In the aftermath of the alarm-raising dud that were the Mueller congressional hearings, some observations are in order. We need to see clearly where the nation stands.
The first misfortune in post-election resistance to Trump was a GOP congress during the first two years. Unlike Watergate, the developing, synergistic drama of an ongoing special counsel investigation together with congressional hearings was thus impossible.
In place of that joint drama, news coverage, even with all the revelations that came, was ineffectual. Rather, the complex of crass pop entertainment and viral social & news media, with the capitalist consumption of them all for profit, continues American decline.
The historical significance of Trump is not Trump. He can happen anywhere and has. The significance is what has been revealed about American society. It can also happen here. It has happened here.
The same mean, narrow, ignorant impulses that have infected other populations, and supported all populist authoritarians, arose in the U.S. too. The same craven, unprincipled, careerist political class that served those tyrants emerged here as elsewhere. The United States is not exceptional.
Despite Trump’s gross, cruel, corrupt indecency, which daily reveals and surpasses itself, the demagogue’s support has varied within only a…
