STILL NO EXIT FROM THE GRIM STRATEGY OUTCOME.

Over the weekend, Our President wrote a post on his proprietary "Truth Social" platform that prompted Outside the Beltway contributor Steven Taylor to ask, "A thought for any who might wish to entertain it: if you like this kind of rhetoric and behavior, why? What do you think it says about you? If you ignore it while still supporting Trump, why?"  Thom Hartmann looked for a more general lesson.

When the President of the United States calls members of the oldest political party in the world and a former president “scum,” it’s not just another ugly outburst that embarrasses America before the rest of the world: It’s a warning sign. A bright red flag.

It tells us that something far more sinister than partisan posturing is afoot. Something our media has already decided to overlook in their perpetual effort to normalize the abominable.

This kind of rhetoric isn’t new, and it’s not harmless. History has shown us—again and again—that when political leaders use dehumanizing language to vilify their opponents, they’re in actuality laying the groundwork for authoritarianism, repression, and violence.

Yes, but repression of whom, by whom?  The pass Mr Hartmann finds himself at is one a long time in being reached.  "At the moment, there are plenty of things Democrats have done that call for massive punishment. Bear in mind, dear reader, that Grim Strategy outcomes are outcomes in which both the punisher and the punishee wind up in a worse place than they would be in either the repeated Nash or the cooperative outcome."

To Mr Hartmann, Our President is exploring new frontiers in authoritarianism.

Donald Trump has flirted with this disgusting sort of rhetoric for years, calling the press “the enemy of the people,” mocking disabled journalists, referring to immigrants as “animals,” and branding his political opponents as “radicals” or “traitors.”

But labeling Democrats—over 45 million American citizens—as “scum” is a different level of escalation. It’s not just name-calling. It’s a signal. A test balloon. A way of seeing how far he can go. And if there’s no consequence, he’ll go further.

What happens when a leader no longer sees himself as the president of all Americans, but only of those who worship him? What happens when one party becomes synonymous with the state, and all others are demonized?

I don't know, maybe that's a previous presidential candidate putting voters in a basket of deplorables, or a previous president carrying on about voters being a threat to democracy.  But once you get into the punishment cycles of that grim strategy equilibrium, getting out is hard.  We might not be voting our way out of this pass, particularly if the True Believers see only the sins of their opponents.

Trump’s use of the word “scum” may seem like just another day in MAGA world, but it is, in fact, part of a much larger and more deliberate strategy. It’s designed to radicalize his base, to cast Democrats not as fellow Americans with different ideas but as dangerous enemies who must be defeated at all costs. It’s designed to terrify Trump’s opponents and paralyze the media.

When you convince people that the opposition is not just wrong but evil, the next logical step is to justify extraordinary actions to stop them, whether that’s purging them from government, throwing them in jail, or inciting paramilitary violence against them.

We’ve already seen where this leads.

January 6, for example, wasn’t some spontaneous tantrum. It was the inevitable result of years of delegitimization and demonization of Democrats. The people who stormed the Capitol sincerely believed they were saving America from “scum” who had stolen the presidency. They were acting on the poisonous lie that only one side has the right to rule and that any electoral outcome that contradicts their will is illegitimate. A lie that came straight from Trump and his morbidly rich neofascist enablers.

This is how democracies die; not all at once, but in a slow, deliberate campaign of character assassination against political rivals, institutions, and the rule of law. It happens when a strongman convinces just enough people that he alone is the embodiment of the nation, and that anyone who opposes him is a threat to the country itself.

And the populists of the Pajamas Media sort have their own set of atrocity stories.  Here's one from four years ago.

Sgt. Mom of Chicago Boyz analyzes the Resistance in Flyoverlandia.  There's a lot of sympathetic commentary to this resistance, or rebellion, or generalized up-yours, circulating these days, some of it referenced in her post, some of it turns up here or here or here.  But the Democrat-Media-Academic-Entertainment complex has been bringing the nasty, and Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine bring the condescension, and it's time to say Enough.

Mr Hartmann, unwittingly, recognizes what's next. "Once you’ve labeled your opponents as subhuman, how do you work with them? How do you compromise to do what’s best for the country? You don’t."

So here we are.

It’s not about Harvard per se. It’s not about anti-Semitism. Rather, it’s class warfare: people of lower status making privileged elites pay a price for decades of rising condescension. The people dismissed as a “basket of deplorables” would rather see world-class universities destroyed than risk a repeat of Covid lockdowns; Black Lives Matter mayhem; frequent Pride days, weeks, and months; DEI oppression; woke language policing; and being insulted constantly as oppressors, racists, colonizers, etc.

Mr Hartmann is correct, but he might be a little too late. "Because once a president gets away with calling fellow Americans 'scum,' it’s only a matter of time before he treats them that way."

I repeat a conclusion from last week.  "Look, the Angry Left could sue for peace any time they want.  A simple apology for all the 'Neanderthal' or 'deplorable' talk might go a long way.  Fail to still that pendulum, enjoy the war of all against all."  Including presidents giving up on some subset of the electorate.