I’ve been thinking about this so much. When I first learned about the Holocaust in grade school, I couldn’t comprehend how people had let it happen. It seemed unfathomable—like a moral failure so vast it could never repeat. But while working on the campaign in 2024, I realized exactly how it happens.
I’ve been thinking about this so much. When I first learned about the Holocaust in grade school, I couldn’t comprehend how people had let it happen. It seemed unfathomable—like a moral failure so vast it could never repeat. But while working on the campaign in 2024, I realized exactly how it happens.
It’s not some dramatic, singular moment where a society collectively decides to embrace evil. It’s a slow unraveling, a series of rationalizations, a society becoming desensitized one step at a time. It’s people telling themselves it won’t go that far, that surely someone else will stop it. And now, I see it happening in real-time, without a doubt.
The terrifying thing is, history doesn’t warn us—it demonstrates for those willing to see. And once you recognize the pattern, you understand: the question was never 'how could they let this happen?' The question is 'why do we keep doing nothing until it’s too late?
I'll leave with something I wrote early this week: No leader who believes himself above the law ever steps aside. No system that enables him will stop him, and no amount of hoping, debating, or clinging to institutional delusions will alter the brutal mechanics of power. This is America.
It is also a significant portion of the populace and their leaders that do think that this all good until it is too late. A significant part of our country wants this to happen, and then it gains momentum.
Mother Nature gets a say, too. The current President does not look well. His healthy diet and vigorous exercise regime might play a huge role in our nation's governance.
I so wish this was an answer to our problems. This is not a Trump problem. This is a power problem. The nation isn’t sliding red because of some great ideological awakening—it’s shifting because authoritarianism, once rooted, spreads like wildfire in a dry forest. It doesn’t need mass approval. It only requires inertia, exhaustion, the steady erosion of dissent. If this was a Trump problem, I would almost say it wasn’t a problem. Let’s assume Trump steps down in 2029 (As of today I say there is a 45% chance he does https://substack.com/home/post/p-156017348) All of the same problems, exposures, and failures of the guardrails still remain. I think actually Trump in many ways is the best-case scenario because he is so obviously intellectually incapable. Almost any future person to take the throne will be more competent, capable, and therefore much, much more dangerous.
Yes, but he has always looked like that. I wouldn’t put it past the Republicans to artificially animate him, maintaining the illusion that he’s alive! Maybe that’s why Musk is being so indulged. LOL /s/
I’ve been thinking about this so much. When I first learned about the Holocaust in grade school, I couldn’t comprehend how people had let it happen. It seemed unfathomable—like a moral failure so vast it could never repeat. But while working on the campaign in 2024, I realized exactly how it happens.
It’s not some dramatic, singular moment where a society collectively decides to embrace evil. It’s a slow unraveling, a series of rationalizations, a society becoming desensitized one step at a time. It’s people telling themselves it won’t go that far, that surely someone else will stop it. And now, I see it happening in real-time, without a doubt.
The terrifying thing is, history doesn’t warn us—it demonstrates for those willing to see. And once you recognize the pattern, you understand: the question was never 'how could they let this happen?' The question is 'why do we keep doing nothing until it’s too late?
I'll leave with something I wrote early this week: No leader who believes himself above the law ever steps aside. No system that enables him will stop him, and no amount of hoping, debating, or clinging to institutional delusions will alter the brutal mechanics of power. This is America.
It is also a significant portion of the populace and their leaders that do think that this all good until it is too late. A significant part of our country wants this to happen, and then it gains momentum.
Mother Nature gets a say, too. The current President does not look well. His healthy diet and vigorous exercise regime might play a huge role in our nation's governance.
I so wish this was an answer to our problems. This is not a Trump problem. This is a power problem. The nation isn’t sliding red because of some great ideological awakening—it’s shifting because authoritarianism, once rooted, spreads like wildfire in a dry forest. It doesn’t need mass approval. It only requires inertia, exhaustion, the steady erosion of dissent. If this was a Trump problem, I would almost say it wasn’t a problem. Let’s assume Trump steps down in 2029 (As of today I say there is a 45% chance he does https://substack.com/home/post/p-156017348) All of the same problems, exposures, and failures of the guardrails still remain. I think actually Trump in many ways is the best-case scenario because he is so obviously intellectually incapable. Almost any future person to take the throne will be more competent, capable, and therefore much, much more dangerous.
Yes, but he has always looked like that. I wouldn’t put it past the Republicans to artificially animate him, maintaining the illusion that he’s alive! Maybe that’s why Musk is being so indulged. LOL /s/
"Weekend at Bernies" was supposed to be a joke, not a suggestion! :)