The Stephen Miller Regency (#107)
Reminding my fellow Californians to vote “yes” on Proposition 50 today, Democrats should make clear how Stephen Miller is acting as the president’s Regent, thanking Vasili Arkhipov for being “the man who saved the world” during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and links to other stories I’m following.
Here we go. I’m glad you’re here!
“It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone. And that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.” “The Long Twilight Struggle.” Babylon 5, created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Season 2, Episode 20, 1995.
Leading Off
Know Your Voting Rights, Ensure Your Voice is Heard: Attorney General Bonta and Secretary of State Weber Engage Californians in Advance of November Special Election (California Attorney General Rob Bonta Press Release, Link to Article)
Due to changes in the U.S. Postal mail service, in some rural areas — or areas away from key mail processing sites — a ballot dropped in the U.S. mail on Election Day might be collected too late to be counted. Under the U.S. Postal Service’s new process, mail dropped off at post offices and mail collection boxes more than 50 miles from a U.S. Postal Service regional hub is collected the next day, instead of the same day (see map below). This means that, in some areas, ballots dropped off at a post office or mail collection box on Election Day won't be postmarked until the day after, making them late. Late ballots are not counted. Californians are encouraged to drop off their ballots a day, or a few days, before Election Day.
To my California friends: if you haven’t yet cast your Proposition 50 ballot, please be aware of the new postal service rules in rural areas to ensure your ballot is postmarked by today’s deadline. You need to make sure your ballot gets postmarked today if you drop it in the mail. You may want to consider visiting a voting center to drop off your ballot to ensure it is counted.
I hope you will join me in voting yes on Proposition 50. The Trump GOP has to pay a cost for its mid-decade partisan redistricting efforts. California has a rare chance to send a message about how to respond to an authoritarian bully.
Let’s take it!
Of course, there are other key elections today around the nation. I will be watching the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, the mayoral election in New York City, and the state Supreme Court retention election in Pennsylvania.
Abortion, Every Day’s Kylie Cheung and Jessica Valenti explain how the elections will impact the fight to protect the right to reproductive health care. Will Democrats continue to perform better than they did in 2024? What will happen to turnout? Will there be election intimidation or other efforts to suppress the vote?
As I was finishing this edition, we learned about bomb threats focusing on Democratic precincts in New Jersey. That is a classic suppression tactic, and I hope voters still head to the polls. That will take courage, but that is required to beat an authoritarian.
#1: Stephen Miller is an Anti-Constitutional Menace
We know President Trump does not like it when his staff takes too much credit. Trump demands attention. He does not like to share.
Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller understands the rules. He is one of the few aides who have lasted through both the first and second Trump terms.
By all accounts, Miller is the most powerful staffer in the Trump regime. The rest of the White House knows it. Some have even dared whisper the truth to reporters. As Asawin Suebsaeng, Nikki McCann Ramirez, and Andrew Perez write in Rolling Stone:
“Shadow Sec Def.”
“Prime Minister Miller.”
“The REAL Attorney General.”
“The DHS boss.”
“President Miller.”
Trump administration officials and other Republicans close to the president and this White House are paranoid that Miller will one day hear them gossiping about him behind his back — but they still whisper the unofficial titles and nicknames that they bestow onto the White House deputy chief of staff. When Rolling Stone asks one senior administration official about former Fox News star and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, this source says, unprompted, that “he does what Stephen wants him to do.”
...
More than seven months into Trump’s second term, Stephen Miller has become America’s — if not the world’s — most powerful unelected bureaucrat. With Trump’s blessing, Miller has been allowed to run and remake the country in a manner virtually unheard of for a U.S. government official of his rank. Think of any egregious policy from the Trump administration: Chances are, it was driven by Stephen Miller.
All of it bears Trump’s signature, but the president is not the one spending his nights writing executive orders and bending legal theory to his will; nearly all of this bears the authorship (or, at least, co-authorship) of Miller. Everything you loathe or love about Donald Trump’s America, you hate or cherish about Stephen Miller’s republic of fear.
We should make this point more often. It appears that Miller is acting as Trump’s Regent while the president focuses on destroying the East Wing, remodeling bathrooms, and lobbying for peace awards he’ll never receive.
Miller has been clear for years that he wants to prioritize attacking immigrants. But Trump appears to have given him a much wider remit—including on military matters, as The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell explains:
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has played a leading role in directing US strikes against suspected Venezuelan drug boats, according to three people familiar with the situation. At times, his role has superseded that of Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser.
Senate-confirmed cabinet officials would not be so deferential unless it were clear they had to be.
I believe Democrats should be making this dynamic more clear to American voters. They should not miss any opportunity to talking about Stephen Miller more, especially when he makes false claims about how much power the president has in our system of government. Democrats should still be making Miller’s insane comments about the president having plenary power or his lie that federal immigration officials have immunity a story every day.
I believe Miller has been lying to the president about immigration and the state of crime in our cities. Democrats should work every day to make Miller a potential scapegoat. He deserves the responsibility.
The American people need to understand who Miller is and the power Trump has given him. He is an unlikable character who demands policies that harm people every day. Making Miller the face of the Trump regime will pay political dividends.
Plus, there is a chance that making Miller famous will annoy Trump enough that he will take away the powers the president has given him. Miller is such a committed driver of these authoritarian policies that his removal would help the situation almost immediately. His demands that federal agents invade Home Depot parking lots may be reversed if Miller were not there to keep such awful policies in place.
Democrats should also make an effort to ensure Americans understand who Miller is, given the inevitable transition that will occur when Trump is no longer the leader of the MAGA movement. There will be a fight to take the crown. Vice President JD Vance may think he is next in line, but that’s only in the Constitution he and MAGA ignore every day. He may get the office, but he won’t be the movement’s leader.
Historian Timothy Snyder recently made an observation about Miller that gave me chills (derogatory). The Guardian’s Judith Levine explains:
As Trump grows increasingly incoherent and emotionally labile, Miller grows more and more influential. He is the president’s brain, his discipline. Where Trump has no guiding principles, Miller is a resolute ideologue of white, western supremacy and a tactician of final solutions. Trump is easily lampooned, but Miller is the grimmest of reapers.
Timothy Snyder, the historian and author of the influential book On Tyranny, posted a video on his Substack, comparing Miller to Stalin. One thing he said is that Stalin gained power as Lenin’s health failed. Lenin’s leadership ran from 1917 to 1924, but he was incapacitated by strokes beginning in 1922. Stalin’s murderous reign lasted until 1953.
That is a mental image I did not need to experience.
We should do everything we can to ensure Miller is in no position to take over the MAGA mantle—or, if he does, that voters fully understand who is behind the policies they hate. Miller needs to be famous. He needs to be accountable for the evil and harm for which he is responsible.
Perhaps we can get Trump to remove him from his perch before the president leaves us (Father Time, after all, remains undefeated). But at least Democrats should try to damage Miller enough that he won’t be a viable contender to take over the MAGA movement when that time comes.
Tabs I Closed
- Stephen Miller, CNN, and the ‘Plenary Authority’ Comment That Got Buried (Olga Lautman, Unmasking Russia, Link to Article)
- Stephen Miller is the most dangerous man in the Trump administration (Judith Levine, The Guardian, Link to Article)
- Stephen Miller takes center stage in Trump’s crime and military crackdown (Adam Cancryn, Priscilla Alvarez, and Zachary Cohen, CNN, Link to Article)
- Inside Stephen Miller’s Reign of Terror (Asawin Suebsaeng, Nikki McCann Ramirez, and Andrew Perez, Rolling Stone, Link to Article)
- Sinister, Malevolent, Venomous: Stephen Miller Is Like No Other White House Aide in Modern US History (John Harwood, Zeteo, Link to Article)
- Stephen Miller takes leading role in strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boats (Hugo Lowell, The Guardian, Link to Article)
- Trump wants you to think invoking the Insurrection Act is more common than it is (Philip Bump, Link to Article)
- Pressing Thomas Jefferson's Panic Button: The Insurrection Act (Tad Stoermer, Link to Article)
#2: Thanking A Man Who Saved the World
I’m a few days late to this anniversary, but I think it is important to honor the people who helped us survive the Cold War, even if my publishing schedule doesn’t quite match the anniversary date.
We all owe a debt to Soviet naval officer Vasili Arkhipov, who single-handedly prevented a nuclear war from developing at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis on October 27, 1962.
Some like to claim that John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev had significant control over the situation as they worked to negotiate an end to that confrontation.
But that telling of history is far too neat. Real events were messier—and we are lucky they didn’t spin out of control. After all, what US intelligence didn’t know was that the Soviet submarines near Cuba had a 10-kiloton nuclear missile in their arsenals, and one submarine came very close to launch.
As The Guardian wrote about the incident when Arkhipov was posthumously awarded the Future of Life Award a few years ago:
“On 27 October 1962, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov was on board the Soviet submarine B-59 near Cuba when the US forces began dropping non-lethal depth charges. While the action was designed to encourage the Soviet submarines to surface, the crew of B-59 had been incommunicado and so were unaware of the intention. They thought they were witnessing the beginning of a third world war.
Trapped in the sweltering submarine – the air-conditioning was no longer working – the crew feared death. But, unknown to the US forces, they had a special weapon in their arsenal: a ten kilotonne nuclear torpedo. What’s more, the officers had permission to launch it without waiting for approval from Moscow.
Two of the vessel’s senior officers – including the captain, Valentin Savitsky – wanted to launch the missile. According to a report from the US National Security Archive, Savitsky exclaimed: “We’re gonna blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all – we will not become the shame of the fleet.”
But there was an important caveat: all three senior officers on board had to agree to deploy the weapon. As a result, the situation in the control room played out very differently. Arkhipov refused to sanction the launch of the weapon and calmed the captain down. The torpedo was never fired.”
So, thank you, Vasili Arkhipov, for being one of the heroes of the nuclear age who prevented an unintentional nuclear armageddon.
Tabs I Closed
- Soviet submarine officer who averted nuclear war honoured with prize (Nicola Davis, The Guardian)
Other Stories I’m Following
- 12 helpful terms to understand American chaos (Mark Jacob, Stop the Presses, Link to Article)
If you follow disinformation or the rise of authoritarianism, you may run into these 12 terms online. It’s a quick help if you run into Brandolini’s Law (about how hard it is to refute bullshit), concern trolling, red pills, and more. - How No Kings Embraced the Good Kind of Weird—and Won the Normies (Ana Marie Cox, The New Republic, Link to Article)
Cox reports from New Braunfels, Texas, about how that red county turned out against Trump, thanks in part to some tactical frivolity and empathy. - “No Kings” in the Land Where Trump Is King (Lyz Lenz, Slate, Link to Article)
Lenz reports on the No Kings protest in Pella, Iowa, and how valuable it can be to make people uncomfortable enough to deal with what is happening. - Before Advocating To Repeal Section 230, It Helps To First Understand How It Works (Mike Masnick, Techdirt, Link to Article)
I loathe the major technology companies with the white hot passion of a thousand suns. But, we need to be smart in how we go about reforming them and limiting their power. The large tech oligarchs would love it if we took the simplistic path and eliminated Section 230, because that would ensure their continued power by preventing competition. - The Depth of MAGA’s Moral Collapse (George Packer, The Atlantic, Link to Article)
Vice President JD Vance thinks we are overreacting to the revelation of how pro-Hitler so many Young Republicans are when they think no one will see their group chats. The people involved in this chat are in their 20s and 30s. One was an elected official. The GOP has enabled the alt-right. We should be concerned about that fact. And we should stop pretending the Trump regime actually wants to fight the rise in anti-semitism. - Green Acres Is The Place For Scott Bessent (Marcie Jones, Wonkette, Link to Article)
When a man worth more than $500 million claims to be a simple soybean farmer, you can bet you are being lied to. - 51(ish) things you can actually do (Amanda Litman, Link to Article)
The co-founder of Run for Something provides a great list of activities people can do each day to fight back against the Trump regime. If you are feeling anxious, take a look at the list and see if there is something there you can do.
The most essential part of fighting an authoritarian—as Andor’s Karis Nemik reminded us in an all-too-relevant monologue from that outstanding series—is not what specific activity we choose to do.
What we can do is to try. That’s how we win in this long, twilight struggle against authoritarianism.
Post-Game Comments
Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:
“The other lesson is that resistance is constructive. It can seem difficult to resist merchants of calamity such as Trump and Vance. No one action seems to stop them. But every act of resistance creates the possibility that the country itself can survive, and every moment of hope creates the foundation for a better republic. The actions we take have to be actions against, against what is being done to us now. But by their nature every strike, every protest, every act of organization, every act of kindness and solidarity are also actions for, for a future in which the United States continues to exist, and in which the learning from resistance becomes the politics of freedom.”—Timothy Snyder, Thinking About..., Look on my works, ye Mighty
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On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump instigated a violent insurrection against the United States government. Here’s a video from the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol that one can review if their memory fades.
People were hurt and police officers died protecting the Capitol. Vice President Pence and other elected officials just barely escaped danger. Our national streak of peaceful transfers of power ended.
It was not, as Trump claims, a “day of love.” And we must resist his efforts to rewrite the history of that dark day.
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