... you can use the second Iraq war to understand the present state of things in American politics. We are told that there is a shift underway to a conservative cultural atmosphere of deference to and accommodation with the MAGA movement. But this isn’t some amorphous transformation in the ether; it is the result of individuals making deliberate choices about how to exist in the current political environment. Powerful individuals and institutions in the news media, business and politics are choosing to align themselves with what they believe to be a new order.
Viewed as an active choice and not a passive evolution, this “vibe shift” looks quite a lot like the war fever of 2002 and 2003, when political and cultural elites decided that they had more to gain through submission and accommodation than they did with criticism and resistance. ...
We saw how that worked out. Ignorant young right wingers thought they could remake an ancient faraway society, perhaps one million people died, and the Iraq invasion came to be known as a national shame and defeat.
Donald and his buddy Elon are off to a good start at replicating that catastrophic national humiliation. Let's help them and ourselves.
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