Conversation

Look, it isn't difficult.

- They aren't susceptible to appeals to kindness or decency because they are cruel and indecent people. The cruelty is the point.

- They will never listen to appeals to logic or intellect because they are, fundamentally, stupid and illogical people. The stupidity is the point.

- They will not be swayed by political appeals to patriotism or democracy because they themselves are unpatriotic and undemocratic people. The fascism is the point.

Right now, Trump and his MAGA party goons are anti Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, anti Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations, anti Roosevelt's New Deal, anti Truman's NATO, anti LBJ's Great Society, anti Reagan's immigration policy, anti Carter's emphasis on Civil Rights, preventing climate change, and peace in Israel, anti Clinton's making space for gay people and feeding children, anti Bush Sr's No Child Left Behind, anti Obama's healthcare, anti Trump's own US-Mex-Can trade deal, and anti Biden for the sin of picking a black VP and acknowledging the existence of trans people for the first time ever in our nation.

As a measure of just how venal this current cabal is, G.W. Bush's greatest humanitarian achievement was a project designed to fight AIDS in Africa. These assholes just cut its funding. If not reversed, it will end with an estimated 30 million deaths. And that's just for starters.

My main point - Trump and his MAGA jackboots have only one real goal: destroy respect for democracy. Details of their plans mean nothing to them. Stupid, crazy, extravagantly wasteful, doesn't matter.

The actual goal is failure.