Can we go back to coexisting with MAGA?

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The news, in brief …

• “I’ll do whatever I want”: Trump threatens to deploy other military branches in US cities

  The president said he could send troops from other branches of the military into American cities. Read more.

• Trump fires federal design oversight commission, barrels ahead with White House overhaul

  Dismissal comes as his administration moves forward with White House ballroom and proposed “Arc de Trump." Read more.

• “Risks are too high”: Maryland’s top Democrat shoots down party’s redistricting push

  The decision breaks with the Democrats' national plan to counter Republican electoral maps. Read more.

@salonofficial

Which states are redistricting again? #politics #news

Make me smarter …

Tucker Carlson’s crash out is Charlie Kirk’s legacy

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Submitted for our approval …

“The Shelter” is an odd duck in the original run of “The Twilight Zone.”

The Season 3 episode sprang straight from the mind of series creator Rod Serling, but it doesn’t feature a single extraterrestrial, apparition or monster. There’s not even a mind-bending or ironic twist, which had become the show’s trademark through classic episodes like “Time Enough At Last” and “Eye of the Beholder.” And this study of nuclear age paranoia and the fragility of social mores is all the more effective for it.

For those who haven’t caught the annual “Twilight Zone” marathon in a few years, a recap: Dr. Bill Stockton is hosting his birthday party at his suburban home. The Stocktons’ neighbors and friends have gathered in the dining room to celebrate the physician. When an emergency alert comes over the airwaves, warning of a potential nuclear attack, the Stocktons run to a fallout shelter that Bill has built, stocked with just enough supplies for his immediate family. Panic sets in among the neighbors, who let deep-held resentments and racist beliefs fly while they argue with Stockton to let them in. Eventually, they break down the shelter’s door, assuring the mutual destruction of everyone. As Stockton looks into the rabid faces of his former friends, the radio squawks that the alert was a false alarm.

Four years after Jan. 6 and well into Trump’s nativist fever dream of a second term, it’s easy to say we know the feeling. Each day, the internet forces us to contend with Americans who grin from ear to ear when faced with videos of families being ripped apart by masked and anonymous federal agents. “This is what I voted for,” they baldly state while retweeting AI-generated art of a supersoldier stepping on the neck of a Hispanic grandma.

Republican politicians belly-laugh at videos of American citizens being manhandled by police. Memes about costumed protestors being pepper-sprayed spread rapidly among a hooting horde of MAGA true believers. It’s a small comfort that the bacchanal of state violence can’t and won’t go on forever. But that far-off light illuminates more troubling questions. How do we go back to coexisting with the people who cheered it on? Does the opposition party have the will to carry out de-MAGAfication? What would that look like?

Serling gave us no easy answers. Dr. Stockton brushed off his neighbors’ apologies and sweaty attempts to plan a make-nice party. He knows that his friends “put such a price on staying alive that they’ll claw their neighbors to death just for the privilege.” The creator’s own closing narration makes it even plainer, this is a thorny problem with no pat solution.

“No moral, no message, no prophetic tract, just a simple statement of fact,” he says. “For civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized.”

We’ve seen what happens when a president decides the law doesn’t apply to him. We’ve seen what happens when his supporters try to halt the peaceful transfer of force. Cornerstone democratic beliefs have been shattered like a reinforced bunker door. Can we go back? Would we even want to?

Sound off in the comments.

Before you go …

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