"God help us." That is good news.
Trump's longest-serving Chief of Staff, John Kelly, speaks up.
It is late in the game in the "Era of Trump."
America is watching a groundswell of revisionism.
Many of Trump's closest associates are speaking out in condemnation of him. They are being praised as they slip back into the good graces of respectable people in America's enduring establishment. This establishment would include the leaders of America's great institutions in business, law, government, and learning, the book writers and book readers, lobbyists, the mainstream media -- in short, the people who run the country. Trump's enablers want to be on the side of "the normies," not the "crazies."
MAGA people represent populist energy, but the country isn't run by those "forgotten men" of the working class. The country is run by people with education, status, and wealth. Populist crowds are frightening when they storm a Bastille or a Capitol, but crowds are led and manipulated and used by demagogues in concert with people with the enduring power. MAGA chanters, disrupters, and voters are pawns in the chess game. Trump, Fox, and conservative billionaire PACs used them masterfully, and they have worked together for eight years, but the Trump/Fox/billionaire team is unraveling. The billionaire funders are looking for an alternative to Trump. Trump is too crazy and unreliable for them. Trump is bad for business. Trump drew Fox into legal danger, and they are cleaning themselves up. Trump demands more loyalty from Fox than it is safe for them to give. Trump's enablers are returning to home base. I consider it an "early indicator." It is a sign that the Trump Era is disintegrating under its own weight of civil lawsuits, criminality and crazy.
The quiet enablers on Trump's staff must notice what is happening, so they are becoming truth-tellers, not loyalists. The people who stayed too close for too long -- Mark Meadows, Rudolph Giuliani, Kenneth Chesbro, Jeffrey Clark -- may share the prison fate of Nixon's top aides Bob Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Chuck Colson. Trump's enablers are looking over the horizon, and over their shoulders.
Former Chief of Staff John Kelly upped his criticism of Trump. He was deeply offended by Trump's attitude toward the military and patriotic service. He saw Trump's blatant hypocrisy on issues. He saw Trump's "open contempt" for values Kelly considers sacred. He kept quiet in the moment. But this week he told CNN:
A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.
There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.
The time to have said that was four years ago. That would have displayed a soldier's courage. Saying it now is a soldier changing uniform after the tide of battle has turned. Kelly's silence gave Trump credibility, and that credibility persists. The MAGA crowd will pay no attention to Kelly. He deserves no medal.
The real importance of Kelly's comments come from being a signal about where we are in this Era of Trump. Kelly spoke up. The rats are leaving the ship.
It may not feel like it, but it is late in the game for Trump.
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7 comments:
One more disaffected cult member joins the Too Little Too Late club.
When it’s safe to tell the truth, like when they are not running for reelection, then criticism of Trump is made. I worked under a narcissist boss for 20 of my 30 years and I saw plenty of people take a fall for being disloyal during that time. Trump is very clear in his demand for loyalty and the consequences for being disloyal. The fall of my narcissistic boss was rather sudden and dramatic, but prior to that fall, it was very dangerous waters to cross him. I was one of the cowards who kept his mouth shut and did my job without rocking the boat. I understand what it’s like to be in the position of being quiet, and also understand how cathartic it is to tell the truth when it is safe to do so. In Trump’s case I think it’s going to take the American people rejecting him, before the dramatic fall occurs. Hubris before the fall.
It has been predicted by Mary Trump and others that as the pressure grows the behavior will become more and more erratic. This seems to be the case. Maybe now some of the enablers are just now seeing what the rest of us have from the beginning, but I tend to think that they are simply cleaning up their own culpability. It is a growing list.
"I never liked the guy"...
I wonder, what are the chances that in a "flight or fight" scenario flight will be chosen? If so, where would there be refuge?
Turncoat are never really trusted when they try to return to the fold. What is to keep Kelky from going back on the assertions he now makes, when he thinks it's safe to do so.
If he has the vast majority of his wealth seized for disgorgement, he is going to find it very difficult to find a nice place to hide. I'm not sure his ego will let him flee at any rate.
Why is Kelly invoking a fictious diety to "help" us?
The only people who can fix this mess are Americans who vote against the GOPee every position, every election.
Mc Even some of us on the side of the Republic believe in the Sky Pilot. Personally, I don't, and haven't for many years, but if those beliefs keep folks working toward saving our Republic, I'm all
for it, and them.
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