GOP MAGA lawmakers don’t dare to be critical of their defeated ex-president as they don’t want to risk losing their powerful positions. They are being squeezed into submission by both the ardent GOP MAGA voters and the GOP MAGA dark money corporate donors. The GOP MAGA elected officials can’t win an election without the backing of these GOP MAGA supporters of the defeated ex-president. They won’t brook any disloyalty to their leader and his policies, even when he lies, and they’ll do anything to maintain themselves and him in power. Moderate GOP lawmakers aren’t invited to this party. If GOP MAGA lawmakers become the majority party in the US House, they’ll be expected to render retribution in the form of endless contentious hearings against all those on the GOP MAGA defeated ex-president’s enemies list, including the impeachment of POTUS Biden and the taking down of Dr. Fauci. Any work done on behalf of the American peoples will be minimal.

The dark money donors keep demanding what they’ve always wanted, the reduction of taxes on corporations, the ending of government oversight, the elimination of social safety net programs like social security and Medicare, etc., or they’ll cut off the spigot of monies that fund the elections of GOP MAGA lawmakers. Both coalitions cannot achieve their goals in a thriving democracy as what they promote aren’t popular enough to be easily enacted into law, but these objectives become much more attainable in an autocracy.

But here’s the rub. If these GOP corporate titans get an autocratic government, they’ll no longer need the GOP MAGAs. Their influence via the power of their votes will mean nada. Then the GOP MAGAs will learn the hard way what happens in autocratic countries, where the rich get richer and the poor become poorer, and the economic conditions for average and poor folks end up in the toilet.

Thus, both these factions buy into the concept of the USA becoming more of an authoritarian government.

The question for all the rest of us, is how do we prevent our US democracy from devolving into an autocracy? How do we counter the disinformation/ misinformation campaign spread by the GOP MAGAs and the GOP MAGA dark money corporate donors? How do fellow Americans keep intact their right to be able to easily and safely cast their votes where their intended candidate wins, in a transparent above-board, nonmanipulative way, where poll workers and election officials aren’t threatened with violence, and where there’s not frequent contested challenges, unnecessary recounts, protracted/ difficult transfers of power? How do we prevent future acts of violence like the 1/6/2021 insurrection and the beating up of the House leader’s spouse, Paul Pelosi by GOP MAGAs based on lies over election losses? When the GOP MAGA ex-president is presented with an indictment by the US Department of Justice, honoring the “rule of law” where no one gets a free get out of jail card for criminal wrongdoings, how do we prevent violent outbreaks by GOP MAGAs?

I’m convinced that unless the drug of lies, conspiracy theories, the stoking of culture war issues based mostly on misleading information by GOP political operatives is successfully countered by all those who promote the continuation of our US democracy, that it’ll not be possible to save it.

In the words of the Democratic former US President Obama, what happens when truth doesn’t matter anymore?

In my opinion, GOP MAGAS have been sold a fool’s gold dream, by placing complete faith in a politician like the GOP MAGA ex-president who has been brilliant in channeling and directly validating their angst about their way of living being threatened from outside forces to where they could be required to resort to acts of violence to defend their existence. Many of the GOP MAGAs blame the influx of immigrants, the increasing numbers of peoples of color, those who practice different faith-based beliefs from Christian conservatives, those progressive thinking libs who look down on them, the so-called mainstream media writers who lie and demean them, LGBTQ folks, (the other) for impeding their ability to flourish as they wish in their White Christian dominant comfort zone. They live behind a wall of fears, mistrust, a state of perceived invisibility, hungry for an easy fix to grant their lives meaning and some hope for a better future. Too many of them have endured hard times where decent jobs paying a living wage have been in decline and wages have been stagnant for decades. They worry about being able to provide for the basic needs for themselves and their families. They feel a lack of control over their destiny. Before 2016, these Americans rarely voted.

Then along comes the GOP MAGA ex-president, the first politician to figure out how to connect with these disaffected souls, by delivering to them their drug of choice, addicting them to the high of his mirroring their anger over being unfairly treated, echoing their feelings without censure regarding their white Christian beliefs. These GOP MAGA supporters have come to believe everything he says, no matter how outrageous or what the facts are that prove his assertions to be patently false. They exhibit absolute, blind faith and they’ll not be moved an inch from their loyalty to him.

He started right off the bat in 2015 by catering to them with the promise to limit the number of immigrants allowed to enter the USA. Remember when he began his presidential campaign, walking down the Trump Tower’s escalator, railing against US immigration policies. He no sooner ensconced himself in the White House, when he presented the country with his “Muslim ban.” Later, he figured out other ways to further discourage immigration, as with his policy of separating children from migrant parents seeking asylum at the US southern border. He sold his MAGA supporters on his idea of building a wall across the entire US south to keep illegal immigrants from easily crossing the US border.

He propped up his cult-like supporters even when some GOP MAGAs acted out with racist and anti-Semitic chants as in the August 12, 2017 “Unite the Right” White Nationalists’ rally held in Charlottesville, attended by both white nationalists and counter-protesters where violence ensued. He equated the values and actions by White Nationalists with those of the counter protestors.

Throughout his 4-year reign and beyond, he’s trafficked in lies ad nauseum, relying on the axiom by Joseph Goebbels, the chief Nazi propagandist from 1933-1945 and one of Adolf Hitler’s closest and most devoted acolytes, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. ”

I’m one of those who believe that the GOP MAGA defeated ex-president knows exactly what he was doing by dealing in lies and conspiracy theories which extended to the demonization of anyone who challenges his thinking from both sides of the political aisle, his portrayal of mainstream media outlets as being the purveyors of “fake news,” his vocal distrust of the deep state government’s long term employees’ intent to keep him from implementing his plans, the belief that he was smarter than anyone around him, his fawning over those who did obeisance to him. His lies about how US elections are riddled with corruption and fraud, requiring correction, how the 2020 election was stolen from him and how all the classified documents recovered by the FBI at his Florida had been previously de-classified are believed by millions.

See: 1/16/2021 CNN Politics analysis, “The 15 most notable lies of Donald Trump’s presidency” by Daniel Dale. “The GOP MAGA US ex-president has been on a relentless and dangerous lying spree from the start of his presidency.”

The GOP MAGA defeated ex-president’s respect and admiration of authoritarian dictators like Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, Hungary’s President Viktor Orban, the state officials of Saudi Arabia, etc., is a tell, letting us know how he desperately envies their style of governing. Many of his actions are indicative of his wish to morph our US democracy into an authoritarian regime where the job of the US presidency becomes permanent, elections become a proforma exercise where the winners are predetermined, and then those selected as heads of all governmental agencies would be required to be 100% loyal him. Political dissenters will see jail time, and peaceful protests will be verboten. Corporations that don’t fall into line with whatever the government dictates will be severely penalized. The GOP MAGAs’ version of freedom is, it’s my way or the highway.

Apparently, the GOP MAGA defeated ex-president has been a fan of Adolf Hitler.  As per the 7/7/2021 Sun report, “What did Donald Trump reportedly say about Hitler?” by Patrizia Rizzo:

“Former President Donald Trump allegedly praised Adolf Hitler during a 2018 trip to Europe to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.”

“Trump allegedly claimed that “Hitler did a lot of good things,” which shocked retired Marine Corps general and his chief-of-staff John Kelly.”

According to the GOP MAGA defeated ex-president’s first wife, he was a fan of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order.

See: Donald Trump’s Ex-Wife: Trump Kept Book of Hitler’s Speeches by His Bed …https://www.businessinsider.com/ 2015