It's enough to make you take to your bed. The media storm has become such a morass, such a realm of chaos. It's often case of liars calling out liars and answering distortions with what can only be described as manipulation.
To make sense of this story or exchange it helps one to think of clash between the Roman Empire under the Late Republic and the threat of Sullan Dictatorship. Both were evil entities and yet the political winds are noteworthy and applicable. Lives were affected as was the course of subsequent history. That's no less true today. As Christians we live in this society and even though we're strangers and pilgrims it behooves us to understand what is happening.
The Deep State is real but it's accurate to say that under Trump it became associated (at least in his circles) with any political or bureaucratic resistance to him. The NPR story is not really acknowledging the existence of a Deep State but rather his misuse of the concept. It's not the same thing.
It's clear that Trump walks and talks like a dictator and yet is such a feckless and muddled coward that he failed to act on it most of the time. He's a classic schoolyard bully. Now whether he will be more aggressive in a second term is open for debate and is an open guess. He and those around him have suggested a kind of Sulla-like turn, a policy of proscription in which he will pursue enemies. Under Trump the Constitution is a dead document. Those that trumpet the document and its ideals as well as support Trump live in a state of ignorance and dissonance - or more rightly, delusion.
But it has been a dead letter for years. One can trace its decline from the end of the Civil War to another significant departure in the aftermath of World War II. GW Bush launched a full assault on the basic rights that make the Constitution meaningful and functional. His recasting has simply become normalised. The media is crying wolf in some respects. In others, Trump is indeed a real threat to the system - the system as it now is, not the idealized system that ceased to exist long ago. In that sense the magnitude of his threat must be understood in pragmatic or practical terms - not in terms of ideology.
Now Tom Bowman talks about how Mark Milley had to explain to Trump why it was necessary to keep American troops in Syria. This is begging the question and in fact is farcical as the US occupation of Eastern Syria is by any metric - illegal. And it rests on the bogus narratives surrounding the genesis, course, and conclusion of the Syrian Civil War. Bowman is expressing the values of American Exceptionalism which are in actuality anti-democratic, hypocritical, and have often been exercised by means of the very Deep State institutions and mechanisms these media figures will in other instances mock and deny. Trump is a threat to the nation and the world and is both vile and very dangerous, but these people are deceivers and using smoke and mirrors to obfuscate the evil empire they serve. And Trump doesn't posit an alternative but would only change the face of the empire - replacing one evil for something more crude but just as wicked.
One is reminded of their coverage of Israel's war on Gaza and the degree of deception. The same is true with regard to the whole Syria episode - from start to finish. From the nature of the uprising, to the bogus Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, to the White Helmets, and the cover-up regarding the informal US alliance with and reliance upon al Qaeda - to the origins and narratives regarding ISIS, the whole thing has been a pack of lies. This was also true of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen. In fact the list could fill pages, such is the magnitude of US deception and mass murder.
Trump for his part had no great insight about Syria - he just didn't see the point. He let slip the bit about seizing the oil (a diplomatic faux pas to be sure) but he is incapable of understanding geo-strategic thinking. As such he was manipulated by means of a fraudulent chemical attack to launching strikes and further committing the US to the situation.
The military is already highly politicised and many red lines have already been crossed. Without a major reform or purge, this will not change. Trump interfered with the attempts to reform the Special Forces. His track record on this point is already established and his cult supports his actions. Unless a Harris administration is prepared to engage in a major shake up and purge - there will be more trouble on the military front with or without Trump winning in November.
Trump would not be able to use the military to remove migrants without Congressional acquiescence. While Harris speaks of Trump being a fascist (which he is) the real problem is that the Republican Party continues to support him. They could remove him from the scene in a heartbeat and so it makes little sense to call out Trump without calling out the threat of the Republican Party to the American democratic system. But there's a problem.... a significant portion of the country supports all this. They are (one could say) democratically undermining the democratic system of American Constitutionalism. This signals the collapse of the system - the proverbial handwriting is on the wall.
One side is turning to pure authoritarianism even while engaging in the fantasy of flag-waving. Their ideology and actions are akin to flag burning but they can't make the connection. It shows how shallow these things really are.
The other side is trying to maintain the fiction of democracy - holding out some hope that if they can just get past this Trump-horror episode things will be okay and return to normal. This too is delusional.
Trump makes lots of wild claims and promises but his record shows that he's mostly full of hot air. His followers acknowledge this but they don't seem to be concerned that he's a serial liar - nor are they concerned that if he developed a backbone or had the right person whispering in his ear, he just might act. They don't care. They've either joined his cult or just take so much delight in 'making liberals cry' they don't care if they bring down the whole edifice in the process. It truly is a Faustian bargain and they will pay the price for it.
Bowman parrots the Establishment line which is rooted in lies and yet Trump does represent a threat to NATO. As far as him 'bowing' to Putin - that's hyperbole if not just plain misleading. The mainstream uses its more nuanced methods of fear-mongering too - never forget that. They are merely more subtle and sophisticated than the base and boorish methods of the Right.
Some of us might be pleased if the US pulled out of Syria and if NATO collapsed. That doesn't mean we love dictators or want the Soviet Union reconstituted - which isn't even on the table. Though I might like to see these things happen, I would never (even if my life depended on it) support Trump. No Christian can support that man.
Trump is not an isolationist, he's just small minded and can only see things in simple transactional terms. I'm afraid I take great umbrage at the suggestion the United States stands for great ideals on the world stage. Right now the United States is actively supporting a genocide in Gaza and in its desperation to retain its empire it is pushing toward a world war. Trump is no solution to this - the chaos he breeds will only make the situation worse when he passes from the scene.
The Supreme Court and increasingly the larger judiciary is a major and glaring problem. Only Congress can address it but once again the Republicans would block any attempt to do so. What does that say about them? They can wear the flag lapel pins but in historical terms they are actively working to subvert the country and its system. The other faction (represented by the likes of NPR) is trying to defend the American order and the status quo system of theft and murder it represents. Like I said it's the Empire under the Republic trying to resist the slide into dictatorship. To try and attach morality to this carnival of decadence is an exercise in futility.
It's lies, theft, and murder all around. It's the American way it would seem.
Anyone with a conscience and a hint of ethics, let alone idealism must be appalled and want to see both sides collapse.
There's no fixing this. These bogus little media discussions offer nothing.
Rather than turn off all politics as some Anabaptists suggest, we need to understand what is happening. Don't vote or participate. Don't join one of the factions but you can't ignore the events. I heard one Anabaptist leader express fear that people following things to closely will get caught up in it all - implying they'll join with the Republicans. That would represent a failure on the part of their leadership to inculcate the principles and ethics regarding the New Testament's teaching on the Christian life. Christians should be aware and vigilant and yet thoroughly repulsed by the Babylonian system and the options it tries to offer. It should make them more determined than ever not to vote, call on the courts, serve on a jury, or seek profit by investing in its markets. To live under it and within it ethically you need to have some understanding of how it works and thus how to resist and live as a pilgrim. The Anabaptists are about the only group trying to wrestle with this - and yet are for the most part failing. The others - the Evangelicals, Confessionalists, and other Right-wing Christian groups that comprise the Christian Right have already sold out and they're going to reap the terrible harvest of judgment and apostasy over the next generation. I think in fact the peals of doom can already be heard.
Only through discernment, study, and Biblical reflection can we hope to understand the world around us and navigate the lies that assault us from all fronts. Unfortunately the Christian community seems the most gullible and the most subject to that which is base and ridiculous, the reporting that tickles ears and pleases the flesh. Something is wrong and once again I blame the shepherds who have not guarded or prepared the sheep by teaching them the Word and stirring within the people of God a fire to learn and discern. Had they done so they would not fall prey to the traps laid by the likes of FOX and Trump and whatever worse is coming.
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