Episode 60: The Enemy From Within
Complete show notes and more at https://scottaaronrogers.substack.com
I apologize for the late post. It’s taken me all this time to get my thoughts in order, and the self-medication probably hasn’t helped.
The title of my last podcast episode before the election was, “We’re Not Going Back.” Maury’s lie detector test determined that was a lie.
I spent Election Day at Jackson Creek Middle School in Bloomington, monitoring activities for the local Democratic Party. Voters streamed in at constant rate throughout the early morning on their way to work, to drop the kids off at school, to run the day’s errands. As expected, traffic remained steady, though never busy, during the 9-5 hours. Several folks accidentally spoiled their ballot and needed a new one. Others needed to fill out a change of address form. A few were directed to different polling places. Each unique situation was handled appropriately and by the book. Nobody so much as needed to fill out a provisional ballot. By late afternoon, rain moved in, with storms expected later. The anticipated after-work rush never materialized, but with the exceptionally strong early vote numbers in Monroe County, and the criminally-early poll closing time in Indiana, I assumed everybody that was going to vote had already “completed the assignment.”
That night, I had the honor of hosting an all-left Indiana watch party with activist and influencer Corinne Straight and My Labor Radio host
. Now, I pride myself on NOT being a shameless partisan, but I will admit to having gotten caught up in the excitement. Polls indicated both the Indiana gubernatorial and attorney general’s races would be much tighter than expected. I spoke with 9th congressional district candidate Dr. Tim Peck a coupletimes in the last few weeks and believed he had a real chance to win. NBC’s khaki-attired election map guru Steve Kornacki was talking about Indiana as an early bellwether. A respected pollster had Kamala Harris leading in Iowa. Iowa! I had guests lined up from across the state - not a lot of whom expected to win, but whose contributions were going to push up-ticket Democrats to victory. Mark had a sweet new soundboard he could use to patch in live calls. We were prepared for a celebration.The Associated Press called the US Senate race between our one-time guest, Dr. Valerie McCray, and insurrection-apologist Jim Banks as soon as the polls closed. The governor’s contest was called for Mike Braun and his avowed Christian nationalist running mate six minutes a mere six minutes later. Democrat Jennifer McCormick wound up losing by 13%. A punishing one-two gut punch. Radical Catholic extremist and legal terrorist Todd Rokita was proclaimed winner of the AG race before 9pm, eventually coasting to a 17-point victory. Indiana’s Democratic congressional candidates all fell in short order.
We held out hope for a handful of statehouse races, particularly in suburban Hamilton County - which Kornacki had highlighted in the lead-up to Tuesday. Friend of the pod Josh Lowry hung tough most of the night in House District 24, but his opponent - former Colts punter and far-right extremist Hunter Smith - pulled away for a twelve point win. Another sports-adjacent Republican, Pacers exec and anti-trans bigot Danny Lopez found fierce resistance from Matt McNally in District 39, but still won by seven points. Our hope to break the GOP supermajority was crushed.
Still, we kept an eye on Tiffany Stoner in District 25, who gave her opponent all she could handle - that race remains uncertain though incumbent Becky Cash leads by 66 votes. Poor Michelle Higgs in District 60 - one of the local Democrats who most impressed me this cycle - AP had her up big most of the night, only for it to turn out they had the numbers reversed and she lost by 50 points. And down here in my own District 62, another friend of the show, Thomas Horrocks, stayed neck-and-neck with incumbent Dave Hall well past the time the color had drained from our faces, the good pastor conceding to his Republican rival on Thursday, trailing by less than 800 votes. I harbor a degree of guilt for this loss. Did I do all I can do? Would the time I spend on this project have been better used on the ground for his campaign? Could I have juggled more responsibilities?
In the end, it appears the state legislature will remain exactly where it began, with a 70-30 Republican supermajority consisting of Oath Keepers, Nazi sympathizers, drunk-driving gun nuts, religious extremists, privateers, and bigots.
We didn’t really look at the presidential race until our dim hopes for Indiana had been extinguished. Surely, at least America would reject the insurrection-fomenting, treasonous, convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, grifting, con artist mob boss, right? Right?
The night wore on. The situation grew more dire. Those guests I had lined up? I invited them to a celebration, not a funeral. Party canceled. By midnight, my co-hosts had tapped out to get some sleep. Good friend of the pod, bourbon, took their place in the chat - Four Roses Small Batch, a very nice mid-shelf choice for those looking to numb in the face of our nation’s authoritarian descent, by the way. So, me and Rosy tried to hold on until at least 1 am, wishing for a sign that things might turn. But those expected storms rolled in, a power outage abruptly ending the broadcast early - a fitting end.
By morning, the horrible truth was apparent. America had chosen fascism.
I had been confident. I sold you hope. I sold myself hope. And I was wrong.
has been right all along - about Trump, corruption, international organized crime, performative resistance by top Democratic leaders - and I read everything she puts out. Get her books in print before they’re banned. My eyes absorbed her words, but refused to look into the abyss she describes with equal measures of horror and beauty.Hell, in the very first episode of this podcast, and again since, I’ve tried to put our current moment in historical context looking through the lens of Strauss-Howe Generational Theory. In the words of British historian Arnold Toynbee, “when the last man who remembers the horrors of the last great war dies, the next great war becomes inevitable.” As the last of the World War II generation passes, as the horrors of fascism are forgotten, the next great conflict is upon us now. I should not have been so naive as to think we could somehow skip that part.
So, let’s take a moment to congratulate the strategists, activists, and donors journalist David Sirota dubbed the Master Planners - the business elite inspired to organize against democracy by Lewis Powell’s 1971 manifesto, the Christian extremists of the religious right, and their expansive network of propagandists - on a meticulously-crafted, expertly-orchestrated, sinister plot. It’s impressive what all the money in the world and 50+ years of patience can buy. Well done, evil geniuses. Have a golf clap. Those of us on the left need to understand how we were ushered to autocracy’s doorstep if we are to navigate our way out. Authors like Jane Mayer, Nancy MacLean, and Anne Nelson provide valuable documentation.
And, though it is incredibly important to know how we arrived here, don’t get lulled into thinking that tracing those steps in reverse will somehow deliver us to a fully-functioning, pluralistic democracy. There has never been a time when our institutions worked well for all Americans. The support structures holding up our system were built on exploitation and we’ve got to confront that to build the future the people deserve.
Democratic infighting has run rampant in the days since the devastating loss. Biden loyalists insist he could have won if not shoved aside. Others, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, blame Biden for not bowing out sooner. Progressives blame Harris for running to the right, failing to speak out against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, and welcoming despised neocons like the Cheneys into the campaign. Conservative Democrats are lining up to throw already-marginalized groups under the bus. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders blamed the party’s mainstream for minimizing working-class voters’ economic concerns.
Few who know me will be surprised to find that I think Sanders comes closest to pinpointing the problem, but all of these complaints - even Bernie’s - fail to grasp the full scope of the problem.
Looking at the McCormick/Goodin ticket in Indiana and the Harris/Walz campaign at the national level, both were well-run operations headed by experienced, competent, compelling, strong women and supported by rural white guys with working-class credibility in the number two spot. Both faced Republicans who ran as successful entrepreneurs (despite inheriting their wealth and using shady business practices to grow it) weighed down by weirdo religious extremist running mates. And both campaigns focused their messaging, and much of their get-out-the-vote effort, on attracting “winnable” Republicans thought to be turned off by their party’s extreme turn.
Multiple pundits have fawned over the Vice President’s “flawless” campaign, blaming Americans’ deep-seated racism and misogyny for the loss. And while I do not want to minimize the effects many voters’ biases had on Tuesday’s results - prejudice and hate inevitably motivated countless citizens - the fact of the matter is that Harris - and McCormick by running the same playbook at the state level - “flawlessly” executed the wrong strategy.
Democratic leaders, consultants, and strategists have completely missed the point of every election since the financial crash of 2008. I don’t care if the top-line economic numbers say the US economy is the envy of the world - maybe those stats don’t measure the things that actually matter people, but how efficiently the ownership class is squeezing the rest of us. Americans are pissed off at the entire system - one that has funneled $50 trillion of wealth from the working class to the top 1% since 1980, that has US workers producing more than ever for a smaller slice of the pie, that always has money for war abroad but never enough to raise living standards at home. Are Republicans offering solutions that would fix these problems, that would actually make people’s lives better? No. But at least they’re offering a change.
I come again to the same house metaphor I’ve been using as long as I’ve been writing here. The United States of America is built on a fundamentally unsound foundation of white supremacy and expropriation. We desperately need to rebuild something new, something more fair, more human, in its place. Far-right MAGA Republicans are offering to blow up the old system. Democrats counter not with the required full-scale renovation, but with a coat of fresh paint.
For their ineptitude, their complacency, their complicity in many cases, a lot of heads need to roll. In Indiana, that means state party chair Mike Schmuhl. Under his watch, Hoosier Democrats have continued to run to the right only to keep losing ground. Hired after managing fellow-South Bend native Pete Buttigieg’s over-performing 2020 presidential campaign, it turns out Mayor Pete’s strong showing had everything to do with the uniquely-talented candidate and very little to do with his hangers-on.
At the national level the party is rudderless, with no clear-cut leader. DNC chair Jamie Harrison should start packing the things in his office now. Former speaker Nancy Pelosi has passed the torch as nominal leader but still holds a ton of sway, her time marked by token resistance, performative bullshit, insider trading, and yes, raising a whole lot of money for the party. Likewise, Senate leader Chuck Schumer has pulled in a ton of cash by playing nice with Wall Street. Maybe playing nice with Wall Street is a big part of the problem in the first place. We should be holding them accountable, not trading favors. House leader Hakeem Jeffries has the votes of his caucus, but I have a hard time trusting a guy who paraphrases Southern segregationist George Wallace in rousing defense of apartheid Israel. Bernie Sanders is 206 years old! All the Clinton, Obama, and Biden machine flunkies, I’ve heard enough - you’re a big reason why we’re here. I am a peaceful man, but so help me God, I will slap anybody that suggests Chelsea Clinton, Michelle Obama (or in Indiana, Evan Bayh’s kid) as the the next leader of the party. Just stop.
And that goes double for the neocons, Reaganites, and never-Trump Republicans who’ve scurried out of their old home and under the Democratic tent over the last ten years. Listen, if your opposition to Trump, the MAGA movement, and authoritarianism in general is sincere, we’re glad to have you at the circus, but you don’t get to be ringleader.
Forty-plus years of austerity, union-busting, corporate consolidation, deregulated finance, and unnecessary war have convinced large swathes of the American public that democracy does not work for them. And, if you define democracy as the US Constitutional system as it currently exists, they’re right - it doesn’t.
Not that we’ve ever been a real democracy. Our government was never intended to serve most people - it was intentionally designed to stifle the popular will at several checkpoints. Like a four-digit combination lock, only by aligning the House, the Senate, the Presidency, and the courts can a progressive agenda move forward. The people need everything to line up just right. The wealthy few only need to control one roadblock to thwart it. And if those plutocrats and oligarchs control all four, they can set popular movements back decades.
In choosing Trump - a strongman, an authoritarian, a fascist - a plurality of American voters rejected the gridlock this system ensures, believing an autocrat will enact their will without all of those pesky checks and balances, maybe lower the cost of groceries and gas. Now, you and I know Trump will do nothing to build supply-chain redundancy, slow market concentration, or break from the oil cartel - the real reasons for inflation and high prices - but a whole lot of people are desperate for something, anything, new.
They’re not going to like what they actually get, but those people basically just voted to get rid of the Constitutional form of American government. Republicans have been calling us “radical left Marxists” for years and we’ve run away from doing anything bold in response. They’re out here throwing out the founding document, but they called us radicals. We’ve acted nothing of the sort. Instead, we’ve tried to be everything to everyone. People hate this hemming and hawing and hedging bets, the vapid “talking out of both sides of your mouth” speak so many mainstream politicians use. Stand for something! We could’ve owned our desire for major, systemic reform, but instead we settled for “nothing would fundamentally change.” This could’ve been our revolution, a positive, affirming, people’s revolution. Instead we get the billionaires’ revolution.
And make no mistake, the effects of this election will be revolutionary. In the first Trump administration, the institutions just barely held. Now, there are no guardrails. His campaign rhetoric was not empty bluster. He will abuse the immunity granted by the “broken, illegitimate” Supreme Court. He will use Schedule F to fire nonpartisan career civil servants. He will use the Alien Enemies Act to round up immigrants. And when we protest the overreach, he will use the Insurrection Act to mobilize the US military against American citizens. Will they shoot? Will they have to? Or will their very presence squash dissent?
Imagine. The Fourth Amendment right to privacy - dead. The Reconstruction Amendments - dead. The First Amendment freedoms of speech, press, religion, and assembly - dead, deceased, expired, and passed away.
The United States of America? Killed by a combination of white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and unfettered capitalism. She was 248 years old.
Take your time to grieve, but then allow yourself to feel liberated. We should no longer feel obligated to protect rotten institutions - collapse is imminent. We are about to enter a post-Constitutional world and have to imagine what kind of world we build on the other side of this crisis. We must prepare to bring in the heavy machinery - resistance, organizing, communications - to help clean up the mess, while simultaneously drafting the blueprint for a new, more democratic future.
The mess, an authoritarian America, won’t look like Hitler’s Germany or Mussolini’s Italy. I don’t think it comes to that, but you do need to understand that fascism is not a movement unique to Europe of the 1920’s and 30’s - it is a recurring virus plaguing humanity - evolving and mutating with time. It won’t look like Franco’s Spain or Pinochet’s Chile, led by military commanders. More apt comparisons? Bersluconi’s Italy, Erdogan’s Turkey, Orban’s Hungary or Putin’s Russia, the latter two autocrats in particular providing the framework for 21st Century despotism most emulated by the US right.
I’d like to think gas chambers are off the table this time, but concentration camps? The market is already counting on them. Detentions without charges? Forced labor? Sham trials? Poisonings? Disappearances? Falls from high windows? One-way helicopter rides? Not likely, though nothing would surprise me anymore - I mean, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is real good buddies with Mohammed bin Salman, who has dissidents gruesomely murdered.
The postmodern dictator uses more subtle means. Kim Lane Scheppele explains in the University of Chicago Law Review,
“the new autocrats achieve the look of normality by steering clear of human-rights violations on a mass scale, at least those human rights that have been entrenched in international conventions and many national constitutions. Instead, the new autocrats eliminate their opponents by pressuring them differently: they drive their opponents out of the country rather than jail them, and they punish those who defy them through economic measures that might easily be confused with bad luck in free markets. Opponents are fired from their jobs, denied social benefits for technical reasons, and evicted from their buildings because of small and technical violations. Owners of businesses that the government wants to seize in order to redistribute to its own allies are given offers that they cannot refuse.”
A veneer of democracy -with surveillance. A Trump administration in which tech-fascist oligarchs control the apparatus of the state has several people I know really worried about digital security and privacy. They’re talking about using Signal for encrypted messaging, setting up VPNs on their home networks, downloading ebooks for offline use, removing restrictions to make reading materials sharable, and ditching Google for private search engines like DuckDuckGo, SwissCows, and Whoogle. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and their Surveillance Self-Defense guide are a great place to start.
So that’s what we’re up against. “Don’t obey in advance”, but do take care of yourselves. Put on your oxygen mask first so you can help the most vulnerable. Stock up on Plan B and gender hormones. Share banned books. Aid and abet abortion. Harbor dissidents. Do whatever you’re capable of doing to reduce harm and promote freedom and dignity. Everyone will have their own risk tolerance.
And you might be risk-averse, that’s fine. Blend in. Go stealth. Go offline completely if necessary. Clear your history, shred your hard drive, unsubscribe from subversive publications like this one. I understand, and I won’t be offended. But don’t look away. Write everything down even if you share it with no-one, just so you remember the truth when they lie to you later. The mainstream media is already falling in line - don’t expect the whole truth from them.
As for me? I take solace in the fact that I’m probably pretty far down on the enemies list. I’ll continue to stand up loudly and scream the truth. I’ve said too much already in this space and there’s no taking it back now. But, I will not cower and I will not hide. I’m not hard to find. Bring it. The great James Baldwin said, “the most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.” Well, nothing these fascists could take from me is greater than what I’ve already lost this year. So, until we rid our country of this authoritarian plague, I am the “enemy from within.”
If you’re not afraid of providing material support for “the enemy within,” I could really use your paid subscription right about now.
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