It bears repeating: the current occupant blathers on incessantly because he deeply needs attention. It doesn’t matter to him that he’s lying almost all the time. He does not have a belief system, just a visceral need to be noticed. He does have very efficient antennae for detecting what his “base” seems to want, and he repeats back to them what they say so that they themselves believe he’s on their side. He’s not. He manipulates them. His purpose is constant attention and the power he can wield.
His closest enablers and others fall into two camps: truly dim-brained, uninformed and fawning followers; and a large behind the scenes crew enacting their agendas while using the person ostensibly in charge as cover. They are a thoroughly anti-populist cadre of government-hating ideologues who derive from a long genealogy of government haters.
Those historical figures from whom these agenda-driven agents descend hated everything about the federal government: taxation, Social Security, Medicare, Civil Rights law and protections of marginalized people, national parks and forests, environmental protection (it is anti-biblical), public education, almost all immigrants allowed into the country (especially non-white and non-christian people), relations with and respect for other countries, and many other things.
Those hatreds have not diminished over time. They have little or nothing to do with traditional conservatism. They are driven, instead, by strict adherence to fringe Christian beliefs, a pernicious belief in the primacy of the individual over the interests of society, and a strong sense of the less fortunate that their lack of fortune is their own fault and not to be relieved by any sort of empathic government help.
The current occupant parrots, in his own scattered fashion, what these ideologues say but his understanding of what they say is shallow. The one aspect of their ideology that is of use to him is that their anti-government activities help him consolidate a sense of power that would be impossible in a deliberative, useful government. His ultimate understanding of the real meaning and consequences of such power is weak, and he is incapable of a consistent, coherent plan to realize the full extent of such power.
That is what will save us from utter ruin. Can he do real damage? Of course, and he is doing real damage, but he’s doing it in a most scattershot, ad hoc fashion that shows how addled he is. In the service of his need for attention, he has multiple autocratic impulses. But his impulsiveness, his extreme sensitivity to ridicule and criticism, his “Oh, look, a squirrel!” mentality all make him dangerous, yes, but not in the ways so many people fear. Meanwhile, the ideological squad doing the real damage really don’t care what he does outside of things that accomplish their ends. A cadre of them sits with him like the people in a royal court, laughing with him, cajoling him, and distracting him while their compatriots do their damage to the country.
Is this sustainable? Of course not. It’s temporary. The congressional ideologue component of the government-busting team appear to be doing the current occupant’s bidding. Don’t be fooled. He’s doing their bidding. Do they feel threatened by him if they don’t toe the line? Certainly. But their marching orders don’t come from him. They come from the Bannons and Russell Voughts and big money right-wingers, with the current occupant as the agency through which their expectations flow.
This apparatus will cause great destruction. But don’t despair. The government itself exerts strong inertia. The destroyers know they have only until January 2027 to do their worst. After that, they’ll be hounded out of office, into inaction, or threatened with serious legal action.
Hang in there. Turn toward the light. It’s there. Find it and fix on it. These jackals in the living room, these unwelcome guests, will be shoved out the door and back into the wilderness where they belong. Our job is never to let them near the door again.
Ed McDevitt
July 2025