OUR LAND

MOTHER JONES

About a dozen or so years ago, a staffer for Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ultraconservative Republican from Alabama, reached out to me and asked if we could meet. I don’t hear from too many GOP aides on Capitol Hill, so I was game. We rendezvoused at a coffee shop around the corner from my office. The aide was eager to pitch me an idea. Shouldn’t liberals who care about American workers make common cause with immigration restrictionists? Fewer immigrants, he contended, would mean more jobs available for American citizens. And if these were the sort of jobs employers had trouble hiring for, those owners would then have to pay workers more—and Americans would earn more. How could unions and liberals not support this? 

He was quite earnest and a tad nerdy, and he discussed this notion with a missionary zeal. It was clear he was not having much success on the Hill connecting with Democrats or Republicans on this. He was an outsider and reminded me of those proud libertarians I had met in college who were certain they had figured everything out and didn’t understand why others didn’t embrace their logic-driven ideology. I told the fellow that I was hardly a representative for liberals or labor but that I would think about what he said. Nothing concrete came out of our conversation. I pinged the aide a few times with questions about in-the-news matters involving the Senate, and he replied, usually with information that was not that useful. What struck me most was that he was so sure he had found the path for America’s future and that he just needed to persuade the unenlightened (like me) to see it. 

His name was Stephen Miller.

Years later, I was surprised to see him as a top commander in Trump’s MAGA army. Sessions, the first GOP senator to endorse Trump in the 2016 campaign, had brought him into the fold. Though Trump fired Sessions less than two years into his stint as attorney general, Miller remained in Trump’s inner circle, becoming a top enabler—perhaps the most important one—of Trump’s dangerous id and a power-hungry extremist guiding Trump’s crusade of nativism and march toward authoritarianism.

When I first met Miller, he did not seem like a likely propagandist for autocracy. I guess you never know.

These days, Miller, as Trump’s mini-me, has been paving the way for Trump’s war on dissent—and that’s a literal war, with Trump deploying troops to cities to do battle with protesters (who tend to be peaceful) and to show Democrats that he’s a strongman who can exert military power to seize control of their cities and states.

In remarks and social media posts over the past few weeks, Miller has declared that Trump as president has unlimited power; that “left-wing terrorism” is rampant across the land; that Democrats support violenceagainst Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, back “domestic terrorists,” and are a “domestic extremist organization”; and that governors, mayors, and judges who oppose and block Trump’s deployments of troops to American cities are engaged in an “insurrection.” He claims there’s a war raging in America’s cities due to antifa, ICE protesters, and hordes of criminals; he’s obviously attempting to establish a predicate for Trump invoking the Insurrection Act and expanding his use of troops within the United States to solidify his rule. 

Miller was a force behind Trump’s recent moves to designate antifa, a decentralized movement, as a “domestic terrorist organization,” which Trump had no authority to do, and to issue a National Security Presidential Memorandum that associates a variety of political views—“anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality”—with “violent and terroristic activities.” As the Brennan Center for Justice notes: 

This breathtakingly broad list easily encompasses everyone from labor organizers, socialists, many libertarians, those who criticize Christianity, pro-immigration groups, anti-ICE protestors, and racial justice and transgender activists, to anyone who holds views that the administration considers to be “anti-American.” Under NSPM-7, the antifascist label can be attached to any of these types of people and groups and many more besides, giving the government maximum flexibility to pick and choose its targets.

As the center says, much of this memo “is squarely directed at speech and nonviolent action by organizations and individuals protected by the First Amendment.”

The Trump-Miller effort to delegitimize, if not criminalize, freedom of speech and protest has been embraced by Capitol Hill Republicans. This Saturday, there will again be No Kings marches and rallies across the nation opposing Trump. Millions could turn out for this event—in a continuation of the peaceful demonstrations that were held in June that drew an estimated 4 to 6 million participants. And this seems to scare Republicans. 

On Friday, during a press briefing held by House Republican leaders, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the majority whip, exclaimed that the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party was “set to hold…a hate-America rally in DC.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) got his licks in, too. He said the protesters would be “the antifa crowd and the pro-Hamas crowd and the Marxists.”

The same day, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said, “This will be a Soros paid-for protest for his professional protesters. The agitators show up. We'll have to get the National Guard out. Hopefully it will be peaceful. I doubt it."

On Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy chimed in, saying the No Kings rallies are “part of antifa, paid protesters.”

It looks as if the Republicans are running a disinformation campaign to smear the opposition. This Miller-like denigration of peaceful protest—commies! terrorists!—is deplorable fearmongering, which has become Miller’s specialty: depicting America as land wracked with left-wing violence and lawlessness. When millions gathered in June at over 2,100 No Kings rallies, there were no violent eruptions. But in Trump’s cult, Milleresque demagoguery is contagious, and conservatives who claim to hold the Constitution near and dear have no problem lying to denounce and undermine First Amendment–protected activity.

It’s all part of Trump’s—and Miller’s—assault on constitutional rights and freedoms. Republicans, evidently worried about the pro-democracy protest this weekend, are trying to preemptively tar as extremists the citizens who gather to resist Trump and his assault on American democracy.

Miller, I’m sure, has learned a lot since he came knocking on my door, a lonely Senate aide seeking attention and across-the-aisle company. One lesson appears to be that hyperbole, lies, and demonization are essential tools for an authoritarian looking to crush democratic opposition and impose autocratic rule. But I doubt Miller has changed much. He’s still a zealot—but one who finally figured out how to transform his fanaticism into influence and power.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland.corn@gmail.com.

The Dumbest Gaslighting Ever

Take a look at this recent social media post from Trump and tell me what’s wrong with it.

Responding to the recent news that 274 FBI agents were in the crowd at the Capitol during the January 6 riot, Trump pushed yet another Deep State conspiracy theory, suggesting that the assault on Congress was somehow orchestrated by the Biden administration and the FBI to entrap and frame his loyal supporters. But...there was no Biden administration on January 6, 2021, and, thus, no “Biden FBI.” On that horrific day, Trump was president and in charge of the Justice Department and the FBI. Besides, as FBI Director Kash Patel acknowledged, the 274 FBI agents present at the Capitol were rushed there after the violence began to assist the besieged cops who were under assault from the crowd that Trump had incited.   

One can only imagine what Fox News and MAGA would have done if Joe Biden had forgotten when he held office.

The Watch, Read, and Listen List

Waiting for Godot, Hudson Theatre. At the opening of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, engage in something of a reunion. Vladimir, the more brooding of the pair, tells Estragon, “I'm glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever...Together again at last.” Moments later, he notes, “When I think of it...all these years...but for me...where would you be?” and he refers to their past exploits in “the ’90s.” It was as if Beckett wrote these lines particularly for a production starring two veteran actors whose careers took off in the 1990s after they played a pair of best-friend time-traveling teenage metalheads named Bill and Ted in two successful movies. Which is what is now occurring on Broadway with a new but faithful incarnation of Waiting for Godot featuring Alex Winter (Bill) as Vladimir and Keanu Reeves (Ted) as Estragon. 

When I saw it recently, the audience chuckled at these unintentional double entendres and applauded when halfway thru the performance Winter and Reeves did the air-guitar riff that was a Bill-and-Ted trademark. You might think all this meta and self-referential stuff would distract from this classic work. But the specificity of the actors involved heighten the puzzling and occasionally unsettling absurdity of this highly layered play—especially since Winter and Reeves each deliver tight performances. Winter deftly captures the urgency of Vladimir, who is trying to but can’t quite figure out their shared dilemma—waiting for a potential savior who never arrives—and Reeves hits the mark as the forgetful and more laconic Estragon, dropping brief retorts that land with punch. Under the insightful direction of Jamie Lloyd, the pair skillfully veer back and forth from existential angst to the slapstick that Beckett borrowed from the Marx Brothers, Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, and Charlie Chaplin. Brandon Dirden as Pozzo, the abusive slave owner, and Michael Patrick Thornton as Lucky, Pozzo’s property, are each superb. 

The set design, the lighting, and the subtle sound effects enhanced the underlying circularity of Waiting for Godot. The action takes place in a large tunnel-like structure that sits on the stage at an angle, highlighting the play’s fundamental notion that life is askew. The famous tree—“A country road. A tree,” Beckett wrote in describing the play’s only setting—is not present, but Vladimir and Estragon can see it from where they wait and talk, and talk, and talk.

There are gads of interlocking ideas and themes spiraling though the work, which is propelled more by banter and wordplay than plot. Beckett wrote what he called a “tragicomedy” shortly after the end of World War II and the Holocaust, and he references “billions” of deaths, with Estragon noting they keep talking so they won’t hear “all the dead voices.” To which Vladimir replies, “They make a noise like wings.” After contemplating these undefined lost souls, Estragon asks, “What do we do now?” Vladimir replies, “Wait for Godot.” 

Much in this 73-year-old play rings true these days. The moral questions of modern life have not shifted much in the past seven decades. One standout sequence occurs when Pozzo has fallen and calls for help. Vladimir and Estragon consider what to do, and Vladimir speaks to the question:

It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late.

But the pair don’t take immediate action. They consider whether they should assist Pozzo for money. “What are we doing here, that is the question,” Vladimir asks. “And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come.”

There is no resolution to their plight, and no neat ending to this work. The questions raised in both contemplative discourses and nonsense patter go unanswered. But together, Winter and Reeves are first-rate tour guides through one of the most excellent adventures of modern theater.

“How to Save the American Experiment,” John Fabian Witt, the New York Times. As regular readers know, I’ve occasionally written on what history can tell us about democratic nations that have resisted and reversed a slide toward authoritarianism—including in this newsletter’s last issue. There are a few examples of countries that were heading toward autocracy and changed course, though not many. But, it turns out, there’s one case study that we often overlook: the United States. In a recent guest essay for the New York Times, Yale historian John Fabian Witt reminds us that in the 1920s, the nation experienced: 

a wave of attempted assassinations and political violence crested alongside new barriers to immigration, a campaign of deportations and a government crackdown on dissenting speech. America was fresh off a pandemic in which divisive public health measures yielded widespread anger and distrust. Staggering levels of economic inequality underlaid a fast-changing industrial landscape and rapidly evolving racial demographics. Influential voices in the press warned that a crisis of misinformation in the media had wrecked the most basic democratic processes.

Sound familiar? And in 1920, he notes, “national frustration over an infirm and aging president helped sweep the Democratic Party out of the White House in favor of a Republican candidate offering the nostalgic promise of returning America to greatness, or at least to normalcy. A faltering President Woodrow Wilson gave way to Warren Harding and one-party control over all three branches of the federal government.” Yet the United States in the years ahead did not descend into authoritarianism. Instead, it moved toward the New Deal, an end to Jim Crow, and working-class prosperity. 

How did this happen? Witt points to a concerted philanthropic effort led by a handsome Harvard dropout named Charles Garland, which was guided in part by the ideas of W.E.B. Du Bois and a young liberal columnist named Walter Lippmann, to develop and finance a progressive-minded infrastructure for modern democracy made up of industrial unions, civil rights groups, other organizations, and new forms of media. Oh, there were plenty of disagreements and conflicts along the way, and the Great Depression and World War II yielded fundamental changes that shifted political dynamics. But Witt, the author of The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America, does provide a dose of optimism for those wondering how we’re going to get out of this mess. If you’re looking for some hope, give it a read.

Read Recent Issues of Our Land

October 11, 2025: The Washington Postand the warm glow of both-sidesism; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Pam Bondi); Inspiration of the Week (the Portland Frog); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

October 7, 2025: Don’t bring a policy paper to a gunfight; Elvis Costello, then and now; Michael Ondaatje’s not fully formed Divisadero; and more.

October 4, 2025: The real enemy within; the New York Times gets it wrong on Russell Vought; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Jeff Flake); Inspiration of the Week (Judge William Young); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

September 30, 2025: The end of the FBI—in one act; The Paper and The Office; the Baseball Project’s winning run; and more

September 27, 2025: Eight thoughts for a dangerous week; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Donald Trump); Inspiration of the Week (Jimmy Kimmel); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

September 23, 2025: How many impeachable acts can Trump commit in one week?; thank you, Robert Redford; Charlie Kirk’s antisemitism; Nancy Mace’s politics of hate; and more.

September 20, 2025: Who’s part of Trump’s “radical left”?; playing the Nazi card; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Greg Gutfeld); the Mailbag; MoxieCam; and more.

September 16, 2025: The one political party led by those who have called for political violence; Breitbart gets it wrong; The Pitt’s magnificence; Stephen Wilson Jr.’s Americana on steroids; and more.

Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland.corn@gmail.com.