{"id":27358,"date":"2026-03-24T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=27358"},"modified":"2026-04-05T20:10:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:10:38","slug":"again-living-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/03\/24\/again-living-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Again, Living in History"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>How America has become a dangerous nation;<\/li>\n<li>How Christian Nationalists really do want to destroy their political enemies;<\/li>\n<li>What that poll about MAGA supporting Trump 100% really means;<\/li>\n<li>Brief items about the Supreme Court, a quote from Kurt Andersen about Trump&#8217;s stupidity, how Trump voted by mail even though he thinks mail-in voting is cheating, how Trump fans think he is right about everything, how ICE at airports is about owning the libs, and how Stephen Miller doesn&#8217;t want to educated undocumented children.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t about Trump or MAGA per se. I suspect most people don&#8217;t realize how we&#8217;re all witnessing historic shifts in American and world politics in the past few years. What many of us are not noticing will be written up in future history books.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/24\/multimedia\/24lozada-vlgt\/24lozada-vlgt-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, opinion by Carlos Lozada, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/24\/opinion\/trump-iran-world-america-first.html?unlocked_article_code=1.V1A.2RFm.bpkKwCpK8A3-&amp;smid=url-share\">America Has Become a Dangerous Nation<\/a> [gift link]<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">We had a good run \u2014 some eight decades or so \u2014 but it is clear by now that the United States has ceased to be the leader of the free world. A successor for that post has not been named, and it appears unlikely that the European Union, or NATO, or whatever constitutes \u201cthe West\u201d these days will promote from within. The job might even be eliminated, one more reduction in force courtesy of President Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">Rather than leading the free world, the United States is striding across the globe seemingly free of restraint, forethought or strategy, exerting its power because it can. In a matter of months, the Trump administration has captured Venezuela\u2019s president and tossed him into jail in Brooklyn and has pummeled Iran\u2019s theocratic leadership in a war that is ricocheting across the Middle East and upending the global economy; now the president says he will have \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/16\/world\/americas\/cuba-us-foreign-investment-businesses.html\">the honor of taking Cuba<\/a>\u201d next. Trump in his second term is like Michael Corleone in \u201cThe Godfather,\u201d settling all the family business.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Very long piece; gift link provided. A couple more samples.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The United States wants the benefits of hegemony, but without accepting the responsibilities \u2014 ensuring collective security, promoting economic openness, nurturing vital alliances \u2014 that come with it. Trump doesn\u2019t care to <em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">be<\/em> a superpower; he just likes to wield superpowers. He wants to operate in the world constrained only by \u201cmy own morality\u201d and \u201cmy own mind,\u201d as he <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/08\/us\/politics\/trump-interview-power-morality.html\">told<\/a> The Times recently.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lozada recalls a similar transition: &#8220;when we were shifting from a Cold War stalemate to a period of unrivaled U.S. primacy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In this light, Trump\u2019s fixation on how America is getting \u201cripped off\u201d by the rest of the world \u2014 whether through trade deficits, the loss of manufacturing plants, or insufficient military spending by NATO members \u2014 is not just the mantra of a real-estate guy obsessed with negotiating a better deal. It is also the resentment that dominant powers always have toward weaker ones, as Robert Gilpin, an international relations theorist, explained in \u201cWar and Change in World Politics,\u201d his classic 1981 study of what makes hegemons come and go.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; For Trump, the problem with leading the free world is that the free world gets a free ride.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Skipping a lot. The essay concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We are not entering a post-American world, one in which the United States recedes from the stage or stops wielding its military might. Far from it. But we may be entering a post-<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">America<\/em> world, one in which the meaning of America, the principles and values the country has long stood for \u2014 sometimes in reality, sometimes in aspiration \u2014 are fading. And the loss of that America may prove just as damaging, and far more lasting, than any harm Donald Trump\u2019s excursions can inflict.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And this last thought certainly echoes my repeated comments that modern conservatives, especially MAGA, are less and less interested in the principles upon which the US was founded, than they are in protecting themselves and oppressing others.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>For example. They really do want to destroy non-Christians. None of this Constitutional nonsense for them.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rww24mar26.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rww24mar26.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Right Wing Watch, Kyle Mantyla, 23 Mar 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peoplefor.org\/rightwingwatch\/any-means-necessary-christian-nationalists-call-destruction-their-political-enemies\">By Any Means Necessary: Christian Nationalists Call For The Destruction Of Their Political Enemies<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Last week, Christian nationalists Joshua Haymes and Brooks Potteiger <a class=\"ext\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Yb8aenaZ-4k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-extlink=\"\">urged<\/a> their fellow right-wing Christians to pray &#8220;imprecatory psalms&#8221; against James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Talarico <a class=\"ext\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/jamestalarico.com\/meet-james-talarico\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-extlink=\"\">is a<\/a> Presbyterian seminarian who has <a class=\"ext\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/03\/02\/james-talarico-profile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-extlink=\"\">openly cited<\/a> his Christian faith in support of his progressive political positions, much to <a class=\"ext\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xQEPRWaFFLE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-extlink=\"\">the outrage<\/a> right-wing Christian nationalists.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peoplefor.org\/rightwingwatch\/brooks-potteiger-says-chip-and-joanna-gaines-new-program-satanic-trojan-horse\">Potteiger<\/a>, who was the pastor at the church attended by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Nashville, Tennessee, and will soon <a class=\"ext\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/dougwils.com\/books-and-culture\/books\/welcoming-brooks-potteiger.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-extlink=\"\">take over<\/a> the Washington, DC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peoplefor.org\/rightwingwatch\/christian-nationalist-douglas-wilson-planting-church-dc-calibrate-christians\">church founded<\/a> by Christian nationalist Doug Wilson, warned that Talarico is &#8220;a wolf&#8221; who is working to &#8220;distort what Christianity is in order to lead people away from Christ, toward the teaching of demons.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As such, Potteiger and Haymes encouraged the use of &#8220;<a class=\"ext\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gotquestions.org\/imprecatory-psalms.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-extlink=\"\">imprecatory psalms<\/a>&#8221; against Talarico, which are prayers asking God to pour out his destruction upon one&#8217;s enemies.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I pray that God kills him,&#8221; Haymes <a class=\"ext\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RightWingWatch\/status\/2033969669510427030\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-extlink=\"\">declared<\/a>. &#8220;Ultimately, that means killing his heart and raising him up to new life in Christ &#8230; If it would not be within God&#8217;s will to do so, stop him by any means necessary.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And that&#8217;s just the first example. Anything not part of their fundamentalist religious ideology is &#8220;evil&#8221; and must be destroyed. (And other religions, like Islam, think other things are evil and must be destroyed. This is why religion is dangerous.)<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Asking the question yet again.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/wapo\/7PBDBX5DH3ZVJQSLBOAMF4X4CU.JPG&amp;w=1440&amp;impolicy=high_res\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Washington Post, opinion by Jim Geraghty, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2026\/03\/24\/trump-maga-republicans-iran\/\">There\u2019s a reason for MAGA\u2019s 100% support of Trump<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;MAGA is standing by Trump and his war, with help from a polling fault.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Conservative journalist Christopher Caldwell, hitherto a strong supporter of Donald Trump, is so deeply disappointed with the president\u2019s decision to launch a war against the Iranian regime that <a href=\"https:\/\/spectator.com\/article\/the-iran-war-is-likely-to-mark-the-end-of-trumpism\/?edition=us\">he concluded<\/a> in the Spectator: \u201cThe attack on Iran is so wildly inconsistent with the wishes of his own base, so diametrically opposed to their reading of the national interest, that it is likely to mark the end of Trumpism as a project.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And so on. Let&#8217;s jump down and see the writer identifies a reason for that poll (even if that result wasn&#8217;t really 100%).<\/p>\n<p>Well, here&#8217;s what he finds. Basically: those who disapproved of Trump way back when stopped calling themselves MAGA, or even Republican, and so aren&#8217;t being counted in polls like this.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If you\u2019re a Trump supporter who is upset or wary about the Iran war or the resulting impact on gas prices \u2026 maybe you\u2019re not as inclined to identify as MAGA to a pollster lately.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why we shouldn\u2019t expect to find many MAGA supporters expressing their opposition to Trump\u2019s decisions on Iran or much else. When people in this demographic disagree strongly enough, eventually they just stop calling themselves MAGA.<\/p>\n<p>There is no \u201cTrumpism\u201d without Trump, and thus it is difficult to buy into Caldwell\u2019s argument that the president is betraying some clear preexisting set of values. To the extent \u201cTrumpism\u201d as a philosophy exists, a core tenet appears to be: \u201cAlways trust the guy in charge, because he knows what he is doing and is playing seven-level chess.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Briefly noted.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/551c64a3-3e0e-4b94-811f-e87b858d984e.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1280\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Slate, Mark Joseph Stern, 23 Mar 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2026\/03\/alito-supreme-court-trump-voter-fraud-lies.html\">The Alito Wing of the Supreme Court Sure Sounds Sold on Trump\u2019s Voter Fraud Lies<\/a>. &#8220;But what makes it even more disturbing is the fact that so many justices proved eager to embrace a legal theory that is incoherent, dishonest, and rooted in paranoid hostility toward mail voting.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>AlterNet, Thomas Kika, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/smartnews\/trump-maga\/\">Author reveals Trump\u2019s major power over MAGA voters<\/a>. The author is Kurt Andersen (whose 2017 book <em>Fantasyland<\/em> I&#8217;ve yet to read):<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;He\u2019s an idiot. He\u2019s always been stupid,&#8221; Anderson said. &#8220;And his stupidity has been an under-remarked-upon, unheralded part of his \u2014 along with the lying, along with the mental disorders\u2014the stupidity is important.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>JMG\/NYT:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/03\/trump-just-voted-by-mail-in-florida-special-election\/\">Trump Just Voted By Mail In Florida Special Election<\/a>. <strong>NYT:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/24\/us\/politics\/trump-mail-in-voting-florida.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VlA.Xv8W.fK-ZWwKYZefI&amp;smid=url-share\">Trump, Who Calls Mail-in Voting \u2018Cheating,\u2019 Just Voted by Mail<\/a> [gift link from JMG]<\/li>\n<li><strong>JMG,<\/strong> from CNN: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/03\/wh-glorious-leader-is-always-right-about-everything\/\">WH: Glorious Leader Is Always Right About Everything<\/a><br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Donald Trump\u2019s White House spokespeople have a favorite two-step reply when reporters ask them to comment on one of the president\u2019s false claims. First: They say, \u201cPresident Trump is right.\u201d Second: They defend some related point that isn\u2019t the one Trump actually made.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>Never mind airport safety or functioning. <strong>JMG:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/03\/comer-ice-is-really-at-airports-to-own-the-libs\/\">Comer: ICE Is Really At Airports To Own The Libs<\/a>. Tribal vengeance.<\/li>\n<li><strong>NYT:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/24\/us\/politics\/stephen-miller-asks-why-texas-pays-to-teach-undocumented-children.html\">Stephen Miller Asks Why Texas Pays to Teach Undocumented Children<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Citing gridlock in Washington, President Trump\u2019s top immigration adviser encouraged Texas lawmakers to lead on conservative priorities.&#8221; The answer: conservatives deny that living in a society in which everyone is educated is better than living in a society in which many are uneducated just because conservatives don&#8217;t like them. And, racism, and selfishness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How America has become a dangerous nation; How Christian Nationalists really do want to destroy their political enemies; What that poll about MAGA supporting Trump 100% really means; Brief items about the Supreme Court, a quote from Kurt Andersen about &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/03\/24\/again-living-in-history\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,86,96,54,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-resistance","category-history","category-human-nature","category-politics","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27358"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27526,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27358\/revisions\/27526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}