Republished with permission from Steve Schmidt
2025 marks the beginning of a splendid season of American anniversaries that come in a time of American crisis that is growing greater by the day.
Twenty-three days from today the country will mark the 250th anniversary of the battle of Lexington and Concord.
A few days after will mark 250 years since George Washington took command of a “Continental Army.”
A few days after that marks the birth of the United States Army.
The United States Navy and United States Marine Corps will celebrate 250th anniversaries as well this year. Notably, they preface the most important anniversary of all—the 250th anniversary of a Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, that declared the birth of the United States of America.
There are 352 million Americans alive today out of the 700 million who have ever lived. Half of all Americans who have ever lived are alive right now, and 77.3 million of them, which constituted 49.8 percent of an election outcome, have given temporary power to a group of people who defy easy portrayal.
What I’ll call the “Krugman rule” is obvious, but mostly overlooked by an American media that can see one thing, one day at a time, disconnected from all other things and all other days:
The amount of damage the second Trump administration has already done on many fronts, from foreign policy to public health to America’s economic prospects, both for the months ahead and in the long run, is astonishing. And they’re just getting started.
But whenever I talk with other people about one of these disasters, I find them arguing about how to think about what’s happening. Are we looking at mind-boggling incompetence on the part of what Dan Drezner, using the technical language of international relations theory, calls “the dumbest motherfuckers alive”? Or are we looking at a sinister plot to destroy America as we know it?
The answer is “yes.” These people are both incompetent and evil.
Much of the Trump-era media approached journalism like a lobotomist might. They ended confusion and doubt by numbing the capacity to feel anything, by smothering the ability to get very excited about all the noise swirling around.
Stepping back from the noise, it is important to recognize what is about to happen in America because no one has seen anything like it ever in any of our lifetimes.
There have been times of deep fear, doubt, terror, injustice, slavery, oppression, murder, subjugation, and other terrible depravities caused by unjust men serving evil causes in America since the beginning of the Republic.
There have always been Americans of good faith, goodwill, courage, decency and integrity who have fought those people and appealed for something better when all seemed lost, or a dream for better seemed hopeless. These are the people we remember as American heroes, and none were Confederates then, or now.
Perhaps this battle is fated to play out in a permanent and perpetual rhythm of contestation that requires a refreshing of faith from a wellspring where it can be renewed.
Freedom came unevenly in America, but the story of the nation proves that Martin Luther King was correct about the moral trajectory of the universe bending towards justice. The requirements imposed demanding that justice be defended are not evidence of its collapse, but rather the war being waged upon it.
An hour has come when we must all stand up and stand together.
The last election is over.
Donald Trump promised greatness, and he has unleashed chaos. Yet, through the chaos a brilliant clarity has come.
All questions have been answered about the competence, character, ability and intent of his government.
There is nothing left to know.
Of course there will be new details of corruption and astonishing misconduct, but in the main, there is nothing new that will ever be learned about the bridge crew of Trump’s ship of fools, monkeys with guns, delighting in their power as they smash what they did not build, and have no right to take from us.
Here is USMC Captain and the highly decorated combat veteran Seth Moulton, Member of Congress from Massachusetts:
Was Pete Hegseth drunk?
John Ratcliffe, the CIA director and a clown, who was on the Signal text chain, was affronted when he was asked the question, which is fair, appropriate and legitimate:
He has no right or standing to be affronted, and never, ever will again.
John Ratcliffe is a disgrace, like each of Trump’s henchmen and women who put their faith in a man over their country, the US Constitution and our history.
They have found a new religion, and it is unlike the old one.
One million Americans have died to preserve the old faith in battle. They died to preserve the Union and preserve freedom.
America is a human project. It remains the last best hope of mankind. Something has gone off the rails in America, and we all know what it is.
What will the Trump people do next?
The rules do not apply to them, according to them. They only apply to you and the “small” people, like the Polish foreign minister:
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There is no sense of responsibility, and the concept of accountability doesn’t exist.
No one is to blame. Ever.
Trump is all powerful, and always the victim.
Heil Trump!
The conspiracies to stop Trump are everywhere, but nowhere in evidence.
We will all pay the price. It is too late to stop that now.
The question is how high the price tag will be.
The urgent necessity of this moment is perfectly clear. Trump’s ability to operate, act, move and wreck must be constrained by the American people through peaceful protest, economic boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience, and ultimately, electoral repudiation.
There are four types of Democrats in Washington, DC:
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There are geriatric Democrats. Every single one of them should face a primary, starting with Jim Clyburn, one of the foremost architects of this current disaster. Nancy Pelosi is a single exception.
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There are Schumercrats and many stripes of useless Democrats. They should all be primaried.
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There are intimidated Democrats. They should stiffen their spines.
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There are fighting Democrats, including Bernie Sanders, AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Chris Murphy, Elissa Slotkin, Jason Crow, Jamie Raskin, Dan Goldman, Seth Moulton, Ro Khanna and Ruben Gallego. This will be the spine of the opposition and the energy that reforms and renews America’s broken political system and leads the country out of this immense and growing disaster.
Let there be a rising of the American people and a new birth of patriotism and faithfulness to the cause of America, which is not lucre, but freedom.
Donald Trump is an American cancer.
What he is and who he is surrounded by is clear forevermore.
They can blame the press, blame the trees, the cats and the dogs. In fact, Kristi Noem can play dress-up, and shoot a few more puppies and blame Nikki Haley, but it doesn’t change the truth about anything.
Everyone sees now. Everyone knows, and nobody should be afraid of these brittle fools, though we should tremble at the power that they yield until we take it back.
We will take it back. When we do there will not be a repeat of this disgrace in any of our lifetimes, but the danger will always exist—as it always has.
The American people are facing a snarling wannabe king and a menacing court of malice.
They will see our teeth soon, and they won’t like it.
Our outrage will not become rage. Instead it will be harnessed into a deep love of country and gratitude for what was done to give us a country as great as the United States for us to defend against a movement that is as low and despicable as any that has ever been.
It is not a movement of millions we face. It is a cabal of hundreds, supported by ten thousand functionaries, at most.
We will topple it.
There are special elections in Republican seats that are in play, and it is possible to take the GOP majority away in the next months.
There can be no uncontested elections. Everywhere that a MAGA extremist stands on a ballot they must be opposed.
The days are long, though the years are short, as they say. We will have some long days, and then a triumphant one.
There will be a question asked of us all one day. Young people will wonder: what did you do in the 2020s when the fascists took power, and tried to burn down America?
What will you say? I did nothing?
Or, will you say, “Let me tell you story about some of the American heroes I got to know as I marched next to them in defense of something it will be your turn to defend one day…?”
Will you say, “Sit down, I want to tell you a story, an American story?”
