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The Trifecta That Could Sink Trump’s Defense

Three things are consistent with Donald Trump: (i) he will lie incessantly, (ii) he cares only for himself and will happily throw under the bus, and (iii) he will claim any attempt to hold him accountable for crimes is a "witch hunt" or that he is being persecuted.  The MAGA base is also consistent in that it (a) ignores objective reality and facts and (b) it keeps itself in the bubble of right wing media as a means to avoid facing the reality that it has been duped and continuously played for fools. With the leak of videos of plea sessions with three of Trump's former attorneys in the Georgia RICO lawsuit (who have decided not to go to prison for Trump), we have a glimpse of how three of Trump's former attorneys are likely to save themselves by testifying to facts that demonstrate that Trump knew the "Big Lie" was false and that he knowingly sought to overthrow the 2020 election, plus that his claims that he relied on legal counsel are false.  If nothing else, Trump is always a liar.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the testimony that may well sink Trumps dishonest defense and hopefully help cement his criminal conviction - and perhaps cause other defendants to cut plea deals rather than go down with Trump.  Here are column highlights:

In exchange for reduced charges and stay-out-of-jail cards in the massive Georgia state criminal case arising from former president Donald Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election, former Trump attorneys Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell and Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall delivered statements concerning their knowledge of facts critical to the prosecution’s case.

Excerpts of those statements were leaked this week. Based on what has been revealed, having such figures testify at trial will go a long way toward eviscerating any argument that Trump merely relied on “advice of counsel” and could undermine Trump’s expected defense that he lacked criminal intent.

Ellis claimed that on Dec. 19, 2020, she told Trump aide Dan Scavino that Trump was running out of options. According to Ellis, Scavino replied, “Well, we don’t care, and we’re not going to leave.” He reiterated, “The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.”

Such testimony might create problems for Scavino, who has not been charged, in tying him to the alleged “criminal enterprise” that is at the heart of the Georgia case. Moreover, if Scavino was accurately relating Trump’s thinking — and can testify to statements made in his presence — any Trump claim that he lacked the requisite intent would go out the window.

Moreover, as Just Security co-founder Ryan Goodman noted, this testimony is consistent with another key witness’s account. He pointed to Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony about Trump finding out on Dec. 11, 2020, that he lost the Supreme Court case: “I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark [Meadows]. This is embarrassing. Figure it out. We need to figure it out.” Again, if Trump knew he lost, the prosecution practically has a slam dunk on proving criminal intent.

Trump’s “I thought I won” is no defense. Even if he believed that, it would not excuse alleged illegal actions ranging from acquiring phony electors to attempting to disrupt an official proceeding. However, evidence that he knew he lost and was intent on staying anyway certainly would help prove “corrupt intent” beyond a reasonable doubt.

Meanwhile, as The Post reported, “Chesebro disclosed in his recorded statement that at a previously unreported White House meeting, he briefed Trump on election challenges in Arizona and summarized a memo in which he offered advice on assembling alternate slates of electors in key battleground states to cast ballots for Trump despite Biden’s victories in those states.” That testimony would undermine any defense claim that Trump did not know about the elector plan or that the “alternate” slate contradicted the actual results.

For her part, Powell buried the advice of counsel defense. She acknowledged that Trump paid attention to Rudy Giuliani and her, despite her lack of election law experience, “because we were the only ones willing to support his effort to sustain the White House. I mean, everybody else was telling him to pack up and go.”

In short, a slew of lawyers (including Eric Herschmann and Jeffrey Rosen, according to testimony provided to the Jan. 6 House select committee) was telling Trump that the plan to come up with phony electors and get then-Vice President Mike Pence to throw out Joe Biden’s electoral votes was insane.

[T]he phony-elector scheme is also front and center in the federal Jan. 6, 2021, case set to go to trial March 4. All three witnesses can be called in that case to testify; any deviation from their proffers would put their plea deals in jeopardy and expose them to perjury charges.

Other Georgia defendants, including Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark and Mark Meadows, have to be worried. . . . . “Ms. Ellis was most closely associated with Mr. Giuliani, appearing by his side in Georgia and across the country. If her court appearance last week is any indication, she will be a compelling guide to his alleged misconduct.” That seems to have been prescient.

Most Republicans would rather not consider the possibility that their MAGA base will nominate Trump for president only to see him shortly thereafter convicted of serious crimes concerning his alleged attempted coup. Trump enjoys the presumption of innocence in court, but Republicans’ determination to ignore the real possibility their nominee would go to voters in November 2024 as a felon borders on political delusion.

The latest evidence from the lips of Trump’s own lawyers makes his conviction that much more likely — and suggests his nomination would be an act of political suicide. Republicans seem bent on going down that path. Well, they will not be able to say they weren’t warned.

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Speaker Mike Johnson: "Christian" Extremist

Before voting in Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House of Representatives, House Republicans seemingly did very little vetting of Johnson's background.  Apparently, the fact that Johnson was deemed "polite," considered a "true conservative" and had not pissed off large numbers of his colleagues was enough to get him over the finish line.  Now, many in the media are doing the vetting that House Republicans never did and the image that is increasingly one of a far, far right Christian extremists particularly when it comes to Johnson's belief that the earth is 6,000 years old - he seemingly believes dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark - and his utter hatred of LGBT Americans.   Like gay-haters of of 1980's and since, Johnson has said Monkey Pox is a punishment for gays and that the increase in the number of high school students identifying as LGBT was evidence of America's moral depravity.  Indeed, the picture that emerges is that of a fanatic who tries to hide his dangerous extremism behind politeness when interviewed by the mainstream media.  When on right wing "news" outlets, Johnson's true colors are reveled.  Not surprisingly, some of Johnson's statements are being quietly erased by some right wing sources in an effort to hide his true extremism.  A piece in Rolling Stone looks at Johnson's view of LGBT youth:

Talking to pastor Jim Garlow on a broadcast of the World Prayer Network, Johnson spoke ominously of America facing a “civilizational moment.” He said, “The only question is: Is God going to allow our nation to enter a time of judgment for our collective sins? Or is he going to give us one more chance to restore the foundations and return to Him?”

The segment was filmed Oct. 3, just weeks before Johnson’s unexpected rise to become speaker of the House. Garlow pressed the clean-cut Louisiana congressman to say “more about this ‘time of judgment’ for America.” Johnson replied: “The culture is so dark and depraved that it almost seems irredeemable.” He cited, as supposed evidence, the decline of national church attendance and the rise of LGBTQ — the fact, Johnson lamented, that “one-in-four high school students identifies as something other than straight.” 

For background, Johnson’s interviewer, Pastor Jim Garlow has called for an armed uprising against the nation’s LGBTQ people and claims that Christians who hate homosexuals will be rewarded with an eternal celestial orgy when they reach heaven. Pastor Jim Garlow has also said Satan is a gay activist.

A piece in Politico continues with Johnson's portrait as an extremist.  Here are article excerpts:

House Speaker Mike Johnson sits on the board of a Christian publishing house that suggested getting “monkeypox” was “an inevitable and appropriate penalty” for being gay and that former President Barack Obama was rumored to be the Antichrist because of his “leanings toward Islam.”

For the last decade, Johnson has been a member of the board of Living Waters Publications, a Christian ministry and publishing house. The speaker has interviewed founder and CEO Ray Comfort on his and his wife’s now-deleted podcast.

Last year, Comfort narrated a Living Waters video, titled “Monkeypox and God: Is It a ‘Gay Disease’?” in which he quoted Biblical scripture saying that those who engaged in homosexual acts would get “in their own bodies the inevitable and appropriate penalty for their wrongdoing.” (The virus was previously known as monkeypox, but last year the World Health Organization changed the name to mpox, saying the term monkeypox could be seen as stigmatizing and racist.)

In a Living Waters article published in March, Comfort also bemoaned the fact that Christians could no longer call homosexuality “morally wrong.” “There was a time in America when we could say these things without any real repercussions,” he noted.

Johnson’s affiliation with Living Waters may not hurt him with his Republican colleagues who were relieved that his election ended three weeks of drama over who would be the next speaker. But his association with the far-right organization could further tarnish him in the eyes of socially liberal and moderate voters. Democrats could even end up using it as fodder for campaign ads.

Living Waters has also published videos in which people try to stop women from getting abortions, with the presenter badgering one woman entering a clinic by telling her: “You think you’re getting rid of a problem. You’re gonna cause yourself a problem for the rest of your life. You’ll never forget this day.” The video was titled “Pleading for Babies’ Lives at Abortion Mill.”

POLITICO was first alerted to the connections between Johnson and Comfort by the progressive government watchdog group Accountable.US.

“The elevation of Mike Johnson to speaker of the House of Representatives, with the unanimous support of his Republican colleagues, demonstrates how his particular conservative expression of Christianity is now at the very center of the party — both he and his favored policies can no longer be viewed as fringe,” said Andrew Whitehead, an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University who specializes in Christian nationalism and religion in the U.S.

Before being elected to Congress in 2017, Johnson worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a powerful organization that has won more than a dozen cases at the Supreme Court. Those include reversing Roe v. Wade, allowing a baker not to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, and letting employers exclude birth control from health insurance policies.

“It’s certainly another troubling sign of how extreme Johnson’s views may be, that he would sit on a board and wouldn’t have a problem with them putting out ideas like this,” said Jones.

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The Dishonesty of the Right's Culture Wars

LGBT Virginians breathed a huge sigh of relief when last week's elections saw Virginia Republicans fail to take control of the Virginia Senate while losing control of the House of Delegates.   Had the vote gone the other way, the next General Assembly session would have seen Glenn Youngkin and Republicans passing bills to turn Virginia into a warmed over version of Ron DeSantis' Florida.   However, nationally the Republican war on LGBT citizens - and blacks, non-whites in general "liberals" - goes on unabated with sites like "Libs of Tik Tok incessantly outing and attacking gays and promoting violence despite pretenses to the contrary.  As the recent suicide of a small town Republican mayor underscores that truly no one is safe from the right's culture wars.  Meanwhile, far right Republicans and MAGA adherents close their eyes to the damage done to people, lives ruined, and pretend to condemn violence they help reap.  A piece in Salon looks at the dishonesty of so many of the right's culture warriors who trade in hatred and then play innocent of any wrong doing. Here are column highlights:

For most Americans, viral internet memes are mostly harmless ways to waste time: Trendy TikTok dances, goofy cat videos and Instagram thirst traps. For MAGA nation, however, the hottest online trend of the past couple of years has been digging up images of random queer people, splashing them all over the internet, and inviting the deplorables to threaten them. Libs of TikTok is a Twitter account dedicated to revealing the identities of gender non-conforming people, so that they can be abused by strangers, for no other reason than who they are. The account has 2.6 million followers, but its reach goes way beyond that because the names and pictures of people blasted by Libs of TikTok are then often amplified by right-wing media outlets like Fox News. 

"[T]he content it surfaces shows a direct correlation with the recent push in legislation and rhetoric directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community," . . . . there have been "dozens of bomb threats, death threats and other harassment after Libs of TikTok’s posts since February 2022." In November 2022, a Colorado gay bar was attacked by a shooter who appeared motivated by the rising tide of vitriol towards LGBTQ people. Five were killed and dozens injured. While Chaya Raichik, who runs the account, claims she doesn't want violence, no one really believes that. After all, she celebrated the story about the violence she inspires. 

With targeted harassment of random queer people being the favorite pastime of MAGA nation, it's not surprising that a right-wing website thought the very conservative residents of one Alabama town would welcome the outing of their mayor. On November 1, 1819 News — an Alabama outlet run by Breitbart writer Jeff Poor — published an article exposing the cross-dressing and sexual fantasies of F.L. "Bubba" Copeland, who was both mayor and a local Baptist minister. 

"The secret life of Smiths Station Mayor and Baptist pastor F.L. ‘Bubba’ Copeland as a ‘transgender curvy girl’: ‘It’s a hobby I do to relieve stress,’” the headline read. The site shared photos of Copeland in women's clothing, as well as screenshots from the anonymous social media accounts where Copeland expressed this side of himself.

Two days later, Copeland killed himself. 

If 1819 News thought the very Republican residents of Smiths Station would be grateful that they had outed their Republican mayor, however, they had another thing coming. By all accounts, many people in the town are furious. "Members of this church have been steadfast in their love and concern of their pastor," David White, a congregant at First Baptist, said during Sunday's service. 

And then there was a subcategory of comment: The people insisting there's no conflict between outrage over what happened to Copeland and being MAGA. "I voted for TRUMP. I lean far right & what happened to this man is despicable," one woman wrote angrily. There was much talk of Christian forgiveness, all to smooth over the cognitive dissonance. 

It's frustrating because Copeland's death is obviously tied to the MAGA movement and the rising tide of hate against LGBTQ people. Hate crimes against LGBTQ people, especially trans people, have risen dramatically in the past few years. There's also been a surge of intimidation and threats against LGBTQ people, from harassment of drag shows to, of course, the direct and personalized abuse aimed at anyone that Libs of TikTok targets. 

The stories are chilling: Schools facing down multiple bomb threats. People driven out of their jobs. Teachers asked by kids if anti-gay terrorists will kill them. But whenever people confront Raichik over the damage done by Libs of TikTok, she always denies responsibility. Instead, she claims, she's just sharing facts: This person is queer, this person looks feminine, this person does drag on the side. 

Unsurprising, then, the 1819 News staff is using the same excuse for their "reporting" on Copeland. As the Daily Beast reports, 1819 News CEO Bryan Dawson insists all they did was "tell the truth." And Poor insisted that the people of "the First Baptist Church of Phenix City had a right to know what their worship leader was doing." As with Libs of TikTok, these excuses are disingenuous. In both cases, the "facts" are presented in a maximally salacious manner that hatefully implies queer people are perverts and predators. 

But there's every reason to believe that most, if not all, of the Trump voters who are angry over Copeland's death will not learn a damn thing from it. . . . It really is remarkable, how much Republican voters believe their partisan identity is a shield that will protect them from the degradations Trump and his allies wish to inflict on the nation. There's a reason that Libs of TikTok has that name and not something more accurate like, "Let's Hate Queer People." Raichik is trying to soothe her audience into believing that they're not bigots, that this is about the "libs" and not the queers. Except that they are targeting people for being queer, and often have no idea if they're even Democratic voters. 

Trump himself is good at playing this game. He's taken to calling for mass genocide, such as in a speech last weekend in which he promised to "root out" the "vermin within the confines of our country." But even though part of Trump's program is explicitly about setting up concentration camps for immigrants of color, because he defined those "vermin" as "communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs," that allowed him to pretend he was just talking about Democrats (which is what all those code-words mean), and not about race, ethnicity or sexual and gender minorities

Copeland's outing and the defenses of it are proof of this. He was a Republican, and it did not protect him. The fascist agenda is never just about eliminating political opponents, though that's bad enough. It's always about "purifying" the nation. That invariably opens the door to intra-party purges, justified as self-defense against potential traitors. Right now, state Republican parties are being torn apart as MAGA loyalists attempt to purge anyone suspected of having pro-democracy sympathies.

The outing of Copeland follows the same logic. The management at 1819 News is arguing "we did what we had to do," and painting Copeland as a danger to the community. The people who actually knew him, however, seem to vehemently disagree. Yet MAGA nation, through Libs of TikTok and the "groomer" rhetoric, has positioned all queerness as a cancer that must be eradicated. Under that dehumanizing logic, there's no pleading "but this one guy is OK." 

That's the thing about the dehumanizing rhetoric of fascism: It has no limits. The scope of who will no longer be counted as a human being and must be "rooted out" always keeps expanding. Copeland's death was a tragedy, but only the latest in a list of lives destroyed by the GOP's anti-LGBTQ campaign. Too many people can't see, or refuse to understand, how and why this country is careening towards disaster. 

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Trump Isn’t Merely Unhinged

As Reuters reports, at a recent rally in New Hampshire, Donald Trump repeated his false claim that fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election and told the crowd he would "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections," using language reminiscent of Nazi Germany, as noted by Joe Biden.  But this is hardly the first disturbing thing Trump has said.  Over the previous weeks and months Donald Trump has made numerous statements that ought to frighten decent and moral people who believe in democracy and the U.S. Constitution.  Trump continues to show his contempt for the rule of law and that he longs to regain the White House, but this time in a role and with powers that mirror those of Vladimir Putin: (i) News outlets punished and/or taken off the air because their reporting - usually all to accurate - criticizes Trump or expose the danger he is to the nation; (ii) political opponents prosecuted and/or jailed simply because they oppose his authoritarian goals; (iii) judges removed from the bench and/or prosecuted for ruling against him; and (iv) purging the federal government agencies and departments of anyone not personally loyal to him.  In short, he wants a dictatorship freedom of speech is lost and he and his henchmen are not restrained by laws that restrict their unbridled power.  A piece in The Atlantic looks at Trump's disturbing comments and statements:

[M]any of Donald Trump’s most dangerous statements hide in the plain light of day.  The problem is not that they don’t get reported on—they do—but even so, they are easy to tune out, perhaps because he’s been saying outlandish things for so long that people simply can’t bring themselves to parse the new ones; or perhaps because they’ve become accustomed, or at least numb, to his utterances; or perhaps because they don’t want to let him occupy their headspace; or perhaps because he got kicked off Twitter (now X) and they had no interest in joining Truth Social.

Whatever the case may be, Trump has continued to make plainly dangerous and stunning remarks. Notwithstanding his rival Governor Ron DeSantis’s recent claim that Trump has “lost the zip on his fastball,” the former president continues to produce substantive ideas—which is not to say they are wise or prudent, but they are certainly more than gibberish. In fact, much of what Trump is discussing is un-American, not merely in the sense of being antithetical to some imagined national set of mores, but in that his ideas contravene basic principles of the Constitution or other bedrock bases of American government.

They are the sorts of ideas that would have been shocking to hear from any mainstream politician just a decade ago. . . . . Consider the following examples, all from just the past few months:

1. Promised to destroy the federal government as we know it.

Trump has been promising in speeches to “demolish the deep state.” What he means by that is to end the federal government as it exists today, eliminating the civil-service jobs that have been in place since the late 19th century. This is clear because former Trump aides who are designing the effort, part of a sort of shadow government housed at conservative think tanks, are open about what they have in mind, . . . a federal workforce that can be fired by the president at will and must follow his personal whims. That would be a major departure from the current system, where employees are permanent professionals who work for administrations of both parties and are meant to focus on effective implementation, rather than political hacks chosen for their loyalty.

2. Argued that a presidential candidate should be immune from prosecution.

This goes directly against the idea that no U.S. citizen is above the law.

3. Insulted and attempted to intimidate judges, prosecutors, witnesses, and others.

Trump hasn’t just made arguments in court related to the criminal and civil cases against him; he has also produced a steady stream of invective directed at anyone involved in the cases, to the point of seeking to intimidate witnesses, court staff, and even prosecutors’ family members.

4. Continued to claim that the election was stolen.

Trump continues to insist, despite presenting no real evidence and losing every relevant court case, that he actually won the 2020 election. . . . throughout U.S. history, losers of elections have sometimes grumbled fiercely and other times taken losses gracefully, but none has ever tried to stay in office and then continued to claim he was the rightful winner in the manner Trump has.

5. Excused the January 6 riot.

On Meet the Press and elsewhere, Trump has continued to excuse the riot on January 6, 2021, and to argue that people charged in the riots are political prisoners. He told the Meet the Press moderator, Kristen Welker, that he might pardon people convicted of federal crimes for their involvement in the assault on the seat of U.S. government

8. Suggested executing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.

Apparently outraged by the Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s profile of General Mark Milley, whom Trump appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump on September 22 accused Milley of treason and suggested that he deserved the death penalty. . . . Trump’s loose and sloppy treason accusations have always undermined the Constitution, and many past comments like this have precipitated threats and even attacks from Trump supporters.

9. Accused NBC of treason and threatened to pull it off the air.

Trump has never had any interest in upholding the First Amendment, but his remarks on September 24 were unusually sharp. Trump wrote that NBC News, and especially MSNBC, “should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason.’ . . . . this one carries a clear threat to try to use the power of the federal government to punish a news organization for reporting he doesn’t like. This contradicts even the most limited, basic understanding of the importance of a free press, as protected by the First Amendment.

10. Promised to lock up political opponents.

During a September 28 interview, Trump said he would imprison his political adversaries if he is reelected. . . . Because Trump believes, or claims to believe, that he is being prosecuted for purely political reasons, he’s vowing to go after his political opponents for the crime of being his political opponents—a violation of both free-speech and due-process protections.

11. Recommended extrajudicial executions.

At a rally two days later, on September 30, Trump once again advocated going around the criminal-justice system to administer vigilante punishment. “Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store,” he told the California Republican Party, . . .This, too, violates the basic concept of due process for accused criminals.

12. Called for a judge overseeing his case to be prosecuted.

Among Trump’s many fulminations against Justice Engoron, Trump told reporters on October 2 not only that the judge should be removed from the bench, but that he should face prosecution—for no apparent crime other than being assigned to Trump’s case and ruling against Trump.

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Political Dysfunction Is the Greatest Threat to the U.S.

One hears constant bloviating from the political right - particularly from Der Trumpenfuhrer - about "making America great again" which in reality means to make American culture and politics white dominated and to force non-whites, non-Christians and LGBT individuals back into the shadows as in the 1950's.  As a column in the Washington Post lays out, America remains the world's sole super power and the alleged decline of America the right whines about is in fact not true for the most part.  Rather, the gravest threat to American power and international dominance is most threatened by the political right and the fascists within the MAGA movement.  These people, especially Donald Trump, would break America's alliances and a sizeable portion of the Republican Party now favors dictators around the globe and seeks to end democracy at home as well. How else to explain Republican's refusal to send more aid to Ukraine which is nothing less than an outright gift to Vladimir Putin or Trump's threat to withdraw from NATO? Equally disturbing are the House Republicans who cannot even pass a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown.  Collectively, these actions threaten America's security and economic health.  Here are column highlights:

Predicting the decline of U.S. power has always been fashionable. Only the identity of the country that was supposedly going to overtake us has changed: Once, it was the Soviet Union, then it was Japan, and now it’s China. But despite years of costly fiascoes . . . . the United States still stands as the world’s sole superpower.

While we continue to obsess about external threats, particularly from Russia and China, the biggest menace we face is our own political dysfunction. In trying unsuccessfully to break Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) destructive hold on military nominees, which is risking the readiness of the U.S. armed forces, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said on Nov. 1: “We are going to look back at this episode and just be stunned at what a national-security suicide mission this became.” That warning applies more generally to American politics: If U.S. power does go into terminal decline, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

It is true that we are no longer quite as dominant internationally as we were 30 years ago. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, we are hardly in decline. . . . . The United States remains the “indispensable nation,” as then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called it in 1998.

Where is our closest competitor, China? It’s been largely invisible, more or less adopting a position of neutrality in both conflicts [Gaza and Ukraine], while rhetorically sniping at the United States and continuing to trade with both Russia and Iran.

This is no anomaly: It reflects a world in which China aspires to global leadership but, notwithstanding its costly Belt and Road Initiative, remains largely a bit player outside its own backyard. China’s economy is almost as large as America’s, but China lags far behind in per capita income. There is a distinct possibility that China might never overtake the United States in terms of gross domestic product, in fact, because it might grow old before it grows rich. And while China is a growing military threat in East Asia, it cannot project power around the world as only the United States can.

While China now has the world’s largest navy, it is a force focused on its own littoral waters, not on dominating the world’s oceans as the U.S. Navy has done for the past 80 years. The United States has 68 nuclear submarines to only 12 for China, and 11 aircraft carriers to only two for China. Russia is even further behind the United States both economically and militarily. Its armed forces have been revealed in Ukraine to be far weaker than they looked in Kremlin propaganda videos, and will need years to recover from the pummeling they have received at the hands of Ukrainian troops equipped with Western weapons. North Korea and Iran are regional menaces but don’t seriously threaten U.S. power globally.

Indeed, the United States still accounts for 24 percent of the global economy — more than any other country and only slightly down from its 1990 level of 26 percent. Of the 10 largest companies in the world ranked by market cap, nine are American; none is Chinese. The United States also spends more on defense than the next 10 countries combined.

Given the United States’ economic, diplomatic and military might — a reflection of its vibrant and dynamic society — there is no reason we cannot continue to lead the world in the 21st century.

Unless, of course, we abdicate our position of unmatched power. I fear we might be in the process of doing just that — not as a conscious decision but simply as an outgrowth of our domestic political dysfunction.

The Senate still seems incapable of breaking Tuberville’s hold and confirming hundreds of military officers who are needed at their posts. The Republican-controlled House seems incapable of passing a budget and might force a government shutdown this week.

It used to be said that “politics stops at the water’s edge.” You can debate whether that was true in the past. It’s definitely not true now. Foreign policy has become yet another partisan battleground, and the collateral damage is likely to include the United States’ standing in the world.

For the first time since the attack on Pearl Harbor, there is a substantial isolationist movement in the United States that wants to repudiate a bipartisan, stunningly successful post-World War II foreign policy based on free trade and security alliances with fellow democracies. If Donald Trump regains the White House — which, recent polls suggest, is quite possible — he would be likely to abandon both NATO and Ukraine. U.S. allies in East Asia that depend on U.S. troop deployments, notably South Korea and Japan, would also be at risk of abandonment.

The new generation of America Firsters seems hellbent on crippling the United States’ global power. They might succeed where challengers such as China, Russia, the Soviet Union, North Korea, Iran, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and others have failed.

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The GOP Remains Unready for the Post Roe World

For decades, the Republican Party has increasingly pandered to the desires of a minority of Americans while displaying contempt for the rights of the majority of citizens. Now, the GOP is dominated by grievance-filled whites and "Christian" extremists who want to inflict their beliefs and prejudices on everyone and vulture like billionaires who want the social safety net for the majority slashed so they can pay less in taxes and hoard ever greater amounts of wealth.  One perfect example of this contempt for the rights of the many is the whole "pro-life" which seeks to control the lives and bodies of others and engages in fetus worship while caring nothing for children once they are born, especially if those born are non-white, non-Christian and/or LGBT. With Trump's three appointees to the Supreme Court - all of whom arguable committed perjury during their confirmation hearings - providing the votes to overturn Roe v. Wade, this rights for the few agenda of the GOP has been writ large to the majority that wants autonomy over one's own body and freedom from others who demand to control their lives.  The result has been a backlash by the majority - the true silent majority, if you will - that has seen Republicans suffering at the ballot box.  A column in the New York Times looks at the circumstances in which the GOP deservedly now finds itself.  Here are excerpts:

Ohio is not a swing state, not any longer. Donald Trump won it by eight points, twice. It has a Republican governor, and while its senators are split between the parties, its U.S. House delegation is made up of 10 Republicans and five Democrats. And yet Ohio just passed an abortion-rights referendum by a margin of more than 13 points.

There’s no way to spin this result. There’s no way to spin every other pro-choice result in every other red-state referendum. The pro-life movement is in a state of electoral collapse, and I think I know one reason.

In the eight years since the so-called New Right emerged on the scene and Trump began to dominate the Republican landscape, the Republican Party has become less libertarian but more libertine, and libertinism is ultimately incompatible with a holistic pro-life worldview.

The difference between libertarianism and libertinism can be summed up as the difference between rights and desires. A libertarian is concerned with her own liberty but also knows that this liberty ends where yours begins. The entire philosophy of libertarianism depends on a healthy recognition of human dignity. A healthy libertarianism can still be individualistic, but it’s also deeply concerned with both personal virtue and the rights of others. Not all libertarians are pro-life, but a pro-life libertarian will recognize the humanity and dignity of both mother and child.

A libertine, by contrast, is dominated by his desires. The object of his life is to do what he wants, and the object of politics is to give him what he wants. A libertarian is concerned with all forms of state coercion. A libertine rejects any attempt to coerce him personally, but he’s happy to coerce others if it gives him what he wants.

Donald Trump is the consummate libertine. He rejects restraints on his appetites and accountability for his actions. The guiding principle of his worldview is summed up with a simple declaration: I do what I want. Any movement built in his image will be libertine as well.

Trump’s movement dismisses the value of personal character. It mocks personal restraint. And it’s happy to inflict its will on others if it achieves what it wants. Libertarianism says that your rights are more important than my desires. Libertinism says my desires are more important than your rights, and this means that libertines are terrible ambassadors for any cause that requires self-sacrifice.

I don’t think the pro-life movement has fully reckoned with the political and cultural fallout from the libertine right-wing response to the Covid pandemic. Here was a movement that was loudly telling women that they had to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, with all the physical transformations, risks and financial uncertainties that come with pregnancy and childbirth, at the same time that millions of its members were also loudly refusing the minor inconveniences of masking and the low risks of vaccination . . . .

Even worse, many of the same people demanded that the state limit the liberty of others so that they could live how they wanted. Florida, for example, banned private corporate vaccine mandates.

This do-what-you-want ethos cost a staggering number of American lives. A 2022 study found that there were an estimated 318,981 vaccine-preventable deaths from January 2021 to April 2022.  . . . .there’s evidence from Ohio and Florida that excess mortality rates were significantly higher for Republicans than Democrats after vaccines were widely available.

And this is the party that’s now going to tell American women that respect for human life requires personal sacrifice?

It’s not just that libertinism robs Republicans of moral authority; it’s that libertinism robs Republicans of moral principle. . . . . In each state, all the pro-life movement needed was consistent Republican support, and it would have sailed to victory. All the Democrats in the state could have voted to protect abortion rights, and they would have lost if Republicans held firm. But they did not.

“Do as I say and not as I do” is among the worst moral arguments imaginable. . . . As the Republican Party grows more libertine, the pro-life movement is going to keep losing. Of course, it’s going to keep losing with Democrats and independents, many of whom have always been skeptical of pro-life moral and legal arguments. But it’s also going to lose in the Republican Party itself, a party that is increasingly dedicated to outright defiance.

An ethos that centers individuals’ desires will bleed over into matters of life and death. It did during Covid, and it’s doing so now, as even Republicans reject the pro-life cause.

The challenge for pro-life America isn’t simply to raise more money or use better talking points. As Republican losses in Virginia demonstrate, advocating even a relatively mild abortion ban — a 15-week law, not a so-called heartbeat six-week bill — is fraught. The challenge is much more profound. Pro-life America has to reconnect with personal virtue.

At present, however, the Republican Party is dominated by its id. It indulges its desires. And so long as its id is in control, the pro-life movement will fail. There is no selfish path to a culture of life.

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