Same As It Ever Was

Despite desires for a pivot, Donald Trump and the Republican Party are still Donald Trump and the Republican Party

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In the wake of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life, it has been an absolute insane stretch. So many things have been forgotten. Trump’s 34 conviction convictions. His being held accountable for sexual assault. The Supreme Court’s destruction of administrative regulation and the creation of conditional executive immunity.

And, well, the past eight years in totality.

I have discussed how the United States is on a rightward trajectory. Within that paradigm, our media and political class have not only normalized the extremism of Trump, the Republican Party, and the authoritarian movement, but have capitulated and forwarded the reactionary agenda themselves. While the GOP has decried the nonexistent “Left,” and pointed to one thing after another as evidence of cultural and political degeneracy, the bastions of “the Left” have continued to platform some of the most extremist positions as reasonable. They have attacked LGBTQ Americans and continually criticized “Wokeness” throughout culture, a charge that simply hides assaults on actual history and any attempt to address the inherent white, patriarchal supremacist features of American society.

For days now that same press has gushed over the Republican National Convention. While discussing the tribulation within the Democratic Party - and it now appears that President Joe Biden will step aside and make way for a new nominee - they have sought ways of lionizing Donald Trump and the Republican Party. The convention was an exercise in “unity.” Trump was “strong” and “resilient” following the assassination attempt. It has been an incredible public relations blitz meant to prepare us for a second Trump Administration and all of the horrors accompanying it.

We were told Trump was going to pivot. That he was going to deliver a new and novel speech that would give us a perspective on him and his agenda. “Analysis” told us this was his chance to grow, to become a leader, to move to a new chapter and push forward.

And, then, well, the speech happened.

Trump cannot change. He is 78 years old and one of the most divisive and repugnant human beings walking. He is who he is. And we have screamed and yelled for years for our media and culture to stop expecting something else.

His RNC speech was stupid and insipid and divisive and self-serving. Repulsive. Over an hour and a half of some of the most narcissistic bullshit you could ever imagine. It began with a recounting of his surviving the attack that capitalized off cultish ideas of divine intervention and God reaching out and saving his life. As he has done in the past with the American flag, he embraced the firefighter jacket of his fallen supporter and kissed the helmet. A stunt that was offensive to anyone with even a semblance of common sense. It was a rambling, embarrassing diatribe and anyone who appears on television who pretended like this would be anything but should be ashamed and probably never appear on television again.

The RNC itself was an exercise in predictable ugliness. They fearmongered. They attacked immigrants. They talked of unity while casting Democrats as an enemy needing destroyed. It was a phantasmagoria of racism, sexism, and hate. None of it even approached truth or reality. And anyone paying attention, and not interested in pushing some kind of normalizing agenda, would have been disgusted.

In search of good news, here is this: this Trump/Vance ticket is very, very beatable. Trump is a pathetic husk and transparent. He’s small and vain and uninterested in doing anything besides stroking his fragile ego. JD Vance is a cretin devoid of any actual talent besides betraying his family for political and economic profit. I don’t know who will replace Biden on the Democratic ticket, but they have an incredible advantage in that a human being cannot look at this pair and their agenda without feeling physically sickened.

I cannot properly characterize what the experience has been watching the RNC. Even with an unpopular and fading incumbent rival, Republicans managed to put on one of the most underwhelming and disturbing political facades I’ve ever seen. I will give credit where credit is due, and if this had been anything approaching effective I would say as much. But it wasn’t. And the GOP remains an off-putting body with strange affectations and an incredibly dangerous agenda.

What we saw in Trump’s speech and the overall presentation of the RNC was the terminal phase of a political body that could be and should be put to rest. We should move beyond this iteration of the GOP and discover something different and better and less repellent. We deserve better. We all deserve better.

Instead, we have one party that is pushing a fascist agenda wrapped in offensively stupid faux-patriotism and another that is tearing itself to pieces. The former insults our intelligence and attacks our senses. The latter is currently self-mutiliating as it should be leading us forward. The result is predictable. Chaos and stagnation. And it is dragging us deeper and deeper into the muck.

I am pissed off. Exhausted. What Trump and the GOP has presented us is pure excrement. Shit. And it is a course designed to distract us from the formal offering. White, patriarchal supremacy. Cruelty. Abuse. Destruction. And to think that this crude farce is somehow leading in the polls and the presumptive frontrunner offends me. And it should offend you.

There has to be something better.

We must have something better.