Post #46069 by ges on the US Policy board

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From James Greenberg:

It looks like democracy. It speaks in the language of freedom. It waves the flag, holds elections, quotes the Constitution. But behind the symbols, a long con is unfolding—one colder, more calculating, and far more dangerous than most Americans are prepared to admit.
Donald Trump isn’t dismantling American institutions—he’s repurposing them. The presidency, the courts, the bureaucracy—each is being turned into a set piece in a scripted display designed to secure loyalty, reward insiders, and disguise a transfer of power from the public to the private. What looks like patriotism is bait. What looks like governance is misdirection. The goal isn’t just control. It’s consent through illusion.

This is cryptocracy: rule by the concealed. It doesn’t need a coup or a canceled election. It survives by keeping the rituals of democracy intact while inverting their purpose. Laws become tools for punishing enemies and shielding allies. Agencies no longer serve the public—they protect the executive and advance his network. The state no longer mediates among competing interests—it extracts loyalty and delivers favors.

Like any long con, it relies on trust. Institutions still exist, and so does the choreography. Press briefings continue. Elections go forward. But the meanings have shifted. The symbols remain to prevent panic. Meanwhile, decision-making quietly moves behind closed doors, carried out by loyalists, family members, and private operatives with no accountability.

Cynics will say this is nothing new. Every administration has operated in the shadows to some extent. But Trump hasn’t inherited these tendencies—he’s institutionalizing them. What used to be excess is becoming architecture. Oversight isn’t obstructed—it’s being erased. Dissent isn’t debated—it’s being criminalized. Public life becomes a simulation, where power flows through backchannels.

This didn’t begin with a single law. It has advanced through calculated steps: firings, reassignments, stalled investigations, and legal interpretations twisted to serve personal power. The Department of Justice has been reshaped into a shield for the executive. Foreign policy is routed through sons-in-law and loyalists. Elections still happen, but not as democratic rituals—they’re framed as loyalty tests. Results are accepted only when they validate the con.

I’ve seen something like this before. In the 1980s, I lived in Mexico under the PRI. It called itself a democracy. On paper, it was. But everyone understood the real system: favors over fairness, relationships over rights, tribute over transparency. Bureaucracy wasn’t a system of rules—it was a maze of deals. Services came with a price. Outcomes depended on proximity to power. The law was performed, not followed. It wasn’t dysfunction. It was design.

Like any long con, it’s not just about illusion—it’s about extraction. The goal isn’t just power. It’s profit. Trump’s network turns public office into private gain: campaign funds flow into legal bills and branded merchandise; loyalists are rewarded with contracts, pardons, or favorable deals; tax policy is rewritten to favor billionaires while posing as populism. The public thinks they’re taking their country back. But the con is taking their labor, their tax base, their future—and repackaging it as patriotism.

Trump has updated that model for a reality-TV audience. Spectacle replaces structure. His family runs policy. His businesses collect payment. His allies receive contracts and pardons. His enemies are humiliated or prosecuted. The line between government and personal enterprise vanishes—and the crowd cheers. What was once concealed is now flaunted. Corruption isn’t hidden or denied—it’s recast as cunning.

The jet Qatar offered to Trump wasn’t a diplomatic gesture. It was tribute—a down payment. Trump’s praise sent the message loud and clear: praise buys protection, money buys access, and institutions exist to serve those already in the club. This isn’t statesmanship. It’s graft dressed as diplomacy.

Under a cryptocracy, corruption isn’t a deviation—it’s the system. And it only works if the mark never realizes they’re being conned. That’s where performance comes in. The public sees press briefings and thinks transparency still exists. They see elections and assume consent still matters. But behind the scenes, the old machinery has been swapped out.

From an anthropological lens, this is more than institutional decay. It’s a cultural shift in the logic of power. Authority no longer comes from law or legitimacy. It comes from proximity, spectacle, and the ability to manage fear and grievance. Institutions remain, but they function like sets—familiar enough to keep us from noticing what’s changed.

And the public becomes part of the con. Spectacle becomes expected. Cynicism becomes wisdom. People stop asking for truth and settle for confirmation. They stop expecting public service and come to admire dominance. Trust isn’t just broken—it’s repurposed.

Trump wears the mask of a presidency, but what he’s constructing is the infrastructure for rule through performance, loyalty, and concealment. Democracy isn’t abolished—it’s staged.

This con doesn’t need to win everyone over. It just needs to keep enough people distracted, discouraged, or deceived. It doesn’t break the old system. It convinces us it’s still working.

And if we don’t call it what it is—if we keep responding to Trump’s actions as isolated outrages rather than a systematic restructuring of power—we risk becoming long-term investors in our own deception, believing we still live in a republic long after the game has ended.

What we’re facing isn’t dysfunction. It’s a confidence game. And by the time we realize we’ve been taken, the con may already be complete.

https://substack.com/@jamesbgreenberg

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