A new restaurant opened in my neighborhood. It’s called Karma. There is no menu; you get what you deserve. Like that restaurant, America got what it deserved, not what it wanted. Our tolerance for corruption and moral decay had been increasing long before Donald Trump entered politics. The resulting bureaucratic morass was called “the swamp.” We often said we wanted to drain that swamp. Nobody made much progress.
Along came a man who struck a chord with everyday Americans. He spoke at their level and made great promises. He would drain the swamp. He would end all foreign wars. He would place America First. In isolation we would be “Great Again.”
He excelled at hyperbolic language. Phrases like, “beyond anything previously imagined,” and “like nothing the world has ever seen,” would be used to emphasize uniqueness and scale. Those phrases would be tossed around to exaggerate the scope of his perceived greatness and achievments.
Beyond the hyperbola, he would also use hidden messaging. His coded “dog whistle” phrases and terms gave license and implied support to racists, anti Semites, xenophobes, and religious extremists. Everyone heard what they wanted to hear. People would use selective hearing and confirmation bias to disregard all evidence that did not align with their viewpoints.
He used terms like “Traditional family values” to target LGBTQ+ communities or alternative lifestyles. “DEI hire” meant persons of color or racial minorities. “Inner cities” meant discussions of race based crime and poverty. This targeted communication engaged his base by playing on fears and anxieties about shifting social structures. It fostered “othering” to further divide America.
Donald Trump got elected, then lost a consecutive second term, and then got elected to his second term when Democrats changed candidates mid-campaign. “Karmala” Harris lost and we got what we deserved. Donald Trump became only the second person to serve two non-consecutive terms. Grover Cleveland was the first, and he was the direct opposite of Donald Trump. Grover Cleveland was a Democrat who opposed tariffs, opposed imperialism, was a non-interventionist, and fought against political corruption.
Grover Cleveland left office 129 years ago. His fight against political corruption has been waged half-heartedly ever since. With promises to “drain the swamp,” eliminate corruption, reduce the influence of special interests, and overhaul the bureaucracy in Washington, enter Donald John Trump. His answer to the swamp was to hire a “senior adviser to the president” and “special government employee,” Elon Musk.
Mr. Musk headed a newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. He eliminated over 100,000 federal jobs, terminated contracts, and attacked agencies like NIH and USAID. His was not a surgical cut in waste but more of a bulldozer approach to anything he didn’t like. His approach was to shut it all down first and then see if there was enough of an outcry to turn it back on.
Objective observers found that federal spending did not go down after DOGE. The deficit certainly did not shrink. Their own estimates of planned savings were first cut in half, then half again, and then some more. What seems to have happened was that civil service jobs were cut which reduced services and benefits to citizens and veterans. That “saved money” was then shifted to contractors, military spending, and eventually to pay to rehire many of those they discovered were more essential than they thought or to pay to fix agencies when they lost court battles.
It seems "non essential services" meant anything that benefits middle and lower class Americans but that doesn't directly benefit corporate America, wealthy Americans, or even foreignt entities willing to pass some of their financial holdings to the safe shade of the Trump umbrella. We had ignored political corruption for so long that Trump was able to be open about his dark side dalliances.
The swamp didn’t get drained. They just added more snakes and alligators, turned the swamp into an amusement center, built a shopping mall, damaged international relations, started a war, brought about two regime changes with no net benefit, made cuts to human services, made the IRS less efficient, and made most Americans poorer.
Not all Americans are poorer. Donald Trump has more than doubled his net worth in just one year. He went from $3 billion to $7.3 billion since 2024. And that is what we can trace. This does not include the extended Trump family. His profiteering is LIKE NOTHING THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN.
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