America’s McGuffin: The Catalyst for Our Great Awakening

The Plot Device Presidency

What if Donald Trump isn’t the villain of this story?
Not really. Not fundamentally.
What if he’s the McGuffin?

In film and fiction, a McGuffin is the object or event that drives the plot forward. The suitcase in Pulp Fiction. The ring in The Lord of the Rings. The plans in R2-D2’s little robot belly. It doesn’t matter what it is—the story isn’t about the McGuffin. The McGuffin exists to stir up chaos, provoke action, and force the heroes to rise.

What if Trump is our national McGuffin?
A grotesque and golden-toilet-gilded distraction. The radioactive briefcase. The orange ring of power.

Not the point—just the plot device.

Because this story, the one we’re living through, is not about him.
It’s about us. And what we do next.

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The Shock Doctrine of Democracy

There’s precedent for this moment. When the southern Democrats of the 1850s torched the Missouri Compromise and began marching toward a slave-owning oligarchy, the North was stunned. Disorganized. Flat-footed. The political parties of the time—fractured Whigs, cautious Free Soilers—crumbled under the weight of the crisis.

And yet… from the ashes rose something new. A party built not around compromise but conviction. The Republican Party—in its original form—was a radical, abolitionist answer to authoritarian overreach.

Out of chaos came clarity.

Out of betrayal came resolve.

And out of political collapse came Abraham Lincoln, arguably the greatest president we’ve ever had, whose moral clarity and iron will helped pull a fractured nation back from the brink.

A complete unknown rising swiftly through the muddle of tongue-tied and fearful politicians to lead our country through its darkest days. The darkness has fallen again, and again, we look for the leader who can unite us with ringing clarity of voice:

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.”
— Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, 1862

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Trump Isn’t the Destination—He’s the Alarm Clock

Let’s be clear: Trumpism is authoritarianism dressed in Walmart khakis and wrapped in grievance. It's not a joke, it’s not a drill, and it's not going away on its own.

But obsessing over him—doomscrolling, reacting to every deranged post, fixating on the spectacle—misses the point. Just like chasing the glowing briefcase, it distracts us from the real work.

He is not the story.
The story is how we rise.

Do we respond with handwringing and pearl-clutching?
Or do we build the democracy we were promised—but never delivered?

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So You Elected a Fascist President...

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This Is Our McGuffin Moment

Trump could be the catalyst that finally shatters our national delusion—that we already had a functioning democracy, that inequality was just a bug in the system, that America was on autopilot toward progress.

Maybe we needed this rupture to wake up.
To confront the rot.
To rise from the wreckage of illusion and finally, finally, build the Great Society we’ve only ever dreamed about.

One where:

• Voting is a right, not an obstacle course.

• Healthcare isn’t a luxury.

• Labor is respected.

• Truth matters.

• Government works for the people, not just the donor class.

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We’ve seen what we’re up against.
We’ve seen the future they want: cruel, unequal, authoritarian.

But maybe—just maybe—this is the moment that jolts us awake. That kicks off the real story. The one where we stop reacting and start rebuilding. Because Trump is the McGuffin. The rest? That’s up to us.

Stay bold. Stay loud. Stay American!
- Lady Liberty

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