In an act of fear, malice, and desperation and with a desire to anesthetize themselves against a changing world Americans chose Donald Trump as the 47th president. Our nation’s march toward normalization of zealotry, bigotry, vileness, and deceit is now more entrenched. We are no longer Reagan’s “Shining City on a Hill”. We traded that imagery for one that is now no more than a blemish on a pillaged landscape.
Elections are usually about forging a more hopeful future. We are accustomed to expect optimism and promise following a national plebiscite. However, in the electoral debacle which just occurred it is challenging to see from where the benefits may arise. A view of the horizon now does not reveal encouragement and confidence about social enhancements to come, but rather base level confrontations, hate, anger, and retributions designed to concentrate power among an insular privileged class.
As the refashioned Republican Party has clearly taught us the rules of the game have now changed. By electing a criminal, serial liar, rapist, fraudster, and insurrectionist we essentially have given ourselves permission to believe these faults are really not so bad. Indeed, if that is what it takes to return America to a land where white, heterosexual, Christian, corporate, patriarchy is in charge, then so be it. This appears to be the consensus. Good luck America with that one! Trump is merely the means to a fanciful and illusory end of “greatness” as the nation will soon come to realize.
The opposition to this now dominant MAGA mindset will have to become more creative. The strategies, tactics, and coalitions opposing leaders will need to employ must adjust to the unethical approaches the Trump acolytes effectively exploit for their self-righteous gains. A transformed center-left/center-right partnership that imagines practical and potent counterpoints and recognizes opportunities to effectively confront the MAGA nonsense will need to emerge.
Above all, the resistance to Trump must be rooted in the principles of equality and freedom set forth in the Declaration of Independence. Trumpism has already begun to erode both of these tenets and reestablishing and reinvigorating them must be a priority of any moral and virtuous dissent. In addition, defiance against Trump and his followers must be muscular when Constitutional protections are threatened.
Also of note, exit polls show that many Trump voters held their noses as they voted for him. Reuters and CNN exit polling both had the disapproval of Trump by his own voters at 53%. Presumably they were either lifelong Republicans who just couldn’t make themselves join other Republican defectors to vote for a Democrat or they were trying to make an economic statement, due to inflation. These may be among the first to bail on Trump once they see his expected abuses of power. It is sad that they did not step up for the health of their country when they had the chance on November 5.
Speaking of inflation, Biden received the blame of course for higher consumer prices since 2021 because they occurred on his watch. This overly simplistic view did not take into account how the Covid pandemic with its supply chain disruptions, surge in demand for consumer goods, labor shortages, the Feds expansionary monetary policy, and disruptions in energy and commodity markets were instead the prime culprits. Now we have Trump promising to introduce a slew of new tariffs which are anticipated to drive up the costs of imported goods. Stay tuned.
Time will tell, but chances are quite good that the election of an illiberal and corrupt leader empowered recently by the Supreme Court and by the American electorate will prove to be disastrous for the nation in multiple ways. Perhaps I will be proven wrong. We shall see. In the meantime, let’s treat each other as good neighbors and join in protecting the defenseless and the powerless against those who would bully their way to dominance during these unprincipled times.
At present it looks as if we are in for a tough few years. If so, we asked for it and we deserve it. Just don’t blame me, I proudly voted for Kamala!
