A Repulsive Regime: Thoughts From a Disgusting Inaugural

I watched every minute of this debacle. It was worse than I even expected.

A few things before we get to the main article covering the inauguration.

First, I recently published Get Ready: Immigration Raids and Information for the Targeted and Allies. If you haven’t seen it yet, these are thoughts and resources to look over as we prepare for ICE and federal raids that are likely to come in the next few days. Give it a look and forward it to anyone who might need to get up to date. We’re all going to need to be on the ready. Second, I announced a new venture yesterday. I joined the board of The Change Campaign, a nonprofit dedicated to troubling this status quo and creating a better future. I’ve been speaking a lot about organizing and creating a movement and have mentioned there will be national efforts to bring these different coalitions and efforts together. I’ll be doing my part in that role and will have more information in the near future. In the meantime, I’ve written a white paper for The American Institute For Change, the think-tank arm of the organization, detailing how that status quo has failed us.

As always, corporate media does not support actual critiques of capitalism or power. I depend on your support. Become a subscriber today to gain access to exclusive content but also to keep this project going and growing.

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I have been following, analyzing, and warning against the rise of Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again Movement since 2015. Over that time, I’ve educated myself through writing multiple books to understand the historical precursors, signals, strategies, and consequences, and have worked my damnedest to educate people about what I saw as a gathering existential threat. In 2017, I stood in freezing Washington, D.C. and watched Trump’s first inaugural address, and then lived through the next four hectic years of his disastrous administration. In the wind-up to yesterday’s inauguration, I’ve written about what I expected from this go-round, suggested strategies for preparing one’s self for this moment, and, in the Audio From A Collapsing State series have discussed at-length how this moment in time would test us physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually.

To be honest, even I was surprised by how bad the Inauguration was.

I watched from morning to night, taking in all of the separate speeches and ceremonies and indignities. At times, I wept. At other times, I shook my head in disbelief. I yelled. I disassociated. By the time I slipped into bed, I felt like I’d had the living hell beat out of me.

And there’s a reason for that. As I’ve discussed, authoritarianism is weaponized abuse. I’ve talked about the three options authoritarianism gives us: join and reap the rewards, look away and hope the destruction visits others and leaves you alone, or resist and risk destruction. That’s what was on display yesterday, in rhetoric and action. We were subjected to one of the repulsive spectacles imaginable and, as surprising as it was, it shouldn’t have been surprising at all.

I wanted to write a little bit about what I walked away from the day thinking and feeling. To be honest, I hope you didn’t watch unless it was motivating and clarifying.

1. “The Golden Age”

Make no bones about it, this was a fascistic event. A lot of people throw that word around, but we must learn what these things are so that we can recognize it and fight back accordingly. And this, my friends, was fascism.

Undoubtedly you’d heard about or seen what Elon Musk did. Depending on where you get your news, you saw our media tap-dance around it in a way that made your blood pressure spike. But, at this point, we should understand this is how the corporate-owned media class will choose to cover such things.

There’s a reason for this type of obfuscation. At the top of the list of reasons is to avoid lawsuits. Musk has all the money in the world and it’s nothing for him to sue every media outlet who goes ahead and calls this a fascistic or Nazi salute. There’s plausible deniability, after all, and the fact that that deniability is there, that he can claim he was “throwing his heart out to the crowd” just gives further ammunition to the suspicion that this was purposeful and, essentially, bait. All I know is that the Far Right and Neo-Nazi communities that I keep track of heard his message loud and clear.

But Musk’s actions are only the most visible of the fascistic elements on full-display. What Trump articulated in his address was a pure example. The chosen rhetorical device of the day was that a “Golden Age” was dawning in America, a period of strength and success and power that would replace the former era of humiliation and decline. This is the most tried and true method of fascistic narrative construction, especially when that “Golden Age” is resulting from strength, cruelty, a clear cut delineation between in groups and out groups, and mobilization against a hated enemy that “betrayed” a nation endowed with special characteristics and innate superiority. These constructions are the bedrock of fascist ideology and they are incredibly powerful and effective.

What’s more, this is an essential component of the worldview and fantasy offered to the MAGA faithful. Make no mistake, America is in decline. It’s not a Satanic plot or even the doings of a single administration. It is the result of forty plus years of Neoliberal exploitation and plunder. That fact is being obscured and the consequences are being taken advantage of by Trump and the wealth and oligarchical classes he serves. His working and middle class voters are desperate for something different and many have accepted the simulation of hope over actual deliverance. This is how cults work, and authoritarian movements are cults.

Sadly, it is an extremely effective rhetorical technique, and we are watching it pay off. This captures media attention and narrative creation, and quickly, with the assistance of some fictional American exceptionalism and retread “Manifest Destiny,” it is being used to prepare incredible violence against vulnerable populations and possibly even military aggression against other countries. Invasions, seizing of resources, militaristic mobilization, and violence on our streets are sure to come. And it rides on this very specific and very intentional framing.

2. Oligarchy

I haven’t been shy about this: there is an oligarchy solidifying control over the United States.

Joe Biden was finally able to say something about it in his farewell address, but even if he hadn’t have said those words, and they were certainly too little too late, this inauguration would have spoken volumes. Surrounding Trump as he took his oath and served up his fascistic vision were some of the world’s richest men and representation of the most influential and powerful communication platforms on the planet.

We know why they were there. They were keeping an eye on their investment.

This was a stark reminder of exactly what we’re facing. For all of Trump’s buffoonery, and there was plenty, just off-camera were billionaires busy earning passive income and pulling the strings. This is their government now. They’ve owned it for a long time, have enjoyed getting historically rich feeding off of the needs and resources of empire, but this current push is an attempt to finalize the deal. Musk bought MAGA for a relatively measly sum. The rest are investing as the sham continues and grows. As of the time of this article, the major platforms are all in and either actively promoting Trump and censoring opposition or beginning the process.

It’s not a coup. It’s a hostile takeover.

Someday, when this battle is over and we have won, we’ll look back on this inauguration and see it for what it was. Every camera shot will be a reminder of the moment in which the facade fell by the wayside and we were able to see, beyond a doubt, as to what had taken place. Trump returned, but he wasn’t alone.

3. “Welcome Home”

That’s how Joe Biden greeted Trump as he returned to the White House.

Welcome. Home.

Never mind that Biden had spent years warning that Trump was an existential threat to American democracy. He was “home.” And we were reminded, yet again, that we must stop expecting the political class and the Democrats to save us. We need to do it ourselves.

It was a day like that. While we sat in agony and heartbreak, Biden went ahead and pardoned his entire family. Chuck Schumer showed up to the affair wearing a knit cap featuring the Buffalo Bills, who had just advanced to the AFC Championship. One of the most powerful men in the world was so concerned about Trump retaking power that he dressed himself in sports regalia for a photo-op back home. Amy Klobuchar helped preside over the festivities, handing out gifts to Trump and JD Vance when she wasn’t busy chatting and laughing with the new president.

On TV, news anchor and pundits were so concerned about democracy that they just laughed and carried on inbetween expressing their concern. Over at CNN a Republican strategist talked about why the people who attempted to overthrow the 2024 Election and attacked Capitol police should be pardoned and Jake Tapper gave him a jovial hard time for now sending out baby pictures. There was plenty of discussion about any number of unprecedented and awful actions Trump could take and rationalizing that this was what the American people voted for.

Later, Trump signed executive orders worsening the climate crisis and exerting dangerous control over the country and there was praise for his “showmanship” because he tossed signing pens into the crowd.

In case you had any doubt, these people are not up to the moment.

4. Weaponized Abuse

This is something I speak about often because we need to be prepared, but yesterday was something. Trump used his inaugural and the following speeches to bludgeon us with his nonsense and hate. The GOP gloated and the Democratic Party continued to capitulate and wither. Then, Trump made his way over to the Capitol One Arena and made a big, giant show of exercising power. His loyal fans cheered him on and seemed to eat up every scrap of hatred he threw their way. Then, he headed to the White House and let loose a flurry of executive orders that virtually erased trans people, attempted to end birthright citizenship, pardoned nearly 1,500 January 6th insurrectionists, and so much more.

It was a show of force meant to beat you down. That’s the point. To heap onto you so much unflinching cruelty and abuse as to sideline you and convince you that there’s simply nothing we can do to stop it. Authoritarianism requires that surrender. That’s why the violence and the cruelty is necessary. It’s meant to dissuade you from standing up for what you know is right and against what you know is wrong. This is one of the reasons I expect some very public and very aggressive immigration raids in our future. To send a message that they are strong and we are weak and vulnerable.

But anyone who has grown up in an abusive environment knows the truth. This behavior is birthed by weakness and fear. It is a lashing out that is meant to hide just how utterly fragile the originator is. The think-tanks and institutes who run the show behind Trump on behalf of the wealth class put this together and organized it. They crafted the orders. They pieced together this strategy. It was intended to crush us within the first twelve hours of Trump’s presidency.

And why? Because it is exceedingly vulnerable. Trump is incompetent. Stupid. Lazy. Listening to him for even a few seconds with an open mind reveals that. He’s an arrogant, insecure oaf. We’ve already seen how terrible of an executive he makes. And, surrounding him, are other arrogant, insecure oafs. They’re going to govern terribly as well. There will be openings to stop them, to pressure them from their chosen agendas. And the desire of the oligarchs to be front and center and in the camera’s eye will only make it harder to continue the facade.

This was a blitz. An opening salvo meant to shock and awe. If you’re like me, you felt it in your gut. It left you tired and sad and angry. There are so many people hurting, so many people scared. The people of color I know, the women, the immigrants, the gay and trans people, they’re directly in the crosshairs of this monstrosity. I owe it to them and you owe it to them to dust ourselves off, see this charade for what it was, and get back to the hard and necessary work.

Do not give these bastards the satisfaction of having won this thing in the first day.