The End of the Beginning

A play in several acts

I’ve been loath to use this blog to discuss political issues above the state level, because, well, first of all, everyone and their fucking sister are blogging to the Trump drumbeat (pro or con) 24/7, and, second: It’s Old North State News, not News of the U.S. Nevertheless, there is some overlap, particularly because the rural/suburban areas of the Old North State are trending Christian Nationalist/MAGA and if you think that’s just code for “fascist,” fine by me.

In the mind’s eye of our founding fathers, this United States was to be a republic where matters of interstate concern, like commerce and immigration and so on, would be addressed at the federal level, while (as is laid out in the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution^[1]) matters not addressed at the federal level were reserved for the states – things like policing and trash collection and zoning and so on. Among the many tensions between liberals and conservatives since forever is disagreement over what is properly a federal problem and what matters should be reserved for the states. The most obvious recent uproar on the federal jurisdiction/states’ rights debate has been regarding abortion.

(Short digression: There’s another amendment to the Constitution – the Ninth Amendment, that says “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” There’s a kind of double negative there: “just because we didn’t say it doesn’t mean it isn’t so.” I actually think this amendment addresses the abortion question exactly. It seems to me that about half of the population is subject to having an abortion, and the right to decide whether or not to have one should reside with them. It is neither a uniquely federal nor state concern. Abortion is construed by Christian Evangelicals and other Taliban-adjacent groups to violate their religious principles, which falls under the aegis of the First Amendment. Otherwise, it is a medical procedure, with the same kind of concerns and reservations that attend all important medical interventions. End digression.)

Here's the problem as I see it. Authoritarian states, of the oligarchy/monarchy/fascist etc. sort, do not make room for states’ rights, or, for that matter, individual rights. It’s a completely top down kind of governing. This is exemplified by the situation when one party has a supermajority in the state legislature. A fine example of this comes from Tennessee, where the R-dominated state legislature passed a variety of bills deliberately punishing the citizens of Nashville, including stripping down the Nashville Council from 40 to 20 members and siezing control of over $3 billion dollars in projects, all because Nashville turned down the opportunity to host this year’s GOP convention.^[2]

Photo by John Partipilo.

In countries that suffer authoritarian rule, citizen voting – if there is voting – is generally attached to conditions that guarantee continuity by the ruling party. Under this kind of government, the three co-equal (and sometimes opposing) branches of our Republic will meld into one, dictated by the Executive.

There’s all kinds of newspeak around this, the rallying cry being that the populists are having their day, that the elitists are being driven from control, that the Administrative State (aka “swamp”) is being drained. Of course, populists are not that popular, “elitist” is shorthand for “educated and skilled,” and Administrative State refers, in the U.S., to a highly competent Civil Service.

We’re well down the road to a unitary system run by a minority party, and I don’t see any offramp. Which means, on a practical level, that whatever we do here in North Carolina to secure our “state’s rights” is likely to devolve into subservience to the edicts issued from the District of Columbia. It is literally the enshrinement into reality of the Deep State so frequently decried by the far right.

Like the organized crime ring that it is slated to become, the government in our not-distant-future will not be one that employs talented and knowledgeable people to attend to the administration of a civil service. The key characteristics of a Trump-and-beyond-era administrator will be fealty to the party and strict adherence to the dictates of the day. Bosses and their lieutenants will not be hired based upon their experience and training in a subject matter, rather, it will be a testament to their ruthlessness and lack of empathy – psychopathy, in a word. It is no accident that the entire top tier of Trump’s attorneys from 2021 either have criminal convictions or are currently under indictment.

We see antisocial behavior everywhere we look in the modern GOP – Kristy Noam bragging about gunning down her puppy, Marjory Taylor Green mocking a Black colleague’s appearance in a House Oversight Committee meeting, virulent anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from guys like David Lane and Roy Moore, undisguised hatred of immigrants from the Steves – Trump advisors Steve Bannon and Steven Miller. Outrageous attacks against minorities, gays, immigrants and others (Including MLK, Jr. Seriously.) from North Carolina Gubernatorial Candidate Mark Robinson are par for the course, as documented in earlier editions of ONSN. It has become commonplace for Republicans to hide their Ivy League educations. This race to the bottom is how one jockeys for position in the New World Order.

You don’t need to take my word for this. It has all been carefully laid out in a blueprint known as Project 2025, aka the Presidential Transition Project. If you want or need a job in the next administration, this link is where you go to apply. Be prepared to brag about your criminal history.

The practical consequences of having a one-party government are predictable. One likely outcome is that state legislatures will devolve into a basic feudal system: Sheriffs in the House will be funded by protection money from the citizens of their fiefdoms, while wealthy overlords pay for the privilege of having a Senate vote. Think not? Why then do you suppose that the Republicans have been in the business of tanking public education for the past 20 years or more? If anything is a right of every citizen, it is a free and equal basic education. Even the North Carolina Constitution says so. Yet here we are, with the divisions between the uneducated Serf and undeserving Master resolving sharply into focus.

I said it before and it bears repeating: This is not about one election. It is not about Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump. That’s merely the next step on a very deliberate and intricate long con. People motivated by greed, power, hatred and revenge have joined forces to imperil our democracy, and they are not complacent. The coming election is probably a tipping point, but it’s not the end of the war. At my age, it’s likely that I won’t live to see the final resolution to what really amounts to a rolling insurrection. I cannot decide if that’s a good thing or not.

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^[1] The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

^[2] https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/03/11/legislative-takeover-looks-like-fascism/