"WE'RE AT WAR!"

After landing in Washington to start his second term, Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency under a temporary contract government organization titled "United States DOGE Service" (a renaming of the United States Digital Service created during the Obama administration.) Inaugurated through executive order, the stated purpose of this service is to eliminate excessive regulations, reduce wasteful and fraudulent federal spending, and modernize federal technology and software with the aim of significantly improving governmental efficiency and productivity.

As The New York Times reported, to achieve their aims United States DOGE Service would create "DOGE teams" embedded within federal agencies, consisting of not less than four “special government employees” with “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software, and IT systems" to the “maximum extent consistent with law.” And right away DOGE, the productivity and efficiency people, appeared to get to work, just as you would hope.

Despite months of anticipation and the new government being elected to follow through on this very promise, right at the outset some folks were not happy. More than that, people took to the streets to express their displeasure as loudly as possible. When non-essential staff within USAID — what is widely accepted to be the unaccountable financial arm of the US intelligence establishment — were dismissed, that’s when the dung really hit the heat pump. Regular protests have since been orchestrated all across the US. Mostly people on the losing side of the previous election, lead by senators and members of congress on that same side, took to the street and airwaves calling for ever-expanding protests and even violence. That may sound hyperbolic. Well, you decide.

In front of cameras, they declared that all good people of conscience all across America are now “at war.” And they assured the public that “fighting” this “war” “in the streets” is justified because everyone within or adjacent to the Republican party is, in fact, a “criminal” acting “against the law” to “take over government” and steal everything of value from them, from their privacy to their life savings but especially their country. Does that seem more literal and over the top or is it actually temperate and non-serious? Were these one-off anecdotes from a few bad apples or the mainstream core? Well, let's see.

THE RHETORIC

Representative Ayanna Pressley explained that cutting spending and reducing red tape was not even in the cards but, instead, Donald Trump and Elon Musk (a godless, lawless Nazi according to Pressley), had only one clear ulterior motive. “These men,” she insisted, “just want to pillage the government and make themselves rich.” (Apparently neither man can afford nice things and the easiest way to acquire those is to, very publicly, loot Fort Knox or your retirement benefits.) Amazingly, Maxine Waters agreed, telling a crowd of supporters that Musk is only participating in any of this because “he's a thief, he’s a gangster…” Elizabeth Warren also concurred. She told the same assembly that Musk was engaged in a “hostile takeover” of government, “seizing power from the American people.” She explained that everyone must resist and that “this is a fight between millions of hardworking people who just don’t want to get cheated and a handful of billionaires, like Elon Musk, who want the chance to cheat them.” “There is real power in fighting back…” the senator insisted, “we will fight it out in congress, we will fight it out in the courts, and we will fight it out across this country…” Senator Chris Murphy demanded everyone in America understand they must now “rise up” to combat this “illegal seizure of power.” Why? And what’s the urgency? We're at five-alarm fire, national emergency-level panic in week two of the new presidency? Well, as Murphy explained, “we have not months, we have not weeks, we have days to stop the destruction of our democracy!” 

Others went a little further. Representative LaMonica McIver barked things like “We are at WAR! Goddanmit, SHUT DOWN the city! We’re at WAR!” Other thought-leaders followed with things like “What were in the face of right now is an authoritarian take-over of our country.” Democrat Maxine Dexter opted to insist that it was incumbent on half the country to join with her and “...fuck Trump!” Representative Dave Min shared his conclusion that, in his capacity at DOGE, Musk has clearly “broken the law time and time again,” and that, “this cannot stand, he must be held accountable, he must be made to pay, we must enforce the law.” This was followed by tremendous cheers and a chant of “lock him up, lock him up...”

With all this, these same folks and other insiders and cheerleaders in the press repeated these same lines all day, now across weeks, throughout the media, on late-night television, and on every podcast they could get themselves invited to. CNN and MSNBC, for example, were happy to spell out how, by their own and other expert opinion, the current situation was indistinguishable from a “coup” and that the players involved had murderous intent. Jen Psaki, Van Jones, Joy Reid, and others were joined by folks like congresswoman Ilhan Omar and others to inform and reiterate to America the findings of those in Democrat/Resistance leadership: that the actions of Trump (an illegitimate president and felon seeking dictatorship) and Musk (an incompetent criminal actor with spurious connections to China and apartheid South Africa, no less) and all of the current government were not only criminal and engaged in something tantamount to a coup but, in a whole variety of ways and for a bunch of reasons, working to get people, both at home and abroad, yes, killed.

Scott Galloway, NYU professor and frequent television/podcast guest, joined journalist Kara Swisher on their own podcast, Pivot, to share a set of very important messages for Democrats. Having struck a chord with their messaging, both were then invited on to CNN, with chief political correspondent Dana Bash, to reiterate it all to help get those who didn't vote for DJT more on the same page or at least using the same talking points.

The collective assessment is that what America is witnessing with Trump and Musk is previously unimaginable levels of criminality and stupidity. The professor starts by saying that this is nothing less than “a second insurrection by the same president.” But he immediately corrects himself, offering that “insurrection is probably the wrong word, it’s probably a coup.” (Coup [noun, pronounced /kuː/] : a sudden and decisive exercise of force, especially the violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group of people, usually members of the military.) He doubles down, with everyone in agreement, arguing Trump and Musk are teamed up in what amounts to an act of treason. Swisher nods along with delighted affirmation the whole time. Her presentation suggests all of the above is just plain and obvious. She and Galloway agree that the people, zealots all, working for Trump, all engaged in criminal trespassing and forming the spear tip of a government coup, need to be named and jailed. And, well, what to do about all this? As you'd expect, professor Galloway doesn't only have a diagnosis but a remedy. The appropriate response, he offers, is for Democrats and their allies to “go gangster here.”

Galloway goes on to explain how he’s been communicating with Democrat senators and congresspersons. He tells his viewers that one of the people in government he currently has the ear of is a former service member and that he told this vet to gather up a hundred of his friends and march into the buildings where members of the Department of Government Efficiency are operating and put their bodies on the line. He compares Trump, Musk, and their supporters to an invading army, appealing to the veteran by saying “if someone attacked our shores, you put yourself in harm’s way…”

Galloway reiterates, “I remember talking to Ray Dalio [billionaire hedge fund manager] and he was like, ‘This is war, take the gloves off. This is not try to understand or empathize with the people who elected this guy, in my opinion, this is war.’” The professor tells his viewers and listeners that the Dems and their supporters and even whole nations around the world need to come to America’s aid in what is clearly her time of need, just as America did during the wars of the last century. Swisher and Galloway go on to promote boycotts of all Musk’s businesses, and even any businesses or states working with Musk, or any of his companies, who, they demand again and again, are in the midst of carrying out a coup. He explains that it is time Democrats “encourage consumers to not engage with T-Mobile or United [Airlines], who are doing deals with SpaceX.” He even said that Democrats needed to figure out a way to confiscate Musk's Starlink satellites. Professor Galloway encourages viewers to follow his lead and not even accept rides in Teslas. “When I get an Uber alert saying 'Your Tesla Model S is on the way',” He explains, “I cancel and say ‘I don't ride in Teslas.’” Galloway even tells Democrats that they must go “a bit to the dark side” and “draw up legislation that, once we get control of the branches of government, will remove the security detail for former advisors to the president.”

Swisher and Galloway condemn the optics of Democrats' recent public demonstrations, calling on them to “do more.” “The Democratic Party” he insists, “needs to be move away from being the party of waving their cane outside a building” and become the party of “not fucking around.” The "gloves need to come off," Galloway explains. The situation has become so dire, with kleptocracy so clearly replacing democracy, that regular folks and political elites alike have no choice but, once again, to “go gangster.” He and Swisher once again call for everyone associated with DOGE (all government employees directed by the president looking into executive departments) to be jailed immediately.

THE TRANSPARENT HYPOCRISY

Okay. So, what of all this? Well, aren't these are all the same folks who spent the last four years insisting Trump committed an impeachable federal crime, one that should have sent him to prison for the rest of his days or at least rendered him ineligible to run for president again? And what exactly did he do to earn those punishments? Well, there are so many reasons, we are told. The worst, they insist, was when, in a gross violation of everything sacred and good, really an act of treason, he gathered and incited a mob to commit an insurrection. And how did he do that? What was the firm evidence for this? Well, they say, he told a crowd of supporters that they must “fight.”

Yes, the longest quote from Trump's January 6th speech appearing in the articles of impeachment drawn up against him, and really the only evidence of intent they sought to highlight, goes as follows: “[Trump] also wilfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol, such as: ‘if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore.’”

Of course, Trump, his lawyers, and his supporters were mocked by these same senators and congresspersons, pundits and media types, all over the press, in their podcasts, and across late night television, and for years, for claiming that the president's use of the word "fight" was ubiquitous and figurative. They jeered any time anyone suggested the term was universally understood as something non-literal and so in common parlance as long as anyone could remember. Trump’s opponents demanded that such an evaluation was exactly wrong. They insisted any fool knew what Trump intended by "fight" (and received, unpacked, translated, and understood by everyone, everywhere) was for his insurrectionist mob, purpose-formed for murder, to fill the halls of the Capitol building with the blood of Democrats (and, obviously, anyone else who would dare to get in their way.)

Despite knowing that Trump was not making a call-to-arms — that the crowd was neither sporting pitchforks nor packing heat (any of the abundant arms we all insist they have and are all too glad to bare); that the only killing on the day was an Air Force veteran and Trump supporter shot by Capitol security and for no discernible reason; and that what accompanied his perfectly conventional and benign word choice (the same used by effectively every politician across countless speeches before and since) was Trump's same-time, on-the-record proclamation that he wished his supporters to "peacefully and patriotically make [their] voices heard" — seemingly every Democrat will tell you, still today, that what was meant by “fight” was both intended by him and interpreted by his supporters as something approximating “leave no one alive!” Trump, they will tell you, couldn’t have intended anyone to be peaceful, even though those were his very words, as this was nothing more than linguistic cover providing plausible deniability for the always-intended Capital carnage.

Yes, these are the exact same people barking for all of America to “fight”, demanding that “there is an illegal seizure of power,” “a coup underway,” “an authoritarian take-over,” and that everyone is now “at war” and must “fight in the streets,” that now, at last, is the time to “go gangster,” “storm the buildings,” and "put yourself in harm's way" to repel the "invading army." 

If they are honest and admit the above they will, of course, offer other arguments. They're likely to claim it's illegal to disrupt an official proceeding (which happens to be the only crime the majority of those prosecuted protesters were eventually convicted of.) But, as we all know, that's just more hypocrisy. Why? Because, of course, these same folks are positively thrilled for thousands of people to occupy capital buildings to obstruct or protest lawmakers or even seek their overthrow. In fact, occupation is their own long-honoured tactic and that of all their capricious compatriots. Right. And they're happy to see this at home and abroad and consider it fully legitimate when people they like are doing so or the aims are merely ones they support. And they don't even mind at all when whole sections of cities are occupied or even burned to the ground so long as the chants being sung while it all goes down align with their politics.

Yes, it's all a bit much. But it is all so much dumber than that, too.

SIMPLE STUPIDITY

Everyone in attendance at every one of these protests to date have cheered with agreement that Musk is not elected, and therefore has no authority to do what he was doing. (Musk: transparently appointed by the president to heading up the president’s service to investigate executive agencies under presidential purview. Virtually everyone working in and for government: neither elected nor appointed and actively obstructing the president and his appointee.) More than that, they demanded that what Musk is really up to is stealing everyone’s data. That is actually what these folks are claiming. Maxwell Frost, 20-something Democrat representative from Florida, seemed particularly concerned and animated by that. Of course, we all know all these same people gladly gave PayPal, and every other payment service, Twitter/X, and every other social media outlet, all of their credit card and banking details, phone numbers and addresses, and (as found in Terms of Service across the internet), unrestricted access to everything on their phones and in their email accounts, as well as all of the above for everyone they have any connection to on those devices and services. Right. These are the same folks suddenly declaring that “no one elected Elon” and he had no right to access any of their personal information which, of course, there was not even any evidence of him or anyone on his team doing, or even any reason to suspect they would or even could. Right. Oh and, of course, this knowledge is paired with the understanding that every unelected person in Washington, from underlings in these very departments and agencies and all the rest of government and including all of the vast intelligence apparatus and beyond, has access (legal and otherwise) to all your data — and that many of them have abused that access with little or no oversight or accountability. And these same elected officials, as we all observed over two decades, have endorsed all of this all along. Right.

These same folks were also mysteriously found arguing in recent days that, if he didn’t lack authority, which they had yet to actually determine, Musk certainly lacked the security clearance to do what he was doing. They insisted this while knowing perfectly well that Musk builds rockets and deploys technology into orbit for NASA, the US military, and all of her spy agencies. They all know that, to do so, Musk has top-secret clearance exceeding that of most elected officials and government employees and undergoes regular vetting to validate his continued privilege to access highly classified national security information. Every one of the people speaking at or attending these protests (seeking to overthrow the duly elected government by any means necessary and for any reason they can conjure, or none at all) know all this. If they didn’t know any of the above they could look it up in any of their favourite publications, wherein much discussion and pearl clutching has unfolded on this matter over many years.

If all that wasn't enough, as you can imagine, the inimitable AOC is positively apoplectic about everything Trump and Musk are up to. And the award for unhinged lunacy in the opening 100 days of the second Trump administration will probably go to her. Why? Well, we all watched over the last four years as she took to social media and went on the news and talk shows insisting, again and again, that the Supreme Court was illegitimate all while encouraging president Biden to “ignore the court’s rulings” particularly when it came to any of the issues she was passionate about, from abortion to student loans to illegal immigration to the president making constitutional amendments via social media post. During Biden’s term, she continually called upon Democrats of all ranks to find novel ways to circumvent the law, states’ rights, and basic decency. Having done so, and so very publicly, in recent weeks she has been remarkably concerned that Trump and his team could potentially — not yet established — follow Biden's lead and operate outside his mandate, against court orders, or in violation of states' rights. She's paired that with calling for the arrest of members of the DOGE team. For what? For the crime of accessing government computers, within executive agencies, at the behest of the president, apparently.

She does all of this, of course, after having spent weeks (just as Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and others did) celebrating the moral clarity and courage of the lone wolf, street executioner Luigi Mangione. And, of course, we are now seeing all of her rhetoric and that of her colleagues and allies culminate in calls for the death of Musk at what are now nationwide anti-Musk rallies sponsored and attended by the Democrats. This sentiment has even adorned protest posters and even banners on highway overpasses.

At this point it's pretty safe to say that these folks are the ones most clearly feigning concern about ethics in politics or downright lawlessness or even the state their country —or, I'd love to be proven wrong.

WHAT DOES THIS SOLVE?

Are these serious people? Are they actually motivated by anything but their own political ends? Is this what America needs at this time? How does it help anything to start week one of the Trump presidency way up at level nine on the panic dial and eleven on combative rhetoric meter? And if you’re claiming your opponent is lying, cheating, stealing, and engaged in every possible form of malice and criminality does it make much sense to go twice as hard in that same direction, only across many more dimensions? Or does all of this just convince the few people still left listening to you and anyone you could plausibly persuade that you're not just all a bunch of fools but likely the very source of the problem with government?