It’s “Underwear on the Outside” Time

Note: Heather Cox Richardson and I will do a Substack live today at noon ET. You can watch it here.

In the 1971 comedy film Bananas a third-world nation’s strongman announces his new policies:

From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check.

Yesterday, addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations, the president of the United States declared, among other things,

The United States also totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control the artificial intelligence being spoken of so much, now here and after officially called superintelligence, changing the name. The use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake, it makes it sound fake … From this point forward, all of United States documents and hopefully the world will be changed to use the much more accurate term super as opposed to artificial.

This came just two days after Trump announced that his planned gigantic Triumphal Arch overshadowing Washington DC will

house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage.

Most reporting on Trump’s speech emphasized either his belligerence — his rejection of global cooperation — or the fact that almost everything he said was a lie. But isn’t the bigger story the fact that the leader of what used to be the world’s most powerful nation — I say “used to be” because America’s power is collapsing before our eyes — has clearly and undeniably lost his mind?

I’m by no means the only commentator to see parallels between Trump’s UN speech and the scene in Bananas. But comparing Trump to a fictional character is unfair — to the fictional character. After all, in Bananas the mad dictator is quickly removed from power. In America today, some Republicans are quietly distancing themselves from Trump. A few are even voicing subtle, elliptical criticisms. But will he be impeached, or face 25th Amendment proceedings? Not a chance.

Indeed, let’s be honest: the only reason these faint hints of Republican rebellion are newsworthy is that they come after years of slavish obedience and flattery — obedience and flattery that continued even though Trump’s deteriorating mental state has been obvious for a long time.

I wrote a post titled “It’s Sundowning in America,” inspired by Trump’s demented demands that he receive the Nobel Peace Prize, 8 months ago. The damage being done by Deranged Trump Syndrome was already obvious. And that was before Trump squandered America’s military credibility, as well as a dangerously large share of our munitions, on his catastrophic war-of-choice in Iran.

There’s a high probability that Trump’s power will be considerably reduced in the aftermath of the November midterms. Polls point to a blue wave that is highly likely to give Democrats control of the House and more likely than not to deliver the Senate. If that blue wave does indeed materialize, I expect that there will be an enormous sigh of relief across the country because it will be a major, if not fatal, setback for Trumpism.

However, we shouldn’t let the short-term relief of a November victory blind us to the long-term realities. Trumpism did not emerge out of thin air – that is, an unfortunate draw of the democracy cards. Instead Trump and Trumpism is the culmination of a decades-long threat to American democracy, to the moral, legal and social fiber of this country.

There is a straight line from Koch Brothers money, allied with segregationists and religious fundamentalists, that runs through the Federalist Society and the Roberts Supreme Court, through the MAGA-fied Republican Party, through the crypto-industry and the tech-broligarchy, that leads to Trump. And it will take a single-minded, fearless and incorruptible new generation of Democrats to defeat this many-headed hydra.

We should also recognize that Mad King Donald will still retain a great deal of power even with a Democratic Congress. He won’t feel that he has failed America, he will believe that America has failed him and try to punish the nation accordingly. Thus he will use his remaining power vindictively not just against the victorious Democrats, but also against the American people.

And if Democrats win the White House in 2028, they will inherit a badly damaged nation.

So while we may be justified in celebrating if the election goes as predicted in November, don’t take your battle-gear off yet. There is a long road ahead.

MUSICAL CODA