Though many want to rehabilitate the Bush Administration in the wake of Trump, we have to understand just how much blame they deserve for our current crisis.
The damage they caused will reverberate for generations and we have to reckon with how and why it happened.
2/
To begin, on September 11th, as intelligence agencies told the Bush Administration Al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks, Donald Rumsfeld was already planning an illegal war against Iraq, using the attacks as cover.
It was a matter of convenience and opportunity.
3/
Rumsfeld and his associates were neoconservatives, or followers of Straussian philosophy.
Leo Strauss taught that natural elites should rule the world and guide politics while using "stories" and made-up crusades in order to inspire and direct the unwashed masses.
4/
For neoconservatives, September 11th was an incredibly useful moment, a tragedy that could be used to create opportunity and a new "crusade" that would unite the masses and allow elites to gain political power and resources.
5/
It was never about actual ideology. Rumsfeld had been more than happy to partner with Saddam Hussein. The US had used Hussein, helped him brutalize his own people, wage war against Iran.
In his time, Hussein was an incredible ally for America. But the story needed to change.
6/
The War in Iraq was illegal, cruel, and an absolute disaster. 9/11 had been used as cover to carry out an operation that neoconservatives had been clamoring for for years.
It was an opportunity made possible by the tragedy and its ability to inspire anger.
7/
What Iraq revealed was the dangerous possibilities that imperialism inherently held.
We tortured because it was a means to an end. It made obvious how ugly America could be, what we were willing to do to grow our power and ensure our control.
8/
But our examination has to go back several decades to when Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney played a key role in yet another crucial moment: the birth of "Trickle-Down Economics."
This and the war in Iraq have facilitated a massive American crisis.
9/
Trickle-Down Economics have never worked. They're a myth that, like the myth of the crusade of the War On Terror, was used to hide more calculated measures.
It was always about redistributing wealth from the poor to the wealthy, who were considered naturally "better."
10/
The worldview of Rumsfeld and other conservatives held that there was a natural hierarchy, that elites should rule and the masses should follow.
Trickle-Down was the economic side of this that ensured the wealthy grew wealthier and the poor more impoverished.
11/
There is a direct line between the lie of Trickle-Down Economics and the rise of MAGA.
Anger from this economic manipulation and austerity helped radicalize Americans and embrace this Donald Trump, a billionaire grifter.
That anger, however, had a ready-waiting form.
12/
Fascism is a means of radicalizing frustrated individuals and giving them power through violence.
The austerity of Trickle-Down Economics helped create a rage in America that was right at home in a culture militarized by the War on Terror.
13/
Militarism never stays with the war. It infects a country, ruins it from the inside out. What we are dealing with now is a fascistic, militaristic movement informed by the War On Terror and helped along by the economic austerity of Trickle-Down Economics.
The war came home.
14/
It should be no surprise that the War On Terror, a fairytale invented by Rumsfeld and other neoconservatives, has led to domestic militarism, the threat of widespread paramilitary violence, and dangerous polarization.
This is the side-effect of Straussian appeals.
15/
As Americans lost faith in their political systems, all rigged to function to the whims of the elite, they inevitably turned to fascism.
They were told that they might be powerless now, but by picking up guns, rejecting democracy, and embracing militarism, that could change
16/
It was almost inevitable that a "crusade" to overthrow another nation would result in Americans longing for military coups in the United States.
The war ALWAYS comes home. There is ALWAYS a reaction within the country.
17/
We are living in the wake of horrific, undemocratic, cruel actions of men like Rumsfeld.
Their elitist beliefs have created a dystopia of conspiracy theories, weaponized mythologies, and widespread, militaristic polarization.
To get past it, we must understand that.
18/
If we are going to survive this crisis with any shred of democracy left, we must work against Straussian, elitist ideology, and embrace what is real and true and rejects this elitism and militarism.
We have to forge something true.
19/
Donald Rumsfeld's career was a cautionary tale and showed us what happens when you treat humans as disposable and embrace cold elitism and cynicism.
It leads to widespread tragedy, violence, and oppression. We should gaze upon his legacy with revulsion and horror.
20/
But we must also recognize that nothing that is happening right now, this fascism, this oppression, this antidemocratic movement, is *new*.
It's the side-effect of career men like Rumsfeld and Cheney, established and respected politicians who are being rehabilitated.
21/
Our crisis is built on generations of men like Rumsfeld and the elitism and cynicism they represent. We can't pretend like this came from nowhere or that it's inexplicable
The path is very clear and we must reckon with the toll it has taken and the tragedies it has caused
22/22
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The most important story of the 2024 Election is going untold.
Kamala Harris isn’t just facing Donald Trump, JD Vance, and the GOP. She’s squaring off against fascist Tech billionaires using them as puppets to destroy democracy.
Vance becoming Trump’s VP pick was a political marriage between MAGA and Far Right Tech Fascism. They are now a front for Musk, Theil, and a generation of tech oligarchs who have been quite open about their desire to co-opt government for power and profit.
What is happening with the Tech Fascists is the same thing we’ve seen before. Industrialist always use their obscene wealth to corrupt government and then find authoritarian puppets to finish the job and multiply their power.
This is yet another chapter in a long, long story.
JD Vance is a historic piece of shit who sold out his family and people to make a buck and gain power. He’s in bed with techno-fascist billionaires and is one of the foremost advocates for a literal fascistic ideology that seeks to take MAGA to the next level of oppression.
It’s bad enough that Vance is such a colossal asshole and that his ideology is literally fascistic, but he is capable of taking the MAGA baton and turning it into a force the likes of which most have yet to even imagine.
Terrible, terrible day for the country.
If our media returns to fawning over Vance because they want to hate poor people, I’m going to lose my everloving mind.
This is serious, serious business. And we all got a whole lot less safe today.
For years MAGA has promoted a culture of violence and oppression.
Now, in the wake of the shooting, calls to lower the temperature disgustingly obscure that fact and also undermine the need to protect millions of Americans from authoritarianism.
This isn’t a “both sides” issue. One side has waged an authoritarian war on democracy predicated on violence. The other has said people deserve safety and dignity and shouldn’t be hunted and systematically erased.
This false equivalency is disgusting. And telling.
The Center in America has now revealed what it truly believes. Fighting authoritarianism is “ugly” and “dangerous.”
It’s much easier and more pleasant to wring hands and welcome the authoritarianism and make nice with it. The media and political class enjoys that privilege.
Absolutely disturbing but unsurprising that they’ve managed to equate a movement’s constant fearmongering and calls for literal violence and murder with people saying, hey, maybe this other side calling for literal violence and murder is dangerous.
I just want people to remember that the reason this environment is so charged is because 1. One group has spent years openly talking about carrying out a bloody, reactionary revolution and 2. There are literal human beings whose lives and fates are on the line.
When you say, “Hey, let’s all take it down a notch,” you’re spitting in the face of women, people of color, immigrants, gay and trans people.
The stakes are actually as high as they can be. But there is one side constantly pushing a bloody resolution.
Trump has used Christianity’s persecution complex and obsession with apocalyptic danger to his advantage, crediting imaginary battles between Good and Evil.
Now, they have a ready-made situation that will inflame those fears and necessitate more extremism.
The ground was prepared for the MAGA Cult when evangelicals merged with the GOP a half century ago. Now, Christian Nationalism and the MAGA Cult are logical evolutions of a religious-backed push for power.