F**king Mondays: Into the Abyss, DEI is Dead, and Doing Deals with Fascists
The round up to start your week is now out!
Welcome to the latest edition of “F**king Mondays”! In the roundup today:
Pete Hegseth is Defense Secretary
And there we have it, Fox News presenter, alleged spouse beater and sexual abuser Pete Hegseth has been sworn in as the Secretary of Defense. Hegseth, whose only experience running an organization are the two small non-profits he was forced to step down from, now runs an organization with 2,845,386 employees. Here’s how it happened (via CNN):
The Senate narrowly voted to confirm embattled Pete Hegseth as secretary of the Department of Defense, in a major win for President Donald Trump and his new administration.
Vice President JD Vance cast the 51-50 tie-breaking vote after former GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joined Democrats to oppose Hegseth’s nomination. It was just the second time in history that a vice president has broken a tie for a Cabinet nominee – the other being then-Vice President Mike Pence for Betsy DeVos’ 2017 confirmation to lead the Education Department.
It isn’t the extraordinary cowardice shown by Republicans who know Hegseth is completely unfit for this role that I find so troubling, it’s the so-called “sane” Republicans and centrists who voted for Trump knowing this would happen. I understand opposing DEI (more on that below), and I understand not wanting to vote for a so-called “woke” candidate like Kamala Harris, but does anyone believe Harris would put an unstable, far-right Christian nationalist with a long history of abusive behavior in charge of the largest employer in the country?
Of all Trump’s bonkers picks to run America’s federal agencies, Hegseth is probably the craziest. Everyone who voted to confirm him knows this, yet their fealty to Trump was more important than the safety of the men and women in the armed forces.
I don’t think Hegseth is going to last long once the realities of the job set in and he self-destructs under the pressure, but the precedent this sets is frightening. More than anything, Hegseth’s nomination was a display of how much power Trump now wields. It is completely insane that only three Republicans put their country before the clown president, and a sign that Trump is more powerful than ever before.
The End of DEI
I’ve written quite a bit about the ideology of DEI and why I think it has been corrupted by identity politics extremists to the point of no return. One of the reasons I spent so much time begging the left to radically reform or drop DEI policies was because of how the right has been able to weaponize it.
Unfortunately they did not, and now Trump has officially ended it in the federal government. Here was Coleman Hughes on Trump’s executive order:
Trump’s Executive Order 14171 is titled Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity. It describes how vast swaths of society, including the “Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI).”
In response, Trump has ordered the executive branch and its agencies “to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements.”
Trump’s repeal also includes Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 ‘Equal Employment Opportunity’ executive order that forbade the federal government from discriminating “against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.”
Hughes is supportive of Trump’s executive order arguing that will now result in the “federal enforcement of a color-blind society”. While I agree that the current form of DEI needed to go (more on why here), Trump has thrown the baby out with the bath water.
I do believe systemic racism and sexism exists and I do believe the government has a role to play in counteracting it. Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Equal Employment Opportunity’ executive order for example has done a lot of good over the years:
The policy has led to a more diverse workforce over the past 40 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and provided protections for workers from discriminatory practices. In 1989, women employed by the Harris Bank of Chicago who said they received lower pay than their male co-workers and were given fewer opportunities to advance recouped $14 million in back pay in 1989 because of the executive order.
Now that has gone we are supposed to believe that racism and sexism has disappeared and the government — now headed by a notorious racist — will go back the colorblind days of, er, 1964?
Writers like Coleman Hughes and Andrew Sullivan confess to being “exhilarated” by Trump’s destruction of DEI. A part of me understands this, but as is always the case with Trump, the cure will almost certainly be worse than the disease.
European fascism on the rise
The New York Times published a fascinating but deeply troubling piece on why voters in Germany, Austria, France and the Netherlands are moving to the far right. The broad theme from the people interviewed by the Times echoes what we have seen with Trump voters in America: concern over immigration and inflation, distaste for American style identity politics/gender theory, and the loss of national identity.
There are two ways the left can choose to react to the rejection of what the Times calls “the liberal order”. The first is to dismiss their concerns, call them racist, and cross their fingers that enough liberals will come to the polls this year to keep the far right out of power.
The second is to listen to their concerns and make some very difficult decisions in the coming months. Given what we have seen in America, my advice to liberals in Europe would be to start listening, and quickly. For the centrists and liberals to hold on, they are going to have to clamp down hard on issues like immigration. This is something my friend Thom Hartmann was urging Democrats to do back in 2023:
Perhaps it’s time for Democrats to turn the tables on the GOP and take this topic off the table until after November’s election. Go along with their demands to “close” the border, stop admitting refugees and immigrants, and fund a deportation system for those people who’ve not yet been processed.
Point out how years of Republicans and rightwing media “inviting” people here with “open border rhetoric” has crashed the system. Declare a state of emergency and allocate funds to help Mexico and “sending” nations deal with people who’ve been turned away from our border. And demand comprehensive immigration reform.
The Democrats did actually try to pass comprehensive immigration reform (the bill was killed by Trump), but the perception that they were weak on immigration stuck. Left and centrist parties in Europe cannot allow this to happen.
While the Trump movement in America is bad, history is a very good indication that fascism in Europe is far, far more dangerous. “The liberal order” managed to hold Europe together without bloodshed for 80 years, so it is probably something worth preserving.
Have a great week!
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To Sieg Heil Or Not To Sieg Heil?
Elon Musk's "salute" reveals something extremely worrying about where we are heading as a society.
by Ben Cohen
Is Elon Musk a secret Nazi who let slip his true identity at the Trump inauguration by doing not one, but two perfectly executed Sieg Heils? Or is the world’s richest man just a ketamine addicted, neurodivergent weirdo who wanted to “send his love” to the audience by placing his hand on his heart and thrusting it out to the crowd?
The debate over Musk’s, how shall we put it, unfortunate gesture, perfectly encapsulates America’s current culture war.
According to the right if you believe Musk really is a Nazi then you are a woke, hysterical liberal purposefully distorting reality for your own political objectives. According to the left if you believe Elon was just engaging in a heartfelt gesture to his adoring fans then you are a Nazi apologist unwilling to see how evil the right in America is.
I’ve been watching this debate play out online and have been engaged in one myself with a group of friends over text. So what is the truth? My view is somewhat complex and will no doubt irritate the extremes on both sides. But then that is the cost of nuance and trying not to succumb to audience capture.
I don’t think Elon Musk is a Nazi, but I think he absolutely did do a Nazi salute for reasons that might be…. even more troubling? I’ll try to explain my thinking.
Self radicalization
I’ve written quite a bit about Elon Musk’s descent into right wing conspiracy world…
This is an excerpt from today’s Members Only article. To continue reading, get 50% off a Banter Membership and go here:
As I see it DEI is just a term for equal rights for all, not just for the few, and I certainly hope Democrats do NOT stop fighting for it. If we don’t fight for what’s right what good are we? Trump’s “merit based” system.....is Hegseth an example of that? Don’t make me laugh.
The core of Republican opposition to DEI is the assumption that a white man is the ideal candidate for every job. Yes, DEI initiatives were weaponized against Democrats, but any attempts to legislate against racism were treated the same way. They're white supremacists, that's what they do. Seems downright silly to appease them by giving up equitable hiring practices. I thought we fought Nazis, not gave up territory to them.
As for Hegseth, he's exactly what they say they hate about DEI hires: someone chosen for reasons other than aptitude. Their hypocrisy knows no boundaries.