the early U.S. was a settlers’ empire, a political and military force with the main goal to provide farm families (and speculators) with more land. So it went for generations.
The indictment of former United States president Donald Trump on charges he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election is the most serious test of America’s experiment in constitutional government since December 1860, when the state of South Carolina seceded from the Union and set in motion the events leading to the Civil War.
Before reflecting on the stakes of this crisis, however, we should consider its deeper roots. How could a defeated president refuse to accept the results of an historically secure election, sic a violent mob on the U.S. Capitol and still command the unshakeable loyalty of one third of Americans? How could this same person appeal to another sixth or so of voters, putting him in position to return to power in 2024 as the Republican front-runner?
Chosen People
As a historian who tries to take the long view of current events, I see one underlying explanation that reaches back — strange as it may seem — to a single passage from a book published in Paris 238 years ago.
“Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God.” So proclaimed Thomas Jefferson in 1785 in his Notes on the State of Virginia, which he had originally written as a series of letters for a French visitor.
Jefferson’s words were more than hot air. After becoming president in 1801, he used the power of the federal government to vastly expand the public domain of the United States and to survey, divide and sell that domain to as many white farmers as possible…
Donald Trump has lost control of his own image
In all, Trumpism (and American neofascism) is much bigger than any one person or persons; it is a cultural problem that will persist far into the future. As I explained in a previous essay here at Salon, to begin that process of healing and purging Trumpism and neofascism from American society and life, requires that he be defeated in the courtroom(s) and at the ballot box…
Unfortunately, the nightmare that is the Age of Trump continues, and it will be many months and perhaps longer with trials, appeals, a presidential election, and other things we can’t accurately predict at this point in time before the traitor ex-president and the Republican fascists and their forces are finally defeated and vanquished – assuming such an outcome is even possible given the country’s deep problems.
Yes, Donald Trump may be surrounded. But that also means Trump can hit a target in any direction when he rages and lashes out. He has lost the ability to fully write his own narrative. This enrages Trump. His rage will not be contained or disciplined. Now is not the time to lower our defenses because that is how evildoers and supervillains like Donald Trump win.
https://www.salon.com/2023/08/04/donald-has-lost-control-of-his-own-image/
After the truth-shower 