Dispatches Mailbag: Springfield, Authoritarian Danger, Stolen Elections, Changing the Future

We've got a great batch of questions and way too much to talk about. Let's go.

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First of all, thank you for all the people who reached out with their questions. I try and keep these mailbags pretty organized, but there were so many things that I’d like to get to and I think that just speaks to just how strange and dangerous of a moment we’re living in. When I think about my past career as a professor, I remember days where every hand in the class seemed to raise to ask about a due date or particular topic and realizing, in a few seconds, just how high the level of anxiety was. And right now, that level is very, very high in the American public. For good reason.

Today we’re going to get into that, including the unfolding tragedy in Springfield, Ohio, the threatening political climate, some thoughts on self-care as things get worse, the possibility of the 2024 Election being stolen, and some advice on organizing as a means of securing necessary change.

Daphne: I live about an hour away from Springfield and I am PISSED about what’s going on! These poor, poor people are being subjected to nonstop harassment and hate and it’s all I can do to focus on what I’m doing or try and work. It feels like a sickness and I just wish there was something I could do. Do you think Trump or Vance (blech) feel even a little bit bad about what they’re doing? I know they don’t but I swear to god…

Oh my god, no. For Donald Trump other humans are either impediments or tools to be used in pursuit of power and profit. There isn’t a person in that man’s life, including his children and family members, that he isn’t constantly using for his own purposes and is more than ready to drop them should become inconvenient. That’s who he is: a sociopath who embodies the sociopathic tendencies of unchecked capitalism. Haitians and immigrants aren’t even human beings to him. They’re subhuman. Expendable beyond expendable. So much so that he’s not even interested in fully understanding what’s happening on the ground or even what the fearmongering narrative actually entails. This is why he is so unprepared for debates or even being PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The most important job in the world wasn’t even worth his time.

JD Vance shares many of these tendencies with Trump, but the difference is a sweaty desperation to control and capitalize that is still troubled with anxiety. You can see it in his interviews and appearances. His failures as the VP candidate are expressions of a larger discomfort, a bothersome concern that Trump has probably never had. When Trump lies, he does it seamlessly. He doesn’t consider it. He doesn’t second-guess it. His personal reality is never-ending and never ceasing. Vance has to wrestle with it every day of his life. I don’t think he feels guilty over what he’s doing to these vulnerable people, but I do think he is troubled by how best to capitalize on their suffering.

What’s happening in Springfield because of these two assholes and the machine they represent is beyond reprehensible. It’s bad enough that Haiti has been continually damaged by the powerful and plagued by white supremacy, but to escape that mess, to come to America, to work hard and even provide necessary labor, and then deal with this? It boggles the mind.

Already they have been subjected to not just racist fearmongering, but continual threats on their wellbeing. Multiple bomb threats have been phoned in. Their homes and property have been attacked. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to walk around Springfield or surrounding areas and deal with the everpresent hate. The amount of racism and harassment has to be off the charts.

But that’s part and parcel of the Right’s operation. There’s not a group of people in this country, outside of the white base carrying out these attacks, who hasn’t felt the focus of this fearmongering and hatred. And that’s because the Right only has one appeal that it can leverage, and that’s white supremacist paranoia. In order to stave off class conflict and protect their billionaire/corporate directors, the GOP and their associated hate groups have to create these narratives to drive a wedge among the populace. Emotional, traumatizing, abusive stories rife with fear and terror playing off existing prejudices is the only means of doing that, and if someone gets killed in the process - in fact, if many, many people get killed - that’s just part of the game.

When you really look at what has happened in the past few decades, it’s staggering. Someone in Springfield, in Ohio, in the Midwest, wherever, is going to get seriously hurt or killed. But that person or those people will simply be added to a growing toll. These tactics have inspired unbelievable amounts of violence, including mass shootings and a spate of incidents that have been written off as isolated tragedies.

None of this is isolated. It’s part of a larger epidemic of violence and radicalization that, should people actually name and understand, would represent an existential crisis that would require action. It’s much easier to imagine that nothing Trump or Vance or the people they traffic with or represent really affects the world beyond making people feel gross. But it is a huge, huge problem.