Blame Game

 

When Trump dies, his tombstone (gilded obelisk, more likely) will say, “I blame Obama.”

Never has a “president” so readily blamed others, much less admitted mistakes. He takes credit for anything positive, like good job numbers or stock market ups, and reprehends his predecessors (or Hillary Clinton) for bads and downs. Usually, he’s wrong both ways.

Democrats’ warnings were right: turning the DOJ into his personal lawfare apparatus; skyrocketing budget deficits; ignoring judges and the law; imposing inflationary, job-killing tariffs. Then, having made unkeepable economic promises (some might call them lies), when the check-ins came home to roost, he fired the messenger, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, economist Erika McEntarfer, who’d been confirmed 86 – 8 by senators, including JD Vance, who recognized her integrity.

The BLS (not the Commissioner) gathers employment numbers and reports them. And, when they need revision, revises. It’s safe to assume Trump’s replacement will reinforce Trump’s “down is up, up is down,” making the BLS, like every department in Trump’s “government,” untrustworthy. Ratify his lies or be gone. Do it, be moved to a “Club Fed.” 

Trump’s bleats notwithstanding, employment data can’t be “rigged.” Preliminarily miscalculated, evidently. But, in the end, hiring is binary: yes or no. MAGAs will believe whatever Trump says, but even right-leaning economists approved of Ms. McEntarfer’s corrected data. Shall we trust numbers from one who says he weighs 225 pounds, stands 6’3”, and promises to lower drug prices by 1,500 percent? 

It’s what Trump and the dictators he emulates do: Remove people who say things they don’t like. Fire (in the case of Putin, defenestrate or poison) watchdogs and investigators who reveal corruption or speak truth. Pam Bondi’s totally not weaponized DOJ is “investigating” Judge James Boasberg for the crime of enforcing the law. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, too, for looking into Trump’s crimes, which he did so scrupulously and painstakingly that Trump was able to run out the clock. Other judges who ruled against Dear Leader are reporting serious threats from his America-greatening minions. Collaborators.

Until they eliminate them altogether, dictators ignore laws. That’s Trump. Same with facts. His EPA just un-scienced the finding that greenhouse gases are bad, paving the way to deregulate fossil fuel production. Snap of the finger: years of scientific research and documentation, gone. If the preceding outrages merely kill democracy, this will kill people. But, say MAGAs, Trump loves us. Warmly. So does his lunatic HHS Secretary, who just canceled $500 million for vaccine research. Including for flu and Covid. 

Is it getting Pyongyang in here? Part of the ransom Trump extracted from CBS was inclusion of a “bias monitor” who’ll report directly to him about any content deemed “too critical.” What’s worse: that Trump demanded it, CBS agreed to it, or Republicans rejoice in it? Criticism of leadership is indispensable in healthy democracies. What Trump wants and Republicans, who would hug our Constitution if it were a flag, are fine with, is untouchable monarchy.

“Nothing in this is, or shall be interpreted or construed as, an offer, promise, or acceptance of any form of bribery, undue influence, or corrupt practice.” So says the agreement for “gifting” that palatial Qatari jet to the U.S., the down-to-the-frame retrofitting of which, it’s calculated, will cost American taxpayers a billion dollars. Dollars that recent Fox talk-show host and current DEI-obsessed Defense Secretary Hegseth hid in a secret transfer from dedicated DOD funds. After renovation to Trump’s kingly standards, he’ll have personal use of it till death do he face. Well, then. Interpret, we shall not. Nor construe.

While Trump flies around in taxpayers’ billion-dollar bunko, if he carries out his dream of replacing the East Wing with a gargantuan, royal ballroom, we’ll be left with a desecrated White House. The People’s House, welcoming visitors from all walks of life, will become Trump’s auriferous legacy, a grandiose homage to his need for veneration. One person’s pathological narcissism will despoil something beautiful, its timeless architecture so understatedly American. It’s metaphorical.

Trump’s and his party’s war on facts, science, and truth is easy to understand. Those values expose their lies and failures. Campaigning on cruelty can’t win forever, and they know it’s all they have. On governance, they lose. Which is why Texas, as demanded by Trump, with all red states sure to follow, is taking its already-egregious gerrymandering to unseen levels, eliminating five Democratic districts. And now, Trump’s IRS says multimillionaire-run megachurches can endorse candidates and maintain tax-exempt status. Everywhere you look, it’s undisguised corruption. Like ending free tax-filing after a million-dollar donation from TurboTax. 

These perilous times for democracy demand that Democrats fight as dirty as Republicans; do the same in blue states as legislators are doing in red ones, for as long as it takes to return to voters the right to select their representatives, not the other way around. Then enact fair voting laws forever, or until the SCOTUS Six rewrite the Constitution yet again.

Whichever comes first.