Timothy Snyder: The Mump Regime [View all]

https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-mump-regime

How to call this thing that is coming to America in a month?

"Administration" seems inaccurate, since it assumes that the elected president just administers a government for four years, whereas Trump clearly wants to rule indefinitely. It also seems wrong since the people he has appointed will chiefly break things rather than run them.

And so "regime" rather than administration. But whose?

It's not Trump's. He's a poor man, compared to Musk. And he owes Musk a great debt, more than he owes his voters or his other donors. Looking ahead, it will be Musk, not Trump, who pays for all the lawsuits to quiet the rest of us, or for the campaigns to primary dissenting Republicans.

It's funny to say "President Musk," but that's not quite right: we face a situation in which the officeholder has less power than than the moneybag. In another post I called this "Trumpomuskovia." But perhaps Musk’s name should really come first, before Trump’s. Mu…mp…

And that recalls a very essential element of the collapse. One weakness of democracy in the United States has always been public health. The lack of a national health system brings us shorter lives, greater anxiety, and less freedom.

Now, with RFK Jr., we face the rollback of vaccinations, and thus a return, precisely, of mumps. And rubella and measles, which are halted by the same vaccine. And much else. The rest of oligarchical cabinet will weaken government by law through incompetence, spite, or avarice. But RFK Jr. will break society by making us sick.

And, thus, another reason to call this thing the Mump Regime. Get ready.

*snip*