Democracy falling: Dems are a gnat to be swatted

TNR reports about djt's speech at the Naval Academy on Oct. 5, 2025. TNR and other sources report Trump's exact quote: "We have to take care of this little gnat that's on our shoulder called the Democrats". He made a flicking motion from his shoulder to emphasize the non-human status of Democrats. The speech was before ~10,000 sailors in dress white uniform. Trump acknowledged the partisan political nature of the event, saying "Let's face it, this is a rally".

A historian and dictator expert commented: "When you dehumanize an opponent, you strip them of their constitutional rights to participate securely in a democracy because you're saying they're not human. That's what dictators do". Presidential historian Jon Meacham said that "to call your opponent vermin, to dehumanize them, is to not only open the door, but to walk through the door toward the most ghastly kinds of crimes".

We now live under what is almost a full-blown dictatorship-kleptocracy. It is rapidly converting to a cruel, lawless police state as djt and MAGA elites keep pushing both ICE and the US military into a dictatorship mindset. Some of the peanuts in the gallery get it:

A peanut, former military, commented: Bush stood in front of my friends, the survivors of some of whom never made it home and I, and thanked us for our sacrifice to the county. Now, Trumps says I'm a terrorist because I think children should have priority over profits.

Another peanut responded: I turned 18 a few months before the Iraq War started. It was the first political issue I cared about and went a long way to shape my current political views. I never thought we'd have a president that I hate more than GWB in my lifetime, but the two aren't even in the same ballpark. 

This should be terrifying across the board. It falls in line with a pattern that I can only describe as years of psychologically priming the public to engage in hate.

There is no doubt that threats to democracy and the rule of law from Trump, MAGA elites and their pro-dictator ideology are increasingly explicit and increasingly threatening of unwarranted, unprovoked violence. It's not just me that sees it. 

By now, no one of good faith and good will can spin insulting MAGA ideology and demagoguery like this into something other than the stinking moral rot and evil it is. 

Trump, MAGA elites

& their insulting threats