THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS are upon us, and the Trump administration is doing everything it can think of to remind us why we should be hoping for the Republicans to go down in a blue tsunami.
asserted
Republicans → do → tsunami
Donald Trump and his minions flirt more brazenly than ever with Vladimir Putin’s Russia while trashing Ukraine.
asserted
Trump → flirt → Ukraine
Trump, speaking at a rally, brags that “we’re making a freaking fortune” in oil-industry profits and mocks concerns about “people suffering at the pump.”
asserted
we → speak → pump
The mass-deportation regime crosses yet another line of indecency with the planned expulsion of more than 150 legal immigrants and asylum seekers from Afghanistan—including family members of people who helped American troops—to Pakistan for transfer into the hands of the Taliban.
asserted
who → cross → Taliban
Meanwhile, Trump reportedly rails against a former adviser over a $50 million pardon-for-pay deal—because he didn’t get a cut of the money.
uncertain
he → rail → money
His public meltdowns are getting more and more unhinged: When he isn’t ranting at a reporter for being out of shape, he’s gushing about men’s derrieres.
asserted
he → get → derrieres
Also, the Department of Justice takes its third crack at carrying out Trump’s vendetta against former FBI director James Comey, filing a third case while one earlier case remains pending and another was dismissed.
asserted
another → take → case
As they said in Joseph Stalin’s USSR: “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”1
asserted
I → say → crime
Oh, and White House and cabinet officials are making racist Halloween posts.
Happy Election Day, kids.
asserted
officials → make → posts
AFTER DONALD TRUMP won in 2024, some right-wingers said things like this:
asserted
wingers → win → this
Well, that, as they say, aged like fine milk.
asserted
they → say → milk
Most sane people’s reaction to that post today would be Actually, whatever I might have written down after Election Day 2024 would have been no match for what really happened.
uncertain
what → write → Day
Would your piece of paper have had any of these:
Trump, seconded by Vice President JD Vance and by other administration officials, makes repeated threats to invade Denmark?
asserted
Trump → second → Denmark
Trump starts a war with Iran (after throwing pro-democracy protesters to the wolves), repeatedly declares victory, and screws it up so badly he has to cite it as a plus that Russia didn’t help Iran more?
asserted
Russia → start → Iran
Two U.S. citizens get shot dead in the streets by federal immigration officers?
asserted
citizens → shoot → officers
After a mass pardon of January 6th insurrectionists, about a hundred get arrested on new charges including ones of sex crimes against children, and several try to argue that the clemency applies to unrelated offenses?2
Trump tears down the East Wing to build a ballroom bigger than the White House itself?
Trump puts a photo of an autopen where Joe Biden’s picture should be in the White House gallery of his predecessors and proudly shows it off to baffled foreign leaders?
asserted
picture → arrest → leaders
The Trump Department of Defense orders strikes on boats on mere suspicion of drug trafficking, almost certainly murdering innocent people in the process?
asserted
Department → order → process
The Trump administration basically shuts down refugee admissions except for white South Africans fleeing a mythical genocide?
asserted
administration → shut → genocide
Trump publicly berates Norway and calls it a “shithouse country” because he didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize?
asserted
he → berate → Prize
Trump’s secretary of health and human services pushes the vaccine/autism hoax?3
And the list could go on and on.
uncertain
list → push → hoax?3
I WANT TO TAKE A MOMENT to address people who agree that Trump and the Republicans are deeply flawed but are reluctant to vote against them (which obviously means voting for Democrats) because of the “woke left,” or DEI, or DSA.
asserted
which → want → left
It’s hardly unreasonable to be critical of the left generally, or of specific subsets of progressivism, for overreach or toxicity or bad policy ideas.
asserted
It → ’ → overreach
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comment that “Woke 1.0 was crazy” has become something of a meme, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that it was often damaging to careers, reputations, free expression, and the social climate.
asserted
it → wake → careers
But you have to wear MAGA hat-sized blinders to insist in 2026 that wokeness is worse than—or at least just as bad as—the Trump administration and the MAGAfied Republican party.
asserted
wokeness → have → administration
Yes, it’s bad when a university or a magazine fires a person for saying or writing something that violates progressive taboos.
asserted
that → ’ → taboos
It’s considerably worse when the White House tries to bring television networks to heel via bogus lawsuits by the president and the Federal Communications Commission chairman’s abuse of regulatory powers (and has some success).
asserted
House → ’ → success
Yes, it’s bad when social media mobs hound dissenters or shut down a business for showing too little support for social justice causes.
asserted
mobs → ’ → causes
It’s considerably worse when the president gets his critics prosecuted on his vindictive whim—even if a grand jury ultimately refuses to indict them—or uses executive orders to target and intimidate law firms that have represented his political opponents.
asserted
that → ’ → opponents
As for claims that the left wields formidable cultural power—the Trump-led Republican party has it too, at least among the conservative population.
uncertain
party → wield → population
Most notably, it has made some disturbing headway in normalizing nativism with overtones of white nationalism.
asserted
it → make → nationalism
When high-level administration officials are promoting openly bigoted messages like “Import the Third World, become the Third World,” and terms like “Heritage American” and “Legacy American”—which relegate immigrants and even native-born Americans without a sufficiently long American pedigree to second-class status—this has an impact on cultural norms.
asserted
this → promote → norms
The recent viral post by Bo French, Republican candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner, decrying the horror of South Asian and black young people being visible at a University of Texas football game, brought the spotlight on the surge in anti-Indian racism on the right.
asserted
people → decry → right
Some Republicans condemned the nauseating post.
asserted
Republicans → condemn → post
But the best Gov. Greg Abbott could muster was, “That is not my message.”
uncertain
That → muster → ?
And Trump slammed Republican strategist Karl Rove for saying that he would vote for French’s Democratic opponent, and the official X account of the U.S. Department of Education made a post with a wink and a nod to French.
asserted
account → slam → French
The MAGA GOP, it turns out, is the party of identity politics—white identity politics.
asserted
it → turn → politics
Besides the insidious impact of MAGA’s cultural politics, there is the simple fact that Trumpism fatally taints principled opposition to the illiberal left.
asserted
Trumpism → be → left
If you’re against progressive DEI programs that promote racial consciousness and polarization, a racially polarizing right-wing administration with a likeminded party and movement behind it should be your worst enemy.
asserted
administration → ’re → it
It alienates some people and corrupts others.
asserted
It → alienate → others
So you see right-wing activist Chris Rufo, who was once outspoken about the importance of color-blind meritocracy, now arguing that ackshually, anti-Indian racism reflects “frustration coming from a legitimate place.”
asserted
racism → see → place
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
