Who are the real Americans? We are

[marmar]

Who are the real Americans? We are
Never mind the ignorant fantasies coming from the White House. Chicago and Portland are showing us true patriotism

By Kirk Swearingen
Contributing Writer
Published October 11, 2025 6:30AM (EDT)




Armed federal agents intimidating people on the streets of great American cities. Public servants who lived up to their oaths of office losing their careers or being charged with crimes at the behest of a man convicted of numerous felonies. Hundreds of U.S. generals summoned to Marine headquarters in Virginia to hear what a former Fox News personality and a five-time draft dodger want to demand of them. (Hint: loyalty to them, not to the Constitution.)

As to those cities, after Donald Trump called Portland, Oregon, “war-ravaged,” people who actually live have been posting videos to social media platforms showing the peaceful sights and sounds of their vibrant city. We recently spent a couple of days in Chicago, and the only crime we encountered was how much it cost to park the car. Now, heavily armed federal agents are marching up and down the Magnificent Mile.

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Trump created his MAGA coalition based on fear of “the other,” which has historically been a potent political move (think Richard Nixon’s perfection of the Southern strategy and Ronald Reagan’s aggressive race-baiting with his fictional Chicago welfare queen, among many other dog whistles).

After America elected and then re-elected Barack Obama, not only a Black man but a constitutional scholar and an intellectual, to the presidency, the Republicans in Congress completely lost their minds and pledged to make him fail as president. They began to do all they could to shut down government and to excoriate Democrats, using the list of pejorative terms former House Speaker Newt Gingrich cribbed from conservative shock-jock Rush Limbaugh. The hard turn in Congress away from collegiality and compromise had begun.

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Government works pretty well all over the world, so long as well-meaning people with strong, relevant experience are put in leadership positions. Look at this deplorable Trump “administration,” filled to the brim with suck-ups, grifters, unhinged ideologues and conspiracy-theory kooks — each one, including the one playacting at the Resolute desk, astonishingly unqualified. The word for that kind of group being in charge is kakistocracy, which is an unhappy-sounding term that describes a devastatingly unhappy situation: government by the worst people. It sounds like something you might utter right before vomiting. .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/10/11/who-are-the-real-americans-we-are/