I don’t think the aesthetics are the problem. The campaign was not really making a huge secret of anything they wanted to do. Trump talked about immigrants eating pers — did you think anyone missed that? He said he’d declare a state of emergency and deport people. Annnd he’s declaring an emergency so he can deport people. People knew what they were getting in this election, so why the pikachu shocked face when they cheer for a Bellamy salute on Inauguration Day? This was all in your face the whole time. I went in deciding whether I wanted cackling Harris or Nazi Trump. Between nothing changing for four years or Project 2025, military deportations, and abandoning Ukraine for the lols.

What I don’t see is any serious opposition from leadership. They’re shocked by the salute, but we’ve known the results since November 5. I guess the best we can muster is a day or two of protests, pardons for the important people (not you) and whining because Elon did a dorky version of a Nazi salute. I saw as much outrage over the senator from Minnesota wearing a hoodie. Honestly if this is the tenor of the response, if the best we can muster is “Oh no, not the straight arm salute! Well, anyway…” I don’t see how you actually keep any of our constitutional rights intact. I suspect we’ll still be voting, but it’s like voting in Russia— Putin always just so happens to win in landslide and a lot of opposition leaders fall out of windows.