Goodbye America

... into the abyss

I spent a lot of time over the last two years on Substack: reading, writing, analyzing, and commenting on the dangers of Trump’s neo-fascist program, with a special focus on understanding how so many otherwise sane Americans can surrender their hearts and minds to a racist misogynist narcissistic conman like Trump.

And yet, here we are. “The People” have spoken.

Of my 60+ articles posted here, two book reviews in particular provided the most insights into understanding how this could happen.

Erich Fromm’s Escape From Freedom (1941) was an analysis of how the German people surrendered to Hitler and the Nazis. Here are some key insights:

“Submission to the Leader is the fundamental basis of Fascist ideology.”

“A domineering apostolic nature will make the weak, doubtful followers succumb more easily and more intensely to the will of the dominating Leader.”

“The more outrageous the paranoid accusations, the more likely to be believed.”

Many of Fromm’s countrymen were resentful, hateful, and looking for scapegoats and avenues of retribution, and Nazism provided an “ideology which gave them a feeling of superiority” and provided “sadistic spectacles” (like Kristallnacht) in which to participate. (As Madeleine Albright wrote in Fascism: A Warning: “in the end, fascism was always about stirring people up and giving them someone to hate.”)

Trump talked about shooting Liz Cheney in the face, and putting Kamala in a cage where Mike Tyson could be the shit out of her. So now we wait for the sadistic spectacles. And the retributions. And Project 2025.

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The second book which provides deep insights into Trump’s hold over America is Richard Hofstadter’s The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1962) which places Fromm’s insights directly into the context of American culture and politics.

For the true believers, then as now, invidious enemies threaten not only the economic self-interest of Americans, but far more importantly, “their very sense of belonging as Americans.” Sixty years ago Hofstadter wrote that the “modern right wing feels dispossessed: feels that America has been largely taken away from them and their kind [and] they are determined to repossess it.” And six decades later the world watched as tiki-torch-carrying angry young men marched through a university campus chanting “Jews will not replace us.” 

In response to the often-asked question as to how people can vote against their own self-interest, Hofstadter’s notion of status politics provides a profoundly insightful answer:

“Economic self-interest will always take a back seat to a perceived threat to one’s rudimentary sense of belonging to the community, to what we call his Americanism.”

In this context of “desperately needing reassurance of their fundamental Americanism,” Hofstadter noted the Right’s exaggerated use of patriotic symbolism, and this need to declare one’s “Americanism” is still evident in today’s flag-draped MAGA-adherents “advertising their loyalty.”

“One of the chief characteristics of American super-patriotism is its constant inner urge toward self-advertisement.”

The Paranoid Style of American Politics was written in 1962 as a 5-alarm warning for Hofstadter’s time, calling attention to a “formidable force that differs in levels of intensity but appears to be all but ineradicable.” Clearly, this “rancid, toxic” paranoid style of American politics has prevailed.

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Or maybe it was just the price of gas. Maybe Americans are so petty and small-minded that they are glad to sacrifice democracy and freedom to save a buck at the gas pump.

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Or, it could be as simple as what my non-political son told me months ago:

“Forget it, Dad. Americans will never elect a black woman as President.”

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For whatever reasons, America has chosen to follow a psychopathic fascist into a very dangerous future. This is how it must have felt when Hitler came to power in Germany in 1932: for the majority, it was a glorious victory; for others, it was an opening into the abyss. And it did not end well.

I believe that Trump’s ascent to ABSOLUTE POWER will not end well.

And so ends this newsletter.
Goodbye America, and good luck.