“What we are watching unfold is the full force and effect of grievance politics colliding with reality, a kakistocracy built on loyalty tests, resentment, and performative rage running headfirst into actual competence and the rule of law.”
So writes Substack writer Mary Geddry. She introduced me to the word “kakistocracy,” which means “government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.”
That’s what we have at this moment, a government of the least suitable and competent, made more dangerous by the fact that it is now a government out of control, the result of which will be a further decline in support for Trump.
I believe that because the only thing it can produce is extremism, and while Americans tolerate a certain level of extremism, most don’t embrace any of and quickly grow intolerant of all of it.
We are seeing it first hand here in Minneapolis that started with the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. The kakistocracy made this tragedy worse by blaming her, calling her a “domestic terroirist” before they even knew what happened, saying they will investigate her and her wife instead of the shooting, and more than tripled the number of ICE agents throughout Minnesota.
Donald Trump and all the other kakistocracy staff serving him seem to have decided to create as much chaos in Minnnesota as they can in the hope of causing widespread fear and panic. The rest of the nation will be next.
It’s a struggle right now to keep our balance and hold on to hope. After all, Donald Trump is not a king, but he is acting like one, and a mad one at that.
He recently told reporters that he won Minnesota in 2016, 2020, and 2024 instead of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris, and that he won it big, but was cheated out of the victory. A few days before he said he was the “acting president of Venezuela,” followed by insane talk about taking control of Greenland by force, if necessary.
These examples, and numerous others I could site, are clear signs of a mental breakdown taking place in plain sight. He is suffering from delusions of grandeur without embarrassment, consumed with himself to such a degree that no one expects anything better from him which exacerbates the danger he poses as president.
Little wonder that maintaining hope for the future is difficult, yet this is the very time when our best is needed, when we act out of courage we didn’t know we had, possess fortitude whose depths exceed anything we imagined, and exhibit moral convictions that are as strong as steel.
I believe that it is the very extremism of Trump’s words and actions that is becoming his own undoing, with ICE being the flash point against which people are pushing back.
What happened here in Minneapolis has exposed just how blind Trump is to his self-defeating behavior. He apparently believes the rest of us are as stupid as he is.
He is wrong. We know a cover-up when we see one. We know ICE actions are un-American. We know the difference between a criminal and a non-citizen neighbor who has been legally working in America for years. We know that masked secret police roaming our streets dressed in full battle field gear is not the kind of immigration enforcement we want.
And we know what it means when twelve (12) career Justice Department attorneys (6 here, 6 in D.C.) resigned in protest over how DOJ officials are responding to Renee Good’s death.
Trump is trying to send a message to the America people that we must submit to his madness if we want to live in this country, but he is making a huge miscalculation. Minnesota state and local officials, along with everyday citizens, are sending him and his Gestapo ICE agents our own message, that the majority of the American people have a moral character that makes us stronger than the cowards they are.
We don’t like what they are doing, we don’t want the America they want, and we are in the streets showing them that we have power to stop them. Trump is not simply underwater on all the critical issues that matter to voters. He’s drowning, and the numbers tell us that he and his supporters are going to come to a very bad end sooner rather than later.
By “end” I mean a firm and unequivocal rejection of the kind of America they want because the majority of us want something different. And there are a lot more of us than there are of them. Here are the facts to prove it.
In 2024 Trump received a little over 77 million votes. Kamala Harris got around 74 million. An incredible 66 million plus didn’t vote. This means that at the time Trump was elected 140 million voters didn’t want him as president, compared to the 77 million who did. That means some 63 million more Americans don’t support Trump than those who do. And I bet some of those who voted for him in 2024 wouldn’t do it again.
We who oppose Trump are not just a majority, we are by a wide margin. And we want the America we’ve always had, a country that talks better than it lives, but has never given up on the ideals of being a nation ruled by law, not by kings, a nation that welcomes diversity and inclusion, a nation that will always talk better than we live because we cling to the highest ideals human beings can imagine.
Trump’s vision of America is smaller than that, too small, in fact, because it’s all about him, not us. It has room only for people who have no self-respect and, thus, bow when he enters the room, who say nothing in the face of his extremes, who do what is wrong because he says it is right.
That this is a dark moment in American history is an understatement, one that is difficult even to comprehend. That 77 million Americans chose to bring this on themselves and the rest of us is a stunning commentary on the kind of country we actually are.
But the other side of the story, the bigger side, is that there is a majority of Americans who don’t want what they want and are determined to make sure we don’t.
I know first hand that hope is not easy to hold on to right now, must less to hold up for others to see. But doing so has a way of feeding on itself. The more we hope, the more hope we have, the more we see reasons to believe the best of America is stronger than the worst we are seeing in Trump and his presidency.
ICE has become America’s enemy, but enemies have a way of bringing out the best in us. That is what I see happening. Maybe I’m wrong. If I am, then a Trumpism kakistocracy will prevail and America will be lost.
But if I am right, then what I and all the others like me are doing will ensure that Trump will die a despised and reviled president and Trumpism will die with him.
linnposts.com 
Leave a comment