progressive.
Michael Albert’s political involvements, starting in the 1960s and continuing to the present, have ranged from local, regional, and national organizing projects and campaigns to co-founding South End Press, Z Magazine, the Z Media Institute, and ZNet.
