i'd say this is an accurate way to read the 'book' that caitlin is. in the empire you don't know which way is up and its intentional on the part of 'our' owners;

The remarkable thing about Trump is that for all the talk about what a extremist wingnut he is, nobody benefits from his existence more than the two mainstream political parties of the United States. He helps sheepdog both the right and the left into the mainstream so-called “center” of US politics.

It’s clear at a glance that Trump helps ensure that right wing Americans who are dissatisfied with their country’s status quo politics will remain plugged into the Republican Party, which never does anything besides promoting the imperial status quo of oligarchy and militarism. But what takes a little more looking to see is that he plays the same role for the left as well.

In 2015 and early 2016, American progressives were buzzing with the possibility of real change in their country. Bernie Sanders was going to help them take back their nation from the millionaires and billionaires and corporations and banks, and get them fair wages and a normal healthcare system so they won’t have to work excruciatingly hard for excruciatingly little anymore. Then when Hillary secured the nomination and Sanders endorsed her everyone forgot about all that, and the struggle became about stopping the next Adolph Hitler from taking power in their own country.

And that’s the role that Trump has played ever since: keeping the fight about stopping fascism and preventing the end of American democracy so that the fight won’t be about economic justice and ending the abuses of the capitalist class. His political existence ensures that the tug-o-war game begins on the right side of the stage, so that everyone’s always pulling toward the Clintonite “center” of war, capitalism and imperialism instead of toward the left.........more.......