Trump May Be Waging War On America But The Whole Republican Party Is Abetting Him

The Crisis in California Is Real— It’s A New Front In The War For America’s Soul

Roland thinks Trump sent troops to L.A. (wasting $134 million) to distract attention away from either his failing tariff policies or the resurfacing of the Jeffrey Epstein pedophile scandal. Could also be defunding health care for around 10 million Americans in his big ugly bill. Oliver Willis had another explanation: There Are No 'Distractions' In A War, Only Fronts. The theory, he wrote, is that “Because Trump is a creature of the modern media environment and because we are constantly bombarded with narrative after narrative, Trump and his acolytes within the GOP are regularly setting off distraction bombs, meant to keep us occupied while they’re up to no good behind closed doors. There were two recent invocations of distraction theory worth noting. First, the fight between Elon Musk and Donald Trump was purportedly a distraction from the harm of the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that intends to destroy the social safety net. A few days later, some Democratic leaders argued that the attempted military incursion of Los Angeles over immigration was also a ‘distraction’ from the bill. It was also argued by California Gov. Gavin Newsom— who is directly involved in the Los Angeles ‘distraction,’ ironically— that the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was also a ‘distraction.’”

If it isn’t already clear, I think this theory of the world is very stupid and frankly counterproductive. It operates as if we are still somewhere in the distant past, when only a few narratives could ever operate at one time, usually with a clear “A” story and one or more less important “B” stories. But it is 2025 and that method of operation has long been obsolete.

We are in an ideological war with the American right. They are attacking everything good and right about America and are trying their damnedest to drag us back to the stone age when women, minorities, and LGBTQ people were a subordinate slave class to the whims of wealthy, straight, white men.

These things aren’t distractions. They are fronts. America fought war on two fronts during World War II, taking on the Axis powers in the European and Pacific theaters. There wasn’t any choice in the matter. There were American soldiers island hopping toward Japan and there were soldiers landing on the beaches of France and Italy on their way to Berlin. Leaders like Franklin Roosevelt and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, while they had to prioritize targets and objectives, didn’t have the luxury of saying the war couldn’t be fought on either side of the U.S. It was an existential battle for survival and they were victorious on both sides.

That is the situation we are in now against conservatism and Republicans. Liberals have to make the case, over and over, that these people are unfit to rule and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the levers of power. Every action that liberals and its representatives within the Democratic Party undertake should underscore that clear goal.

CNN reported that Señor TACO “is talking and acting like an authoritarian as he escalates a constitutional clash with California over his migration crackdown. Much now depends on whether he’s simply talking tough or if he’s ready to take an already-tense nation across a fateful line in his zeal for strongman rule. In a mind-boggling moment, on Monday, the president of the United States— the country seen as the world’s top steward of democracy for 80 years— endorsed the arrest of the Democratic governor of the nation’s most populous state. ‘I think it would be a great thing,’ Trump, the only convicted felon ever to serve as president, told reporters as he strode across the South Lawn of the White House. Later, Trump deployed hundreds of active-duty Marines to Los Angeles and authorized the arrival of 2,000 more National Guard reservists after a weekend of unrest that saw clashes with police and burning cars in contained areas of the city. The protests were triggered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps seeking undocumented migrants in a city and state that are epicenters of Democratic power... For all Trump’s multiple previous challenges to the rule of law and democracy, a grave new chapter may be opening.”

And it sure doesn’t feel like a distraction to me. It feels like the real thing, the very serious real thing. Rhode Island senior Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said “The president is forcibly overriding the authority of the governor and mayor and using the military as a political weapon. This unprecedented move threatens to turn a tense situation into a national crisis. Since our nation’s founding, the American people have been perfectly clear: we do not want the military conducting law enforcement on US soil.” 

Stephen Collinson continued that “The trajectory of the crisis could now turn on whether Trump follows through on his dictator’s theatrics by crossing lines not approached by modern presidents— notably on the use of troops in a law enforcement capacity. It may also rely on the restraint of protesters, who would play into Trump’s hands by taking part in more unrest that creates alarming television pictures that can fuel Trump’s dystopian rhetoric. Creating or escalating a law-and-order crisis or threat to public security and then using it to justify the use of the military on domestic soil would mirror the methodology of tyrannical leaders throughout history… The administration is spoiling for a fight as it lays down a marker in California for other Democratic states where leaders are loath to cooperate with Trump’s deportation purge. It obviously also perceives a political advantage in the president positioning himself as the guardian of public order in a way that allows Republicans to accuse Democrats of defending softer immigration enforcement. But as ever with Trump, there’s a question as to whether he’s serious with his threats or is staking out an extreme position to please his voters or even to create some perceived leverage for himself.”

This is a growing clear and present danger, not a distraction— and it’s not just about Trump; he’s not alone in this. He’s surrounded by a party that has made the decision, over and over again, to enable his lawlessness and cheer his abuses of power. The GOP has gotten used to treating the rule of law as something optional when it stands in the way of their agenda. Sorry, but congressional Republicans aren’t passive bystanders to this assault on democracy. Pretend “moderates” like Lawler, Miller-Meeks, LaLota, Bacon and the rets of them are collaborators. They’ve made it perfectly clear that they’d rather ride the coattails of a would-be dictator than defend the Constitution they swore to uphold.

This is how it always happens. Mussolini had his parliamentary Blackshirts. Hitler had the Enabling Act, passed by a Reichstag too cowardly— or too complicit— to stop him. They didn’t seize power in a vacuum. They were lifted into it by political allies who thought they could manage them, benefit from them or simply survive them. What we’re watching here is the same pattern. Republicans in Congress are laying the groundwork for authoritarianism— not because they are ignorant of what they’re doing, but because they’ve consciously or unconsciously decided that permanent power is worth the price and have abandoned liberal democracy in favor of a strongman and the cult built around him. The men who aided and abetted fascism in the 20th century didn’t get to wash their hands of the blood that followed. Neither will the Republicans of the 21st.

Students of history have seen this kind of betrayal before. In 1861, more than a dozen U.S. senators and over 30 members of the House turned their backs on the Union to join the Confederacy. Men like Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and Robert Toombs of Georgia went from shaping federal policy to waging war against the country they once served. Davis, once the Secretary of War and a U.S. senator, became president of a treasonous state built on slavery. Toombs was sworn into Congress in March, and by July was commanding Confederate troops at Bull Run. They didn’t just abandon their posts— they abandoned the idea of a united, democratic America. Today’s congressional Republicans haven’t physically left Congress yet, but morally and ideologically, many already have. Like their 19th-century forebears— many from the same states— they’ve cast their lot with a movement defined by racial panic, authoritarian rule and contempt for constitutional government. History remembers the secessionists not as patriots, but as traitors. It’ll remember their modern successors the same way.