Trump Is Baaack… And We’re Fucked If the Democrats Are Feckless

The least creepy thing about last weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference gathering in Florida was the gold graven image of Donald Trump that attracted a stream of his fanatical worshippers (a solid majority of whom selected Trump as their favorite presidential candidate in 2024). The most creepy thing was Trump in the flesh, who is STILL convinced that he’s our once and future president. A disturbingly big chunk of Americans has bought into Trump’s delusion — and it’s not just the Proud Boy and QAnon lunatic fringe.

America was never America to me, as Langston Hughes once sagely wrote. This came back to me as I was reading Peter Richardson’s galleys for Savage Journey, his authoritative book about Hunter S. Thompson (see below) that will be published in August. Thompson came to know our country’s true heart of darkness, and during the twisted Nixon presidency he rendered this nightmare with hallucinogenic precision. America is full of inner demons and terrors. And repulsive creatures like Nixon and Trump have slithered all too often from our dank, foul national id.

And so here is the Trump again, slogging his way out of the Florida swamp, his shoes sucking primordial mud, and marching onstage to delirious adoration at the CPAC torch rally. He is slouching toward Washington, again — make no mistake about it. And the only thing that can stop him is a successful Biden presidency.

That means the Democrats must quickly learn to play hardball. not just talk tough. They can’t let Mitch McConnell wear them down again with his rope-a-dope. They must find a way to push through the $15 minimum wage. They must truly rebuild America by passing Biden’s ambitious infrastructure package. They must abolish the Senate trickery that allows Republicans to bottle up Democratic judicial picks. And Biden must get behind Senator Elizabeth Warren’s eminently reasonable tax on the super wealthy, which even a majority of Republican voters supports. During the pandemic, the richest Americans (take Jeff Bezos, please) have obscenely hoarded even more wealth as millions have sunk into poverty. This class aggression cannot stand, man.

If the Democrats win in Washington — and in state legislatures around the country — then Trumpism loses. But if they again wimp out, we’re all fucked. Then we’ll witness, in even more horror, the Second Coming of the red-eyed Antichrist. And this time his clawed presidency won’t be playing nice.