Opinion

Rapper and producer Kanye West — who now goes simply by "Ye" — has been in a slow-moving, disquieting public meltdown for years. Still, he apparently mined new depths of depravity this month, as Ye has aligned himself with the far-right Christian nationalist movement, with actions like trolling Black Lives Matter activists with "White Lives Matter" T-shirts and spreading conspiracy theories about the death of George Floyd. This is delighting America's increasingly powerful fascist faction, blessing them both with his celebrity and his race, which can be used to confuse people over the role racism plays in right-wing politics.

Earlier this month, Ye did a sit-down interview to Tucker Carlson at Fox News, which was carefully edited to remove some of the star's most bizarre conspiracy theories and overt antisemitism. Vice News got hold of the full interview, however. Despite Carlson's suggestions that Ye is entirely is level-headed, the leaked footage shows him suggesting that "fake children" were "placed into my house to sexualize my kids" and invoking antisemitic conspiracy theories. Shortly after the heavily edited interview aired, Ye was barred from Twitter for writing he plans to go "death con 3" on "JEWISH PEOPLE." He is now in talks to buy Parler, a far-right Twitter competitor, presumably so he can write all the racist tweets he wants.

Every day I hear fans of Donald Trump earnestly telling reporters that what they admire most about him is that he accomplished more than any president in American history. And I hear squeamish Trump voters who admit that the tweeting and the ranting may not have been ideal, but they just love his policies. Whenever I hear this, I have to wonder: What accomplishments and policies are they talking about?

Trump came into office with an economy running at full steam after a slow and gradual recovery from the catastrophic financial crisis of 2008. He instituted a number of policies that were struck down by the courts either partially or in full, such as his odious Muslim ban and family separation policies. He never got his wall built, even though he deployed U.S. troops to the border and precipitated the longest government shutdown in history in an attempt to force Congress to fund it. He certainly didn't "drain the swamp." His own personal corruption and conflicts of interest as president are legendary, and numerous members of his administration were charged with criminal behavior. Many others were dismissed in the face of ethics scandals.

On May 13, 2022, John Fetterman, lt. governor of Pennsylvania and the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s open US Senate seat, suffered a stroke. Since then Fetterman has been fighting to recover, fighting to win the Senate seat and fighting non-stop ableism.

The candidate’s stroke was due to a blood clot caused by atrial fibrillation – an irregular heart rhythm – with which Fetterman was first diagnosed in 2017. He was hospitalized for 10 days, during which time he had a pacemaker combined with a defibrillator implanted. He was then sent home to recuperate. His cardiologist, Dr. Ramesh Chandra, said Fetterman suffered no cognitive damage and should “be fine” if he took his medication, ate well and exercised.

In what has become an almost annual ritual, the Republican Party is once again threatening not to raise the debt ceiling. If they follow through, they would destroy the US economy, immiserating millions of their own voters.

The fact that they don’t care shows the extent to which the GOP has abandoned small-d democratic incentives in favor of the reckless politics of authoritarianism and extremism.

CNN ran a story Monday with this headline: “Political mood tilts in Republicans’ favor with economy and inflation top of mind three weeks from midterms.” I can’t say for sure, but that headline seems to have been the source of yesterday’s social media freakout.

The freakout was so intense that US Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii felt he had to talk the freaks off the ledge. The Democrat said: “Look, I get on this website and check the latest polls and worry like the rest of you. But the thing is, these races are all close and will be decided by how hard we work over the next three weeks. So get off this website, pick and campaign and volunteer or call or give. Thanks.”

Republicans are pulling ahead in the polls right now because of the issues of the economy, crime, and homelessness, according to a new New York Times/Siena College poll published just yesterday. More than a year ago, I wrote about this very danger in an article (among others) titled, “A Crime Wave Could Take Down the Democrats in 2022."

Democrats must start addressing crime and homelessness right now, and the most effective way to pull it off is to fold it into a holistic message that includes two more issues — say, the economy/inflation and the environment — so that they’re making use of “the rule of threes.”

As George Washington prepared to leave the presidency, he issued a famous Farewell Address warning Americans about the dangers of partisanship. Washington — who famously refused to join a political party during his two terms — exhorted that if Americans cared more about whether their party "wins" than maintaining democratic structures, "a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community" could manipulate the masses through a demagogic leader "to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

In cults of personality like Bolsonaro's there are "social-psychological associations that give adherents a sense of vicarious power through a heightened sense of destiny and purpose."

Donald Trump would not be powerful if he wasn't enabled by the larger Republican Party. But a combination of cowardice, greed and unchecked ambition has led the GOP establishment to capitulate to a maniac who lies as easily as he breathes as well as to a rising authoritarian movement that justifies itself through bigotry and conspiracy theories. In his new book, "Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind," journalist Robert Draper carefully details how Trump and his fever swamp-dwelling lieutenants successfully remade the Republican Party over in their own image. In this deeply reported book, the New York Times Magazine contributor traces how the quisling leadership of the GOP, plus a voting base drunk on decades of right wing propaganda, brought us to where we are today — at the brink of democratic collapse.

Salon spoke with Draper about his new book and how Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is the true face of the 21st-century Republican Party. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

The J6 committee stopped short Thursday of saying whether it would send a criminal referral to the Justice Department of Donald Trump’s attempted paramilitary takeover of the US government. (A decision on that is expected by the end of the year, however.)

This sparked yet another round of fear and loathing about the impotence of our justice system. What does “no one is above the law” mean when the Congress won’t tell the Justice Department that Trump is a spectacular traitor who committed spectacular crimes?