Saturday, December 21, 2024

England Alone

 Not content with hijacking American democracy, Elon Musk increasingly seems bent on destroying democracy all over the world. I don't know how else to read his increasingly flagrant meddling in the politics of other nations in order to back far-right authoritarians. Exhibit A this week would be his eerie endorsement of the extreme right AfD party in Germany. Even after this, of course, Musk will still have his defenders—particularly in the Bay Area ("power has never lacked eulogists," as Elias Canetti once wrote (Stewart trans.))—but there's really no two ways to read that one. Endorsing a neo-fascist party—in Germany, of all places—is a dead give-away. 

Some have expressed consternation that he made this choice, but it really shouldn't surprise us. Musk has generated a series of related controversies over the past few years in which he appeared to endorse Hitler apologetics and to embrace antisemitic conspiracy theories. His open backing of AfD fits the same mould. Add to this the fact that Musk's foreign policy positions all eerily align with those of authoritarian nations, like Xi's People's Republic of China (viz Musk on Taiwan) and Vladimir Putin's Russia—and it really does appear he is on a worldwide crusade to quell restive liberal democracies that stand in the way of his ambitions. 

Friday, December 20, 2024

Small and Insignificant

 All too many events recently have appeared to reward Trump's favored strategy of trying to bully people into submission. When the president issued his recent unprovoked diktats against Canada and Mexico, for instance, both of their governments more or less indulged him (perhaps, sadly, out of necessity). When Trump, Musk, and their hordes of followers attacked Joni Ernst, for appearing to waffle on the Pete Hegseth nomination, she fell into line. 

Because of this, it was particularly satisfying when House Republicans tonight finally defied his bullying threats by funding the government—without the debt ceiling increase that Trump tried to tack on. As the New York Times aptly summarizes: "President-elect Trump and Elon Musk threatened to ensure a primary challenge for any House Republican who voted for a bill that didn’t include a debt limit increase. Tonight, 170 of them did just that."

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Trump and Aristophanes

 A rather downbeat New York Times article from earlier this week includes the depressing observation that one of Biden's remaining tasks—in the twilight of his administration—is to try to claim what credit he can for "the healthy economy that he is turning over to his ungrateful successor." And indeed, this describes the situation well. 

Biden successfully oversaw the recovery from the pandemic. During his administration, the U.S. economy returned to a robust pace of growth, and the post-pandemic inflation slowed to a manageable rate. Now that Biden has done the hard work of governing while the Fed performed the unpopular task of taming the labor market just enough to bring prices down—he has to hand the keys over to someone who contributed nothing to this difficult task—but who will almost certainly take home all the credit for it. 

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

A Bullying Hulk

 The most chilling aspect of the last few weeks is just how much power Trump has managed to consolidate already—and he's not even in office yet. Each day brings fresh news that some corporate CEO or tech insider has just lined up to kiss his ring. Trump's behavior in all this seems to establish a simple pattern of reward and punishment: he may appear magnanimous if you join Bezos and the rest in toadying and flattering him. But he will be utterly vicious and ruthless if you dare to oppose or criticize. 

His lawsuit this week against Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register is a quintessential example of his mean-spirited tactics. Obviously, it's a frivolous lawsuit. Trump will not win on the facts. But that hardly matters. The purpose of the suit is to bully, intimidate, and harass by imposing costs on others—and no doubt it will succeed in that goal. It's actually all too easy under our broken system of civil litigation to force people to pay ruinous legal bills, even when you have no serious case against them. 

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

The Road to Soft Authoritarianism

 Ever since the election, we've all been playing the dismal game of trying to figure out just how much of Trump's authoritarian rhetoric on the campaign trail we should take seriously. Any given day may find him saying something even more despotic and unhinged than we could have expected. And yet, the next day may find him appearing to waffle on some of his more disturbing campaign pledges. In short, he's so mercurial that his words alone don't give us much to go on. 

If we look past the shifting rhetoric of the moment, however—and focus on his actions and (crucially) the way other people are already responding to him—we start to see the outlines of how he really could severely curtail free expression in this country and transform the United States into a quasi–personalistic autocracy in a very short space of time. Indeed, we might already be partway there—and he's not even president yet. This is the road to soft authoritarianism. 

Monday, December 16, 2024

Bright Young Things 2.0

 The New York Young Republicans were back this week for another edition of their annual gala—an event where a bunch of far-right YouTube influencers gab about destroying democracy while wearing tuxedoes and fancy gowns. The aesthetic aspect of this event continues to fascinate me. It just so completely fulfills someone's worst possible conception of moral nihilism in the social media age. Here are a number of rich young New York socialites, after all, playing at apocalypse, and tossing off half-serious overtures to fascism, all while clad in black-tie. Patrick Bateman could hardly do worse. 

The New York Times coverage of the event captures the ambience perfectly. Steve Bannon, wearing his trademark quasi-militia gear, shrieks about retribution. We will show the enemies of MAGA "no mercy," Bannon roared. (Beneath the huffing and blowing, there are signs of a deep insecurity and fear on Bannon's part: what if, he appears to dread, Trump actually moderates on some of his extreme rhetoric once he retakes office? Trump, after all, appears to be trying to give himself leeway to backpedal on "mass deportation" right now—raising alarm among his far-right supporters.)

Sunday, December 15, 2024

More Mystery Drones, Please

 The mystery drone story is great good fun. 

I hope we can keep it up. 

This is exactly what American politics should be. 

There's an intriguing spooky conundrum. With just the right frisson of the uncanny. 

But the stakes are also incredibly low. No one is getting hurt here.