PrintHow Civil Wars End
America has engaged in an increasingly robust civil war for decades. Beginning with the JFK, MLK, and RFK assassinations; extending through Nixon’s defenestration coordinated by the FBI; borking masterminded by Teddy Kennedy to stymie Reagan; lawfare waged against Trump and his allies by the DoJ; capped by the DHS-enabled assassination attempt. This uniquely American civil war, experiencing minimal bloodshed, is the antithesis of our last one. Ours is fought with absentee ballots, not bullets. Civil wars conclude variously: battlefield surrenders; wholesale desertions; or combatants slinking from the hostilities, pretending it was a misunderstanding, begging the victor’s forbearance. There’s also Mark Antony’s option. His suicide ended Rome’s civil war.
American political suicides occur when oblivious actors self-destruct, e.g., representatives Adam Kinzinger, Dan Goldman, Ted Lieu, Corie Bush, Liz Cheney, or Jamal Bowman. Kamala couldn’t sabotage her candidacy fast enough so she tapped fellow traveler Walz. Filled with joy, Walz can’t decide whether he’s auditioning to replace Ellen DeGeneres or Richard Simmons.
Marx was correct: history repeats first as tragedy, then farce. Kamala 2.0 runs against Biden’s record, not Trump. Her campaign plagiarizes the Theranos scam. Democrats are too incapacitated to even remove Biden’s name from their convention platform. Unable to define women, they conceal their crowded antisemitic wing. When Jon Stewart mocks your hypocrisy, it’s over.
We are witnessing a combination of desertions, begging for mercy, and political mass suicides. Kamala functions as Democrats’ Jim Jones. Kamala Kool-Aid is a toxic brew. Trump is magnanimous in victory, welcoming surrendering primary opponents, assorted RINOs, Democrat refugees, or anybody not named Rosie O’Donnell who crosses enemy lines. RFK Jr. was accorded full rock star treatment upon surrendering, complete with fireworks. Trump overlooked Kennedy’s previous description of him as a “sociopath.” Several months earlier, both traded extreme insults. Trump’s embrace signals his base to accept the anointed. Kennedy has many failings, but delusion is not one of them. He realized which side will win. The devil was in the polling details. Fake polls are as pernicious as other types of fake news. Democrats are in trouble.
Profound insights were provided by Mark Zuckerberg’s August 26 House Judiciary Committee letter. His command of a global data collection provides access to public sentiment. He is abandoning Democrats and telegraphing Trump's impending victory revealed in his data. This follows his characterization of Trump as “badass” following the assassination attempt. Zuckerberg is under potential criminal liability for his $400 million “nonpartisan” 2020 voter registration initiative, a liability (highlighted by Trump) essentially mooted by his mea culpa. Worth $182 billion, Zuckerberg is no fool. Trump makes clear that switching sides will avoid prosecution.
Zuckerberg’s realignment (regardless of motivations), coming in the context of the ongoing implosion of the global censorship regime, is profound. The American civil war possesses international facets. Desperate attempts to stifle public discourse in England and France are related and symptomatic of the final chapter of a long-simmering war perpetrated by international elites against the masses. Twitter and now Facebook are transitioning toward populist control, joining Rumble and other inhabitants of a flourishing ecosystem. Brexit and related European populist movements are side skirmishes in the larger America-centered conflict.
Democrats’ current strategy is to lie. Not innocuous retail lies, but the wholesale, sophisticated sort that Mark Twain, author of a treatise on lying, advocated. He described this skill as a “sweet and loving art, [which] should be cultivated.” Alarmed by “the growing prevalence of the brutal truth,” he urged “let us do what we can to eradicate it” through “charitable and unselfish lying.” Democrats heard his message, but are too lazy to bother studying professionals’ time-honored techniques.
The NY Times, alarmed by Democrats’ self-destruction, editorialized that at the DNC convention, “Bill Clinton said Kamala Harris would be ‘the president of joy.’ …but joy is not a political strategy… Being our joyful Momala is not going to win the election.” As the DNC group therapy euphoria recedes, and impending electoral slaughter sinks in, Democrats are cycling through grief’s five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Most are currently stalled at the intersection of Denial Drive and Anger Avenue, intermediate between the first two stages. The more astute ones (Zuckerberg or Kennedy) have reached the bargaining stage. The prescient (e.g., former DNC Vice Chair Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk) are well into acceptance. Diehards (e.g., Mark Cuban) are collapsing into Stage 4 TDS hysteria.
The DNC convention featured mass denial and self-delusion, mourning’s first phase, coping methods to avoid harsh realities. Trump Derangement Syndrome represents grief’s second phase, anger. Unable to mount a viable resistance, Democrats are turning on each other, collapsing into internal civil war.
Fear of the voters’ wrath drives politicians’ defections. Immediately after Kamala captured the nomination, six Democrat House members joined their unanimous GOP colleagues in a resolution affirming she’s actually the border czar. New Jersey congressman Van Drew jumped to the GOP in 2019. He was reelected in 2022 with 59% of the vote. Senators Sinema and Manchin bailed when the Democrat label became a liability. Manchin will lose reelection in a landslide. Three Democrat senators skipped the DNC convention: Tester (MT), Rosen (NV), Brown (OH). Five senators, 10% of their forces, are sneaking away from the battlefield.
Trump’s internal polling reveals Democrats don’t have a snowball’s chance. Post inauguration, anticipate that Elon Musk -- who fired 80% of Twitter’s employees -- will engineer accelerating the Trump Train to ludicrous speed following Machiavelli’s roadmap:
On seizing a state, the usurper should make haste to inflict what injuries he must, at a stroke, that he may not have to renew them daily, but be enabled by their discontinuance to reassure men’s minds, and afterwards win them over by benefits.
With Senate control likely to flip, enabling legislation for wholesale layoffs is presumably drafted. Day One sees the J6 gulag emptied, offshore wind (four to five times as expensive as existing energy, yet intermittent) scuttled, borders sealed, and deportations commence.
Reagan abandoned the Democrats before anyone else. Deserters from the Left and Right now flood into Trump's camp. The former include Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk, Bret Weinstein, Silicon Valley billionaires, RFK Jr., Joe Rogan, Dave Chappell, Lil Wayne, Bill Ackman, and Amber Rose. According to James Carville, Kennedy would be institutionalized in a more humane country. Reformed NeverTrumpers, including J.D. Vance, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Ice Cube, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, et al., now praise Trump, joined by assorted rappers. 2016 GOP Trump opponents either conceded or vanished into irrelevance.
As the political tide recedes, wholesale Democrat malfeasance will emerge. Congressional and Trump DoJ investigations will expose endemic criminality. Many are fearful. Fear of prosecution under a Trump administration drives much of the residual resistance. Smart defectors, such as Zuckerberg, are preempting that possibility.
Anticipate increasing instances of Democrats’ anger as Trump’s standing consolidates. Antifa and pro-Hamas shock troops will coordinate the post-election rage festivities. Amber Rose put it best: “I realized Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, White, gay, or straight. It’s all love.” The antithesis of Democrats’ schizophrenic message of division. Once again, we will tire of winning.
Douglas Schwartz blogs on history, politics, economics, and gaslighting at The Great Class War.
