From Terry Moran's Substack: Trump has no shame. That is his secret power. He is, literally, shameless.

[Demovictory9]

But Trump has no shame. That is his secret power. He is, literally, shameless. So he can parade his vivid inadequacies—his ignorance, his vanity, his physical grossness, his overall gaucheness—before the world, shielded by this power of shamelessness. But there are times he needs more, and so he protects himself from the mortal threat that someone might stand up to him and compel him to recognize his own absurdity with an armor of cruelty. He is cruel. He must be cruel, must lash out, must smash, must humiliate and dominate any person who dares to notice how ridiculous he is, how wrong, how unlawful, how ignorant. That has probably happened a lot in Donald Trump’s life, and it has made him a master of cruelty.

This astonishing personality has captivated tens of millions of Americans. They have raised him up higher than almost any other American in our history. Why? How? There are structural economic reasons, yes; America was ripe for a populist revolt, as the 2016 campaign of Bernie Sanders showed. But Sanders is an eminently decent man. He lacked the elixir of hatreds, the cup of cruelty that Trump offers to all who follow him. This is the key to Trump’s demagoguery: He gives people permission to be the worst version of themselves.

The contagion of cruelty has now swept our land, and swept Trump back into power. The culture of cruelty is now the center of power in our country. The ideal of American solidarity, that way of life that recognizes we are all bound together in this nation, all brothers and sisters living in one shared national community, working out our differences under law through democratic debates—that’s a joke in Trump’s America. MAGA doesn’t even pay lip service to it. Oh, they prattle on about America all the time, but they don’t mean what Lincoln meant. Or Reagan. They sing “God Bless America,” when they ought to fear the judgment of a just and loving God. The only community that truly matters is MAGA. MAGA is America and America is MAGA. You’re in or you’re out. And once you are in, you are complicit, because MAGA is built and bound together by the endorsement of, and the participation in, this culture of cruelty. There can be no dissent. Dissent of any kind is dangerous, because it exposes the truth: That the ecstasy of being cruel is a sickness, not a triumph. That their grandchildren will be ashamed of them for this.


Received by email.. will look for link

[D. Spaulding]

1. Keep going Terry

Keep telling it like it us.

[D. Spaulding]

2. The "elixir of hatreds"; love that. Might as well add

the celebration and propagation of shared grievances, and the emotional validation of shared insecurities.

[rampartd]

3. in 2016 maybe not

but by 2025 they must be willfully stupid

You’re in or you’re out. And once you are in, you are complicit, because MAGA is built and bound together by the endorsement of, and the participation in, this culture of cruelty.

are we really going to need to go mao style cultural revolution when we overthrow this clown?

holding my answer on that one until we get there.

[BWdem4life]

4. What surprised me was how many wanted to become the worst possible

versions of themselves.

How many were just itching for it.

Makes it hard to continue to believe in humanity, to be perfectly honest.

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. As do those who worship him

It's how, for example, they can shoot puppies. Neuro-typical people would be haunted by that to their graves, but these people are anything but typical in any way.

[dweller]

6. Link

https://terrymoran.substack.com/p/the-republic-of-fear



✌🏻

[Demovictory9]

7. Thank you!!!

[Hornedfrog2000]

8. Trump fucks little kids

Hes a raging pedophile, of course he has no shame.

[dedl67]

10. Trump at least seems somehow to realize that it is shameful to be ignorant and a coward

That is why he calls himself a ‘stable genius’ and, recently, a ‘war hero’. But instead of being shamed for his actual ignorance and actual cowardice, as a normal person would be, his response is the opposite; that is, hating anyone who really has those qualities; either people who are really knowledgeable (e.g. Anthony Fauci), or who are brave (e.g. John McCain). His wish is to annihilate them, as they reflect badly on him.

[Bev54]

9. As are the rest of MAGA, it turns out. No shame and no conception of how they will be looked at in history.

[Demovictory9]

11. Some of Trumps administration (Rubio, Noem, Hegseth, Miller) are as evil as he is

Rubio knows it..just wants power.

B