By D. W. Presley

The American reader, so blissfully addicted to fast food, reality television, and the latest five-minute outrage, loves to scoff at historical comparisons. “Vichy France? East Germany? Come on, it’s just politics!” they say between sips of their $9 oat milk lattes. But history has a way of curling back on itself like a cheap cigar, burning just as bad the second time around. Anne Applebaum’s warning rings clear: The point is not to call Trump Hitler or Stalin; the point is to recognize that the people closest to him—those who stood in the room, nodding like bobbleheads while he fumbled his way through government—are experiencing something deeply familiar to students of history.

What happens when people are forced to accept an ideology they do not truly believe in? The answer, dear reader, is submission. The kind of submission that turns a principled conservative into a political jellyfish, a hollowed-out husk of their former selves, all because they fear the wrath of an orange-faced demagogue and his legions of keyboard warriors.

It’s not a new story. This has happened before.

WELCOME TO VICHY, USA

Picture this: It’s 1940 in France. The Germans have just steamrolled through Europe faster than a billionaire avoiding taxes. The French government, rather than fight to the bitter end, decides to roll over like a well-trained poodle. They set up shop in Vichy, where they become enthusiastic collaborators, enforcing German policies while pretending they still have some dignity.

Now, let’s update the setting. It’s 2016. The Republican Party—once the party of Reagan, Bush, and Goldwater—finds itself invaded from within, hijacked by a reality TV conman with a third-grade vocabulary and the subtlety of a jackhammer. Instead of resisting, the so-called “principled conservatives” throw their weight behind him. Why? Because power is seductive, and to stand against the tide would mean political exile. And in Washington, exile is worse than death.

Take a look at someone like Lindsey Graham. Once upon a time, he was John McCain’s sidekick, a self-proclaimed defender of traditional conservatism. Fast-forward a few years, and he’s become Trump’s personal lapdog, defending everything from sham impeachments to coup attempts like a man who just remembered where his campaign donations come from. If Graham had been around in 1940, he’d have been drafting Vichy’s official surrender letter in crayon.

But the Vichy analogy is just the first layer of this rotten onion. Let’s peel a little deeper.

EAST GERMANY: THE ART OF CONSTANT LYING

Ah, East Germany—the land of informants, doublethink, and a government so paranoid it made Nixon look like a model of transparency. After World War II, those unlucky enough to live in the eastern part of Germany found themselves trapped under Soviet rule. The Stasi—the East German secret police—was everywhere, ensuring that no one stepped out of line. People learned to smile, nod, and pretend that life under communism was just fine, even as their homes crumbled and their freedoms disappeared.

Sound familiar?

In Trump’s America, the Stasi didn’t need trench coats and hidden microphones; all they needed was Twitter. Republican politicians were forced into a grotesque performance, reciting lines they didn’t believe, endorsing conspiracy theories they knew were insane, and swearing undying loyalty to a man they privately despised.

Think about the poor souls who served in Trump’s cabinet—men and women who entered the administration with at least a shred of dignity, only to leave looking like they had survived a hostage situation. Rex Tillerson, James Mattis, John Kelly—each of them walked into the White House as respected figures, and each of them walked out as cautionary tales.

The message was clear: If you questioned the Supreme Leader, you were done. Career over. Persona non grata. Just ask Jeff Sessions, the man who went from Attorney General to political roadkill the moment he recused himself from the Russia investigation. He might as well have tried defecting from East Berlin with a suitcase full of American flags.

And yet, there were those who chose to stay. Those who bent the knee, not because they believed, but because they knew that to resist meant ruin.

Czesław Miłosz and the Intellectual’s Dilemma

In 1947, Polish writer Czesław Miłosz faced a choice. The Soviet-backed government wanted intellectuals on their side, to lend credibility to the regime. Miłosz, like many before him, was forced to decide: resist and suffer, or comply and survive.

His book The Captive Mind is a masterpiece of psychological analysis, dissecting why people submit to oppressive regimes even when they know better. He describes “Ketman,” the practice of outwardly conforming while inwardly maintaining dissent. Sound like any modern Republicans you know?

How many GOP members spent the Trump years practicing their own form of Ketman, lying to themselves just to get through another day? How many of them convinced themselves that the madness would pass, that they could outlast the storm, that they could survive without selling their souls entirely?

They were wrong.

THE FINAL PRICE OF COWARDICE

And now here we are, in the aftermath. Trump may be out of the White House, but his shadow still looms over the Republican Party like the Ghost of Cowards Past. Those who once swore allegiance to him now find themselves trapped. They are too weak to reclaim their old principles, too scared to embrace a new path.

This is the true price of submission—not just political ruin, but existential decay. The Vichy French found themselves despised after the war, forced to reckon with their betrayal. The East Germans eventually overthrew their own government, leaving the informants and loyalists scrambling to rewrite history. Miłosz, at least, escaped with his soul intact.

But what about today’s Republican Party? What happens when you sell your soul for a little bit of power, only to realize that power is fleeting?

Well, if history is any guide, there’s no happy ending. Just a long, slow descent into irrelevance, disgrace, and, ultimately, the footnotes of history—right next to the Vichy collaborators, the East German informants, and every other spineless bureaucrat who chose survival over principle.

And that, dear reader, is the lesson of history. It never repeats itself exactly—but it sure as hell rhymes.

DEMOCRATS: QUIT WHINING AND GET IN THE GODDAMN FIGHT

Where in the hell are the Democrats? Huddled in the corner, mumbling about bipartisanship while the GOP sharpens their knives? Wandering the halls of Congress like confused ghosts, wondering why the very concept of democracy is being fed through a wood chipper?

Wake up, you spineless bastards! This is not a debate. This is a street fight, and you’re still standing on the sidewalk hoping the bullies will follow the goddamn rules.

The Republican Party doesn’t have a supermajority. They don’t have unchallenged rule. They hold onto Congress by the slimmest of margins, a shaky coalition of fascist nutjobs and career grifters whose only guiding principle is the relentless pursuit of power. They should be cornered. They should be sweating bullets. But instead, they strut around Washington like they own the place, because the Democratic Party—the supposed defenders of democracy—is too chickenshit to go for the kill.

Where is the all-out, no-holds-barred attack that should be coming from every single elected Democrat? Where are the daily press conferences, the subpoenas, the constant, unrelenting media blitz that puts every corrupt Republican on trial in the court of public opinion?

Where the fuck are the street brawlers, the hard-nosed political operators who understand that you don’t win by playing nice—you win by fighting like your life depends on it? Because guess what? It does.

The GOP is already playing dirty. They’ve been playing dirty. And they’re winning because Democrats refuse to drag them into the mud and beat them at their own game.

Look at this Musk situation. How in the holy hell is the Senate letting this happen?

Elon Musk—a billionaire man-child with zero qualifications beyond knowing how to set money on fire—is operating in the Oval Office like he’s the goddamn Secretary of State, sitting in meetings, whispering in Trump’s ear, deciding national policy while collecting billions in government contracts.

What the fuck happened to oversight? Where is the outrage? Where are the Democrats standing on the Senate floor demanding an investigation, holding hearings, dragging this smug, government-funded oligarch into Congress and grilling him until his overpriced hair plugs start sweating?

Instead, they sit there like trained poodles, wagging their tails, hoping for another round of polite negotiations with a party that is openly plotting their destruction.

This isn’t just cowardice. This is complicity.

DEMOCRATS: GET TO WORK!

Call out every single Republican for their crimes—by name, on camera, on every platform available. Flood the airwaves with their scandals. Drag them into the sunlight like cockroaches. Hold votes, force them to defend their corruption, put their sins on full display.

Take off the fucking gloves.

Bush, Obama, Biden, Harris—they may not be in office anymore, but they’re not mute. Where are they? Why aren’t they raising hell? Why aren’t they tearing apart this Republican crime syndicate limb by limb? Even Dick Cheney, a man so deeply embedded in the machinery of political evil that he should be the final boss in a dystopian novel, came out and said Trump is a threat to democracy. If Darth Fucking Vader can speak out, what the hell is stopping every elected Democrat from doing the same?

We don’t need another polite MSNBC roundtable about “the importance of norms.” We don’t need another painfully cautious speech about “working together.” We need bare-knuckle politics, war room strategy, coordinated offense.

And if Democrats won’t do it?

Then they deserve to lose.

So get to work, you weak, trembling cowards. Because if you don’t fight now, there won’t be anything left to fight for.

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Sources

1. Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism (2020): Applebaum’s book explores how intellectuals and political elites in democratic societies come to embrace authoritarianism. The quoted passage about Vichy France, East Germany, and Czesław Miłosz originates from her work.

2. Czesław Miłosz, The Captive Mind (1953): This book examines how intellectuals in postwar Eastern Europe rationalized their submission to Soviet-backed regimes, introducing the concept of “Ketman,” a form of ideological self-deception.

3. Robert Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 (1972): A seminal work on the Vichy regime, detailing how French officials collaborated with Nazi Germany, drawing parallels to modern political capitulation.

4. Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017): Snyder outlines historical lessons on resisting authoritarianism, referencing Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and modern political movements.

5. John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History (2005): Covers East Germany’s Stasi surveillance state and the psychological toll of forced ideological conformity.

6. Lindsey Graham’s Shifting Position on Trump (2015–2021). Documented in news reports and interviews, Graham’s transformation from a Trump critic to a loyalist is widely covered in:

• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Politico

7. Jeff Sessions’ Fallout with Trump Over the Russia Investigation. Reported in:

• The Guardian: “Jeff Sessions Endures Trump’s Wrath”
• The New York Times: “Trump’s Public Humiliation of Sessions”

8. Rex Tillerson, James Mattis, and John Kelly’s Disillusionment with Trump. Documented in:

• Bob Woodward, Fear: Trump in the White House (2018)
• Michael Schmidt, Donald Trump v. The United States (2020)

9. George Orwell, 1984 (1949): Although a work of fiction, Orwell’s depiction of state-enforced ideological conformity resonates with discussions of East Germany and modern political pressures.