“The majority of the voters have feelings about the issues, but they are passive and unsure as to what is the right attitude. We need to push them hard into making a choice between us and the Democrats. We need to pull them to our side. To do that, as pointed out by Clint and the French professor Paul Bellamy, we need to stir the people’s emotion. Just to say immigration, religion, globalization is not enough because there are a lot of people who want to be reasonable.

“How do we get the voters out of their     homes and vote Republican? The most effective and proven way is to insinuate that our race is being threatened.”

Xander’s eyes were fixed on Wilcox, “Not the voters but the white voters.”

“Pardon me?”

“You mean to get the white voters out to vote Republican.”

“Yes.”

“Do you think we can win an election with only the white votes?” With his unfathomable face, no one was sure if it was Alexopoulos’ subtle disagreement with Wilcox’s method or just probing further its effectiveness. It did not matter to Wilcox; he did not ask or look for subtle disagreement. If anyone disagreed, he had to come out and speak clearly.

“Yes, we can, and we will,” Elrod answered Alexopoulos’ question, feeling the need to compensate Wilcox’s habit of talking little. This audience was not the campaign staff. They were, like Wilcox, his core supporters, his comrades in arm.

 

For many years, Elrod and his “people” had felt angry. They were mad at the way the country was moving, in their belief, in a wrong direction and more importantly out of his and his people’s control. He, his family, his friends, and his friends’ families were the heirs of the greatest fortunes ever created on this earth. They had had total control of all the money circulated in the United States and in the world. The politicians and the generals had their say, but the final decisions – whether to buttress the Shah of Iran, to fight the British and the French over the Suez Canal, to carve up the Palestine to give the Israelis a tiny sliver of land minus the huge West Bank making Israel more like a quaint village in the middle of a sea of Arabs, or to stay or withdraw from Viet Nam – had been in their hand. Their power had been absolute because they had monopolized the very means of power: money.

A few decades ago, they started seeing the erosion of their power, at first minuscule. But in a short period of time, they saw money were accumulated at a dizzy speed by people not related to them in anyway or known to them, by countries, which had heretofore been considered backward natural resource suppliers, and by kids who used to take their coats at the entrance of some club or fetch coffee at the snap of their fingers.

They were shaken because for the first time in generations they were suddenly faced with an unfamiliar and threatening aspect of life that these newcomers did not answer to them. It had been said, people worshipped money. But not Elrod and his friends, because worshipping implied a certain ignorance or mystery, something beyond understanding. They did understand and knew for sure that money was supreme and the power it afforded was absolute. That sacred source of power was now shared by others. At the current rate of their wealth accumulation, in a few decades if not a few years, their power would surpass theirs. They deeply feared that the threat to their position and status as the ruling class was real and imminent.

Elrod and his friends had decided to fight, which they now realized could not be left to others. They still had money. They could still fight and win because they knew how to control politicians. The next step would obviously be the control of the institutions.

To achieve this goal, just like any lofty goal, they needed allies. They needed a common purpose.

JOHN P. LE PHONG                                                                                      (This excerpt can be found in Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)

(Excerpt from Chapter 3 of A PERFECT PRESIDENCY, A Political Novel)

Waiting for the Cooks to step down from the podium to take their seats, Wilcox’s mouth formed a rare smile. Then, he spoke, “Daniel, we need to start the strategy meeting.” A very simple statement that came out like an order. And Richardson clearly understood it: no more campaign style talks, no more boasting or hyperbole.
“A few political facts need to be ascertained before I go into policy and strategy.
“First, the American people are not as benign and generous as the Democrats especially the liberals have maintained. Their understanding of the voting populace is deeply flawed. Thankfully, they do not know it. But we do, thanks to our sophisticated research undertaken by Clint and his associates at the McPherson Group. Many of you may not be familiar with Clint and his Group; they are the best in their respective specialties. It is now an open secret that his company rivals the National Security Agency as the best information collector and data processor. They have demonstrated their powerful capability for defining political trends and predicting the outcome of a political campaign. Their contribution to our victory in the primaries was tremendous and is acknowledged by us all.”
Everyone in the room dutifully clapped their hands.
“Second, without power, a politician or even a political party is absolutely irrelevant. It may sound philosophical, but I want to emphasize here that that is a hard fact.
“Third, sometimes in politics, the end justifies the means. We believe in conservatism, Republican Conservatism. We believe it will save the country from the excesses of the liberals over the past several decades. To implement Republican Conservatism, to do good, we must have total power, not just control of the House of Representatives, or the Senate, or the White House, or the Supreme Court. Each win is just a step, or to be perfectly clear a means to reach the end, the ultimate goal: we are working to gain total power, the control of all four branches of the U.S. Government.”
Maven was shaken. He glanced at Davendorf who was staring in the other direction at Richardson. He had suspected Richardson’s extremism but believed that he was just one voice within the Movement. He had trusted Wilcox, Thalberg, Peterson and many others in the Movement to keep a tight rein on the extremists such as Richardson. They would let him speak his mind but never allow him to take the organization on a risky, and off the mainstream politics, adventure. Tonight, he was obviously the spokesperson for the Movement. His statement had no doubt been cleared by the other senior members.
“Fourth, the American people demand change. They want the U.S. government to take care of their citizens, not foreigners. They do not want immigrants. They want to preserve the Christian traditions, to live in accordance with Christian tenets and teachings. They want to preserve Western culture and civilization untainted by harmful ideologies. They do not want their society, built by their ancestors with sweat and blood, to be colored and changed by globalization. They want the liberal policies reversed.
“These are facts.
“We have done our own in-depth research for the past several years. These factual findings match the findings of our conservative brethren in Europe. And they are solidly supported by the data collected and analyzed by the McPherson Group. The findings will be essential planks of our platform…”
Bobby Reed did not wait for Richardson to finish, “The Republican Central Committee has commissioned several studies and polls too. We did find these trends among the public, but they are held by a minority. In fact, the people who express such feeling comprise only 10 or 15% of the population at the most, and mostly white…”
Richardson was blunt. He did not want to get into a frivolous argument. “Well Bobby, our candidate won the primaries; yours lost. That says a lot about the thoroughness of your polling experts and your candidates’ ability to take the pulse of the electorate.”
He heard Wilcox clearing his throat and knew that he needed to move on. “As I am speaking, our platform is being drafted to incorporate these findings.”
The room turned raucous with the participants vying to ask questions. “Who are writing the platform?”, “Why are we not consulted?”, “On what authority is it drafted?” Several participants pushed the chairs away and stood up.
“Please one person at a time,” the baritone voice of Wilcox rose above others’ and calmed the little storm in the Thalberg Library. Again, Richardson was acutely aware of the power of Wilcox’s personality and again, was reminded to tread carefully.
“Daniel, let me answer the questions. The Steering Committee has selected Republican conservatives in each field of society, politics, businesses, industries, religions, and many special interest and advocacy groups. The Steering Committee is finalizing the makeup of the group and will report to us. We have made our suggestions known to several members of that group, albeit incomplete, for their thoughts. The actual drafting of the platform will begin as soon as the group officially receives our approval.”
Maven heard no more protest or objection even though the platform was as unclear and obtuse as before Wilcox’s statement. He did not understand whom Wilcox meant “we” or “us”. All Republicans? The Movement? Or his Steering Committee? Or only a few of his close allies such as Hightower, Thalberg, Peterson, and Richardson? What suggestions? Who was “the group” that the suggestions had been made known to?
“My apology Daniel. Please continue your representation,” Wilcox yielded the microphone after making sure that Richardson would not veer too far from the main subjects, and the audience would not interrupt again.
“Thank you, Willie,” Richardson was back in charge.
“Our analysis of the electorate does not classify them into conservative, liberal or moderate,” he paused. All eyes were fixed on Richardson.
“That classification is outdated and misleading. It has in the past led us to designing wrong strategies. Our target is no longer the voters but the important issues of the days that we choose. It sounds confusing but it will be clear to you in a moment. Of course, we court the voters. But we work the issues and pull the voters to us,” he paused again walking back and forth as if he were a teacher in front of a blackboard trying to lead the class from the simplest point to his more complicated strategy.
“We look for ways to catch the voters’ attention. We look for a common theme that powerfully bonds the voters regardless of who they are. In grouping the voters into conservative, liberal, or moderate we forget that they are making choices not always about the topics but about their emotion. Let me clarify that with an example. Immigration. If our strategy is to attract conservatives, we would say we are against immigration. What would we get? I am sure not the majority of the votes to win us an election. If we want to woo the liberals, we will say we are for immigration because that is what they have been advocating. Again, we do not get the majority because we would lose the conservative votes. How do we win the moderate votes? Would we say an immigration policy should be human but…? Or immigrants have affected our society in many cases in harmful way, but …? Then again, we may get their votes but lose the conservatives and the liberals.
“So, we must work around the topic and go straight to the emotion of the voters. Therefore, framing the messages is the strategy. Framing, say, the immigration issue in such a way as to touch the emotion of all the voters, that is what we look for, the same emotion, in the conservative, liberal or moderate.”
Maven already knew where Richardson was heading, and he thought that Richardson needed to be confronted. But he was a member of the Steering Committee and a colleague of Richardson, he could not do that. Davendorf could. He turned his head to look at Davendorf, who seemed to be deep in thought.
“A political party especially the leadership does not just follow the mass’ desire and wish. It must lead …,” Reed did not have a chance to finish his thought.
“I get your point Bobby. But I want to paraphrase the motto of our good friend, the French professor Paul Bellamy, you cannot lead if you do not have power. In the longer term, we will lead. We will implement our political agenda. But the immediate goal is to win the coming election, which requires all our energy and skills, not just a political skill but a campaigning skill.
“They are probably the same, but I want to make this little distinction so that what I will present tonight will be clearer. We have a mandate from our Party’s membership to implement immigration reforms, uphold Christian values including the abortion issue, turn the country back inward to look after its citizens, its cities, its social problems. Political skill identifies the issues important to the people. But to win an election, we need campaigning skills.
“So, what is it? It is the skill to make the voters identify with us, accept us as them, trust us to represent them. In short, to give us the votes. We are all Republicans. All the candidates in the Republican primaries are Republican, that means they know and understand what the Republicans wants. But our campaign skill was superior. That’s why Zachary is now the Republican nominee.
“Our political skill is straightforward: doing thorough research, identifying the most important concerns of the people. Campaigning skills are more flexible. Our opponents, Republican as well as Democratic, call it by many names, manipulation, exploitation, or misinformation. I call it ‘nuance’”.
“Can you elaborate more on the nuanced campaign strategy of yours?” That was from former president Roger Wood.
Of course, senile old timer, Richardson silently said to himself. Out loud, he said, “Mr. President. I can summarize it in six words: ‘Birds of a feather flock together.’”

JOHN P. LE PHONG (This piece can be read on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com}

Chapter 39                                                                                                        THE OVERTURE                                                                                 (Excerpt from A PERFECT PRESIDENCY)

Richardson wasted no time. He was acutely aware that the Cook administration had only four years. Either his scheme was to succeed within those four years or never. He had the advantage of being ahead of his opponents. He took his cellular phone out and touched the numbers.

“Sergei, can we talk?”

“Daniel? Of course.”

“I have just got the authority to centralize our intelligence and security apparatus.”

“What do you mean? You would violate too many of your laws if you tried to do so.”

“I know. First thing first. Before nominating a secretary or head of an agency, we will make sure that they pledge allegiance to the president. They normally file regular reports to the supervising ministry but now they will also submit a copy to the White House. We will be working with Congress to enact a law to allow the White House to absorb the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The FBI reports directly to the Attorney General who is a loyalist and reports directly to me.”

“Congratulations.” Semenov could not refrain from making a sarcastic remark, “You are coming close to us here Daniel.”

Richardson deadpanned, “Yes, we have learned something from you. I always believe the president must have absolute power over national intelligence and national security.”

He changed the subject, “We have been working together for some time. Now, I want the European Union to get involved. I can only touch on the general subjects, those we have to deal with as soon as possible. I ask that you bring our proposal to President Komarov and get back to me in three days with his answer.”

“What proposal?”

“President Cook wants Russia to join NATO.”

Semenov was stunned, “Are you….”

Richardson raised his hand as if to stop Semenov at the other end of the line. “Let me continue – with the condition that you will withdraw your divisions from your borders with the Baltic and East European countries.”

It took Semenov quite a long time to stop staring at the phone and found his words, “And you just command the European Union and NATO to go along with your proposal?”

“It’s hard work. But we will be there. Right now, we have work to do in the U.S.”

“You have an ambitious agenda, but you are time constrained.”

Richardson did not seem to hear what Semenov said, “I am about to have total control over the security apparatus. I need your advice, discreetly of course, how to organize it into a coherent and effective agency.”

“I think you already have very good agencies to fight crimes or espionage. I doubt that our agencies are better than yours.”

“You are right.” He paused for ten seconds before continuing, “What I need is your expertise in dealing with internal unrest, political opposition…”

Semenov tried to hide his surprise, “Isn’t it an inherent element of your political system?”

Richardson’s voice hardened, “I don’t think it should be. Opposition is counter-productive and hinders progress. The country needs to be governed by the elites and the people need to be guided by wiser, better men.”

“Do you have a second thought about popular vote and a government by representatives?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Are your friends and President Cook of the same mind?”

Semenov detected Richardson’s imperceptible hesitation, “Of course. They approved my proposal to give total control of all security and intelligence operations to my office.”

“Are you going to abolish the FBI, the CIA, the Office of National Intelligence?”

“No, I don’t because of the hurdle of going through Congress, something I don’t want to bother for now. I just need the power to collect information and direct security operations. Now I want to use my power to reverse course.”

Semenov asked, slowly, “Reverse course as in abolishing Democracy and going back …, going back to what?”

Like a prophet being asked to explain his vision, Richardson suddenly found his euphoria, “Democracy does not work, at least in the direction that we thought it should. You can see that with so many efforts, it does not work anywhere in the world except in the U.S. Even here, we have seen abuses, and the system can’t seem to cure or prevent them from getting out of control.”

“Are you talking about immigrants and the so-called damages they have done to your traditional Christian values?”

“Nothing ‘so-called’ about the damages, which are real, huge, and deep. At the pace that things have changed during the last few decades, we must act now. You, I also mean your president and your country, agree with us that the world is no longer divided along the ideological fault line but inexorably moves toward regrouping its countries and population into large spheres of influence. We must acknowledge that race is the foundation of our choices: The white people in Europe, Russia, and North America, the Asians led by China, the Blacks in Africa, the Arabs in the middle East, and the rest will ally themselves with whoever happen to be their friends of the moment. It is now that Russia acknowledges this fact and allies itself with the European Union and joins NATO.  You make the overture, and we will push them behind the scenes.”

Semenov was intrigued, “You don’t say it, but does that mean Russia will inevitably withdraw from its alliance with China, North Korea, even the ‘stan’ countries?”

“Not necessarily. But you jump the gun here, Sergei. One step at a time. A white block does not mean purely white. Even you and I are no pure blood. We are discussing dominance, not pure blood. That is the focal point. If we don’t take steps now to position our white power, the dynamics of world affairs may drift away from our grasp and control.”

“I see your point. I am sure we will have a robust debate at the Kremlin.”

True to his nature. Richardson cut Semenov off as if he were his underling, “Nothing more to discuss. I don’t think you and president Komarov should bring the issue to the Duma to be discussed or even among his advisors. We must start now and start preparing what to do next.”

Semenov cursed under his breath, damned Yankee arrogance, but kept his voice calm, “If nothing else, please on President Komarov’s and my behalf, say hi to Willie and the people we know.”

“Sure. I will be in touch.”

JOHN P. LE PHONG                                                                               (This excerpt can be read on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournl.com)

 

That is the current state of American politics: A party competes for power against an association. Just by that short sentence, the reader can venture a guess as to who wins and will win in the next few election cycles, if America will still have political election.

The Democratic Party is nowadays, or probably has been for some time, a non-profit association rather than a party. It has no absolute, meaning focused, power and therefore lacks discipline and control. Its members are free to debate and disagree. Many members, after enjoying and exploiting the support of the party, nonchalantly jump ship to the other side for fame and/or financial gains without any consequences. Many of them ostentatiously declare themselves to be independent as if they were working for a nobler cause. Democrats seem more friendly, gregarious, inclusive, and benign. That probably is the main reason why their party attracts more diverse constituencies and opinions, the root cause of being inefficient and ineffective. The party does not seem to be a party but more like a philosophy or an ideology. After the election losses in 2024, they bickered among themselves to the near death of their party. They are still bickering at the DNC.

The MAGA Republican Party is a completely different political animal, and the contrast can easily be noticed during the last few decades in the real sense of a political party (as in Communist Party): strictly disciplined, top-down orderly. Speaking at the White House on June 24, 2025, the President said “They (the Israelis and the Iranians) don’t know what the fuck they are doing.” A bombshell! But no bickering among MAGA. Only a few hours later, the Vice President showed his middle finger and kept it up there in the air long enough for the world’s cameras to unmistakably record it. That was the teamwork spirit!

The discipline is ruthless, but it focuses and concentrates its energy like a laser. Every statement of any official of the Administration always consists of two indispensable parts: the first part praising the president and the second stressing how idiotic and incompetent the Biden administration (by implication, the Democrats) was. But that is not enough. MAGA blends politics with a twist of modern day’s capitalism, combining politics with financial gains and pursuing it unabashedly, a practice adopted by Vladimir Putin and is now copied by MAGA. It is meant to monopolize political power and win at all costs that includes the destruction of the democratic institutions within which it has existed and thrived for centuries, and Democracy itself. That was how they bulldozed the Democrats like corn stalks in 2024.

The Democrats and many others believe that the vote would cure the malaise suffered by Democracy. They trust that the voters would cast their votes rationally and with their understanding that Democracy is meant for them.

For a long time, MAGA has moved sometimes subtly with some trial balloons but more often decisively and relentlessly to consolidate their power and expand their grip on the country’s federal, state, and local political structures. Their grip permeates all political levels, and like under a communist regime, bullying pressure helps them take control of the voters. MAGA has already run the country like a monarchy with the president acting as a benign king treating his government and Congress like a patriarch treating his family members tolerating even the most incompetent and unruly. In return, he gets their absolute loyalty.

The telling sign is the way MAGA treats its opponents, arresting judges, indicting or openly threatening political opponents with arrest, usurping state power using military forces. Democratic institutions and rules of democratic politics are already out the window.

In totally dominating American politics, MAGA has found the formula to gain absolute power and move the country toward a dictatorship or a monarchy, which is the doctrine of “Us versus Them”. It had been put into practice before by hardline Republican politicians but why it didn’t stick until now? The answer is the white population’s sentiment. Not that their material life has not improved (it has robustly, thanks to China’s production) but the sense that their dominance, and therefore their security, is being threatened, and their control of things getting out of hand. The rise of China whose people were formerly considered by white Americans as no good at anything or even worth owning a little tiny bit of land in America, except for providing inexhaustible coolies, and the influx of immigrants are symptomatic of the changes that they perceived negatively affect their life. That is when they find MAGA’s propaganda not to be rude, coarse, uncivilized, and against human nature or even nature, but making sense.

There lurches the danger, not to MAGA or the Oligarchs or billionaires but to common people.

MAGA has no intention of gaining power just for cleaning up immigration and other social issues they dislike, and going through the democratic election cycles and, if they lose, relinquishing it as dictated by the democratic process. They want permanent power so that they can reshape the country into a white only, simple, and isolated nation, as simple as the old regimes in feudal Europe, more easily governed and controlled: The king and his family on top, coexisting with and supported by the billionaires who will lord over the functionaries such as executives, technicians, government workers including cabinet secretaries. The current U.S. government has already had that makeup with members of Congress and the courts are being treated no differently than subjects of the king’s court and they, willingly or under pressure, remain passive and alarmingly silent.

The caste system has worked beautifully for thousands of years in India. Even though it has constitutionally been outlawed, it is still alive and well in its society. Why not adopting a thing that has worked successfully for so long, MAGA asked themselves, and in a moment of Eureka, gleefully applied the system to the American society after modifying it to show a veneer of humaneness: Immigrants, the modern-day Shudras, cannot be citizens but only be guest workers. The esteemed Arabs have perfected their guest worker system that allows the “guests” to work for minimum wage without ever being naturalized or given basic human rights let alone the right to vote.  It is a solid and desirable system to keep the social order with the billionaires being the Brahmins.

The common men, regardless of their skin color, will realize, hopefully not too late, that they are being swallowed into the system like the submarine being swallowed by Karl Stromberg’s humongous tanker Liparus. If they don’t make their choice with their votes carefully now, they would all be Shudras with no right to their name and no power over their lives and their children and grandchildren’s lives. They would have no say except moaning “we are sorry”.

In a Democracy, one party fights another party as an adversary or opposition, but they cooperate and even consult each other in governing. They always treat each other with respect. So far, MAGA has treated the Democrats like pariahs calling them “idiotic” or deliberately smirking, disdainfully calling him “Jose Padilla” because U.S. Senator ALEX Padilla is a Mexican American, (JOSE Padilla is a convicted terrorist still serving time in federal prison). The fact that they can be petty, obscene, and laughing about it in public give them a pervert satisfaction that they are powerful and untouchable.

It is not just a strategy to sideline the Democrats to get an advantage for the next election cycle. It is an assault on an opposite party, the democratic institutions, and the very foundation of Democracy. MAGA treats the Democrats with outright disdain, the ENEMIES to be eradicated. It puts down or threatens the Democrats whatever way it can, relentlessly, ceaselessly, never stops even when national tragedies happen.

The case in point was its reaction to the assassination of a Minnesotan Democratic state representative and her husband, and an assassination attempt on a state senator. Don’t let off, don’t apologize, don’t sympathize, criticize the Democrats even if it’s a lie, is their motto. The president at first rightfully condemned the assassination. But he changed his tune a few days later as if he had got an earful from MAGA. Many other MAGA figures started loudly and in coordination accusing and criticizing ad nauseam the Democrats even though there is evidence that the shooter is a MAGA supporter.

Such MO is consistent with MAGA’s plan to clear the political landscape so that in three and a half years, America won’t have an inauguration of a new president but the coronation of a king. With a quick and steady pace as we have seen, four years would be long enough for MAGA to find ways to intimidate the courts and Congress to bend to its will to amend or even abolish the Constitution. The next step would be the establishing of a monarchy, or an oligarchy depending on who among MAGA would then have the upper hand.

If Democracy were lost, the common men would lose big. The Democratic legacy fought hard and sacrificed dearly for centuries by the people who had suffered under monarchs and dictators, would be gone. And then, the common men would have to fight and sacrifice again for the freedom and the rights they have possessed up to this point, if they would still remember how these rights, freedom, and happiness were intertwined.

It sounds dramatic, but not farfetched if the common men are distracted by other factors and fail to protect the most precious things they have ever possessed: their Freedom and their Rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Don’t your children, grandchildren, and descendants deserve the same things?

JOHN P. LE PHONG                                                                                (This article is posted on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)

“The nearer your destination, the more you are slip slidin’ away”. Paul Simon’s words were prescient as if he were singing about the Democrats’ politics.

The rights of common people were respected and protected. Social support was in place. The world was moving toward Democracy. Even diehard communist countries had turned democratic. Russia, the cradle of Communism had tentatively tried Democracy. The world was coming near the Utopia of a happy world society with open borders in Europe and liberal immigration policies in America.

With Professor Francis Fukuyama rhapsodizing Democracy as the end of history, Democrats had prematurely celebrated their illusionary victory, embarrassingly claiming, “We have arrived”. They lost their vigilance and Democracy’s opponents have seized the day and now are on top.

Since Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the opponents of emancipation and racial equality have never ceased trying with a grim face to undo his revolutionary achievement. Over centuries, such effort was limited to the South until now, with MAGA being the latest wave of White Supremacism, which is no longer localized or pocketed but nationwide.

What makes the difference? -The participation and the support of the billionaires, the Mercers, the Kochs, and their brethren. Unlike previous efforts by White Extremists such as Black Codes, the KKK, Jim Crow laws, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” George Wallace, the modern day extremists don’t just have money, they have powerful brain.

They formed brain trust, did deep research, designed plans, organized and coordinated their executions. They have set out to undo Democracy and Equality of Men (big and smaller) and Women like planning and executing the Manhattan Project. It’s not a coincidence that the Republican Senate secured a 6/9 (not 5/4) majority in the Supreme Court. And it is not out of a sense of civic duty to obey the law that MAGA has not violated any law in deporting immigrants (even citizens), arresting an elected mayor, prosecuting judges and a U.S. Representative, wresting a U.S. Senator to the ground in public. It is MAGA’s well-executed discipline, so as to achieve the ultimate goal without side effects affecting or sidelining the outcome. If any inadvertent or even willful violation of the law happens, here comes the Supreme Court, whose saying IS the law.

In other words, MAGA has tried to stay within the law as much as necessary to subvert the law and ultimately the Constitution. Their march to obliterate Democracy has been relentless, well thought out, and seemingly unstoppable.

The Democrats, heretofore happy go lucky fellows, must now look for ways not just to be relevant but to survive.

Two alternatives come to mind.

First recourse: the help of Democratic billionaires. The two blockbuster billionaires, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, seem to be out of reach. For a man who could only find happiness by turning his wedding into the most expensive one in the history of mankind, in a place where no one welcomes his wedding, is way out of touch with ordinary people. The MAGA phenomenon is, first and foremost, an ordinary people’s problem. For them, happiness can be found easily and simply by holding hands with their beloved walking down the cobblestoned Bank Street in the West Village or watching the sun setting on the beach in Isla Vista, Santa Barbara. So, there is no connection there.

Mr. Zuckerberg once said that he wanted to wear casual clothes instead of formal attire, to reduce “decision fatigue” so that he could focus his energy on more important decisions. Now, Mr. Zuckerberg has turned about-faced and has been paying excessive attention to upgrading his stylish wardrobe, timepieces and jewelry. The Democrats may be wary of his long-termed commitment to their cause. These two billionaires don’t have the priorities or passion of a Democracy’s defender.

Theoretically, Elon Musk could be a nice recruitment as he has fallen out with the MAGA crowd. But ideologically, the Democrats don’t feel comfortable with him. Besides, the President has warned Mr. Musk not to support the Democrats. Chutzpah and unpredictable as he is, Mr. Musk nevertheless will certainly pay particular heed to the warning as no matter how rich he is, “serious consequences” are not something he should ignore.

So, the task lies with the billionaires who feel that Democracy’s stake is theirs as well, a Bill Gates or a Steven Spielberg for example. Or some cool billionaires still unnoticed by the public or by MAGA.

If no capable rescuer comes along, the Democrats still have a Second Recourse, not in a human but an idea: “Truth, Goodness, and Beauty”, which is in fact not just mere idea but a central triad in classical philosophy and Christian beliefs that these transcendentals are built into the fabric of existence of mankind.

MAGA has gone against the Truth for so long and not reaped any consequences. Now they simultaneously violate the other Two: Goodness and Beauty.

Remember “America First”? It has turned out, to MAGA, that America means billionaires not common folks. Sky high tariffs, tremendous tax cuts for the rich leading inexorably to an expected $4.2 TRILLION Deficit, a national debt of 150% of the U.S.’s GDP, DOGE’s federal employee “massacre”, Medicaid huge cut, does any of them serve common folks first? So, not just the Truth but the Goodness has clearly been trampled on.

Now, MAGA has defamed Beauty, the third leg of the interconnected Transcendentals. It kicked a lonely man out of the country who has pushed his ice cream cart in Los Aneles for 20 years, like kicking a dog while MAGA is promenading along the same street, for no reason other than its being ugly and rude. His existence in America would not increase criminality in the streets but definitely provide happiness to children – or even corporate executives coming down from their high towers for a break. It deported a seamstress with a child. How does that serve the declared policy of “Take the Country Back” or “America First” or clearing the street of criminal elements?

Symbolic of the Ugliness is the Secretary of Homeland Security showing off her honcho image and, for lack of a better word, macho personality posing in front of a prison with shaved and tattooed prisoners in the background, rolling up her sleeves to show her slender arms wearing a Rolex, her brunette hair flying in the wind. Then, the incidents of MAGA treating its Democratic opponents as described above, probably legal or should be legal if the case goes to the Supreme Court, are clear evidence of a serious violation of Beauty.

The lack of all these Transcendentals should be cause for MAGA to be indicted by Christianity unless Americans don’t call themselves Christians anymore.

It sounds unrealistic. But Democrats are desperate. They should grasp anything and try everything to survive.

JOHN P. LE PHONG                                                                                    (This article is posted in Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)