• by Gord Hotchkiss , Featured Contributor, 2 hours ago

Pete Hegseth is nobody’s idea of a politically correct person. He proudly hoists the anti-woke banner high. And in doing so, he has carved a place for himself in MAGA hearts and minds.

But I, for one, have had enough. I’m all for trying to find middle ground. But when the leader of the world’s most powerful military force decides it’s cool to body-shame a young Canadian participating in a youth development program -- well, that’s a line that should never have been crossed.

I get that I’m sensitized to the vast amounts of anti-Canadian BS pouring out of Washington right now- AI generated slop with the puerile sense of humor you would normally only find in an elementary school playground. Yes, I take exception to putting the actual governing of a country and managing a war you’re losing on the back burner while the President renames bodies of water willy-nilly (no, he didn’t actually name a lake Lake Willy Nilly, but that would at least shown a shred of humor).

Seriously, enough is enough. Even diehard brown-nosing sycophantic Trump-loving Republicans must -- deep down in some remaining vestige of their rational brain -- realize how truly asinine this is. And it’s not just the Canadian stuff. Unfortunately, tha’s just the tip of this astoundingly stupid worldwide iceberg. 

ChatGPT tells me that there are probably a little over half-a-million Republicans attached to the federal government in some capacity. One assumes they get through the day by holding their nose and gamely executing this farcical game plan.

Take the current renaming of Lake Ontario, for instance. Yes, Trump signed the executive order, but as that bit of “stable genius” trickled down through the required layers to get implemented, dozens –--if not hundreds -- of people had to actually do something to make it official. Did any of them think to themselves, “OMG, he’s finally flipped his orange wig. Call in the dementia patrol, our POTUS has pooped the bed on this one.”

Even Google, which in better times said it was going to “organize the world’s information” and “do no evil,” has stuck nose firmly up the POTUS posterior, flipping the switch on Lake America. Oh Google, there was a time when I respected you. Guess I’m going to have to re-download MapQuest.

The question I ask -- incredulously and, yes,  urgently – is, When is enough enough? What line has to be crossed before spines begin to regenerate? When the leadership of your country is modeling behavior that wouldn’t be tolerated in preschool, when does some sensibility switch flip in your brain and suggest that perhaps it’s time to end this chilling charade? Because nowhere in the realm of all possible outcomes does this lead to a scenario where American is great.

This is the time-lapse rotting of an empire. It’s blindingly obvious to the rest of the world. Those that still cling to Trump’s bulky backside: Why can’t you see that from where you’re stooping?

But maybe you can. Maybe you’re edging close to a tipping point. And if history has taught us anything, it’s that when malignant facades crumble, they do so quickly. America today is a transactional regime, where many follow the path they believe will personally do them the most good. Up to now,  some folks have believed that alignment with Trumpism equals more money, more power and more prestige for themselves.

But, at some point, that balance will shift and all those transactionalists will discover they’ve been betting on the wrong horse. Then, abandonment will not be a trickle, it will be a stampede of morally corrupt grifters heading for the exits.

It happened to Nixon. After two prolonged years of Watergate, his presidency crumbled in just two weeks. On July 24,1974, he was ordered to release the “smoking gun” tapes.  By Aug. 9, he was gone, primarily because his Republican supporters abandoned him enmasse.

And if we go back a little further, it also happened to Mussolini in World War 11. On July 10, 1943, after Mussolini had been in power two decades, the Allies landed in Sicily. By July 25 -- again, two weeks later – Mussolini was in prison.

The lesson to be learned here is that when your support is transactional in nature, it can pivot away from you in the blink of an eye.

Looking at what’s happening today in Trump’s America, I don’t think it’s a question of “if” this will happen. It’s a question of “when.”