America is becoming a very bad endless Hollywood movie, by Phillip van Niekerk

She became the child star of the victims of extremism that took hold of American politics: a ten-year-old girl who was raped in the state of Ohio, six weeks pregnant, forced to travel to another state for an abortion three days after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade judgment.

Her plight was highlighted by President Joe Biden as he announced steps last Friday to put in place federal protections for women seeking abortions. Her case is all the more poignant given that, not content with unseating Roe, some Republican politicians are set to criminalize what this abused child did by having an abortion in neighboring Indiana after Roe triggered a ban in the Ohio.

The victims of the conservative counter-revolution are piling up. In the past two months alone, three young men, ages 18 to 21, with AR-15 rifles, slaughtered 10 customers at a predominantly black supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 14; 19 children and two teachers from Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24; and seven people, including a four-year-old child, at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4.

These are not just random events, but another day of living in a divided and angry nation.

As former Republican operative Mathew Dowd puts it: "The problem in America today is fundamentally broken democracy, not polarization or division. A super majority of citizens want Roe vs. Wade, real gun reform. fire, an increase in the minimum wage, higher taxes for the super rich, universal health care, etc. Today there is a tyranny of the few.”

Four months away from a back-to-back midterm election, many wonder if the Democratic Party can rally the country to defend liberal democracy.

The Jan. 6 Committee hearings into Donald Trump's failed coup stripped the mask of an utterly anarchic former president who was prepared to lead his armed supporters to Capitol Hill to overturn an election he knew would it had been legally decided. Some Americans are alarmed at how close their country is to ending 235 years of democracy — but most shocking is how many people don't care. And there is no doubt that Trump, given the chance, would try again.

While it's unclear if the former president will be charged, there are signs the Republican Party is looking for ways to move forward as its greatest attraction becomes its greatest liability.

The media is beginning to take seriously what is being born in the Florida swamps: a Dear Leader fresh from the Donald's lot, ready to move him to lead the Maga army.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 43, gained national notoriety during the pandemic by taking extreme anti-lockdown stances and threatening to cut funding to school districts that insisted on mask mandates. This earned him hero status in right-libertarian circles, even though Florida has one of the worst Covid death rates in the country.

DeSantis has revamped his image as a culture warrior outlawing black suffrage, bullying transgender children, and exposing “woke gender ideology” and “left-wing elites” — especially in universities, where he has just signed a bill to audit the political opinions of professors and students.

He's received rave exposure on Fox News, a heaving war chest from billionaire donors, and the enthusiastic endorsement of Washington's class of political consultants who see him as a smarter, suave version of Trump.

Rick Wilson, himself a former Republican agent and figurehead of the Never Trumper Lincoln Project, sees the momentum growing for DeSantis. “His easy return to Florida from the legislature and the courts has given him an authoritative erection that he believes will lead him on a straight and smooth path to the Oval Office. His attacks on individual liberties and freedom of expression have worked. Expect a parade of deliberate provocations to fuel the Maga boob-baiting machine. »

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic candidate in 2024, aired a television ad in Florida on July 4 attacking DeSantis for banning the books, making it harder to vote, and "criminalizing women and doctors." It was partly a reward for DeSantis attacking Democrat-dominated California as a 'biomedical safe state' for its strict lockdowns during Covid, but what was intriguing was Newsom's decision to ignore Trump and go straight to DeSantis.

Trump, according to some reports, is getting nervous about the party spiraling out of control. Insane rallies are still packed, big guys still come to Mar a Lago to kiss the ring, and high-ranking Republicans still give slimy evasions when asked if they think Biden won the election in 2020. /p>

But a recent poll in the first primary state of New Hampshire put DeSantis ahead of Trump by a few points. ...