"...Trump’s false and dystopian portrait of the nation takes to its
logical conclusion the narrative Republicans have pushed since the
1980s. Since the days of Reagan, Republicans have argued that people who
believe that the government should regulate business, provide a basic
social safety net, protect civil rights, and promote infrastructure are
destroying the country by trying to redistribute wealth from hardworking
white Americans to undeserving minorities and women. Now Trump has
taken that argument to its logical conclusion: the country has been
destroyed by women, Black Americans, Indigenous people, and people of
color, who have taken it over and are persecuting people like him.
"This
old Republican narrative created a false image of the nation and of its
politics, an image pushed to a generation of Americans by right-wing
media, a vision that MAGA Republicans have now absorbed as part of their
identity. It reflects a manipulation of politics that Russian political
theorists called 'political technology...'” -- Heather Cox Richardson, in her "Letters from an American" Substack. The similarity of Republican tactics to autocratic Russian manipulation of politics through "political technology" (which Richardson goes on to explain) isn't coincidental. It's how parties that want to pervert democracy gain and hold power. Trump's "they're not after me, they're after you" is the final call to the Republican cult that's been curated for more than 40 years to "take back the country." Forewarned is forearmed.
