đ¨Certain Thoughts For When "A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight"
Revisiting impeachment, American Nuremberg, the end of Israel, the Dems who crave power, and those who challenge it
Credit where credit is due.
In an era defined by mass nihilism, where the ability to stoke outrage and shock the collective conscience has become nearly impossible, Trump has managed to do it again. Amid surging domestic backlash and growing global opprobrium, today the president triggered new levels of terror and public opposition by stating âa whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.â
It is difficult to overstate how far beyond the pale President Trumpâs behavior has become. Even on the heavily curved scale by which he is graded, this statement has generated widespread reaction among elected officials, media figures, and regular observers.
Trump may âchicken outâ and reverse course, but regardless of what he does next, the rubicon of todayâs historically genocidal post cannot be uncrossed. Given the newly unlocked levels of insanity and the elevated stakes, while you watch the literal Trump doomsday clock live on Israeli TV I invite you to revisit a few pieces of Trump-era writing that resonate with me the most on this dark day:
Impeachment or Guillotine?
Some argue that Trump was already impeached twice to no avail, so it makes no sense to try again. But his current misconduct is immeasurably worse than that of his first term, and in any event, it was constitutionally correct to impeach in both of the first two times. It was right then, and itâs right now. Concern about the politics completely misses the point: impeachment was made for this moment. Miss me with any reaction other than one rooted in clear concern for the safety and wellbeing of the American people.
âŚAnd if Trumpâs current conduct isnât impeachable, then what is? Do we have to wait for him to rape a busload of kindergartners on Fifth Avenue before we draw the line? If Congress doesnât impeach now, we will forever forfeit the right to apply this remedy in the face of extraordinary lawlessness.
By not impeaching, as a nation we are effectively signing off on this madness. If we donât use the one clean tool in our hand to stop the horror, then we are accepting and endorsing it. Impeachment isnât a choice, itâs a requirement.
American Nuremberg
American Nuremberg is more than a crucial corrective â itâs a winning message. Weâre a gravely wounded nation, already aggrieved with three painful years still left to endure. The left has been demonized and attacked. The right has been betrayed. Everyone has been poisoned by the authoritarian ether, suffering quality of life setbacks from an eviscerated federal bureaucracy and kneecapped state governments. Tribunals arenât just right, theyâre the rallying cry we can all get behind.
This isnât to be confused with political retribution. Itâs not a partisan project. This is a novel solution to a novel problem. Nothing like MAGA has ever existed before in American politics, and the only way to ensure it never happens again is to make it illegal. MAGA must be explicitly outlawed, and its members must be prosecuted: elected officials and appointed judges, party funders and business collaborators, allies in media and think tanks, and loyalists â all the way down to masked ICE agents carrying out criminal orders.
âŚChampioning American Nuremberg is also a promise to voters, who in this season of psychic trauma desperately need avatars of strength. A willingness to fight, rooted in uncompromising moral conviction, appeals to all of our basest humanity â regardless of political orientation.
MAGA will clutch their voters, claiming their comeuppance collectively demonizes the Republican rank-and-file. Centrists may even argue that justice for MAGA risks a further radicalization of conservatives. But authoritarianism is ascendant in America because human beings respond to authority. The authoritative audacity of American Nuremberg will appeal to conservatives in particular, not drive them away.
âŚWe can have no reconciliation without truth, no democracy without accountability, and no safety without the rule of law. People will hang, and it is our duty to see that they do.
Israel Has Forfeited Its Right to Exist
While forfeiting sovereign authority over the land could enable Palestinians to demand the departure of those responsible for their suffering, a more reasonable and realistic alternative already exists: the one-state solution. Full-scale expulsion of millions of Israelis complicit in genocide is the maximalist â indeed the extremist â position. Truth, reconciliation, and amnesty under a merciful State of Palestine offering a pathway to citizenship for those complicit in genocide is the moderate position.
âŚThe two-state solution is not just a political fantasy. Its very theoretical basis is morally bankrupt. Anyone trying to sell you on the two-state solution has failed not just in imagination but in basic moral reasoning. Theyâre not asserting a position. Theyâre revealing a hateful worldview that has no place in politics and no place in public life.
A part of me laments and fumes that the American Jewish mainstream that raised me has fully adopted this doubly chauvinist view of both itself and the other, but a much bigger part of me recognizes how these perverse presumptions have enabled Israelâs crimes against humanity. Iâm less concerned with the struggle over the soul of Judaism than the ongoing need to stop the bloodshed committed in its name.
In the end, Israel will be held accountable for its actions. What form will that accountability take? Full expulsion is one path. The one-state solution â truth, reconciliation, and shared sovereignty â is another. I donât often advocate for the moderate position, but when the alternative is ethnic cleansing in either direction, put me down for coexistence under a unified, democratic Palestine.
Queen for a Day: Gretchen Whitmerâs Oval Office Surrender
Democrats arenât entirely off base when they flirt with the appeal of a strong leader unafraid to use their power. Itâs just a shame they canâtâor wontâever step up to the plate. When you stand for nothing, when your raison dâetre is mere maintenance of the decaying status quo, thereâs really no use in even pursuing the spotlight.
Earlier in the day, Whitmer said: âI understand the motivation behind the tariffs, and I can tell you hereâs where President Trump and I do agree: We do need to make more stuff in America, more cars and chips, more steel and ships. We do need fair trade.â She called for a bipartisan approach to âusher in, as President Trump says, the Golden Age of American manufacturing.â
Imagine, for a moment, a leading member of the political opposition coming out in the midst of the Chernobyl disaster and calling for moreânot lessânuclear power. Is there a practical and political context in which advocating for nuclear makes sense? Is there a time and a place to champion the tactical use of targeted tariffs? Of course there is. But this kind of pathetically ill-timed and tone-deaf adoption of the oppositionâs wildly unpopular signature policy can only come about when politicians have become entranced by the sheer power of the dictator.
âŚWhitmer wasnât even successfully kidnapped, yet she still fell head over heels for dear leader. Call it Stockholm Syndrome, call it the craven hunger for power, call it the earnest belief in failed neoliberal economic policies. Whateverâs going on with the leadership of the Democratic party, they have been pulled into the seductive lure of unchecked authority. This is why they wonât ever seriously fight back against Trumpâthey lust for his levels of power and arrogantly believe they will inherit the omnipotent unitary executive branch for themselves.
Chris Van Hollen for President
The fast-approaching Democratic primary contest challenges us to do more than determine who is best positioned to square off against Vice President Vance or Secretary Rubio. This process demands a brutally honest, retrospective assessment of how the Democrats got here so that weâas a partyâmight avoid ever falling so far out of power again. We will need to understand and openly admit where we were wrong, in both policy and politics.
Shortly after the 2024 election, Van Hollen spoke bluntly with Mehdi Hasan: âPresident Bidenâs inaction, given the suffering in Gaza, is shamefulâŚand it looks weak.â He went on: âThe deeper issue: why couldnât [the Biden Administration] just do what was right for American values and American interests? Because if you could do that, the politics in my viewâwhatever they wereâwould flow from that.â
A month later, the former chair of both the Democratic House and Senate Congressional Campaign Committees expanded in the pages of the Washington Post: âNothing will haunt President Joe Bidenâs foreign policy legacy as much as his failed policies in the Middle East. His ineffective approach, coupled with Donald Trumpâs election, now sets the stage for an unprecedented deterioration in our efforts to secure a two-state solution and address the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.â
He was right then, heâs right now, and he would be right all throughout a party primary livestreamed raw and unfiltered to millions of Americans desperate to move beyond the bipartisan carnage of the Biden-Trump era.
