How Did We Arrive in the Land of Trump?
Someone asked me to assess how the U.S. arrived here, in a day in which Donald Trump would be dominating our discussions, and, in some ways, our entire lives. I replied:
I have to think this is a transitory condition. It’s some sort of national disease, like the witch trials/hangings/burnings of 1692 in Salem, Mass. A few months later, by the spring of 1693, this bizarre phenomenon was all gone, and it left many people scratching their heads, wondering how it could have happened in the first place.
I honestly don’t believe that almost a third of our nation really, in its heart, supports the nonstop lies, a total disregard for science, white supremacy, religious intolerance, the callous mistreatment of suffering people, the subjugation of women, the destruction of public schools and our environment, etc. Maybe I’m a gullible idiot, but again, I have seen too much of the good of humankind to believe that such a thing can possibly exist on a mass scale for very long like we see being played out here at this brief blink-of-an-eye in the history of our species.
My prediction: This is a flash in the pan, albeit a very cheap, ugly and dirty pan. Shortly after Trump’s reign is over (however that comes about) we will somehow heal ourselves. Like the Salem “thing,” it will be gone just as quickly and mysteriously as it came. Graduate students hundreds of years from now will be writing papers about it, hypothesizing how something like this could have occurred in the 21st Century, in the wealthiest, most powerful, and most, in many ways, developed country the world has ever known. Their professors will be just as clueless as the students themselves, because it defies understanding.
Craig,
The American left never learns or accepts responsibility.
The Trump Presidency is not a strange or mysterious phenomenon, it’s the product of a nation in social and economic decay.
The US has developed a three or even four speed economy, where at least half of Americans are left behind.
The old ideologies and political rhetoric have no relevance for these folk. Political Dinosaurs like Bernie Saunders with 19th century dogma have no answers, but nor do the winners in the new economy.
President Trump doesn’t have the answers either, but he has identified and elucidated the problems as perceived by the losers. His solutions are mostly unworkable or at the best, band aids, but at least his policies are clear and understandable.
For those trapped in the misery of the old economy and those who most affected by the decay, Pesident Trump at least has the virtue of seeming realistic.
The US of “Pleasentville” , of delusion and fantasy is coming to an abrupt end. The US is now locked in a bitter war of survival. The problem for the US is most of it’s problems are of it’s own creation.
While those American’s still benefiting from the ‘new’ economy refuse to accept reality, the US will continue to decline.
The hatred of President Trump is really the hatred of having to give up a rosy illusion, accept responsibility, and face reality. Electing another President Obama, or any other politician who chooses ‘symbolism’ over reality will only sink the US deeper in the morass and make the US less and less able to compete.
The day of US Presidents striding the world, preaching morality and spending US wealth on international problems came ended in the 1970’s, after that the US began to fund it’s intentional policies by creating debt.
For a while it worked, Reagan managed to destroy the old USSR and create a new Europe, but globalization and expanding debt along with an unforeseen expansion in information technology created new opportunities, but also disaster.
Socially and economically the US split into factions, the wealth of the old economy was transferred abroad creating poverty traps for those in the old US economy. Although the boom of the “new economy” allowed the progressive/left to continue the US delusion, eventually even the new economy is began to experience the advance of foreign competition.
The US liberal-left is stuck within a delusion they simply can’t shake. The large corporations and super rich created by the new economy have become internationalists. They no longer care about the problems of nation states, including the US.
While the US tears itself apart, the barbarians are not just at the gate but within the walls hastening the US demise.
The parallels with Rome are alarmingly relevant, while the barbarians are at the gate, Americans are increasing locked into destructive internecine conflict, even as it all falls apart.
Like all US President’s, Trump is a deeply flawed character, but he also has the virtue of being fiercely American, not a “pleasntville” American, but an American of the frontier day’s, not the Walt Disney version, the real frontiersman.
He’s crude and boisterous, belligerent and not politically correct. However, he has some virtues. He can be cunning and astute. His lack of a formal doctrinaire political philosophy allows him to be flexible and adaptive.
He can be charismatic and genuinely interested in the plight of the US working class. His empathy is genuine, he understands and doesn’t patronize or sneer. He appears approachable, even likeable to a wide range of Americans who feel shut out.
Trump shares many of the same attributes that made General Patton a US hero.
The enemy is not President Trump, the enemy is Bill McKibben, Timothy Flannery, Steven Colbert, those who care more about the spending (borrowed) money on symbolic gestures in Paris, than in Cleveland Ohio, etc.
These are the (often unknowing) fifth columnists in the US struggle for survival. Long term environmental concerns are all very well, but if you are a US worker feeding your family today is a more immediate priority.