President Donald Trump’s launch of a nationwide “affordability tour” this week may look to some like an admission that Americans are struggling under the weight of the administration’s tariffs and rising utility and grocery costs—but Trump assured one reporter on Tuesday that he would acknowledge no such thing.
Because he commands a loyalist, flag-carrying, armed, nationalist army. The purest form of raw political capital. You can hire standing armies and pay them and drive for volunteers until you’re bankrupt, but you will never have as much power as having a segment of the population who are fanatically obsessed with doing whatever they’re told to a point of mindless, religious zeal. That’s the kind of power that has toppled empires and people in power around the world know this.
This is why I believe January 6th was a weapons test, a demonstration of sorts… while it wasn’t the most organized or planned demonstration, it was still the actions of a group wanting to show the world what they can do with even the slightest gesture.
I feel like if we accepted this framing we would be able to mount a more effective opposition, or at least counter it with our own show of solidarity, reclaim the goddamn flag and start collecting up the guns that aren’t going anywhere anyway. At least then tyrants of the future will understand that it won’t be so easy to put on king’s robes and start raiding our coffers.