Talking about the hard choice the Americans are facing between filling the gas tank or buy some groceries for dinner and the consumers’ ferocity when it comes to feeding their families. Compared to racism, it pales: the passion on our race versus their races is a gut feeling deeper and more powerful than paying a couple hundred dollars more for gas or groceries. That’s why even though the economy of ordinary people has gotten harsher that would bring down any democratic administration, the majority of white Americans are steadfastly behind MAGA: 80% of Republicans, that means 100% white, considering that some colored people have also joined the RP in hope of being recognized or admitted, that makes up for the 20%. And white people take 72% of the U.S.’s population.

    The world can’t escape admiring President Trump for his political triumphs. Is he such a good fighter considering he grew up in that dog-eat-dog world of New York City construction industry? Or was he a political genius?

    When he ran an ad advocating for the death penalty during the Central Park Five case, not many observers understood that he possibly positioned himself to run for high office. Twenty-six years later, he announced his candidacy for President of the United States. He had been opposed, fiercely and scorched-earth-ly, by his opponents but won the election in 2016. With the support of MAGA, he defeated them all and came out on top – literally, and won again in 2024, an unbelievable political comeback, leaving the Democrats in bewilderment.

    MAGA seems to have figured out the winning strategy. The main ingredient was, and still is, racism – the strategic core to unite the white mass.

    A new “How To” book has just come out titled “Liar’s Kingdom, How to Stop Trump’s Deceit and Save America” by Andrew Weissmann – a former prosecutor, professor of law, and a life-long democrat. If he saw the need to write a “How To” manual to save America for the Democrats, it could be said their statecraft has been in a dire.

    So, any concerned citizen, even a Republican, should chip in to save Democratic America. Here is my piece.

    The American political atmosphere was just like Germany before WWII when lurking behind the then feeble German government was the seething mass blaming foreigners and “others” for their predicaments after World War I. Nazi harnessed that energy, bent, and directed it toward a target more easily understood by the mass to vent their anger: the Jews.

    Blaming foreigners for the White Americans’ difficulties is not new. That was, and is, the book that has been around at least since WWII, studied by MAGA, used by bigoted billionaires and their AI software, and applied incredibly successfully to rally the white mass to gain and maintain MAGA’s hegemony. For the last 30 or 40 years, many factors (you can read about them in my book, “A Supreme Conspiracy”) converged to turn the anti-foreigner sentiment into a latent movement that was turned by MAGA into a political strategy. Learning the lesson well, they looked for and found a scapegoat, the immigrants. Then, with great fanfare, masked agents roamed everywhere to look for, arrest, and send them away, just like the Nazis did – so soothing to the white population’s anxiety.

    But here is the lesson from Candidate and now President Donald J. Trump. He is NOT racist. A racist would not sit at the same table with Jews let alone marrying off his precious and beautiful daughter to a Jew. But he plays a racist well. The number should be repeated here: 80% of Republicans continue to support him when gas rises from about $4 to about 6$ under his watch that would kill an incumbent’s candidacy two times over, a percentage all other politicians can only dream of. A percentage possible only in North Korea.

    So, the first lesson Democratic candidate needs to a learn well: Play your role passionately and fiercely. Sometimes, a curse or coarse language would propel you a long way ahead. Refrain from being overly sincere or friendly. Politics is a serious business. Don’t over-smile in public.

    Critics and Democrats label President Trump a liar when he insisted that he did not lose the 2020 presidential election. They even called him a mental disorder case. But they may be wrong in this case as it could be explained in a different way: it was a deep, ironclad conviction quite similar to extreme stubbornness that he was to win, and his defeat was not acceptable. It was an extraordinary state of psychology and mentality.

    That of course is quite unusual in politics. All politicians know Bismarck’s motto that politics is the art of the possible that means flexible, losing is normal, and denying a political campaign loss is lying. But Donald J. Trump did not know any of that or probably did not care. When he decided to run again after his loss to President Joe Biden, everybody thought he was Sisyphus. It turned out he was not Sisyphus – he was Donald John Trump.

    The devout Buddhists in Asia chanting mantras everyday believing that doing it would clear the path for them to reach Nirvana. Mr. Trump did seemingly possess such single-minded determination, blind conviction, a tremendous force carrying him forward. That in part explains his staying late at night texting. Such determination keeps him moving ahead regardless of the surroundings, an unshakable belief that was contagious and no doubt inspired his followers.

    That is the second lesson: Democrats running for Congress or the White House must show deep conviction and true passion. If the saliva comes out of both sides of your mouth and you sweat and lose your breath when you expound your conviction, you will win. You should go to Hollywood to look for such good players. When Robert De Nero talks, people listen.

    The third lesson: Racism or nationalism is not the exclusive domain of white people. It is human, at least the reaction of un-enlightened humans. It is universal. Look at the Venezuelans and the Iranians. Before the Israeli and American air attack that killed off the upper echelon of Iranian government, Americans and Israelis might have some belief and trust in “our” Iranians working against Ayatollah Khamenei. Now they are hard to find. Right after the taking of the Manduros, Venezuelan opposition was exhilarated – for a short time. Now they lie low. Even their acting president dares to contradict the president of the United States, the one who had just plucked her predecessor out of his bedroom in the mid of the night.

      Therefore, Democrats must heed the wave, the White People First wave. You can entertain progressive thoughts in your brain, not in public. You must show that you are pro-white. You can say things like: “I think Elon has a point. I don’t understand Mr. Nolan’s casting philosophy”. (For those of you who have not read the news, Chritopher Nolan cast a colored lady to play Helen of Troy. Elon Musk and his friends vehemently objected). Or “I will let my Mexican gardener go as soon as I can find a white gardener”, etc.

    So, talking racist or nationalist, if it helps to gain power, is not all bad. Without power, all your talks about ideals are just that, shooting the breeze. To do good you must first have power. Remember Blaise Pascal’s saying? Man is a thinking reed. When the wind blows East, does the reed, according to Pascal the weakest in nature, want to lean West? It could, at the peril of being blown into irrelevance or even oblivion. If you are stubborn sticking to your progressive ideas at this time and age, MAGA will surely be here for a long time. The ultra conservative justices on the Supreme Court will make sure of that and they won’t go anywhere, even the oldest ones. Justice Samual Alito is a rock of conservatism. Rocks do not change and rocks lasts long. Justice Clarence Thomas has preserved his energy so steadfastly – he does not want to speak at hearing as it requires expense of energy, and any contribution to an Opinion or Dissent is researched, prepared, and written not by him – too much work – but by his law clerks. He appears on the bench like a statue doing his best to preserve his energy – speaking sparsely or not at all saving his energy to protect his longevity.

    Or in 2027, Justice Alito, a loyal adherent to conservative causes, who hoisted the national flag upside down to protest his neighbor’s political statement, could volunteer to resign and the president could appoint a thirty-something such as Stephen Miller to replace him. You could see no end to the conservative hegemony (at least 5 to 9 is guaranteed) in the Court, and the “Color Blind” doctrine à laLouisiana v. Callais (a decision deftly authored by him to forbid Louisiana to create a second black district), will reign indefinitely.

    You don’t think Democratic politics is easy, do you?

JOHN P. LE PHONG

(This article appears on X, Facebook, and thelephongjournal.com)

In only two years and a half, MAGA has remarkably achieved many of its goals – easily.
For years, the U.S. clamored for other NATO’s members to increase their defense budgets as the U.S. carried some 62% of the total NATO defense spending. Faced with MAGA’s policy of “America First”, EU has been pushing for strategic autonomy, independent from the U.S. In other words, they are not relying on the American umbrella of security, economic and military, anymore. MAGA has got its wish: no more European piggyback at American expense.

The seemingly erratic declarations or statements insulting to its allies, the exorbitant tariff hike, and the effort to transform the U.S. into a police state have built a wall around it. It is now separated from the world, MAGA can do whatever they have wanted to do to transform the U.S.A. into a dictatorship. With or without a king, MAGA has run the country like a kingdom, treating Congress, let alone Democrats, like a side show.
It has decidedly defeated Woke politics and dreams: no more world influence or pressure on America politics to promote and protect minority groups, no more social ideology according to the world’s wisdom. There is now only one block, a solid block of influencers or deciders in American politics and society: the white block – white extremists or supremacists. The US Supreme Court sees to it that the Voting Rights Act will not hinder the Republicans from increasing their seats in Congress, potentially keeping Congress a long-time if not forever puppet. The Court in Louisiana v. Callais, with a straight face, declares that Louisiana must act COLOR-BLIND, beautifully keeping MAGA’s grip on Louisiana’s electorate.

When President Trump appointed several women to important cabinet positions, it led to the belief that the macho MAGA finally recognized that misogyny was wrong and women would be treated equally by MAGA.

Tulsi Gabbard looked serious in white. Kristi Noem with her rolled-up sleeves, hair flying with every step she took, was an unusual image of the head of a security agency that was supposed to be macho – unusual but still unknown and therefore acceptable. Pam Bondi was (and still is) beautiful, poised, ramrod straight, sharp mind, and sharp tongue, all the attributes of an Amazon woman ready and able to confront chauvinism, giving hope that she would prove to be a formidable contribution to the women’s effort to assert their right to be treated fairly and justly.

Then, things unraveled in unexpected ways – but probably foreseen by MAGA’s strategists.

Ms. Bond stated early and openly that she was ready to release the Epstein files, all of them. She had just reviewed them and obviously was outraged by what she saw and read. There were only two groups of human beings in the files: young litle girls and men, much older and much more powerful men. There was only one game, if it could be called a game: the little girls trapped within the walls (brick, mortar, and other kinds of walls) and the men just did to them whatever and whenever they wanted, sadistic, sordid, base. The action called for was clear for Pam: inform the public then prosecute the wrongdoers.

Then, the AG dragged her feet. She postponed the release, and when she did, she released the files, redacted, selectively, as if her decision were influenced, not by what was right or wrong or women needed to fight back, but by some things or some ones else. If that were the case, everyone could guess the gender of these some ones.
But her responses and attitude at Congressional hearings seemingly supported men’s entrenched belief that did serious damages to the Equal Right Movement: Women do not have equal substance.

Congressional hearings are supposed to be a forum for the witnesses to provide answers or information to Members’ questions. The witnesses do not always answer all the questions, and not answering a Member’s question is not exactly difficult requiring high art. Her predecessors, Merrick Garland and William Barr avoided answering questions they did not want to answer with aplomb. But at her Congressional hearings, she behaved and spoke as if she were in an irate-neighbor-fighting-her-neighbor’s dog-messing-her-lawn. No grace under pressure, even though as a woman she should possess more grace than, say, her boss president Trump.

The second woman cabinet secretary, Kristi Noem was asked by a Congress’ member a simple question if she had sexual relations with Corey Kowandowski. Her response was: “I am shocked that we are going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today.” And “That kind of garbage has been refuted for years, and it is offensive that you have brought that up.” She should have learned from the master. On 60 Minutes, the President stated simply and succinctly, “I am not a pedophile”.

What was missing in her answer was the “I”: It was refuted but “I” did not refute. The Occam Razor answer “No, I did not” would have done perfectly well for her. A listener could not help thinking that her dodging of the question indeed confirmed her extra marital affair.

Such lack of grace under pressure and roundabout talking, as read by their detractors, are signs of psychological weaknesses.

After they were gone, one could argue that MAGA had executed a Machiavellian maneuver to deal the Equal Right Movement a severe blow and bolster the misogynists’ prejudicial and sadistic position that the right place for women would be at home, in the kitchen, and in bed.

But their best and most striking achievement is to show how vulnerable and weak Democracy is and how to subvert it without having to fire a shot or even to violate the law.

JOHN P. LE PHONG
(This Article appears on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)