Turning Point?

 

When it was revealed that Tom Homan, Trump’s Border and Brutality Czar, accepted a bagful of $50,000 in cash for promising to facilitate deals with Trump, and that Trump quashed the investigation, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline “It’s my party and I’ll lie if I want to” Leavitt, speaking through lips conveniently placed above her crucifix, said, “He did nothing wrong.” (It was recorded, Ms. Leavitt. Release it.) Not lying, Megan Kelley wrote, “WE DO NOT CARE.” Hey, MAGA, there’s a new slogan in town.

At the half-hate, half-memorial for Charlie Kirk, Trump, doing God’s work, followed Erika Kirk’s remarkable words of Christian forgiveness and grace, with, “He did not hate his opponents; he wanted the best for them. (Ed note: For over half of America, Kirk didn’t want the best.) That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.” There followed louder cheers from the collected Christians than there’d been for Mrs. Kirk.

Were any worshippers repulsed when demonic Stephen “You-can’t-call-me-a-fascist” Miller defiled the memorial with his signature demagogic putrefaction? 

Ghoulish: it’s the G in MAGA.

Previously asked if killing those seagoing, alleged drug-runners was illegal, V.P. Vance said, “I don’t give a sh#t.” Because he’s full of it enough to give freely, that was puzzling. Examples: Former FBI director Wray “should have been investigating the networks that motivated, inspired, and maybe even funded Charlie Kirk’s murder.” Facts? He don’t need no stinkin’ facts. After “Haitians are eating pets”: “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention ... then that’s what I’m going to do.” And he has, ever since. On the assassination of Charlie Kirk, he lied that “statistics prove” most violence comes from “the left.” As he can’t not know, they show the opposite.

“He did nothing wrong.” “We do not care.” “I don’t give a sh#t.” MAGAs need bigger hats. “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them” will require T-shirts. And Autocorrect. This Trumpic gem demands an entire billboard: "When 97% of the stories are bad about a person, that's no longer free speech." It’s in the Constitution! Like “I have the right to do anything I wanna do. I’m the President of the United States.” Article II. 

Jimmy Kimmel’s return to the air (except here, where Trump-loving, news-censoring, newscaster script-writing Sinclair owns KOMO, refuses to run it and doesn’t want you to know things) suggests Trump’s censorious dictatorship might be reversible. What went on behind the scenes is unknown. In front, people canceled their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions, hundreds of thousands of protestations were sent to ABC (and to Australian Broadcasting Corporation, proving decent people get confused, too). Even Travelin’ Ted Cruz was critical. That’s the lesson: If enough people freed their souls from FoxoMAGAfication, Trump’s totalitarianism could give way to democracy.

It’s a big “if.” The people who cheered Trump’s blasphemy at the deification of Charlie Kirk will never choose enlightenment. But maybe some attendees, and, one could hope, residually thoughtful Trump supporters observed the last couple of weeks of contrived, weaponized vengeance and persecution of free speech rediscovered what having second thoughts feels like. Remembered when they knew democracy, freedom, and free speech are inseparably intertwined. Who’ll think, sure, seeing those brown people being rounded up roughly is nice, but there’s something more important at stake here.

People aware that, years ago, opposing parties worked together and accomplished great things. Ones unwilling to keep ignoring the protrusive corruption of this administration, enriching billionaire Trump pals, selling them control of all media; the lying, the undisguised peddling of hate to ensure an ever-stronger grip on power; the ridding from government people of integrity, finally recognizing how treacherous it is. Able to entertain the thought that, for love of country, it has to stop.

Maybe those people recall Trump promising, “After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I also will sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.” Maybe, after Trump lied that he had nothing to do with the firing of Jimmy Kimmel, they’ll be reminded that, immediately after the cancellation of Stephen Colbert, he said Kimmel would be next. Maybe they’ll discover they’ve been duped from the beginning.

Perhaps those who don’t deny the Holocaust heard echoes of it when Vance, hosting Charlie Kirk’s podcast, implored Americans to turn in anyone they hear saying anything negative about Mr. Kirk. Maybe, even though it’s not (yet) affecting them, they’ll decide, “This isn’t the America I thought I loved, not the one I want to live in. I need a president who upholds rather than ignores the Constitution, who’s truthful, whose White House isn’t a gilded cesspool of greed and corruption, and who didn’t just embarrass America before the UN General Assembly. I can no longer be a part of it.”

Wouldn’t it be nice?