There seems to be a new sense of urgency among many Conservatives against Trump's takeovers in wake of the Bolton raid [View all]

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Last edited Tue Aug 26, 2025, 07:58 PM - Edit history (3)

...I could be wrong, but I think the right wing got a taste of fear this week in the wake of the Bolton home and business search and seizure - a raid by the Trump DOJ which enlightened their mostly academic observations of Democratic cities being taken over by armed military deployed by Donald's federal government, into a frightening awakening and realization that Trump's promise of retribution isn't going to only be actualized against Democrats.

It appeared to heighten a little after Trump attacked Chris Christie, who, himself, had seemed to find a new voice against the overreaches and abuses of the president and his administration to defend John Bolton.

Watching some of republican journos in exile, anti-Trumpers grow increasingly nervous and in earnest to communicate their newly-amped concern, it occurred to me how much the laws and the norms most of us follow give their defenders stature and relevance when they are in place, being actively defended by the courts and strictly adhered to by the government which is in charge of executing those; and how tenuous the thread is that gives us all the stature as citizens to hold authority over ourselves without the paternalism of the government we pay for policing us.

All of the folks we now recognize as authorities lose much of their credential in a collapsed society where government has the majority of control over the message, and these temper tantrums by Trump against his critics are more than individual retribution. They are an attempt to chill others from their own resistance and authority over their own intellectual domain; and to stifle the influence of all other than the central government's.

It's a dubious scheme which would be much less believable if it wasn't unfolding right in front of us with the government using the heavy hand of OUR government to intimidate and blackmail schools, corporations, institutes, museums, and other outlets of independent thought.

I guess that remains to be seen to what extent and duration these bursts of opposition from erstwhile republicans and reluctant republicans become actual active resistance. I could be wrong, but there's a new sense of urgency in the air among Conservatives toward the Trump takeovers - call it ownership of opposition - which increased after the Bolton raid and heightened a little more after the attack on Christie who was spurred by the searches to weigh in on Trump's overreaches for basically the first time.

When it was just Democrats, migrants, or black people in cities we saw a mostly abstract debate about immigration or crime, but we may be seeing a meeting of interests and concerns between political opposites as a result of Trump's zeal to punish his critics; losing his own thread of attack against just the Dems and libs and eating his party's own.