GOVERNMENT IS FORCE.

When "public affairs" programming turns almost all of its focus on National Policy, and within that focus on the Presidency (can't the guy just inaugurated at least arrange the busts in the Oval before the Sunday conversation turns to "Who's up next?") does it come as any surprise that the National Government, and the Presidency, become destructive of the Life and Liberty of the People?  Oh, it's in their interests to act that way.  "What would all those pontificators on the Sunday shows, and the noisier wannabes on the opinion networks ever do if the Conventional Wisdom stopped treating The Presidency as the secular incarnation of The Messiah?"

But if the point of the presidency is to have an elected king issuing ukases, is anybody surprised when base individuals seek the office to issue ukases?

That prospect has Thom Hartmann worried.

Outlawing actual (as opposed to purely symbolic and impotent) opposition took a few months in Chile when Pinochet took over; it took about two years in Germany; arguably four or five years in Russia. If Trump, DeSantis, or somebody like them becomes president next year, it could happen very quickly. They even have a plan for it, called Project 2025.

It can happen here. And the morbidly rich are not going to save us.

Next year’s election will determine the fate and future of what’s left of our democracy, so badly battered by bought-off and corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court and in Congress: this cancer that started with Reagan and was put on steroids by Trump’s racist “birther” claims about Obama in 2008 has now fully metastasized across American society.

As long as our right-wing billionaires can keep their billions in dark-money “donations” relatively quiet and minimize outrage over their practice of nakedly purchasing elections, of carpet-bombing American homes with lie-filled television advertising, of turning the algorithmic social media screws to fill our nation with hate, the path we’re following won’t change.

That will take an overwhelming number of us waking up and becoming politically active.

And we’re going to have to get it done soon, while it’s still legal to write, protest, and vote. Because if Trump or someone like him is elected, all those rights will quickly vanish.

As long as governments have the ability to generate rents, and a monopoly on violence to collect the taxes that become the rents, there will be rents to dissipate.

Charlie "Prof Scam" Sykes, perhaps atoning for his years as a right-populist in Wisconsin, raises the same alarm.

[Trump] has said this before, of course. But the rhetoric is escalating: The enemy is us. The “vermin” are fellow Americans And he is coming for them.

So, once again, it is essential to pay attention. Trump may be clownish, but the clown car is carrying a neutron bomb. Possibly several.

Last week, the Washington Post detailed how Trump and allies are planning to weaponize the Justice Department to go after his opponents and critics. Trump himself confirmed as much.

This weekend, we got a deeper glimpse at Trump 2.0 from the NYT: “Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans

Yes, the talking points have gone out, with Raggedy Ann attempting to crack wise. "Donald Trump would prosecute anyone he deems an enemy, unleash troops on protestors, and essentially unravel the rule of law as we know it... But sure, Joe Biden is three years older and occasionally trips."

Yes, and he's been signing ukases to Raggedy Ann's liking but not necessarily to Joe Concha.  "It'a not the tripping over things thing, it's inflation still far too high, gas prices near an all time high, rampant crime, poor educational scores, an essentially open border and the national security issues that creates, all along with a world seemingly on fire. As for unraveling the rule of law, pretty sure this administration has perfected that part."  Yes, and somehow Leni Reifenstahl and Albert Speer are Dementia Joe's set designers, not Donald Trump's.

Twitchy's Doug P. notes, predictably, "Apparently unraveling the rule of law and using the justice system and FBI to go after political opponents are only acceptable when Democrats do it."

Not to be outdone, Eric Utter of The American Thinker doubles down on the paranoia.

Democrats are intent on transforming “our democracy” into a one-party state here in America long before the planet succumbs to a one-world government.

This government will be comprised of seven branches (sorry, AOC): the legislative, the executive, the judicial, the Deep State, Academia, the Mainstream Media, and the giant corporations. And it appears they are nearing success in their endeavor. Despite the fact that nearly all surveys and polls show most Americans are fed up with inflation, the economy, the porous Southern border, rampant crime, Biden’s foreign policy, and the proliferation of extreme wokeness … not to mention Biden family corruption itself … Democrats keep winning most elections. Why do you think this is? Draw your own conclusions. But don’t draw them publicly, lest you, too, get a loud knock on your door at oh-dark-thirty.

Donald Trump is his own worst enemy, with or without a sheaf of executive orders to issue should he return to office. The Deep State, Academia, the Mainstream Media, and the [rent-seeking] corporations are already involved in the day-to-day business of designing what the National Government saddles us with.

[T]here's no reason for congressional Republicans, or the tame kind that used to be the only kind on the Sunday shows, to spend all the time explaining that no, their intentions are not bad rather than pointing out failures of the kind of public policies I think the Daily Kos, Common Dreams, Gin and Tacos regulars would prefer.  Because there have been failures, and there are sufficiently many people, whether fired up by Our President, or not, who are no longer going to be hectored at, condescended to, or deplorable shamed.

As long as there is this monopoly on violence with great power to generate and dissipate rents, it appears that it will be contested as such.

That post concluded with a lament from Rod Dreher, formerly of American Conservative.

But nobody, Rod Dreher laments, wants to take a step back from the abyss.  "There is no difference at all in the vitriol from extremists of the left and the right. I believe the capacity for this kind of hatred exists within every human heart. What we are losing is the sense that it is a destructive passion to be resisted."

And until voters put more of their faith in emergence and less of their faith in Public Action, the destructive passions are likely to continue to rule.