As Regime Change (which could have been entitled Smoke and Mirrors) makes clear, Trump and his cronies are really just the latest iteration of what we’ve been dealing with since at least the Clinton years.
If there are any lingering doubts about that, Gore Vidal’s book, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace (2002) should put those doubts to rest.
Vidal reminds us of some pertinent history: Bill Clinton signed into law the “anti-terrorism” bill (1996) that set things up for Bush Jr.’s post-9/11 “security state”—that Obama and Biden only continued and strengthened—and now we have the likes of Stephen Miller (perhaps the only true ideologue in that den of thieves) whispering in Trump’s ear.
Vidal also hints at the possibility that the OKC bombing was a dry-run for 9/11 (but I digress).
It is crucial to recognize the ways in which the Trump Administration is not a deviation but a continuation of decades of white Christian supremacist policy. Trump himself is a clueless buffoon and easily manipulated; Netanyahu sees that clearly.
But all of this is backdrop. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Zohran Mamdani, and now Dr. Abdulrahman El-Sayed, represent a rising generation of Americans with an Islamic sense of justice—at the 11th hour.
This country is getting an education it didn’t bargain for. Will the lessons be learned? I’m not particularly optimistic, but what is important to remember is that there is nothing new under the sun.
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