The ascendance of The Donald has everyone scratching their heads. How has our democracy slumped to this?
Trump has simultaneously channeled P.T. Barnum, Senator Joe McCarthy, and Valdemort, bewitching millions of disillusioned, fearful and angry folks around the country. We’ve waited for his Waterloo moment, when he finally goes TOO FAR. Nothing doing. Apparently no vulgarity, no contemptuous insinuation, no outright lie breaks the spell. Au contraire, it only strengthens his appeal.
His supporters mistake Trump’s unfiltered proclamations for sincerity, his bullying for strength. They somehow believe his immense wealth makes him incorruptible, conveniently ignoring the fact that he cynically pulled the strings of an amoral (sometimes immoral) financial system to accumulate his stash in the first place.
They see his unapologetic racial, sexual and religious aspersions as a signal that he’ll transport America back to the 1950’s.
Wasn't that a sweet, sweet time?
Any guy with a high school diploma could make a nice buck at a factory, before all the plants packed up and moved to Mexico, China, Kuala Lumpur, or wherever.
If you went out and about, you didn’t see brown people everywhere, speaking incomprehensible languages. We didn’t have women and colored folks getting all up in our faces about living and earning equally.
Everyone just understood that black lives didn’t matter, and had the common courtesy not to bring it up every time a brotha’s body had to be retrieved from the precinct station.
And yes, it’s undeniably true that we didn’t have to concern ourselves with jihadists shooting up malls and government buildings.
For his fans, Trump offers reassurance that we can get back there, though it’s a given that he knows perfectly well it can’t happen. But for Donald, that’s beside the point, or rather, his point. His exclusive focus is feeding his insatiable appetite for power and self-aggrandizement. Who really cares if anything he says is true?
Trump’s fans do have some things right. They understand at a gut level that the country needs to be shaken up, and rejiggered. So many of our financial, political, and social institutions feel broken, ossified, and corrupted.
Congress can scarcely find a way to pass a law to save itself, and critical issues continue to fester—immigration, climate change, gun violence, gross inequities in our criminal justice system, tax policy are just a few. The excruciating ordeal of ailing World Trade Center first responders to get the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act passed is a sad window into just how bad things have gotten.
Congress’ dysfunction isn’t an accident. Our national legislature can’t enact laws because we no longer have a shared vision of our national aspirations, or even reality. Trump rides a wave of paranoid resentment that’s been building for a generation or more, driven by the hot winds of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, and the entire Fox News enterprise.
It’s hard to imagine what might bring us back together, but it’s safe to say, it sure as hell isn’t Donald. He might very well finish the Disuniting of America.
Will Trump finally implode? Will he finally go TOO FAR? We’d first have to find where too far is located.