Creating the Narrative for the New USA.

"We have always been at war with Eurasia"

The desire to rewrite history to fit ones chosen narratives is as old as humanity itself. If you don't think the first cave dwellers weren't exaggerating the size of the animals on the cave walls they supposedly slayed you haven't been paying attention to humanity.

Today in America is no different. Media outlets and politicians are the best at this. Take, for example, the NY Times 1619 project, a tome so flawed, so fundamentally out of focus with historical reality that the publication ultimately was forced to abandon all of its central tomes and basically try and white wash its entire original purpose from existence.

It's too late though, the damage is done. Because no one notices corrections or retractions, they just focus in on the original narrative not matter how flimsy or bizarre the main idea is.

This is the problem the GOP faces right now. The choice, of some of their members, to follow the Bronzed Ego down his fever dream of #StopTheSteal they ran into the harsh light of reality displaying some (not all) of Trumps followers as 100% batshit crazy. Once they realized this, and many recanted their support, the damage was already done. The narrative set so to speak.

This could possibly diminish the GOP for a generation in America. Think California but with an unlimited budget and power to inflict harm. The belief, on this blog, was not that Donald Trump would destroy America (It takes more than the ego and bloviations of one man to topple a free society with laws and structure), but that he might all but destroy the GOP and leave the country looking at the very real possibility of facing the abyss of single-party rule.

And, to be clear about this, there is very little separating single-party, monolithic rule from pure authoritarianism. Certainly this is the case if the courts have decided to sit on the sidelines and just observe. This gives those whose goal it is to tear down the existing order pretty much a blank check to do so.

The belief here at TPM headquarters is that it will be fascinating to watch America and China spiral closer to one another (albeit from different directions) as authoritarian ruled, crony capitalist economic powers.

The media will be more than happy to keep this division alive as they will continue to focus on both the mis-deeds of Trump (even long after he is gone) and any instance where a member of the GOP might have agreed with him on anything, even something that made sense. (and, even though Trump himself was a personal disaster, not all of his policies were. It's important to separate the two) Part of the reason for this is that the media is lazy, and an even larger part of it is because the media does not particularly like the GOP.

There was a great scene is the 80's movie "Moon Over Parador" that comes to mind.

This was a harmless little Richard Dreyfus vehicle that took place in an authoritarian country that ostensibly elected it's leader through free and fair elections. The problem was the ruler of the land was on the ticket for both parties. Near the beginning of the movie two peasants are looking at two campaign posters, one with a red background, one with a blue background, both with the picture of the President on them.

"Who are you going to vote for? Red or Blue?"

"What does it matter?"

Without a meaningful, serious, opposition party the real elections are going to occur in the Democratic Primaries. Who is selected in those races will ultimately determine the direction of the country. If you don't think this is possible, look at California on the Left and Texas (for now) on the Right.

"Who are you going to vote for? Democrat or Democrat?"

"What does it matter?"