April 30th will mark the 100th day of the Trump administration. On this day, the Trump administration and the Trump party, formerly known as the Republican party, will declare that this has been the most consequential first 100 days of any presidency ever anywhere.
Given the extent that the Trump administration has disrupted so much of what Americans have grown accustomed to, they will probably be right.
Historians will certainly record that this first 100 days was the most damaging of any American presidency, but for the time being we are all spectators, victims, and participants in Donald Trump’s Project 2025 Tour of Vengeance.
It is impossible to predict what this country and the world will look like at the end of the Trump presidency, but it is unlikely that America will be great again or the world safer again.
It is a great gift to the Democratic Party that the Republican Party has only one voice, the voice of Trump. Once Trump is gone the MAGA movement will lose its focus and direction. The Republican Party will frantically try to sustain the Trump aura, but since there is only one Trump, this effort will certainly be doomed to fail.
In remaking the Republican Party in his own image, Donald Trump has destroyed everything that once defined the Republican Party. The Republican Party will have to redefine itself, and this will take time.
It is becoming clear that the Trump administration favors the rich and powerful at the expense of the old, the crippled, the poor, and the middle class. The Trump administration wants to punish through imprisonment, impeachment, and deportation all those who have spoken out against him, and eliminate future dissent through threats, intimidation, and federal legal action. The Trump administration has no friends or allies, only transactional foes. Everyone is an enemy. No one deserves compassion, empathy, or due process.
These are not the core values of what the Republican Party used to represent. It should be relatively straightforward for the Democratic Party to redefine the Republican Party as the party of the rich and ruthless, the heartless, the hate-filled, the destroyer of hopes and dreams.
And yet, this is the Democratic Party that we are talking about. Donald Trump became the focus of the Democratic Party, and still is. The Democratic Party has no effective leadership, no shared vision, no message other than to criticize and demonize Donald Trump. The Democratic Party has to unify itself and then inspire the American people with a different vision for the future. Donald Trump has broken the Democratic Party as well.
Donald Trump won reelection for a reason – he was seen to be strong, decisive, confident, charismatic, unafraid of questions, and possessing a positive vision for the future that saw America becoming great again. And he was not Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
The Democrats simply cannot accept this. The Democrats want to be the party of the caring, the compassionate, to be the champions of the strange, the weird, the agitators, the protesters, and to bask in the support of the celebrities, even if this means that they must ignore the moderate nature of the American people. This is not what the American people want. This is a losing proposition, but the Democrats appear to be willing to double down on it.
The Democrats need to find a champion, a leader who is seen to be serious, strong, decisive, articulate, and confident. This champion must possess a commonsense vision for the future that embraces global alliances and rejects isolationism. This champion must be well-versed in geopolitics and military strategy, as well as being experienced in the art of passing legislation in a partisan environment. And, in order to be electable, this champion must be willing to accept the social values of the majority of the American people and not insist on a woke agenda.
None of the current rising stars of the Democratic Party and none of the traditional old-school political warhorses meet these criteria. The Democratic Party needs one of their established senators or representatives to commit to becoming its champion, its leader, not because of ego, but because of a sense of duty to the country.
Having military experience and involvement in intelligence/defense/foreign relations committees would be important assets for the next Democratic leader. Such a background would reassure the many Americans who view Democrats as being socialist woke weaklings, showing that a Democrat can be strong and disciplined, someone to whom the leadership of this country can be entrusted.
The Trump administration is showing what it means to be led by a strongman who continues to expand his fascist vision of an America that is unified by fear and lack of dissent. Anyone who does not believe that Donald Trump is a fascist should read the Wikipedia definition of fascism.
From Wikipedia, …
“Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.”
Quite clearly, Donald Trump is the very definition of a fascist:
He is a dictatorial leader who has surrounded himself with people who have demonstrated their willingness to carry out his orders without question.
He has threatened military action against Panama and Greenland, and he has declared economic war on allies and adversaries alike through worldwide tariffs.
He has systematically threatened the free press, law firms, universities, judges, prosecutors, and governors to impose his will or his retribution.
He has systematically removed inspector generals and as many other existing governmental controls that may oversee or limit his actions.
He believes that the very rich should lead the country and receive an increasing share of the nation’s wealth, even if this means that the poor and the elderly, among many others, will receive less.
He has eliminated hundreds of thousands of government positions and hundreds of millions of dollars in government expenditures without any pretense of having first carefully evaluated these actions other than to claim, without proof of merit, that they were either unnecessary, duplicative, wasteful, or fraudulent.
He has imposed economic tariffs on essentially all imported goods in order to correct what he believes has been decades of imbalanced trade with essentially all other countries. This will increase the price of energy, food, clothing, lumber, cars, drugs – the consumer goods that people need on a daily basis – but he has promised that any resulting economic pain will prove to be good for the country over time.
He has directed his government to find and deport as many illegal immigrants as possible, with the stated intention of concentrating on those who are criminals and gang members. However, the scope of this deportation effort now identifies as criminals anyone who is in this country illegally, regardless of family, history of employment, or contribution to community. This has become a needlessly cruel policy that is said to be in the best interests of American society.
He has referenced the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify the removal from this country, or refusal to readmit to this country, virtually anyone who has a legal basis to be in this country other than birthright citizens. This includes those with student visas, those who have work permits, those who hold green cards, those who are in the midst of legal efforts to remain in this country, and those who are naturalized citizens. This can and is being done without due process.
President Trump is unique among all American presidents with regards to the extent of his fascist tendencies. His ability to exert his will over the Republican majority in both houses of Congress, all of whom have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution first and foremost, is extraordinarily disturbing. Their unwillingness to question or debate any of his actions is profoundly disappointing. So is the blind allegiance of so many of his supporters.
Such is the power of a charismatic, unhinged fascist leader.
Donald Trump was not always a fascist, but losing to Joe Biden has broken Donald Trump and has unleashed his darkest instincts, instincts that revolve around absolute control, retribution, paranoia, and vengeance. Donald Trump is living in his own world right now, unhinged and without any limitations other than those imposed by the reality of the world that the rest of us live in.
Unfortunately, this will all have to get worse before it gets better. An overwhelming majority of the American people will have to disapprove of Donald Trump before the congressional Republicans will be willing to speak out in disagreement, let alone pass legislation to undo some of his most excessive actions.
Instead of being led by a unhinged fascist strongman, it would be far better to have a leader who is strong, but understands what it means to live in a democracy.
This is a problem, because this leader needs to come from the Democratic Party, the party that represents nothing and stands for nothing. To say that the Democratic Party is currently held in low esteem by a vast majority of Americans is not an overstatement, it is a statement of fact.
DEI, critical race theory, trans rights, climate change, equity, celebrity endorsements – this country has moved beyond all that. The Democratic Party needs to as well. It cannot continue to allow the Republicans to define it in such a disparaging manner that in many parts of the country to identify as a Democrat is to be ostracized, ridiculed, and dismissed.
Now is the time for the Democratic Party to put forth candidates who believe in making America great again, but also understand that moderation and common sense are the best ways to achieve inclusion, not through social engineering. If only the Democratic Party was prepared to offer Americans a better vision for the future of this country, it could win back the House and the Senate during the mid-term elections.
It may be too soon to expect so much, given the chaos that exists within the Democratic Party, but all it would take is one person who is a true leader to emerge and inspire. Whoever you are, this country needs you.