Friday, February 26, 2021

The Art of War


You can’t just go about your business when you’re on the interstate.  You have to drive defensively. Sometimes the best defense is an offense—something which particularly applies when a Trump caravan surrounds you and tries to run you off the highway since they don’t like the sticker on your fender. It’s apparent that Trump is not sitting idly by in Mar-a-Lago. Now that the impeachment trial is over and he's free to misbehave again, he'll start to engineer his  comeback when he appears at CPAC on Sunday. After that will come the MAGA rallies aimed at Republicans like Adam Kitzinger and Liz Cheney, who went against him. Maybe inflammed hordes will pillage and destroy  the residences of people like Ben Sasse, Nicky Haley, Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney. Intimidation is one of the principles of the totalitarian state. You have to show the opposition that a severe price will be paid for those who stand up. Hitler used the Gestapo; Stalin created his notorious Gulag. Trump uses the naked violence of mob (sometimes lynch mob) rule. Will Biden’s coalition politics be enough to withstand constant attack? Will the message of conciliation and inclusivity fall on deaf ears amidst the drumbeats of Trump’s war song? It’s hard to fight fire with fire when your message is peace. How would a master manipulator and strong arm liberal like Lyndon Johnson have snuffed Trump’s flame?

Read Francis Levy's "Died Young," The Brooklyn Rail

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