reflectivepundit

While Israel is under a Horrific Terrorist Attack, the Trumpian GOP and MAGA Play Its Usual Domestic Blame Game

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Since Israel is fighting against terrorist Hamas guerillas who were able to attack and infiltrate Southern towns nearest to the Gaza strip and fire rockets into Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other highly populated targets, the divided country has spontaneously united to deal with the crisis.

When asked why Israel’s intelligence community and military had no clue about the attack, critics of the Netanyahu government do not take the bait. We are united to fight for our country, they say, questions may be asked after we have won this war.

Given the experiences of the more recent past, I cannot imagine any catastrophe that would unite this country like Israel is united now in fighting the declared war against Hamas. Europe is united in its support for Israel. The Brandenburger Tor in the center of Berlin is draped with Israeli flags that also fly high in other European capitals.

In the United States, the once upon a time Grand Old Party, now part of the isolationist and authoritarian Trump MAGA movement, did not prioritize the suffering of Israelis, among them certainly U.S. citizens but for partisan politics blamed Joe Biden and Democrats for the Hamas attack on Israel.

The blame story is based on outright lies.

Allegedly, Iran got the money to arm Hamas, when the Biden administration unfroze Iranian bank funds recently in exchange for the release of American hostages. The funds were accumulated by the sale of Iranian oil; their release is only permitted for the purchase of food, medical equipment, and the like. Thus, contrary to the story line, when money is releases, it is not paid by American taxpayers. Reportedly, to this day, Iran has not received any payout from this arrangement.

Yet, the blame game continues and frequently resorts to the unsurprising claim, “This never would’ve happened under Trump.”

The blame game players should look no further than to one of their favorite information sources, Fox News, where host Greg Gutfeld suggested the other day that the answer to deep political divisions is not voting but war.

That is exactly how Hamas and other violent extremists right here in America and abroad justify their violence.

General John Kelly’s Condemning Characterization of Donald Trump

By Brigitte L. Nacos

There are times, when deep clouds are hanging over us even on seemingly glorious sunny days. This morning, as I read posts on Trump’s social media platform, I felt that darkness even as the sun was rising. The wide gap between posts that worship Trump as America’s savior on the one hand and demonize non-Trumpians as enemies of the American people is mindboggling. Particularly at a time, when opinion polls reveal that Donald Trump will be once again the GOP’s presidential nominee and a formidable competitor against Joe Biden, the presumed choice of the Democratic Party.

Retired General John Kelly, who served as White House chief-of-staff during much of the Trump presidency, finally went public with his assessment of his former boss during an interview with CNN. Kelly used disturbing examples to show his former boss’s character flaws and the threat Trump would pose in a second presidential term.

Based on his own experiences Kelly described Donald J. Trump, in clear words that we should not forget, as:

• “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’
• A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’
• A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
• A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women.
• A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.
• A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior [the just retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley] who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action.
• A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators.
• A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

Kelly concluded, “There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.”

Indeed, Gold help us all!

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Risk of Returning Trump to the White House

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Last week, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote that the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris team should not run again in 2024 listing his age and her inability to gain traction in the American public, not even among fellow Democrats. If Biden and Harris “campaign together in 2024, I think Biden risks undoing his greatest achievement — which was stopping Trump.” Ignatius warned.

As I read the thoughtful column, I agreed with the notion that the Democrats need a changing of the guards on the very top. President Biden’s approval ratings are low, Vice President Harris’s are lower. A series of recent campaign polls had Biden and Trump in dead heats with some showing Trump a few points ahead.

Not surprisingly, voters express their concerns about the presumed top contenders’ age in next year’s election, when asked by pollsters. Joe Biden will be short of 82 years old on Election Day 2024 and Donald Trump 78. The sitting president appears more aged as we see him walking and talking on the screen than his predecessor.

And in today’s world, whether true or false, appearances become reality.

That reality overshadows, in the mind of too many people, President Biden’s good qualities—his commitment to uphold democracy, his sound judgement on policies designed to help the American people, his accomplishment in foreign policy, and his never-ending efforts to reach out for bipartisanship.

For whatever reason, during the Biden presidency Kamala Harris did not get the same opportunities to show leadership qualities as Joe Biden did during the Obama presidency. Also, she has not gotten a fraction of the news coverage that Congresswomen Majorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and similar lightweights receive regularly.

Contrary to many pundits who claim that there are no strong alternatives to the Biden/Harris team among Democrats, I believe there are good choice. On top of my list are Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as presidential candidate and Maryland Governor Wes Moore as second on the ticket—a woman and a Black man both exceptional leaders.

However, as of now, the Biden/Harris team will run for reelection. With Trump on top of the GOP ticket (or someone like Ron DeSantis), perhaps enough Americans will again vote in favor of democracy and Joe Biden.

I will.  

The Criminally Charged Ex-President and the Morally Challenged Would-Be Presidents

By Brigitte L. Nacos

The shamefulness of the positions taken by the majority in Wednesday’s television line-up of GOP hopefuls for their party’s presidential nomination became even more clear, when their idol was arrested in a Georgia prison and forced to pose for a mug shot. A day earlier, with the exception of Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson five male competitors (DeSantis, Pence, Ramaswamy, Scott, and Burgum) and the lone female candidate (Haley) had promised to vote for Trump if he becomes their party’s nominee--even if he is criminally convicted in a court of law.  

 

Instead of taking the moral high ground like Christie and Hutchinson, even former vice president Mike Pence, who, along with his family, was physically threatened by the violent crowd invading the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 said that he still would vote for Trump again. Did he forget the rapidly erected gallows and the horrible screams “Hang Mike Pence” by those marching in the name of the then president and waving Trump flags as they launched their violent assaults?

The most obvious Trump clone on the stage, Vivek Ramaswamy, was declared the winner of the debate by Mr. Trump. That was hardly surprising because the young entrepreneur with bully manners declared that “President Trump was the best president of the 21^st century.” Moreover, he promised that as president he would pardon Trump. He then attacked Pence for not making the same commitment.

Pence refused—but left the door open for a pardon--although Trump did not take any action to call off his attack dogs in the Capitol when Pence and others were acutely threatened; moreover, Trump continues to spread the Big Lie about the 2020 election outcome.

Yes, Mike Pence deserves our respect for protecting the US Constitution and our democracy on that infamous day in January 2021. But after that courageous act, he somehow lost the courage to stand up to Trump and Trumpism and the MAGA movement--all enemies of democracy.

Ramaswamy may be auditioning for joining Trump as running mate. He will not succeed. Trump will only accept a low-key person like Pence in his team, not a hotdog like Ramaswamy. Tim Scott may fit the bill.

When asked about Trump’s mug shot, John Bolton, for a while National Security advisor in the Trump White House, said, “He could’ve smiled. He could’ve looked benign. Instead, he looks like a thug!”

Even a mug shot with a thug-like image does not matter to Trump's supporters.  Instead, there are already signs that he and they will treat this picture like a badge of honor.

The question, then, is and remains: How will the American electorate at large react and vote next year?

Does the Constitution Prohibit Trump from Being President Again?

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Two renown experts on the U.S. Constitution, liberal Harvard law professor Laurence H. Tribe and conservative former judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit J. Michael Luttig, wrote earlier this month in The Atlantic that the Constitution disqualifies former president Donald J. Trump from becoming U.S. president again. Similarly, two conservative law professors, both members of the Federalist Society, William Baude of the University of Chicago and Michael Stokes Paulsen of St. Thomas University, concluded in their not yet published law review article according to the New York Times, “Donald Trump cannot be president — cannot run for president, cannot become president, cannot hold office — unless two-thirds of Congress decides to grant him amnesty for his conduct on Jan. 6.”

While this should be a good reason to rejoice for everyone who opposes Trump’s reelection to the highest office in the land next year, the four experts’ views have not exactly dominated the news. Obviously, most of the leading media organizations do not take the argument serious enough to give it “breaking news” prominence.

All four constitutional scholars point to the 14^th Amendment’s Section 3 that deserves to be fully cited here:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House remove such disability.

Clearly, as an officer of the United States Trump took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. And clearly, the indictments filed by special council Jack Smith in the District of Columbia and by District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia charge in detail Trump’s involvement in efforts to violate the constitutional change of power process after Biden won the 2020 election.

But the former president has not had his days in either of the two courts. He has not been convicted. The clause in the 14^th Amendment does not spell out, whether charges or convictions trigger the exclusion from holding the mentioned public offices.

Luttig and Tribe have no doubt that the charges are sufficient to ban Trump from returning to the White House. They write, “The disqualification clause operates independently of any such criminal proceedings and, indeed, also independently of impeachment proceedings and of congressional legislation. The clause was designed to operate directly and immediately upon those who betray their oaths to the Constitution, whether by taking up arms to overturn our government or by waging war on our government by attempting to overturn a presidential election through a bloodless coup.”

The Jan. 6 Indictment of Donald J. Trump: Less Shock Value Than New Normalcy—and What Now?

By Brigitte L. Nacos

After eight years of Donald Trump’s reality show performances on the political stage, his demagogic hate speech, lies, authoritarian tendencies, corruption, and a violent coup attempt to overturn the 2020 election results--nothing can shock the American public and political class with respect to the former president and current presidential candidate.

Thus, Tuesday’s four count conspiracy and obstruction Jan. 6 indictment did not result in a public shock wave but rather in a business-as-usual perception. It was simply the same as the reaction to Trump’s earlier indictments in the classified documents, hush money illegalities, and sexual assault cases.

To be sure, there was a burst of breaking news coverage in the hours following the release of the Jan. 6 indictment the other day. Talking heads spoke about the first time a former U.S. president was charged with unlawful conspiracies and obstruction to falsify election results to stay in office. What the 45-page indictment describes eloquently were not the actions of a president who respects the Constitution and the traditional democratic rules and values but of a rogue leader and long-time admirer of past and present authoritarian strongmen.

Worse yet, although Trump faces prison, if found guilty, he is the dominant candidate for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination. His best bet for beating one or more criminal convictions is a victory in next year’s election and his return to the White House.

The most recent opinion polls show that Trump and President Joe Biden are in a tied race. Of course, these numbers can change in the 15 months to next year’s election day.

But in the first hours after the latest indictment a multitude of Republicans in Washington and around the country attacked the “Biden DOJ” for charging their “innocent” leader. While Mike Pence, Chris Christie, and Asa Hutchinson spoke of the serious charges against Trump, the more Far-Right candidates Ron DeSantis blamed the “weaponized [Biden] government and Vivec Ramaswamy called the indictment “un-American.”  Nothing changed.

In the past, political observers wondered why a man like Donald Trump was able to win the 2016 election. I do not want to rehash in detail that Hillary Clinton won the total number of national vote but fell short in the electoral college that is a vestige of the undemocratic features of the US Constitution. One way or the other, some 70 million Americans voted Trump into the White House seven years ago.

Yes, Trump lost in 2020 both in the electoral college and in the nationwide total of votes. But it was not a landslide for Biden but a slim victory.

Today, the support for Trump in his MAGA movement and the Republican Party seems solid and goes up with every new set of criminal charges against him. As the campaign and the various trials approach and begin, Trump will certainly go the mass rally route again and stir his followers hate of “the other side.” Last month, Trump told his supporters already, “I’m being indicted for you!” And he promises that only he can save the country from the evil liberals, socialists, globalists, and the likes.

I think that in today’s America we should no longer focus solely on Trumpism and its threat to democracy but rather on the many Americans who believe in the values of liberal democracy, the mutual agreement on the legitimacy of majority and minority parties, the peaceful transition of power from one party and one leader to the others, and so forth…

Why is it that we do not see a potent pro-democracy movement here? This question occurs to me every time I look at the images of protesting Israelis who try to prevent their state’s fall into illiberal democracy or theocracy. There are a multitude of former Republicans, anti-Trumpers, and PACs that support them; there are the usual groups supporting the campaigns of Democrats. 

We have not seen any efforts to mobilize Americans by organizing pro-democracy rallies and perhaps even a from-below movement.  

Typically, it takes politically skilled leaders to organize grass roots political actions over longer time periods or even social movements. But the story of an Israeli woman, a particle physicist, mother of five daughters, with no political past or ambitions, who became one of the several  organizers for the pro-democracy protests in her country, is inspiring.

Why not similar initiatives in defense of democracy right here and now—before it is too late?

MAGA Attack Dogs in the House Are Ideological Brethren of Violent Far-Right Extremists

By Brigitte L. Nacos

In 1978, the founder of the Hitler-worshipping, neo-Nazi organization “National Alliance” William Pierce self-published book titled “The Turner Diaries” under the pseudonym Andrew MacDonald. For the last fifty years, the book has been the most influential how-to-do guide for violent far-right extremists. The poorly written diary of a fictious White supremacist named Earl Turner describes how members of the revolutionary “Organization” attack and eventually defeat the hostile U.S. government or what they call the “System.”   

The revolutionaries’ first major target is the F.B.I. headquarters building in Washington, D.C. in order to weaken the System’s law enforcement muscle. One of Turner’s comrades drives a fertilizer truck bomb into the building. According to the diary, “approximately 700 persons were killed in the blast or subsequently died in the wreckage…” He justifies the mass killing by blaming the failure of the “System” to “preserve a White America. Before long, Earl Turner becomes a member of “The Order,” the System’s elite unit.

A few years after the “Turner Diaries” were published, Robert Matthews called his break-away group from the neo-Nazi “Aryan Nations” organization “The Order” signaling his plan to bring Earl Turner’s narrative into the real world. There were several shoot-outs between Matthew’s group and F.B.I. agents. In the early 1980s, Matthews along with Louis Beam, an Aryan Nations leader, and several other White supremacists planned the bombings of F.B.I. field offices in several cities, among them Denver, Kansas City, New Orleans, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. The F.B.I. arrested them, before they could strike.

Ten years later, Timothy McVeigh was inspired by the “Turner Diaries” to detonate a fertilizer truck bomb near the Federal Building in Oklahoma City that housed an F.B.I. field office and other federal agencies. 168 persons were killed, hundreds injured. McVeigh left no doubt that his number one target was the F.B.I. office.

For Earl Turner’s Organization, Robert Matthew’s The Order, McVeigh’s leaderless two-person cell with militia connections, and contemporary violent far-right extremists, the common denominator is propaganda to delegitimate and violence to weaken the federal government and especially the F.B.I.  

This anti-government ideology was for many decades limited to fringe groups—from the Ku Klux Klan to the Patriot and Militia movements and the contemporary White nationalists.

But during the Trump presidency and thereafter the MAGA devotees in the Congress have embraced the dangerous anti-government ideology of violent far-right groups and QAnon conspiracy theorists.

During Wednesday’s hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, the Republican members led by committee chair Jim Jordan, showed this mindset, when they altered a testimony session with F.B.I. director Christopher Wray into an ugly inquisition. Wray, a life-long Republican, was appointed by then ex-president Donald Trump. As the New York Times reported, “Even though Mr. Wray sat alone at the witness table, his Republican interlocutors made it clear the entire bureau, and its 38,000 employees, was in effect on trial.”

Representative Chip Roy (R-Tex.) called the FBI “tyrannical” and Jordan cited in his opening statement a recent Louisiana Court ruling that states ludicrously, “The United States government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth” and singled out the F.B.I.  

While the bomb throwing in the contentious hearing was rhetorical, it signaled a more dangerous threat than actual terrorist bombs: The extreme right MAGA faction in the GOP, among them elected members of the U.S. Congress, and presidential candidates for 2024, consider the FBI an enemy and talk about defunding the agency. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is reportedly considering the impeachment of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

These are serious threats to democracy which needs law enforcement agencies and an overall judiciary system independent of partisan manipulation.  

The Presidential Candidate Named Kennedy: A Democrat in Name Only

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, has in terms of ideology and politics nothing in common with his father Robert F. Kennedy or his uncles John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy--all Democrats. His right-oriented wingnut ideas have no home in the contemporary Democratic Party. Not among moderates or progressives. Instead, except for his commitment to environmental protection he is a perfect fit for Trump's GOP and MAGA movement.

When asked about his reason for entering the presidential race, he answered according one recent report, “Everybody realizes they’re not living in a democracy anymore. They’ve lost sovereignty of their lives, and their futures, as a result [they] are hopeless.” This goes even further than Donald Trump’s take on the existential fight between “us” against “them” in 2024.

Although his father and uncle were victims of gun violence, RFK, Jr. rejects gun control and endorses the GOP’s controversial interpretation of the Second Amendment. In a recent Twitter Spaces conversation with Elon Musk and David Saks he assured the gun rights community. “I am not going to take away anybody’s guns,” he said. “I am a constitutional absolutist.” He then blamed psychiatric drugs for the rise in mass shooting.

RFK, Jr. has blamed the U.S. government for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and credited Russia with “acting in good faith” with respect to the neighboring nation. That must have been music in the ears of Vladimir Putin and the army of online propagandists who help supportive politicians abroad.

It seems to me that this presidential contender would be a vice-presidential fit for either Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis.              

RFK Jr. was a relentless conspiracy theorist long before the pro-Trump QANON nonsense came into the political scene. And he was among the anti-vaxxers who battled against Covid-19 vaccines—and still do.   

The nephew of President J.F. Kennedy subscribes to the conspiracy theory that the CIA and organized crime bosses were behind his uncle’s assassination; he has expressed doubts that Sirhan Sirhan assassinated his father—although the killing took place in a crowded Los Angeles ball room, where the assassin was arrested on the spot.

No wonder that this scion of one of the most legendary political families is today the darling of right-wing television, radio, and podcasts, among them the “Sean Hannity Show,” “Tucker [Carlson] on Twitter,” “The Record with Greta Van Susteren,” and “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

Aware that one of five Democrats express support for this candidate, the right-wing media personalities make great efforts to promote him and his agenda. They attack the Democratic Party and Joe Biden for conducting an undemocratic campaign at the expense of their fellow “Democrat” and the mainstream media for critically covering RFK, Jr.

Never mind the undemocratic rules and practices in the Republican competition for the 2024 presidential nomination and their own tilted reporting.

Hate Rhetoric Becomes More Combative after Trump’s Federal Indictment

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Before and after his federal indictment last week, former president Donald J. Trump used the terms socialist, communist, and fascist interchangeably, when attacking his domestic enemies whom he described as greater threat to the United States than outside enemies. In his attack speeches in Georgia and North Caroline last weekend, he depicted the fight against the Left as a final, existential battle for America. Never mind that he is an admirer of the Communist strongman Vladimir Putin. Speaking of his domestic enemies, supposedly Democrats, Liberals, and the so-called Deep State he said, “Either the Communists win and destroy America, or we destroy the Communists.” GOP officials and the MAGA crowd responded with enthusiastic “U.S.A.! U.S.A! U.S.A.” screams.

His loyal supporters did not need his cues at public appearances. In response to the news of his indictment that his former Attorney General William Barr called “very damning,” they joined and repeated his immediate combative statement on his Truth Social platform. “We have now reached a war phase. Eye for an eye,” Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona tweeted.

The war metaphor was repeated in many variations on many social media platforms and in public statements in the days before Trump’s arraignment in Miami.

Speaking to a GOP crowd in Georgia the 2020 election denier Kari Lake issued an outright threat. “If you want to get to President Trump, you are going to have go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me,” she said, “And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the N.R.A.”

Was that an invitation to resort to handguns in order to fight for the twice impeached and twice criminally indicted leader who may have more indictments coming to him? Her words were posted on several social media platforms and favorably commented on.

While the law enforcement communities prepared to keep the area in and around the Miami court building safe, rank and file Trump supporters were tireless in expressing their absolute loyalty and devotion to their leader. They asked God to protect and help the “best president the country ever had,” posted Trump with a protective Jesus figure, and asked others to pray for him. As a caravan of Trump supporters drove on Sunday from Miami to Palm Beach, one woman posted on his social media platform, “There’s no better way to spend a Sunday than for God, President Trump, your Country, and Family.”

Some expressed their disgust with the pure reliance on combative words without matching deeds and their own readiness to change this. There were many posters who seemed to think of January 6, 2021 and the many violent protesters ending up in prison. They told their brethren to wear masks when protesting in Miami or elsewhere for Trump in order hide their identities.

The admiration of and devotion to Trump among MAGA/GOP followers seems absolute. The latest public opinion shows that about 4 of 5 Republicans continue to support their leader after last week’s indictment. Many social media posts I read lately reject and often condemn Trump’s challengers in the battle for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination. That is particularly true for Ron DeSantis who, like Trump, promises to destroy “leftism” and “woke ideology.” Hardcore Trump supporters consider him a threat to Trumpism just like Democrats.

Trump is the rare leader who is in control of both a political movement and a political party. While social movements tend to attack elites inside and outside of governments, political parties are important parts of governments. With Trump’s complete grip on both, his MAGA movement and the Republican Party, his power over followers in both entities is greater than that of mere movement or mere party leaders.

That’s why there is little doubt that Trump will be the GOP nominee next year.

The Republican Party has become an appendix of the Trumpian MAGA movement after being earlier pushed towards the Far-Right by Tea Party hardliners.

Trump’s recent apocalyptic messages that call for the final battle between the righteous “us” against the evil “them” transcends the nature of legitimate political movements and moves the MAGA movement and the GOP and their leader further into fascist territory. January 6, 2021 may have been merely the beginning.

As Madeleine Albright wrote in her book on fascism, “What makes a movement Fascist is not ideology but the willingness to do whatever is necessary—including the use of force and trampling the rights of others—to achieve victory and command obedience.”

Trump Clone DeSantis is an even Greater Threat than the Original

By Brigitte L. Nacos

While I took a healthy break from following political news developments on a 7/24 basis during the last several weeks, I could not miss that media figures and their sources have become increasingly obsessed with reporting on alternatives to Donald Trump, most of all Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Some pundits have even given advice on how DeSantis should compete against his one-time mentor. But if the pundits expected that the Florida Governor would finally come out swinging at Trump and give the media an opportunity to dramatize the beginning of a bruising battle between the two competitors, the ill-fated Twitter Space announcement was a disappointment. DeSantis did not mention Trump’s name. Not once.

At this point, Trump has a healthy lead in opinion polls ahead of second-place DeSantis—all other declared and undeclared candidates are polling in modest single-digit numbers. Previous campaigns have shown that the early survey results can drastically change over time. What individual candidates do or fail to do matters but so do unforeseen developments and events (Perhaps the preponderance of Trump’s legal problems?).

For now, news reporting on the DeSantis campaign seems quite benign. And the commentariat focuses on the expected battle between the quasi-incumbent Trump and the challenger DeSantis. So far, though, almost all pundits failed to ponder the substance of the two politicians’ agenda and whether DeSantis would be a less threatening president than Trump. An exception was Gail Collins of the New York Times who said earlier this month in a published conversation with Bret Stephens, “If I was locked up in a room and forced to choose between DeSantis and Trump, I’d beat my head against the wall and then pick The Donald.”

I agree with Collins.

Both men are power-hungry narcissists with strong authoritarian, indeed fascist traits manifested in their admiration for strongmen and their plan to expand their own executive powers---if they win next year. The socially challenged, super-tense and angry looking and sounding DeSantis lacks Trump’s relaxed reality show personality. But whereas the political opportunist Trump changes his positions or forgets about them in the chaos he tends to create, DeSantis is a hardcore ideologue with Far-Right principles and the discipline and lack of empathy to adopt extreme and inhumane laws and enforce them. This he has shown relentlessly in Florida. And now he promises to bring the same “Blueprint Florida” to the rest of America. In the Twitter announcement show he spoke repeatedly about “woke” threats, such as the “woke mob” and “woke mind virus.” I assume, his banning of books and freedoms of certain expression comes in reaction to what he called last night “woke ideology.” Whatever that is.

The ruthless culture war that DeSantis is fighting in his Floridian empire has impressed moneymen in the powerful White Christian Nationalism movement. While they love Trump for all he has done for their reactionary agenda, they now want Trumpism without Trump to defeat Joe Biden and the rest of evil Democrats next year. Their super PAC has gathered hundreds of thousands of dollars to guarantee that DeSantis will be well financed throughout the primary season.

DeSantis is as arrogant as or perhaps more arrogant than Trump. Whereas it took the formation of the MAGA movement and the emergence of the QAnon conspiracy theory for Trump to give his nod to his supporters’ claim that he is the “The Chosen One,” yesterday’s DeSantis ad claimed that God made this fighter and sent him to govern.

Thus, Never Trump and Never DeSantis. The clone is an even greater threat than the original.