Tanks roll in Washington D.C. while federal troops battle immigration advocates in Los Angeles. An assassin in the nation’s heartland — reportedly a Trump supporter — kills one Minnesota Democratic legislator and severely wounds another.
Sounds like a Hollywood political thriller. But this was real life last weekend. Our nation is at war domestically, and democracy is in peril in our great republic.
Trump’s political career started ten years ago this week, when he glided down the polished golden escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for president. His first major act as a candidate was to deliver a speech demonizing Mexican immigrants. For ten years now, he has sowed chaos and confusion, keeping the passionate issues of race and immigration at a high boil to distract Americans from his abject inability to fix major systemic problems such as the spread of COVID-19 and the rise in prices for consumer goods.
Trump is like a kid who wants to play with toy soldiers and acts like a bully. He is a poor president, but a great showman. He has taken Shakespeare’s words to heart, knowing that “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
Saturday was a big day, on which capital area residents sat out the military parade but millions across our great nation stood up for democracy in “No Kings” rallies. Meanwhile, the tinpot dictator orchestrated a Soviet-style parade of military hardware as he bullied immigrants and stood idly by as prices soared.
“No Kings Day” was a rousing success but the military spectacle was as lifeless as a funeral march. The silence was so profound that you could hear the creaks from the armored car tracks as the procession wound down Pennsylvania Avenue. The proceedings were so boring that the president appeared to doze off.
The situation isn’t any better overseas.
While Trump plays soldier boy here in America, Israel and Iran are trading missile volleys over Baghdad and Jerusalem. Trump went to the Middle East and returned with a flying palace gifted by an Arab potentate. All Americans got from his trip was a lousy war in a region that is key to our nation’s fossil fuel driven economy.
Things aren’t any better in Europe. The long, drawn-out war between Ukrainian heroes and Russian villains drags on despite the president’s boast that he could end the conflict within 24 hours.
A new NBC News national survey demonstrates that the king has no clothes. Trump’s job approval rating is still a net minus-10 points (45 percent positive to 55 percent negative). Dissatisfaction with his presidency is a function of his abysmal failure to effectively fight inflation (net minus-22 points). But he does get a narrowly positive (51 to 49 percent) assessment for his immigration policy.
So expect more military madness after the big parade, and watch Trump keep up the heat on his attempt to demean immigrants and expel them by force from the land of the free. He added a partisan edge to his hate campaign when he ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to purge immigrants from cities run by Democrats. It is his last best hope of setting the stage to distract Americans from his failure to keep his campaign promise to bring down prices on Day One of his second administration.
If he fails to curb prices by next summer, his party will pay the price next fall. Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives. We should constantly remind voters that Trump promised to bring down prices and end the war in Ukraine, and failed to deliver on either pledge. This is the only way to slow down a rogue Republican regime that is completely out of control.
While the president pursues his draconian vendetta against immigrants, Democrats must find a way to keep the public focus on runaway inflation and the threat it poses to financially stressed consumers. My party should remind voters that his campaign to deport hard-working immigrants from their jobs as farm and construction workers will only accelerate inflation.
It is long past time for Trump to leave the stage. Every good actor knows when to do it. He was a success in creating fantasy as a popular television star but is a total failure as a president in the real world. We need a chief executive, not just a stage manager. We have plenty of stars, but we need an effective president who is capable enough to deal with the economic forces that shape the reality of modern life in the U.S. Trump doesn’t fit the bill but hopefully a Democrat will emerge over the next three years who does.
Brad Bannon is a national Democratic strategist and CEO of Bannon Communications Research which polls for Democrats, labor unions and progressive issue groups. He hosts the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.
