Trump's Race Against Time

 

G. Elliott Morris takes a look at the Malignant Fascist's race to consolidate power as his poll numbers tank below other authoritarians.  Some key findings:

This post is largely a response to an article Paul Krugman published last week. Krugman asks, in “Is the Jimmy Kimmel Saga a Sign that the Tide is Turning?”, whether Trump is finally overstepping the bounds of public opinion so much that elites who had been previously following his lead are now wavering... [snip]

Trump’s presidency has been a case study in how to utilize a narrow popular-vote victory, achieved on the heels of widespread economic dissatisfaction, to consolidate power and shift public policy significantly to the right — far beyond what voters intended.

Yet this shift in government policy to the right has already earned Trump a pronounced backlash in the polls. Trump’s approval rating now is on par with his numbers in 2017, when he earned the achievement of being the most unpopular president ever at this point in his term... [snip]

Autocrats take over countries when elites — business leaders, media figures, civil society — accommodate rather than resist. This was the story of much of the first six months of Trump’s second term. But, to bring this back to Krugman’s question about Kimmel, when a late-night comedian can successfully defy the president — when that comedian’s parent company feels sufficiently emboldened by public response to defy the president, despite threats of regulatory pressure — his power is in question. The autocratic veneer begins to chip away.

Now, Trump is racing against time, trying to consolidate power before his unpopularity renders his coalition too small to accomplish much, and his demands for fealty ineffective.

Last year, the president claimed an unprecedented mandate. The numbers tell a different story now.

 Here are some of those numbers:

The Malignant Fascist's "benefit of the doubt" period ended before it began. Almost nothing that he's doing -- from inflation, to his ruinous tariffs, to his extortionist tactics, to his public corruption, to his use of the power of the state against domestic foes, to his covering up the Epstein files, etc. -- has popular support.  Far from it. And his "coalition" is shrinking in direct, inverse proportion to his increasing dementia, which is another race the MF is losing.  

The MF's "autocratic veneer" is starting to chip away.  This is the time to fight back, and fight hard, to preserve what's left of American democracy.