Tag Archives: No Kings

How Style Reveals Character

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Heather Cox Richardson has a tasty piece this morning (see Letters From an American, on Substack) about the moment when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army to U. S. Grant – Lee dressed in a brand new dress uniform, Grant in the worn and dirty private’s outfit he’d worn the day before, with scant insignia added to indicate his true rank. That instance of appearance as an indicator of the two men’s divergent characters, brought back to mind some thoughts I’d been working on not long ago, before they were (rightly) eclipsed by the chaos of our nation’s attack on Iran. Herewith:

Viewing the renderings of Mr. Trump’s replacement for the White House’s late East Wing, I’ve been surprised no one seems to be questioning the description of it as a “Ballroom.”

To these ears, the zeal and subterfuge with which The Donald is pursuing this particular bit of noncritical infrastructure suggests there is more at stake here than his enthusiasm for ballroom dancing and debutants (though the latter could be a factor…).

Administration PR pretends this cavern is vitally necessary for legitimate diplomatic events, but given Mr. Trump’s disdain for actual diplomats and his preference for small group strong-arming, that seems a stretch. More likely, the room’s programming will lean toward pseudo-events designed to flatter and reward loyal contributors to his continual fund-raising ventures (including, of course, the cost of this boondoggle itself) and to dangle the bait of future seating arrangements to extract still more contributions and concessions from others.

A means, in other words, for Mr. Trump and his chosen people to more-convincingly imitate the persons he obviously idolizes: the nation-owning monarchs and autocrats of the Middle East and elsewhere.

For that reason, I suggest we all just call this construction what it is – The Donald J. Trump Throne Room, at the Trump™ White House™.

On which note, does anyone really believe Mr. Trump will graciously depart what he is busily turning into the Presidential Palace – having finally gotten it redecorated to his taste – just because his current term expires? Having previously experienced the diminution of becoming an ‘ex-’ Chief Executive? Having in this term solidified his dominion over the rabble thanks to a compliant Supreme Court and supine Trumpublican Party? Having for his entire life scooted around every legal and moral constraint and gotten away with it all?

Note that Mr. Trump’s favorite head of state, Vladimir Putin, will have been in power for thirty years when his current term ends. The House of Saud has ruled its Kingdom for over ninety years (and a somewhat smaller realm for generations before that). China’s Xi Jinping is currently enjoying his third five-year term with no end in sight thanks to the 2018 elimination of the prior term limit on that office. Israel’s Netanyahu is over 18 years in control; Turkey’s Erdogan around 23 (Hungary’s Orban a mere 16). True, Napoleon Bonaparte lasted only 15, but Uncle Joe Stalin managed over 50…

On the turgid scale of those role models, a mere eight years in office would hardly rate inclusion. If, indeed, the style of Mr. Trump’s civic works is true indication of his character, we are in for a bumpy January 2029.

P. S. – E Unum Pluribus is a thrilling speculative fiction exploring one way in which a President’s attempt to overstay his welcome might affect our nation’s survival. It is currently being serialized online and you can read it, at no cost, starting at https://robinandrew.net/2026/01/01/e-unum-pluribus/

A free book? Why?

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As the years 2016 to 2020 unfolded, I found myself preoccupied with a particular aspect of human history: that even the greatest empires, dynasties, governments and nations have each eventually ended and been replaced by…something else.  The ongoing self-segregation of Americans along various lines – urban/rural, elites/masses, investors/workers, digital/analog, etc – suggested our own nation’s end might come sooner than later, and not through some external conquest, virulent plague or invasion of space aliens, but our simple failure to appreciate the myriad benefits of remaining ‘United.’ 

Starting in 2021, those thoughts began to coalesce into a speculative fiction, structured as a tale of murder and conspiracy happening a decade or so in our future in one of many new sovereignties sprung up among the remains of the U. S. of A. The novel toys with other themes as well – of language and gender, identity, guilt and even the origins of faith and belief – but speaks loudest in its depiction of just how much we all stand to lose if we remain divided into factions which each act only for their own needs and interests.  

Writing the book took many months and once it seemed ready, the publishing industry proved impenetrable, even as the politics of disorder and division grew stronger.  By the end of 2025 it had become clear I must find another pathway to the public and so I offered the first installment in a post which can be reached via the following link:

E Unum Pluribus

That and all subsequent installments may also be accessed via the ‘E Unum Pluribus’ buttons in the top menu or the right-side Categories list of this website’s home page.

Maybe the novel will find an audience this way, maybe not, but regardless, if you believe in the message that we Americans must overcome our divisions and preserve the USA as a government of all the people, by all the people and for all the people – or if you simply support authors being heard without reliance upon the gatekeepers of corporate commercial publishing – please share this post and the above link as widely as possible.

Sincerely hoping the world of E Unum Pluribus turns out to have been a naïve exaggeration, and wishing this great nation the good fortune of avoiding it, I thank you,

Robin Andrew

It’s Not Too Late!

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It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over*

It’s certainly too late to be first in citing Mr. Trump’s brazen demolition of the White House’s East Wing as a perfect encapsulation of what this administration is currently doing to our nation; plenty of commentators have already made that connection. 

It’s even past time to point out that his childish posting of a meme depicting himself as King in a crown, piloting a fighter jet to dump a stream of what appears to be manure on crowds of Americans is an honest indication of the man’s arrogance, an utter embarrassment to any thoughtful U. S. citizen and a terrible message to anyone around the world who might still hope our nation and its system of government represent anything decent or thoughtful.

What is timely is to note that between excesses like those plus persistent obsequiousness toward Vladimir Putin, overselling of his achievements around the Israeli/Hamas cease fire, careless acceptance of Doge’s destruction and the current government shutdown, callous badmouthing of one of the largest peaceful demonstrations in U. S. history as “whacked out” “radical left lunatics” who “are not representative of the people of our country” (emphasis added), farcically ignoring or evading a plethora of laws and judgements, his gratuitous pardon of the execrable George Santos among so many others and now his astonishingly self-serving proposal to have the Justice Department pay hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to himself to soothe his bruised ego, Mr. Trump is very close to transforming the U. S. Government into one more personal asset he has acquired and can play with as he wishes.

It is abundantly clear by now that the Judicial branch can neither act quickly enough to prevent this disaster nor does it have any real power to limit Mr. Trump’s impulsive actions, since the Supreme Court neutered the branch with its ruling in Trump. V. United States.

As for elections, the progress being made at the State level in gerrymandering and limiting access to the polls make it frighteningly plausible that many legitimate votes will have been made irrelevant by November of 2028, allowing Mr. Trump or his successors to retain power for the foreseeable future regardless whether or not a plurality of eligible voters wish it.

It’s not too late, though, to plead with those Republican legislators who hold the majority in Congress to recognize and admit what we are witnessing – the eradication of conscientious leadership and the elimination of any accountability for the nation’s Chief Executive (and through his Pardon power, anyone else who curries his favor or feeds his greed).  Not too late to reinstate the balance of power intended by our Constitution, if Republicans are willing to look past partisan marketing and act wisely to oppose the worst of his excesses. 

And, finally, it is most emphatically not too late to plead for Republican voters to use the 2026 election to clear away any legislators who will not credibly commit to executing Congress’ responsibilities, rather than rubber stamping Mr. Trump’s every impulse of every moment.  This plea is aimed not at those Republicans who cannot imagine themselves ever disagreeing with him on anything, but at the great number of Republicans who still sincerely believe in thoughtful leadership and representative democracy, in a nation that values all of its citizens equally and respects their rights equally, including the right to disagree with an office holder. 

It is up to those Republican voters (of which I count myself one), to first nominate and then elect Senators and Representatives who will insist that Congress fulfill its role, including to make the nation’s laws, to levy appropriate taxes and decide how they will be spent, to declare (or not!) wars and – potentially – to use the only power which remains, the power of Impeachment, to ensure that the entire Executive branch follow the Constitution and “take care that the Laws be faithfully executed” in all the myriad aspects that that clearly demands. “Faithfully,” that is, not by disregarding legitimate court rulings, not by handpicking attorneys and prosecutors who will spout disingenuous rationalizations to delay judgements indefinitely, and not by trying to conceal what is really going on beneath a flood of winking, smirking and distractions.

If those voters and their chosen representatives can bring themselves to see the light, it may not be too late to preserve what Benjamin Franklin said in 1787 he had just witnessed being created:

“A republic, if you can keep it.”

*Frequently credited to Yankees coach Yogi Berra in the 1973 baseball season, at least one source says this quip is the result of a slow-motion game of Telephone, as a similar but less catchy comment was progressively distorted from one media report to another until politician Joe Lieberman erroneously cited the current language, in 1982.