A Pyrrhic Victory?

During the election season of 2024, when Project 2025 was beginning to receive public notice in the country, Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, and a Project 2025 architect, gave an interview. When asked why the country was uneasy about Project 2025 he said, "It's because we're winning."

I suppose he wasn't wrong. The Heritage Foundation and other organizations like it managed to put their man in office. It's a dream come true for them. They have a man with a deep lust for power, recognition and fame and charisma that appeals to Americans who don't think critically, but also has little talent for governing. They can use him do their bidding and sell their ideas to the public. By the time Americans fully catch on to what's happening, it will be too late.

What kind of victory is this? What have they "won" exactly?

I wrote about this last year. A so-called "divided" country agrees on more issues than we disagree with. When it comes to immigration, taxes, public assistance, women's rights, voting rights, climate change, LBGT rights, many so-called radical left viewpoints are well into the mainstream. 

So why are these issues treated as radical and why do Americans reject the politicians who embrace them?

The first reason is Americans don't vote. They take the attitude that, "Everyone is bad. Everyone is wrong. Both sides are crazy. I don't care." Maybe they say they don't like or aren't interested in politics because they have become convinced nothing they do will make a difference. 

The second is voters aren't well informed. They get their information from one source. The mainstream news media are not "left" or "right". They all serve corporate interests. They report only what keeps viewers and readers engaged enough to support sponsors. The news provides what people want to hear and not what they need to know. Most Americans prefer to be spoon fed information rather than seek information beyond the usual channels.

The third is lack of education. Twenty-one percent of Americans are functionally illiterate. They don't have the skills to pursue more knowledge. They haven't been taught to think critically. 

The final reason Americans vote against their own interests and desires is the government and media machine that robs them of decisions. At the governmental level Congressional districts are gerrymandered so only one party can ever win. The courts are packed with judges who will uphold the gerrymandering and approve voting restrictions. The news media push the narrative that popular ideas are radical and thus it's pointless to vote for for these "far-left" politicians.

To what end? Why are the powerful people in this country trying so hard to create the kind of government so few Americans want?

The Heritage Foundation and its corporate allies want all money and power concentrated at the top, but also seem to want to return to a hierarchy where Christians rule over other religions and genetically European whites rule over other races. Kevin Roberts won, but what did he win?

It seems to me the white nationalists and religious extremists lost a long time ago. The genie is out of the bottle. Providing LGBT rights is now considered the moral position. Denying civil rights to minorities is thought to be unthinkable. Corporations enact D/E/I policies (although often token ones) because it's good PR. The fastest growing religion in the US is no religion at all. This country isn't interested in suppressing race. This country doesn't want to be ruled by someone else's religious beliefs. Women want equality. Gays want rights. This isn't radical. This is America.

Can these rights be rolled back? Can we end the cultural zeitgeist that supports justice for all? Will Americans roll over and and take it?

Kevin Roberts gave the ominous warning, "The revolution will be bloodless if the left allows it to be." 

This was a warning shot from the radical right. Everyone who is not part of Team Oligarchy or Team Christian Nationalist had better roll over and accept these policies or the government will make sure we do. Democracy is gone. The will of the people is overturned. We must bow down to our leaders.

So what does this mean? Our free and democratic government is going to override the will of the people and force us into a white Christian box? You can force gays back into the closet, but they will still be gay. You can force atheists to pray, but it won't make them believe in your God. You can make abortion illegal, but that won't stop desperate women from finding ways to avoid having unwanted babies. You can reinstate Jim Crow laws, but that will not make people of color consider themselves inferior. 

In other words, you might "win" by force. You might change behavior. You won't change hearts and minds. Americans will not be complying with the law because it serves a greater good, but because they fear retribution if they do not. Is this the kind of country they want?

Donald Trump, The Heritage Foundation, and the Tech Bros aren't merely conservatives with bad policy. If this is the country they want, they are monsters. They are truly more evil than we can imagine. They have already threatened violence against those who don't comply. How bad will it be?

The handful of wealthy and powerful billionaires at the top want to destroy civil rights because it gives them even more money and power. All the while they are convincing some Americans at the bottom that civil rights are a zero sum game. Too many of us believe giving rights to another group takes away our own rights.

I try to figure out the long game. If policies continue exactly as the Orange Menace (I try to say and write his name as little as possible) is currently implementing them, prices will go up,healthcare will suffer, unemployment will soar, we will lose allies and our standing in the world, food insecurity will become commonplace, literacy will plummet, and people will die. Are they truly betting on Americans standing for this? Don't they know how much Americans don't want these policies? 

Sometimes I think there is some weird plot on the left. Some group of wealthy liberals are bankrolling the most insane politicians possible in order to encourage Americans to swing their votes to the left. Congressional elections are next year. These crazy, evil extremists are going to force the pendulum to swing the other way.

It's more likely the right is playing the long game. They are expecting the left to eventually rebel. They want to create another January 6th. If the (woke) mob becomes violent, then it's an excuse to declare martial law. Liberals are a peaceful bunch. We would never have the kind of tactical training to defeat the US Military. (I can hear the gun nuts snickering and saying, "Don't you wish you didn't advocate for gun control now?") The revolution will be put down swiftly and the repercussions will be so dire the left won’t dare rebel again.

I can see an even longer game happening. We will roll over. We will lose our rights. The cost of living will skyrocket. People will die. The elderly will die sooner due to lack of healthcare and social security. Children will die due to lack of healthcare and a rollback of mandatory vaccines. Women will die from complications in pregnancy (and possibly from back alley abortions). As food prices rise and income inequality rises along with it, food insecurity will make many of us vulnerable to disease and we will die from conditions that are entirely preventable. The poor, particularly poor minorities will die at a faster rate than wealthy whites. 

The poor will die and immigration will stop. As more babies are forced to be born, their families will be desperate to have money to raise them. These children will have to take the jobs immigrants once held. Wages will remain stagnant so these jobs will not pay the bills. Education will suffer due to the constant cuts. If we do away with child labor laws, children will go to work alongside their parents in order to survive. 

When this generation dies off the new generation will face a different world. We will be the last generation who remembers real American history. We will be the last generation that remembers the civil rights movement. We will be the last generation taught critical thinking. As we die off quickly, the new generation will know nothing of the democracy this country once aspired to. They will only know the white, Christian, nationalist government they were raised with. Their education - if they have any - will be only to teach obedience and basic literacy. They won't know any better and won't be allowed to know about the world that once existed. They will work menial jobs for a pittance, merely surviving. If they can't survive and must resort to crime, then they will become a source of even cheaper prison labor. 

Our corporate overlords can take satisfaction that the peasants are all obedient, Christian, straight, and cisgender. Won't that be wonderful? I suppose there will be white Christian peasants who are also happy that even though everyone is overworked, underpaid, and unhealthy. At least everyone is Christian and mostly everyone is white. 

I suppose I should also add that the planet will barely be habitable. If you're wealthy, you can control the environment somewhat. I'm sure future living conditions will be so filthy, polluted, and disease ridden there will be even more deaths. Natural disasters due to climate change will keep the peasant population from growing too much as well.

Maybe if we're lucky, Canada will conquer us and restore sanity. We should be so lucky. Chances are Russia or China will get us first and we will have no more allies to defend us. The American oligarchs won't care. If they can't beat Russia and China, they will gladly join them.

The American aristocracy has set the plan in motion and it's playing out exactly as they want. They are so mad with power they don't care if Americans don't want it. I may have to face the truth that the people in charge are truly that evil and enjoy ruling over a country they have intimidated into compliance with a new normal. 

It's the ordinary MAGAs, the "little guy", the "real Americans", who are the losers. They thought they "won" when Tangerine Tyrant took office again. They thought they "won" when Elon Musk took over Twitter and commandeered once of the few places where the "woke mob" had a community and a voice. They thought they were winning when Roe v. Wade was overturned and voter suppression laws went into effect. They thought they were winning every time a politician claimed he or she would defeat "wokeism". Winning was never about policy for the average MAGA. It was about "owning the libs". It was about laughing every time someone on the left was triggered. They were so obsessed with winning, they never realized how much they had to lose. 

That is the most tragic victory of all. The ones who were deluded into thinking they were winning will be the ones who lose the most.