Emails from friends continue to roll in confidently predicting tanks, sieg-heiling, and pogroms from orange hitler, right around the corner. You know, Hitler, who came to power because of Russia. The Trump we have isn't bad enough, we must magnify his power in our minds.
Recommended antidotes, two posts from Corey Robin:
I cannot tell you how much I loathe this kind of politics. At a very deep and personal level. I loathe its operatic-ness, the way it performs concern and care when all it really is about is narcissism and a desperate desire for a fix. I loathe its false sense of depth and profundity. I loathe its belligerent confidence that it, and only it, understands the true awfulness of the world. I loathe the sense of exhilaration and enthusiasm it derives from being in touch with this awfulness, the more onerous citizenship, to borrow a phrase from Susan Sontag, it constructs on the basis of this experience.
December Diary: From the Political to the Personal
This [Politico article re: Trump browbeating Capital Hill Republicans] is ... fascinating, in spite of itself, about the aura of power that the Bannon/Breitbart operation behind Trump tries to create. If you read it quickly, it sounds scary: message discipline enforced by Bannon from on high, gets transmitted to terrified members of Congress down low.
But what’s the actual threat these guys wield? Tweets. Tweets. In other words, they’re depending on that old dream of politics watchers in the US—the presidential bully pulpit-hoping it can be more of a power than it has ever really been.
More analysis to calm Nazi-screeching friends (as if): Radio War Nerd webcast re: the different strains of conservatism tapped by the Trump transition team (paleo- vs neo-conservative, Heritage vs AEI, CPAC connections). Slightly dated because taped right after the election but interesting.