Today, we could focus on what Trump is doing to the CDC, the Fed, the FBI, the DOJ. or Kamala Harris. We could talk about his blackened border fence, Alligator Alcatraz, masked ICE agents, or his occupation of major American cities.
But let’s talk about Stephen Miller, the Rasputin behind Trump’s offensives.
Happy Friday.
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Miller’s Id
A To-Be-Sure is in order here. Everything that is happening — from the trashing of public health to the renditioning of migrants — flows from and through Donald J. Trump, who is realizing that he can indulge his most lurid fantasies. In his first term, he was occasionally dissuaded from acting on his more vicious notions. But, as Josh Dawsey and Annie Linksey report in the WSJ, in his second term, “Trump has been surrounded by fewer people who try to dissuade him….”
“I think he’s learned there is not much that can really stop him from what he wants,” said Marc Short, who was Trump’s director of legislative affairs in his first term.
Unchecked and undisciplined, Trump now openly muses about being a dictator, despite the fact that his mind is a bag of incontinent ferrets.
But, besides his bizarre cabinet of misfit toys and toe-suckers, Trump has assembled a team that very much knows what it is doing. There is clearly a twisted vision and ideological blueprint behind the concerted shock and awe of the last eight months.
This is where Trump’s malign homunculus comes in.
There is nothing covert or subtle about Stephen Miller’s id. He is not the source of Trump’s fetish for cruelty or brutality (that is a pre-existing condition), or for his racism and xenophobia (ditto). But he feeds and inflames Trump’s worst instincts.
More important: Miller is the chief ideologue and architect of their implementation.1
So when he speaks — and tells us who he is and what he intends to do — attention ought to be paid.
“The Democrat Party does not fight for, care about or represent American citizens,” Miller said. “It is an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gangbangers and illegal alien killers and terrorists.
“The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”2
Words have meaning and consequences, so it is worth pausing on Miller’s language. We’ve already seen the real-world implications of Trump’s invocation of “emergencies,” but what does it mean when his whispering familiar describes his political opponents as “domestic terrorists”?
One does not debate with terrorists, or treat them as the “loyal opposition.” If Democrats are not an actual political party, but a criminal enterprise, then they cannot be treated simply as rivals in an open and free democratic process, can they?
This is the linchpin of every authoritarian state: justifying hits power by declaring the opposition an enemy and a threat.
By definition, “domestic terrorists,” need to be stopped by extreme force if necessary. Terrorism is the emergency that justifies the most sweeping powers of government, including the deployment of armed troops and the use of lethal force.
Miller has been nothing if not consistent in pushing this agenda. Here’s what Miller posted back in March, when he described immigration as an invasion, railed against giving migrants due process, and claimed absolute power for Trump:
The fundamental error in how immigration is being discussed in the courts and media is pretending that what happened to us over the last four years is a routine civil enforcement matter.
NO.
We were invaded and occupied. Entire neighborhoods were conquered.
Entire towns were subjugated.
Our treasury was plundered.
Our democracy was torn apart piece by piece.
A national referendum was held on whether to surrender to the invasion or repel it.
America voted for liberation.
If every foreign trespasser gets to have their own federal trial prior to removal then there is no liberation. There is no restoration. The invasion will be made complete.
Article 4 Section 4 requires the president to halt any invasion and no district court can override that mandate. For the Constitution is the supreme law of the land.
The invading armies and foreign trespassers will be expelled.
The cartels will be smashed.
Liberation will be achieved.
In other words: Stephen Miller is waging war, with all the tools of force and violence at hand.
Nota bene: This is not (merely) the ranting of a fevered extremist. This is the man who has the ear of the President of the United States. And we are seeing the consequences rolled out on a daily basis.
**
You think this is dark? Check out, Don Moynihan who describes America today as “a competitive authoritarian system, with a rapidly increasing emphasis on the authoritarian part.”
The concept of competitive authoritarianism is useful because it suggests that there is not a binary option between democracy and authoritarianism, like a light switch. Instead, democracy can be powerfully degraded even as elections still exist.
If you are an authoritarian, or a wannabe authoritarian, you are inherently driven to follow a specific checklist that allows you to a) consolidate power and b) neutralize sources of dissent.
It’s filling the air. The kind of courage that’s not shouting in anger, but grounded in clarity, precision, and purpose. It’s the courage to speak when lines are crossed, even by the most powerful people. It’s the kind of courage that is deeply risky.
This week, CDC leaders were asked to do things that were illegal and would harm the American people, like changing their scientific evidence for a political ideologic agenda on vaccines. Instead of complying, they walked away—stepping off the ledge without a parachute, without jobs lined up, without security—because protecting the public mattered more than protecting themselves.
Public health is built on honesty, service, equity, evidence, and protecting the most vulnerable. At its heart, it’s about defending scientific integrity and standing up for your country.
Yesterday, as they left headquarters, hundreds of CDC employees lined the streets in a clap out. A farewell in solidarity and a refusal to be silent. This isn’t the only place this is happening—I’m seeing it in op-eds, organizing, and action. Studying, convening, and acting to improve health.
Courage is contagious.
Finally
Friday dogs
Eli surveys his kingdom.
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“The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism. Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy. But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller.
“It’s not brains. It’s bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater,” the ABC News reporter added. “You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”
ABC fired Moran for that. But every word was right.
“Look at Chicago. They’ve shut down the police department. They’ve handcuffed law enforcement. And as President Trump says, they have turned the streets of Chicago into a bloody killing field here in Washington, D.C. Before President Trump launched the federal law enforcement liberation in D.C., there was a murder on the streets of this town every other day. Body after body after body after body. That was Washington, D.C.”
Stephen Miller is a clear and present danger to our Country, Democracy, and our Constitution. He is a traitor and should be removed from the White House, revoke his US Citizenship, and send him to Putin along with Donald Trump.
Stephen Miller is a clear and present danger to our Country, Democracy, and our Constitution. He is a traitor and should be removed from the White House, revoke his US Citizenship, and send him to Putin along with Donald Trump.
I gotta tell ya’ I couldn’t scroll fast enough past SM’s picture. He looks the part of evil.