{"id":2392,"date":"2026-06-28T15:35:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T15:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2026-06-28T15:35:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T15:35:56","slug":"trumps-lost-cause-is-a-threat-to-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2392","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s \u2018lost cause\u2019 is a threat to democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s attempts to celebrate America\u2019s 250th birthday as a referendum honoring himself, and simultaneously plastering memorials to himself all over Washington, D.C., is a literal \u201clost cause\u201d that threatens democracy.<\/p>\n

Read more Inside Trump\u2019s most pernicious legacy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s some food for thought here in 2026, as an ailing, flailing President Donald Trump sets his sight on being the ringmaster of the clown show he has planned for the Fourth,\u201d wrote The New Republic\u2019s Jason Linkins on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Previously, Linkins discussed how Americans should embrace discrediting the Lost Cause ideology of the Confederacy \u2014 namely, the idea that the Confederate rebellion against the United States after Abraham Lincoln\u2019s victory in the 1860 presidential election was somehow honorable. In fact, the Southern states seceded from the Union because they supported slavery and feared Lincoln would bar it from the newly-conquered Western territories.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Trump\u2019s not losing wars or setting the economy on fire, he\u2019s busy turning the nation\u2019s capital into an orgy of self-aggrandizement ahead of next week\u2019s semiquincentennial celebration,\u201d Linkins wrote. \u201cAt Wednesday\u2019s kick-off event for his \u2018Great American State Fair,\u2019 Trump announced that \u2018America is back.\u2019 Where had it gone? The president proclaimed that \u2018a short time ago we were a dead country. We were dead. Now we\u2019re the hottest country anywhere in the world. We\u2019re respected by everybody. Nobody\u2019s laughing at us anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Linkins added, \u201cAs a thin crowd made for the exits, he also touched on the matter of state that\u2019s consumed most of his time lately: \u2018The Reflecting Pool that you\u2019ve heard so much about, which is so incredible, it\u2019s been gruesomely vandalized by thugs, bad people, but soon will be looking as beautiful as it looked just two weeks ago,\u2019 Trump said. \u2018In fact, I looked at it just a little while ago. It looks perfect already, but we\u2019re fixing it.\u2019 As it happens, the Reflecting Pool is still green, still peeling, and half-assedly stashed behind some chain-link fence. It may be a federal crime for me to report this, it\u2019s not really clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

While acknowledging that Trump is doing this in part to mollify his ego, Linkins argued that he is also drawing from Lost Cause ideological patterns to make his corruption, abuse of power and attempted coup after losing the 2020 election seem legitimate.<\/p>\n

Read more The quiet coup: How Trump is dismantling the government to consolidate power<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s drive to commemorate himself, which has even run afoul of some of his fellow Republicans, is animated by the same idea as the Lost Cause: to lend legitimacy to a period of betrayal and to ensure this malevolent force lives on,\u201d Linkins argued. \u201cAllowing the Confederacy to commemorate itself was a profound failure on our part, and it seeded the earth for the weakening of our democracy. As Trump plans to sully the District of Columbia\u2019s skyline with his triumphal arch (now with more fist!), I can see history repeating: Trumpism as the new Lost Cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThe possibility that he might not be remembered seems to vex Trump, whose administration moved with the same sort of alacrity to forestall the removal of his name from the Kennedy Center as it did in fighting its inane war with Iran. As Brian Beutler reported in his Off Message newsletter, Trump\u2019s name only came off the building because Ohio Democrat Joyce Beatty, as an ex-officio member of the center\u2019s board, had the standing to sue over the matter, and she took the opportunity. Some other Democrats who had standing for the same reason decided to pass, including House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and outgoing D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linkins concluded by arguing that Democrats should act as Beatty did in challenging Trump over putting his name on the Kennedy Center, saying doing so \u201cwould send a strong signal that the party will brook no attempts to commemorate a discredited president\u2014and that it has the stomach for the civic deworming this nation needs to kick off its next century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s attempts to celebrate America\u2019s 250th birthday have also been criticized for being \u201ctrashy,\u201d at least according to a retired professor from the U.S. Naval War College. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it was trashy,\u201d Tom Nichols told The Bulwark\u2019s podcaster, Tim Miller, on Thursday. \u201cThe whole business was trashy. And I know that sounds \u2014 oh, that’s snooty and elitist. But no, it was just trashy. And his speech was small. That’s a thing. That’s what I wrote about last night. He took this thing that could have been grandiose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s unprecedented corruption is actively destroying America: report<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s attempts to celebrate America\u2019s 250th birthday as a referendum honoring himself, and simultaneously plastering memorials to himself all over Washington, D.C., is a literal \u201clost cause\u201d that threatens democracy.\u201cThat\u2019s some food for thought here in 2026, as an ailing, flailin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump\u2019s \u2018lost cause\u2019 is a threat to democracy - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2392\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump\u2019s \u2018lost cause\u2019 is a threat to democracy - 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