When the U.S. surprised the world by electing Donald Trump president many of us understood what it truly meant. “MAGA Bitchez!” was all I could say for at least a week. It was such a glorious event.

It was a giant ‘two-fingers up’ to the globalist establishment and endemic corruption of not just our government but of our society. We hoped it would signal a fundamental shift in U.S. foreign and domestic policy.

“No Mas” to more creeping totalitarianism at home.

“No Mas” to the weird intersectionalism and messianic Just War interventionism of the Baby Boomer generation.

Finally a coherent political statement from the latch-key Generation X; ready to assume the mantle of political power and tear down the rotten edifice of the world’s financial and political behemoth sucking the life out of humanity, one rehypothecated dollar at a time.

Sadly many of us, including myself, were wrong. Two and a half years of the most cynical Russophobia supporting an obvious and ham-handed coup operation against Trump has left the country more divided today than it was in 2016 when he won.

And the profound unfairness of it all has polarized the MAGA crowd into frothing-at-the-mouth righteous warriors against the evils of Socialism as a proxy for the Democrats and the Deep State itself.

Two years of believing in 4-d chess, Qanon, and all the other political horoscoping has a large swath of Americans so gaslit they are not only willing to back Trump’s regime change operation in Venezuela, they are defending it as ‘not a coup.’

They believe that because Trump told them to.

The real victims are the Venezuelans, the latest in a long-series of people who lives have been destroyed because of our incessant meddling in foreign affairs for our profit while selling it to Americans as humanitarian aid.

After Trump’s election I thought we had put away such childish things. But as I said this morning over at Strategic Culture Foundation:

Those I have zero sympathy with however, are the conservatives who are so in the thrall of Trump’s cult of personality that they excuse his bloodthirsty policies because it, to them, is a proxy for their own desired war against the Democrats here at home. It’s a sick and pathetic justification to the inhuman practice of trade restraint and hybrid warfare to combat the evils of ‘socialism.’ The truth is that the American populist right has given fully into their anger and powerlessness to stop the degradation of their own society and have now transferred those feelings onto Venezuela.

There is a dangerous and pernicious undercurrent brewing among American conservatives who truly believe we are gearing up for The Rapture and the ultimate fight of Good vs. Evil.

And, in some weird way, they welcome it. It’s the only explanation I have for backing Trump’s play here, other than the embarrassment of knowing your shit-lib friends and family are right to say, “I told you so” about Trump.

It is difficult to have nuanced opinions in a world where battle lines are cynically drawn to keep people fighting among themselves while the real bad guys get away with the worst kind of crimes.

There’s a childishness to this position that cannot be ignored. If these people so desperately want to overthrow socialism, get on a plane to Colombia, pick up a rifle and go join the cause. Otherwise, what business is it of your to interfere with another country’s internal policies?

Your Orange Jesus told you this was a Just War so onward Christian Soldier and all that nonsense.

Hey, how about you put down your rented iPhone and back away from the Big Mac, fatty. This isn’t your fight. In fact, the real fight against socialism begins inside you. When you cede power over your life to someone else, anyone else, no matter how well-intentioned, you are allowing for that evil ‘socialism’ to take root.

When you accept the validity of your government having ‘rights’ versus powers delegated by you, a rights-holder, you are on the path to the very socialist models you think your railing against.

Moreover, do you think starving Venezuelans is a just way to fight your ‘Just War’? If you stand with the Venezuelan people why aren’t you telling your government to lift sanctions and allow them to build real wealth. Why aren’t you demanding Trump cut the military budget by 50 or 75% instead of cheering him on and thanking the troops ‘for their service?’

Maduro may be a bad man, I certainly think he’s inept, but he’s their bad man. And he’s not a threat to us in any way that matters to you personally.

Then again, war-mongering from the American right always comes easy as long as it isn’t your ass in the foxhole and the pizza is still delivered in 30 minutes or less.

These are the same people tired of 17 years of war who voted for Trump to end them. And now they cheer on the possibility of one in Caracas.

For a short period of time I was proud to be a part of that group that stood up and said, “No mas.” Now, I just shake my head and remind myself these were the same people who let it get to this point in the first place.

Waiting for the Rapture while watching reruns of NCIS on Netflix.