Trump and Vance: We Need to Finish This Drama and Undress These Actors.

Posted on | February 26, 2025 | 2 Comments

Mike Magee

“Chance made the situation; genius profited from it,’ says history. But what is chance? What is genius?”
Leo Tolstoy from “War and Peace”, 1867.

Trump and Vance wasted little time embarrassing America today. Following the game plan of “Professional Wrestling” they did their best to bully and emasculate Ukraine’s President Zelensky, who is twice as smart and many times more courageous than the two combined.

They succeeded only in leaving many more questions than answers. Is Trump and Vance using Zelensky as a shield, easily discarded after taking deadly fire from Putin? Are Trump and Vance capable of holding Musk in check, with his commanding wealth, or is he now the de facto play maker for the nation? Will Americans press “return to sender” in the midterm election to avoid further disgraces for our nation?

It has become increasingly difficult to differentiate what is Trump/Vance and what is Republican. The President and Vice-President are now clearly joined at the hip, a modern day version of Napoleon who Leo Tolstoy described in “War and Peace” 158 years ago. And like Napoleon, they have an army of supplicants determined to follow their leaders with the same conviction as the French army whose fate was to stall in the freezing grounds of Mother Russia and be consumed by epidemic typhus and trench fever.

Consider Tolstoy’s reflections, and judge yourself which apply to Trump and Vance, and are fast at work repeating history.

First, their rise . . .

On The Rise To Power

“Seizing power requires that the old . . . is destroyed; old customs and traditions are obliterated; step by step a group of a new size is produced, along with new customs and traditions, and that man is prepared who is to stand at the head of the future movement and bear upon himself all the responsibility for what is to be performed…A man without conviction, without customs, without traditions, without a name, not even a (military man or politician), seemingly by the strangest chances, moves among all the parties stirring up (hatreds), and, without attaching himself to any of them, is borne up to a conspicuous place.”

Early Success

“The ignorance of his associates, the weakness and insignificance of his opponents, the sincerity of his lies, and the brilliant and self-confident limitedness of this man moved him to the head…the reluctance of his adversaries to fight his childish boldness and self-confidence win him…glory…The disgrace he falls into…turns to his advantage. His attempts to change the path he is destined for fail…Several times he is on the brink of destruction and is saved each time in an unexpected way…the very ones who can destroy his glory, do not, for various diplomatic considerations…”

Fawning and Bowing to Power

“All people despite their former horror and loathing for his crimes, now recognize his power, the title he has given himself, and the ideal of greatness and glory, which to all of them seems beautiful and reasonable….One after another, they rush to demonstrate their non-entity to him….Not only is he great, but his ancestors, his brothers, his stepsons, his brothers-in-law are great. Everything is done to deprive him of the last powers of reason and prepare him for his terrible role. And when he is ready, the forces are ready as well.”

Turning a Blind Eye

“The ideal of glory and greatness which consists not only in considering that nothing that one does is bad, but in being proud of one’s every crime, ascribing some incomprehensible supernatural meaning to it – that ideal which is to guide this man and the people connected with him, is freely developed…His childishly imprudent, groundless and ignoble (actions)…leave his comrades in trouble…completely intoxicated by the successful crimes he has committed…he arrives for his role without any aim…(leading to) the decomposition of republican government…and his presence, clear of any (opposing) parties, can now only elevate him.”

Self-Adoration, Mobs, and Conspiracy

“He has no plan at all; he is afraid of everything…He alone, with his ideal of glory and greatness…with his insane self-adoration, with his boldness in crime, with his sincerity in lying – he alone can justify what is to be performed…He is drawn into a conspiracy, the purpose of which is the seizure of power, and the conspiracy is crowned with success….thereby convincing the mob more forcefully than by any other means that he has the right, because he has the power.”

Next, their fall . . .

The Spell is Broken by a Reversal of Chance

“But suddenly, instead of the chances and genius that up to now have led him so consistently through an unbroken series of successes to the appointed role, there appear a countless number of reverse chances….and instead of genius there appears an unexampled stupidity and baseness…”

The Final Act

“A countermovement is performed…And several years go by during which this man in solitude on his island, plays a pathetic comedy before himself, pettily intriguing and lying to justify his actions, when that justification is no longer needed, and showing to the whole world what it was that people took for strength while an unseen hand was guiding him…having finished the drama and undressed the actor(s).”

Comments

2 Responses to “Trump and Vance: We Need to Finish This Drama and Undress These Actors.”

Larry McGovern
March 7th, 2025 @ 11:55 am

Thanks, Mike, for this. Didn’t know Tolstoy had Donald Trump in mind when writing “War and Peace”. The quotes fit Trump to a T.
However, in the vein of “nothing is totally black, or totally white”, or “even a broken clock is correct twice a day”, and with all due respect, the view of Trump/Vance/Zelensky/Ukraine expressed here is very wrong. Zelensky, rather than being brave or heroic, is anything but. Ukraine and Russia (at the suggestion of Russia 2 days after the invasion began) negotiated an agreement to end the conflict just weeks after it began. The agreement was initialed on every page by both sides, and was just about to be formalized, when Zelensky let himself be persuaded the US and UK to quit, and walk away from the deal, thus insuring more than 1 million Ukraine deaths and casualties. I could provide many more details than would fit in this comment page (as well as most being never mentioned in the main stream media). Instead I am citing a timeline which gives the facts going back to the 1990’s. I also tried to cite the great address by Columbia Professor, and international consultant, Jeffrey Sachs, recently gave to the European Parliament. It also can be found on Consortium News, but just googling it will bring it to you. It is a “must” to listen to or read!!
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/25/ukraine-timeline-tells-the-tale/
Mike Magee
March 7th, 2025 @ 12:30 pm

Thanks, Larry, for your continued focus on peace, and for the citations. Much appreciated. Best, Mike