By Daniel Nardini
For the next three commentaries, I will discuss the changes in the last two decades of how the two ruling parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, have changed dramatically from what they were in the 20th Century. I will first examine the party currently in power on the federal level in the United States: the Republican Party. There is no question that current U.S. President Donald Trump is completely unhinged. He is challenging the very foundations of the U.S. Constitution, tanking the U.S. economy, and seems intent on using his executive decrees as the final arbiter of what the law is rather than what is defined in the constitutional separation of powers. There is no doubt that Trump is a demented,old and angry man filled with hatred for his perceived enemies who does not believe in the U.S. Constitution. He admires dictators, and wants to be like the worst of the worst dictators today like Russian premier Vladimir Putin, Chinese premier Xi Jinping, and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.
There is no doubt that Trump is trying to become a king or a dictator. But who is helping him to go that direction? Is it the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress that has stood by and done nothing to reign in this person? No, it goes much deeper. In so many ways, Trump is the ideal Manchurian candidate for what the Republican Party now wants. This had been going on as far back as 2001 when the so-called War on Terror started. There is no doubt that the top leadership of the Republican Party knew about the CIA (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) black sites in the U.S. and around the world where many innocent people—mostly innocent foreign nationals—were disappeared into prisons and torture chambers. These “enemy combatants” had no rights, no legal protections, and no recourse for the terrible things done by the Bush administration. This was only found out at the end of the Bush years. Why didn’t the Republicans protest these acts committed by the Bush administration? In the end, the War on Terrorism was never carefully defined and was ultimately lost when the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August of 2021.
The Republican Party had in fact been going down a very authoritarian path before Trump ever came on to the scene. Before Trump, the Republican Party already wanted to make the United States into a Christian theocracy, ban abortion, and gain control of almost all the states so they could effectively run the country indefinitely. Long before Trump, the Republican Party was already on the road whereby a major figure could easily fit into the role of becoming a supreme leader. Enter Donald Trump. Not only did Trump bring in an aura of being a powerful leader but built up a cult of personality that inter-phased with the extreme right-wing movements in the Republican Party. Because of this, he was able to win in both 2016 and 2024. More than anything, the Republican Party has used Trump for their purpose of making America what they want it to be. To this end, Project 2025 was created by the Heritage Foundation for this purpose. With the Republicans now in power in both the executive and legislative branches, and a more or less compliant judiciary, the Republican Party could easily have the Congress pass legislation favorable for the political right, and Trump would simply sign it and the judiciary would most likely support what the Republicans want.
But Trump is Trump. Trump seems to be greatly messing up the whole process. He signs executive orders as if they are decrees, he is ignoring the Congress, and he now has an incredibly antagonistic relationship with the whole judiciary. He is wasting political capital, and it is becoming all too easy for the Democratic Party and the political progressive media to paint him as an emerging dictator. In my view, he is too incompetent to be a true dictator like Putin or Xi. What he is definitely doing is dangerously deconstructing the whole of the U.S. government. The Congress under the Republicans are going along with this for now, but it will cost them in later elections in the short-term future. They see this happening, and are trying to figure out how to either stop or ruin future local and state elections. The real power that is stopping Trump from doing more is, ironically, the judiciary. Worse for the Republicans, a growing number of people in the U.S. military are developing a not-so-happy relationship with Trump and the Republicans. While Trump may be the commander-in-chief, the military is made up of ordinary people like you and me and their families are losing government services and being mistreated just like the rest of the American people. This is a dangerous tripwire that Trump might accidentally cross with grave consequences.
This is not the end of the story. The other part of this equation is what is happening with the Democratic Party that I find equally alarming.
The Dark Decline of the Two Ruling Parties Part I: The Republican Party
By Daniel Nardini
There is no doubt that Trump is trying to become a king or a dictator. But who is helping him to go that direction? Is it the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress that has stood by and done nothing to reign in this person? No, it goes much deeper. In so many ways, Trump is the ideal Manchurian candidate for what the Republican Party now wants. This had been going on as far back as 2001 when the so-called War on Terror started. There is no doubt that the top leadership of the Republican Party knew about the CIA (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) black sites in the U.S. and around the world where many innocent people—mostly innocent foreign nationals—were disappeared into prisons and torture chambers. These “enemy combatants” had no rights, no legal protections, and no recourse for the terrible things done by the Bush administration. This was only found out at the end of the Bush years. Why didn’t the Republicans protest these acts committed by the Bush administration? In the end, the War on Terrorism was never carefully defined and was ultimately lost when the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August of 2021.
The Republican Party had in fact been going down a very authoritarian path before Trump ever came on to the scene. Before Trump, the Republican Party already wanted to make the United States into a Christian theocracy, ban abortion, and gain control of almost all the states so they could effectively run the country indefinitely. Long before Trump, the Republican Party was already on the road whereby a major figure could easily fit into the role of becoming a supreme leader. Enter Donald Trump. Not only did Trump bring in an aura of being a powerful leader but built up a cult of personality that inter-phased with the extreme right-wing movements in the Republican Party. Because of this, he was able to win in both 2016 and 2024. More than anything, the Republican Party has used Trump for their purpose of making America what they want it to be. To this end, Project 2025 was created by the Heritage Foundation for this purpose. With the Republicans now in power in both the executive and legislative branches, and a more or less compliant judiciary, the Republican Party could easily have the Congress pass legislation favorable for the political right, and Trump would simply sign it and the judiciary would most likely support what the Republicans want.
But Trump is Trump. Trump seems to be greatly messing up the whole process. He signs executive orders as if they are decrees, he is ignoring the Congress, and he now has an incredibly antagonistic relationship with the whole judiciary. He is wasting political capital, and it is becoming all too easy for the Democratic Party and the political progressive media to paint him as an emerging dictator. In my view, he is too incompetent to be a true dictator like Putin or Xi. What he is definitely doing is dangerously deconstructing the whole of the U.S. government. The Congress under the Republicans are going along with this for now, but it will cost them in later elections in the short-term future. They see this happening, and are trying to figure out how to either stop or ruin future local and state elections. The real power that is stopping Trump from doing more is, ironically, the judiciary. Worse for the Republicans, a growing number of people in the U.S. military are developing a not-so-happy relationship with Trump and the Republicans. While Trump may be the commander-in-chief, the military is made up of ordinary people like you and me and their families are losing government services and being mistreated just like the rest of the American people. This is a dangerous tripwire that Trump might accidentally cross with grave consequences.
This is not the end of the story. The other part of this equation is what is happening with the Democratic Party that I find equally alarming.