Before jumping into this, I want to make a note about my background in political sociology and the great works of that and related fields, two of which I referenced yesterday C. Wright Mills and Sheldon Wolin. Additional works of note are Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s 1988 Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media, Steven Lukes’ 1974 Power: A Radical View, and Franz Neumann’s 1942 Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933-1944, and, of course, Marx Weber’s various writings, which are foundational to the sociological study of power.
I am a political sociologist who has read these and many other works on power and social structure and incorporated them into my thinking. I am noting this because one reflex I encounter in people is the accusation that my analysis of authoritarianism in the American system is exaggerated or paranoid. Those who say this are well prepared to talk about the horrors of Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, but when it comes to the regime they serve blind themselves to the reality of authoritarian and cast aspersions. Of course, they’re ignorant of the works I just cited. At the same time, it probably wouldn’t help them if they weren’t. The reflex is the typical fascist reflex. The well-read are not immune from it. By responding in this way, they betray an authoritarian personality. It is the nature of authoritarianism to accuse those who stand outside of power of being the problem.
Fox News ran this piece yesterday: “Harris lacked confidence, presidential demeanor in first TV interview: body language expert.” “Susan Constantine tells Fox News Digital that Vice President Kamala Harris needs to make ‘tweaks in her body language to appear more confident.’” But you don’t need an expert to see this. Harris’ nervousness is obvious. It’s what lies behind the manic laughter and her general affect. Deep down she knows she’s not up to the task and wears it on her sleeve. Those around her know this, too, which is why they protect her.
Moreover, this is why she frequently appears drunk, slurring her words salad and honking snotty with vocal fry. People say she’s an alcoholic, but what I am seeing is benzodiazepine abuse (recall Anna Nicole Smith, the slurring and tonality). Harris couldn’t use benzodiazepines for the sit-down because when a person regularly uses the drug it becomes very noticeable when they are using, slurring and losing the thought train. Occasional use can actually increase confidence and lucidity (even if the person doesn’t recall the moment later). Habitual use has the opposite effect.
I have some sympathy. Those who suffer from anxiety will know what I’m saying when I confess that I have avoided opportunities because I feared my nerves would get the best of me. I’m small potatoes. Harris is running to be the president of the most powerful nation in the world. That’s way beyond any role I could step into. She lacks the self-awareness to know she should avoid this opportunity. Combined with her narcissism, we have in front of us a person who lacks the character and judgment to hold this office.
But what explains the Democratic Party’s reckless in putting her forward? This is the same party that installed a man with obvious dementia and concealed his cognitive decline for nearly three years. Could it be that this is no accident? Here’s the answer: The Democratic Party doesn’t want a leader who exercises her or his own judgment. They don’t want this because the apparatus doesn’t want this. This is why they hate Trump so much and are desperate to keep him out of office.
I have been listening to an interview with HR McMaster’s (conducted by Victor Davis Hanson on his Blade of Perseus podcast) and Trump was definitely in charge as president. McMasters understood that his role as National Security Advisor was to provide options and act as a sounding board for Trump’s decisions, but he was not in charge of policy and when Trump made the decision, McMaster’s job was to make it fit in the framework of executive action. Those around McMaster—all those who have publicly turned against Trump and endorsed Harris—believed their job was to control the president.
This is what they think about Biden and Harris, too. It’s not just Trump. For the power elite, presidents are constructs stood up to beguile the electorate. The real power lies in what I wrote about yesterday—the power elite. The president’s role is to be a puppet, the big wizard head projected on the wall of the palace in Emerald City. The power elite don’t care if the president is a potato, corrupt, or a drug addict. They worry if the commander-in-chief is his own man and not part of the establishment. This is why the deep state went behind Trump’s back, even sabotaged policy and action, thwarting the will of the people for the designs of the elite.
It’s also why Bush Senior went behind Reagan’s back. People forget this, but like Trump, Reagan was also a populist president that the Washington elite viewed as a vulgarian. I know those of us who remember this election remember being told that Reagan was going to end the world in a nuclear holocaust. He was “Ronald Ray-gun.” Remember that? They had their guy in there—Trilateralist puppet Jimmy Carter and his NSA Zbigniew Brzeziński. They were hoping to get Bush Senior in there (former head of the CIA and Trilateralist alum), but Reagan beat him out. (So they made Bush Senior VP, in charge of Black Eagle and other covert operations. Reagan did in fact have plausible denial because they kept things from him.)
I often say that those who govern us are untethered from reality. The signs that the power elite is untethered from reality is apparent in the expansion of NATO and the march to WWIII, opening the borders to Third Worlders bearing cultural norms and values antithetical to that of Western Civilization, and disordering the common sense of our youth. I say untethered not because they don’t know what they’re doing but because the consequences of what they seek—a post-democratic transnational corporate order with vast police and surveillance powers—will abolish human freedom. Moral reality is their problem. They know what they want like a psychopath knows what he wants.
The Republic is in peril and it’s not because Harris is unfit to be president. However, recognizing that she is, and understanding why it doesn’t matter to the elite who govern this nation, will help you see more clearly the structure of power in America and why America is in peril.
freedom and reason 