If we have President Trump, President Vance, or both, in the future we'll be living in "1984" on steroids, by Hal M. Brown, MSW

 

Well known promo picture for 1984 colorized by Kolorize.cc Click image to enlarge

There's no real need to go chapter and verse through George Orwell's 1949 novel "1984" to understand why referencing it here (as is done elsewhere) describes what Trump and Vance want the United States to become. Each hopes to become Big Brother. Vance anticipates that within a year or two he will assume the position of president.

Project 2025 isn't a novel, but like "1984 it describes a totalitarian country run by a dictator whose government uses mass surveillance of citizens and repressive regimentation to control the behavior of the population.

Consider that in 1949 when "1984" was written the cyber capacity to track the social media habits and the physical location of people didn't exist. In 1949 there was no National Security Agency (NSA) with its vast satellite network:

Today you can be tracked by your car and cell phone GPS, but this is child's play for law enforcement agencies. Survellience cameras are ubiquitous. Police can monitor your driving and send you tickets for infractions. Banks, ATMs, and stores have cameras. Facial recognition can be used to identify you and, I assume if not now eventually, will be used to find out where you are. 

Are you really sure that when you read a website like this some hacker hasn't turned on your device's camera and microphone?

Another novel that is being written about as a warning about what could happen in American under Trump and Vance is Margaret Atwood's 1985 "The Handmaids Tale." Consider that Covid can be tracked by analysis of wastewater and ask yourself whether the government could decide to determine whether residents of a given area were using mifepristone (half of the so-called abortion pill) or any kind of banned birth control. Federal funds could be withheld from the community. Worse than that government agents could interogate all the females of child bearing age living there to make sure that if they are pregnant they don't have an abortion.

In 2025 under a Trump and Vance Americans could try to run from a repressive government but they wouldn't be able to hide.

I couldn't figure out a way to illustrate this blog until I realized that an app I just bought to colorize a batch of old black and white paper photos from my childhood could also be used to intensify what 2025 and beyond could look like.

Some images from the movie, like this one, look more foreboding than the colorized version.

In "1984" we had Winston Smith as the protagonist. He worked in a mid-level job at the Ministry of Truth. He kept his hatred for the Party secret. When he discovered that there was a resistance group called the Brotherhood he and his girlfriend Julia joined it.  However, they were betrayed by a Party spy and arrested by the Thought Police. He was sent to be "reeducated" through torture by his worst fear, rats, and through mind manipulation by the Ministry of Love. Eventually he betrayed Julia and realized he loved Big Brother and was released. The end of the book tells what happens after he is happily sitting in a cafe after he is a "free" man:

“He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."

Those last four words are consider by some to be among the most devasting and heartbreaking words in literature (read article).

In the Big Brother world of Trump and Vance I doubt a Winston could survive as long as he did let alone there being a Brotherhood undergound resistance standing a chance of being effective. I doubt it could be organized in the first place.

Whichever of my illustrations you think suggests what our country could look like, imagine Trump or Vance in the pictures as Big Brother.  If you value freedom, democracy, and a tolerant multi-ethnic pluralistic America, all of these images should scare the bejesus out of you. 

Watch the trailer for the movie "1984" here.

Addendum: 

Voters should assume that a vote for Trump is a vote for Vance. I wrote about this (here) several days ago and it is finally being covered in progressive media.

Recent blogs:

If Trump ends up going to trial and is convicted is he capable of saying he's sorry?

Will the drip-drip-drip of Trump being Trump overflow his bucket and ruin his chance of winning?

It can’t happen here. Some people “get it” and want it. Some people don’t “get it”, don’t want it, and may vote for it. 

“On the initiative of the vice president” should be on the top of the page story today.

Previous blogs.

If elected Trump will bring us the authoritarianism of "1984" with the brutal chaos of "The Lord of the Flies." By Hal Brown, MSW

 

Click image to enlarge (Trump caricatures created by Perchance Photo AI)

Rather than make this a treatise on the two novels and how there are elements in each which correspond with what Trump will usher in for the country if he becomes president again I will assume most readers know the themes of "1984" and "The Lord of the Flies." 

I admit that I got the idea for this blog from the AI images that came up when I was looking for illustrations for yesterday's blog about Trump's mosquito episode (here). 

I'll leave it to someone with literary chops to go into depth about how these and other dystopian novels (both of these books are on this list) could foreshadow what a Trump presidency could turn our great democratic experiment into. 

"Project 2025" isn't a novel. It is a "how to book."

 If Trump wins it could stand next to "Mein Kampf" as the most destructive instructional manual of all time.

Consider: "How Mein Kampf Changed the World" by Heather Whipps 

Excerpt:

"Mein Kampf" was a clear-cut warning to the world of Hitler's intentions for war and genocide, which may have been recognized and prevented had more people read it outside of Germany, some historians say. Publishers in the United States and the U.K. did produce copies in English prior to the War, but were held up by copyright lawsuits by Hitler's publishers.

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The Democrats need to show the exit to all of these people. If Biden can't do it another candidate must. By Hal Brown, MSW

 

The costumed or normally attired MAGA's at the RNC and at Trump rallies and those in extremist groups like the man (below) used to illustrate the RawStory article Veteran newsman schools neo-Nazis: 'When I look at you guys, I do not think master race' must be shown the exit. If not our lives, our way of life depends on it.

Above is the photo RawStory used to illustrate their article.

You can read the article and watch the local TV station's video  where the reporter interviews the Neo-Nazis here. It shows a terrified little girl hiding behind her mother as she confronts the Neo-Nazis:

Compare the hand tattoos:

This is how the article concludes:

It was time for me to speak my truth.

"Can I be honest with you guys?"

"You're a loser, scumbag," Minadeo (a Neo-NAZI) responded.

"When I look at you guys, I do not think 'master race.'"

At that point, Boysheim (another Neo-NAZI) interjected, "You're old and about to die. Your time is coming to its end."

In fact, what I saw was a group of wounded, angry men who've never accomplished much in their own lives, looking for someone else to blame.

"You're worse than the Jews," Minedeo shouted.

Again, more of my truth: "I really feel sorry for you guys."

Boysheim shot back, "I don't give a f**k what you feel sorry for. You're going to be in a grave soon, you dumb f**king, sell-off boomer."

Minadeo chimed in, "F**k you, boomer."

As I walked away, I felt an overriding feeling of sadness.

These are really pathetic human beings.

They are the only ones who seem not to know it.

The two last sentences got to me because while these people are particularly pathetic human beings and do not know it, they are no more pathetic than all members of the MAGA movement who without really knowing what it means for the future of American democracy will say they believe in Project 2025. 

In fact if Trump is elected Project 2025 will be today's Mein Kampf.

By the time you read this we may already know whether Biden is going to step down. Hopefully he'll announce this decision at least by Monday so prominent Democrats and Republican anti-Trumpers who have considered him to be a weaker candidate than others can focus instead on wholehearteredly endorsing him.

He won't learn about my advice unless someone with a website that more than the few hundred who read my blog publishes something I write. For example, when we were watching the recent video of Biden walking up the stairs to Air Force One, my partner who sometimes says this to me said "if I were Jill and was by your side I'd be saying to you 'posture, honey, posture' perhaps adding it's only a few more steps until we get inside.'"

Meanwhile I hope that Biden makes the rational and right decision for democracy. For those who don't subscribe to The NY Times below is an excerpt from Maureen Dowd' column today, Lord Almighty, Joe, Let It Go!" I posted an excerpt:

Everyone wants Joe Biden gone.

Even the people who don’t want him gone really want him gone.

“Everyone’s waiting for Joe,” said one top Democrat. “And he’s sitting at home, stewing and saying, ‘What if? What if? What if?’ We’re doing things the Democratic way. We’re botching it.”

I have many happy memories of Rehoboth Beach. I went there growing up and have Proustian recollections of crispy French fries with vinegar sold on the Boardwalk. But now my gladdening images have been replaced by a maddening one: President Biden hunkered down in his house there, recovering from Covid, resisting talking to anyone who will tell him the truth, hoarsely yelling, “Get off my beach!” at the growing list of Democratic lawmakers and donors trying to warn him that he is pulling down his party and the country.

It makes me sad that Biden doesn’t see what’s inescapable: If he doesn’t walk away gracefully right now, he will likely go down as a pariah and ruin his legacy.

The race for the Oval today is between two delusional, selfish, stubborn old guys, and that’s a depressing state of affairs.

Dowd concludes:

Given that Biden said it would take the Lord Almighty to make him drop out, I have no doubt that Pelosi has been using their shared Catholic faith to guilt-trip the president into understanding the stakes, and what she thinks the Lord Almighty would want. Certainly, she might have said, she doesn’t like Trump claiming, as he did this week, that the Lord Almighty is on his side.

Really, what the Democrats need is a thrilling open convention, rather than a coronation. Trump just had one of those, after all.

Here's what Carl Bernstein had to say (reference):

One of the legendary reporters who chronicled the Watergate scandal says an irate President Joe Biden now recognizes he faces long odds to defeat former President Donald Trump — and could announce Monday that he's dropping out of the race. 

Carl Bernstein talked Friday night with CNN's Anderson Cooper on "AC360," and said, "the president himself has now moved from being what was called 'contemplative' about his situation to recognition that it's very unlikely that his candidacy can be sustained."

That's true of his family as well, Bernstein said. Even so, the president feels "angry" and "abandoned" by Democratic leaders, including and most vociferously toward Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)

Yesterday I wrote Newsom/Whitmer is a made for TV winning ticket. They possess the "it factor" here.

Click above to enlarge image.

 

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