The Enablers

Not yet a month into the Trump era and it is not at all clear if The Donald will continue to play the clown or get past that to become the authoritarian despot he aspires to be.  He faces a steep challenge as he is so ignorant of techniques of governance and diplomacy, and seems to have no fundamental understanding of important social and economic issues.

In the meantime, it is all too obvious that Trump is disruptive and dangerous.  His rants and crude bullying are causing consternation in capitals around the world and there is a growing fear that he will push the wrong button, either inadvertently or on purpose.  That said, while Trump may be unique in his unsuitability as a sitting President, he is probably not that unlike other historical despots.  Hitler and Mussolini also exhibited a lot of clown-like behavior that was fodder for satirists.  However, that did not ultimately prevent them from causing death and destruction on a massive scale.

Of course, the accomplishments of the great despots were not theirs alone.  They relied on the acquiescence of millions and the skilled manipulations of an inner circle.  Stalin had Malenkov and Beriia.  Hitler leaned on Speer, Hess, Goebbels and many other skilled propagandists like Leni Riefenstahl.

Regardless of the arc of his personal development, Trump's path through history will be largely guided by those around him who have the skills he lacks.  The rigors of the political process will weed out many of the sycophants and incompetents like Flynn, but political and constitutional processes will not prevent the ascension to power of the enablers like Tillerson, Sessions, Mnuchin, Ross, Coats, Perry, Carson, Zinke, Perdue, Shulkin, Mattis, Kelly, DeVos, Puzder, Chao and Price.

UPDATE:

The good news:  Puzder is out as Labor Secretary.
Not so good:  The guy who nominated Puzder is still (sometimes) in the White House.

The reasons for the withdrawal included the likelihood of four Republican senators voting against confirmation.  The reasons for that and other factors are dissected in a post at 538.

More Resistancce Resources

Carolyn Carlson at the Weekly Alibi authored a good article on current resistance activity which included the following list of national and local New Mexico resources:

www.Moveon.org

https://www.indivisibleguide.com

https://www.womensmarch.com

http://workingfamilies.org

https://dailyaction.org

https://www.runforsomething.net

https://5calls.org

https://www.resistancemanual.org/Resistance_Manual_Home

https://www.aclu.org

Local resources include:

http://progressnownm.org

http://abqpeaceandjustice.org

http://www.abqresistance.com

Time for a reminder

Following orders is not a valid defense for human rights abuse.

Resources

Well, this is actually a post about politics.  I know, I know; you're sick of the subject.  But, hey, we've got to find a way to evict that squatter from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, and I did give you a nice cat picture.

The first step is to find reliable information sources about local politics.  So, here is my short list:

The New Mexico Legislature Web Site:
Info on current bills, legislators, and web casts of the sessions.

NMPolitics.net:
On line news about what's going on in Santa Fe and around the State.

New Mexico in Depth:
Trip Jennings is Executive Director of this on line political news site.

The Santa Fe New Mexican:
Santa Fe's daily newspaper gets a lot closer to reality than the right-tilt Albuquerque Journal.

New Mexico Politics with Joe Monahan:
A daily dose of political gossip.  Monahan is a gun-for-hire, but he often gets the story right.

Democratic Party Town Hall Meetings:
I went to the recent one in Albuquerque at The Hotel Blue which provided a report on the beginning of the Legislative session.  Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino always does a great job as moderator.  Click the link to send a message to get the date for the end-of-session meeting.

The Next Day

Thousands of people filled Albuquerque's Civic Plaza today to reject hate and greed.
It was an inspiring day.