The Index

Pete Hegseth is unfit to serve as Secretary of Defense. He is a clown, a security risk, a buffoon and a living symbol of everything rotten in the bones of Trump's attempted administration. His recklessness and ideological zealotry have put lives at risk, insulted veterans, erased history, undermined basic principles of military integrity, and - most recently - handed classified military intelligence to a journalist.

The Democrats need to stop acting like they're in a friendly game of chess.

This is a cage match.

There's no middle ground left, no room for half-measures, no space for strategic cooperation.

It's scorched earth time.

The architecture of American power, built painstakingly over seventy-five years, has been abandoned. This will be remembered as the moment when America's Pacific century came to an end.

Every "partial ceasefire" that leaves tanks rolling and bombs falling isn't a step toward anything except prolonged suffering and cynicism. It’s just a used-car sale repackaging of diplomatic half-measures as humanitarian achievements.

Authoritarians never mention what happens after the "strong leader" consolidates power.

The corruption that inevitably follows.

The silencing of dissent.

The capture of institutions by cronies.

The erosion of rights for anyone outside the favored group.

But these are the consequences of a populace who have stopped caring enough to participate.

MAGA has nothing left to offer except more of the same: more screaming, more outrage, more rot. It's all downhill from here.

So what do we make of men like John Fetterman and Gavin Newsom, who now seem desperate to cozy up to it?