We all know Trump is looking for optics, and a protest he can recast as lawlessness and riots is exactly the kind of "conflagration" we don't need. But Ben Raderstorf provides much-needed perspective and good advice here. We must not let a desperate, flailing autocrat drag us into his dangerous game. Stay strong, speak forcefully, but stay in control.
Note that it excerpts a column I published in March of 2024, laying out this very scenario (the dictator's doom loop) as all but inexorable. I appreciate your optimism that, if WE play OUR cards right, we can emerge from this assault with our democratic faculties intact.
No doubt Trump is hoping for, and will be ginning up, his Proud Boy thugs to get something going that he can point to on Fox news as the need to give him more power. This will not end well. Especially with the geldings in the House.
We all know Trump is looking for optics, and a protest he can recast as lawlessness and riots is exactly the kind of "conflagration" we don't need. But Ben Raderstorf provides much-needed perspective and good advice here. We must not let a desperate, flailing autocrat drag us into his dangerous game. Stay strong, speak forcefully, but stay in control.
“Everything hinges on how we show up.” Absolutely. Keep our collective cool and defeat Trump’s plan.
Absolutely brilliant article
Thank you for this very insightful and important article and guidance. You may find, by way of comparing notes, this column to be of interest: https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/the-dictators-doom-loop-revisited-trump-wont-go-gentle/.
Note that it excerpts a column I published in March of 2024, laying out this very scenario (the dictator's doom loop) as all but inexorable. I appreciate your optimism that, if WE play OUR cards right, we can emerge from this assault with our democratic faculties intact.
No doubt Trump is hoping for, and will be ginning up, his Proud Boy thugs to get something going that he can point to on Fox news as the need to give him more power. This will not end well. Especially with the geldings in the House.
And these days you can’t physically tell the Proud Boys from ICE. Or from some yahoo that bought his outfit on Amazon.