Remember the long-running GOP plan to “starve the beast”? In the late 1980s and 90s, Republicans embraced Reagan’s famous soundbite that government is ‘the enemy,’ and began looking for clever new ways to downsize the federal government. Influential tax-hater Grover Norquist stated openly that he sought to starve and shrink the government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” Sweet.
Fast forward to 2026, and the GOP plan to shrink and effectively murder the federal government has largely been realized (except for expanded ICE and military appropriations, of course). Recall the massive funding and agency staffing cuts implemented by Musk’s DOGE — the spurious “Department of Government Efficiency” — last year.
The game plan to “starve the beast” was SO successful, over the past 30+ years, that the GOP has now shifted its sights to a new target: Democratic states, cities, and groups. Yes, over the past decade — coinciding with the “reign” of Donald Trump — the GOP has moved forcefully and viciously to cut off promised funding for Democratic cities, organizations, states, priorities, and even for Democrat-sponsored legislation. Most of these cuts are illegal, immoral, or both.
Over the last decade, “starve the beast” has acquired a whole new meaning. No longer content just to demean and attack the federal government, loyal MAGA Republicans now insist that all Democrats and Democratic policies are “evil” and “un-American” — which justifies the use of any means necessary to squash their power and strangle their resources.
“Starve the beast” has now been expanded to include and target almost half of all Americans.
The rise of hateful, vicious ‘win at any cost’ politics
How is this insanity even possible in our representative democracy, you might ask? Our current national nightmare demonstrates the ease with which democratic rules and ideals are twisted and trampled. Here’s the problem: our founders disliked political parties and wished to limit their influence… but the actual system they developed was light on stringent controls and heavy on trust in politicians’ basic “good will.”
That is, they trusted that most politicians would honor the new US system of governance and operate honorably and in good faith.
In turns out, though, that their trust was badly misplaced. Our system does little to curb bad actors in our midst and often coddles/protects them. Think of all the ways mean-spirited, hateful, and manipulative bad actors have abused — and continue to abuse — our over-generous free speech laws.
Perhaps the foremost example of this abuse can be found in our current president, Donald Trump, who regularly insults and attacks people verbally, instigates hatred and contempt toward non-whites, and does everything in his power to get revenge on and publicly punish his many supposed ‘enemies.’
As has become obvious over the past decade, Trump considers Democrats to be not just political opponents, but actual, personal enemies — whom he, with his usual casual hatred, keeps portraying as vicious enemies of America. This casual expansion of GOP anger into full-scale hatred of all things Democratic has turned into a deepening American nightmare. It is turning our semi-democracy upside down and inside out.
How Texas targets Democrats, Democratic cities… and Muslims
How is this large-scale attack on our US system playing out? I’ll use what’s happening in my home state of Texas as a prime example. Here, as in many other GOP-controlled states, our governor (Greg Abbott) has been taking his cues from Trump and has ramped up his dictatorial, abusive demands. Over the past several years, he’s increasingly targeted Democratic cities such as Austin, Houston, and Dallas. He callously uses any related excuse — such as supposed Democrat-led “fraud” or “woke,” supposedly anti-White DEI efforts — to threaten them with financial ruin.
How? It’s simple. He merely withholds funds promised to them by the state, and then makes them “an offer they can’t refuse.” In essence, he bullies them into submission. This has occurred regularly over the past few years, and the pace of Abbott’s threats and bullying tactics has increased since Trump 2.0 started in January ’25. All three of these major Texas cities have been repeatedly forced to knuckle under or face severe budget shortages — most recently, due to their refusal to rubber-stamp and assist all ICE apprehensions of “illegals.”
In the end, they all caved.
. . .
But the GOP is not stopping there. Abbott and many other MAGA politicians have also aligned themselves with the far-right Christian Nationalist movement and promote their “Christian” hatred toward dark-skinned minorities and Muslims. Abbott even pioneered a booming ‘new wave’ of anti-Muslim hate and prejudice in Texas, which has been endlessly amplified by ruthless MAGA politicians.
Currently, a vicious GOP run-off primary for Texas Attorney General is looming. The two candidates, Mayes “Maga” Middleton and Rep. Chip Roy, are each running hateful, despicable TV ads accusing the other of not being “real MAGA,” being ‘soft’ on Muslims, and allowing/encouraging “Sharia cities” in Texas. (It doesn’t matter a bit that there are no such things as “Sharia cities,” in Texas or anywhere else.)
These days, it’s hard to tell who MAGA, extremist GOP politicians hate the most: Democrats or Muslims. But it doesn’t matter, ultimately, since both groups are getting shit on and shafted.
The race to strip away Democrats’ voting power
But all that, horrid as it is, isn’t even the worst of it. The GOP — again led by Trump — has been trying desperately to curtail Democrats’ voting power. They’re doing that mainly through the vehicle of mid-decade redistricting and gerrymandering, which the Supreme Court, in its infinite folly, has refused to reject or curb. (And its recent decision in the Louisiana redistricting case just reinforced its sly support for uber-partisan redistricting.)
This marks a huge and dangerous departure from past precedent, which only allowed such redistricting after each decade’s new census, in 1991, 2001, 2011, etc. It’s a perfect example of Trump’s amorality and “win at any cost” mentality — and today’s GOP is happily following his lead, since it effectively boosts their short-term power.
And that’s the key: it’s all about short-term power. Not the good of the country. Not commitment to democracy and fairness. Not finding ways to work with your ‘opponents.’ Not improving the daily lives of Americans.
No, today it’s all about maximizing brutal short-term power. No method, lie, manipulation, or underhanded deception is off limits. That is exactly why I called out today’s GOP as “bad faith” actors. They have abandoned any pretense of democracy and fairness and have largely abandoned liberal democracy. Scarily, they are far along the road to ditching the rule of law entirely.
But, guess what? If the rule of law is effectively abandoned, the US cannot and will not survive. Then, all we’d be left with is the rule of the strongest, most domineering, most hateful, and most ruthless.
And that’s exactly how Trump likes it.
We all witnessed the “Trump vs. the US” drama — and Trump WON
For several years after the 2020 election, and especially after the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, I wrote extensively about the ongoing battle between Trump and the US as a whole. I even framed it as a boxing match, calling it the “fight of the century.” I dubbed it “Donald Trump vs. the United States.”
Sadly, horrifically, in the following years, the dire results of that “fight” have become clear. Trump won. He, along with his MAGA base, a far-right Supreme Court (that he purposely created), and a slew of power-addled, venal GOP politicians, succeeded in taking down and defeating the venerable USA.
Sure, the US still exists as a nation and political entity — for now. But Trump and his allies have stripped away its heart, soul, and essential “reason for being.” What we’re left with is a moldering, rotting corpse of a nation… a tottering zombie nation.
Whether this tottering, corpse-like entity can still be healed and resurrected remains to be seen. So far, it’s not looking too good.
I wonder what the greedy bettors in today’s booming “prediction markets” would say — and bet on.
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This post was previously published on Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs.
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