This is the paradox of authoritarian drift: the more brittle the regime becomes, the more violently it asserts its strength. What we’re witnessing isn’t just desperation, it’s adaptation. The regime is learning how to weaponize spectacle, uncertainty, and institutional fatigue.
The split-screen is real. On one side: performative cruelty, militarized optics, and erratic decrees. On the other: cracks in the budgetary armor, fraying loyalty, and a public that’s harder to gaslight than before. These aren’t separate stories. They’re feedback loops.
As you rightly note, this all makes him more dangerous, not less. The challenge now is to dismantle the machinery of tyranny without feeding its appetite for chaos.
The resistance must stay strategic, not just symbolic. This isn’t the end of the beginning. It’s the beginning of the reckoning.
Trump’s desperation seems transparent—a midterm switch of a majority in the House interferes with the power grab … and might lead to another impeachment(s). So he’s looking to impose martial law or war with Venezuela. And let’s not - nor ever - forget that a credible charge of pedophilia still lurks …
Really thoughtful piece. Thank you. This helps validate the conclusion I came to out of plain instincts of a simple midwesterner. The more this lawless regime flails and the more violent and outrageous it becomes, the more “powerful” it is to simply stand up and say “No.” No weapons, no violence, no shouting. Just me and a small American flag, in the streets of my small town in the heartland, saying with and to my neighbors: “This is wrong.” It’s what feels right to me, and so it is what I will do. To me, calm words feel like they will have paradoxically outsized impact right now. I can feel good knowing I am giving nothing, no images, no fuel, to those who want to twist and distort opposition. And in my small town, it is more likely that someone will listen and hear if I speak softly and don’t shout.
I will give up every Saturday and Sunday if it gets us to 12 million (3.5%) peacefully protesting. Check out Rachel Maddow’s episode from last night if you haven’t already. Thanks for this encouraging assessment.
Republicans know Trump is unhinged. His speech to the military brass focused on war against Trump’s domestic opposition. The ultra rich and their lackeys in Congress want to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society programs and enshrine legal racial and gender discrimination. Republican governors like DeSantis and Abbott are stalwart partners to destroy programs for the working and middle classes. This plan lacks popular support and they know it. The midterms loom as a potential turning point for or against this reactionary agenda.
We need the names of Trumps stooges, lackeys and henchmen. When Trump is gone they must be held accountable, no matter how uncomfortable that is for old-line Democrats.
News flash for some of the GOPers suddenly ‘worried’ about spiking healthcare premiums ‘in the future’. That’s literally already underway - corporate health insurance enrollment periods have already begun and millions of employees and retirees (myself included) have opened emails or clicked on 2026 links for their ‘plans’ to see their rates doubling or going up 35/40%. There is no way these companies will modify those plans now and lower the rates even if the shutdown ends and the corrupt GOP agrees to keep the subsidy extensions. That train has left the station - in October 2025! The shocking shit show that is this administration is already dumping excrement all over Americans, we didn’t need a literal Trump video to prove it but it sure did help I guess.
"We're trying to do it in a nicer manner, but we can always use the Insurrection Act." really sticks with me. What are "we" trying to do in a "nicer manner?" Impose authoritarian rule? A kinder, gentler dictatorship? It's a really striking phrase.
I am sorry to say that I don't think this will end without violence. I am wondering whether when (more likely than "if") the Insurrection Act is invoked against Americans, what will the top military brass do? Stand by passively and violate their oath to the Constitution OR take effective action against this administration, surely characterized as a domestic enemy?
::As unfair as it may be, it will remain the burden of the opposition not only to bring down the nascent Trump dictatorship, but also attempt to do so with as little violence as possible.::
I am pleased, and amazed, at how nonviolent No Kings Day turned out to be—I heard there were some (like ten people, total?) arrests in Portland, OR, and I saw pictures of what looked like tear gas clouds, but I didn't hear where the possible tear gas came from, and who was arrested.
Trump's response was to generate an AI video of him literally shitting on protesters from a jet fighter—created by somebody on his MAGAt staff, because I refuse to believe he's near smart enough to do it himself! Not to be outdone, he also started to tear part of the White House down to build his "big beautiful ballroom", in a move I can only assume was him throwing a tantrum after so many people showed up to publicly, but peacefully, oppose him.
While I hope for his Felonious Traitor Dictator Regime collapsing as peacefully as the attempt by Soviet hardliners to take over from Gorbachav did (though I could do without Boris Yeltzin), I don't know how likely the braindead MAGAts are to make it violent—or how hard the pushback will come to make those Seditious PoSes PAY....
This is the paradox of authoritarian drift: the more brittle the regime becomes, the more violently it asserts its strength. What we’re witnessing isn’t just desperation, it’s adaptation. The regime is learning how to weaponize spectacle, uncertainty, and institutional fatigue.
The split-screen is real. On one side: performative cruelty, militarized optics, and erratic decrees. On the other: cracks in the budgetary armor, fraying loyalty, and a public that’s harder to gaslight than before. These aren’t separate stories. They’re feedback loops.
As you rightly note, this all makes him more dangerous, not less. The challenge now is to dismantle the machinery of tyranny without feeding its appetite for chaos.
The resistance must stay strategic, not just symbolic. This isn’t the end of the beginning. It’s the beginning of the reckoning.
—Johan
Trump’s desperation seems transparent—a midterm switch of a majority in the House interferes with the power grab … and might lead to another impeachment(s). So he’s looking to impose martial law or war with Venezuela. And let’s not - nor ever - forget that a credible charge of pedophilia still lurks …
Really thoughtful piece. Thank you. This helps validate the conclusion I came to out of plain instincts of a simple midwesterner. The more this lawless regime flails and the more violent and outrageous it becomes, the more “powerful” it is to simply stand up and say “No.” No weapons, no violence, no shouting. Just me and a small American flag, in the streets of my small town in the heartland, saying with and to my neighbors: “This is wrong.” It’s what feels right to me, and so it is what I will do. To me, calm words feel like they will have paradoxically outsized impact right now. I can feel good knowing I am giving nothing, no images, no fuel, to those who want to twist and distort opposition. And in my small town, it is more likely that someone will listen and hear if I speak softly and don’t shout.
I will give up every Saturday and Sunday if it gets us to 12 million (3.5%) peacefully protesting. Check out Rachel Maddow’s episode from last night if you haven’t already. Thanks for this encouraging assessment.
I protest twice a week in rural red VA. The privilege of retirement. And a long memory.
I have 6 years… if they don’t raise it again 😞
Rickety, yes … but he also has an eagerly excited SCOTUS to lead us back to the segregated Fifties.
Republicans know Trump is unhinged. His speech to the military brass focused on war against Trump’s domestic opposition. The ultra rich and their lackeys in Congress want to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society programs and enshrine legal racial and gender discrimination. Republican governors like DeSantis and Abbott are stalwart partners to destroy programs for the working and middle classes. This plan lacks popular support and they know it. The midterms loom as a potential turning point for or against this reactionary agenda.
We need the names of Trumps stooges, lackeys and henchmen. When Trump is gone they must be held accountable, no matter how uncomfortable that is for old-line Democrats.
If we don't, they'll be back.
Agree. Show no mercy.
News flash for some of the GOPers suddenly ‘worried’ about spiking healthcare premiums ‘in the future’. That’s literally already underway - corporate health insurance enrollment periods have already begun and millions of employees and retirees (myself included) have opened emails or clicked on 2026 links for their ‘plans’ to see their rates doubling or going up 35/40%. There is no way these companies will modify those plans now and lower the rates even if the shutdown ends and the corrupt GOP agrees to keep the subsidy extensions. That train has left the station - in October 2025! The shocking shit show that is this administration is already dumping excrement all over Americans, we didn’t need a literal Trump video to prove it but it sure did help I guess.
"We're trying to do it in a nicer manner, but we can always use the Insurrection Act." really sticks with me. What are "we" trying to do in a "nicer manner?" Impose authoritarian rule? A kinder, gentler dictatorship? It's a really striking phrase.
I am sorry to say that I don't think this will end without violence. I am wondering whether when (more likely than "if") the Insurrection Act is invoked against Americans, what will the top military brass do? Stand by passively and violate their oath to the Constitution OR take effective action against this administration, surely characterized as a domestic enemy?
::As unfair as it may be, it will remain the burden of the opposition not only to bring down the nascent Trump dictatorship, but also attempt to do so with as little violence as possible.::
I am pleased, and amazed, at how nonviolent No Kings Day turned out to be—I heard there were some (like ten people, total?) arrests in Portland, OR, and I saw pictures of what looked like tear gas clouds, but I didn't hear where the possible tear gas came from, and who was arrested.
Trump's response was to generate an AI video of him literally shitting on protesters from a jet fighter—created by somebody on his MAGAt staff, because I refuse to believe he's near smart enough to do it himself! Not to be outdone, he also started to tear part of the White House down to build his "big beautiful ballroom", in a move I can only assume was him throwing a tantrum after so many people showed up to publicly, but peacefully, oppose him.
While I hope for his Felonious Traitor Dictator Regime collapsing as peacefully as the attempt by Soviet hardliners to take over from Gorbachav did (though I could do without Boris Yeltzin), I don't know how likely the braindead MAGAts are to make it violent—or how hard the pushback will come to make those Seditious PoSes PAY....