I voted for Donald Trump twice and will a third time. I have written in praise of his numerous accomplishments as President. However, any chance of a big popular majority win for Trump or Biden seems unlikely. The election will be decided by who voters hate the least.
In 2016 Trump tapped into a vein of working-class angst that had festered for decades. Legacy media, academia and entertainment had been dumping on middle American values for decades. Democrats treated the white working class like it was filled with ignorant, gun nuts, racists, and religious fanatics. Billionaire Trump rose as the working class’s unapologetic savior. He reveled crapping on elites as they had crapped on fly-over America. He was unfiltered and authentic. A rough-edged outsider stood tall for traditional interests.
Trump headlined massive rallies exhibiting moments of charm, mixed with ample doses of invective and self-aggrandizement. He commanded a raucous fan base. He was Elvis. Bill felt your pain. Barack promised hope and change. Donald voiced middle American’s frustrations.
Trump promised to reverse wage stagnation, bring jobs home, secure the border, deregulate, improve trade deals, lower taxes, fix the V.A., move our embassy to Jerusalem, initiate a new Arab Israeli peace, destroy the califate, reestablish the respect of our allies and fear from our enemies. Promises were kept.
Like a good used car salesman, his speeches were virtuoso performances, mixing facts with generous doses of puffery. Unembellished was never sufficient. The flare and bravado that nourished his base, enraged his detractors.
He was not merely a winner. He was the greatest of all winners. He didn’t just tap into his supporter’s anger. He doused gasoline on their fire. Chanting “lock her up” had a Jesse Jackson rhythm. Now they try to lock him up.
Trump isn’t conservative or even Republican as much as Trumpian. He defines “establishment” no finer than anyone who dares to disagree with him on any issue or the nature of his bloviating. You are a swamp creature if you don’t kiss his tush. Loyalty is not to an ideology, party or even an issue. It is personal. Disagreement is met with public rebuke. His famous “counterpunch” fly’s full roundhouse after any tap on the shoulder from friend and foe. Loyalty runs in one direction.
His movement is handicapped by personality. It can grow no broader or long-lasting then the man. The landscape under his presence has been littered with party defeat. His base is rock solid. In polls and elections, he can’t break the 50% barrier.
Any thought of expanding his appeal would mean less Trump and more team. He is temperamentally incapable of that kind modification. Republican or conservative, you dare not stray from the shadow he casts, or you’ll feel his wrath.
His detractors are equally inflexible and obsessed with the man. It just occurred to me, both Trump and those who loath him are obsessed with Donald.
He won a solid electoral college victory, leaving the nation as divided as the day before he descended that golden escalator.
Would his governing style differ from his campaign style? Not a chance. It drove his enemies into a state of what can accurately be referred to as Trump derangement syndrome. His campaign style and demeanor had set Democrats hair on fire. After he won, they were fully engulfed. What they assumed could never happen, happened. From day one in office, they tried to undermine everything he did. What was best for America was of little note to TDS sufferers. It was personal. Legally or otherwise, he had to go.
Elections are no longer conceded. Bush v Gore recounts over some 500 votes in Florida made sense. Since then, it seems no one can accept the inevitable. Hillary, Trump, Stacy and Kari were robbed. Pelosi tore up Trump’s State of The Union Speech. Trump didn’t go to Biden’s inauguration. We are trending banana republic.
Of course, the public picks up on the self-righteous rage from both extremes, milked by media for ratings and raw TDS distaste.
This is the Trumpian zeitgeist. Irrational personal animus for a candidate is not new. But it hit new levels of incivility driven by TDS. The irrationality was amplified by a man who thrived on furnishing his detractors with high caliber ammunition. Try telling any Democratic partisan that Trump is not a monster. You will get a quizzical look. Try telling a died in the wool MAGA fan that Trump empowers his enemies. You will be labeled a RINO.
Most Americans don’t accept either side’s loyalty pledge. Hence, government is held in even lower regard than usual.
The Constitution, laws and traditions are no longer barriers to achieving political ends. Trump had and has to be stopped lawfully or otherwise.
As soon as he won in 2016, hysterics filled the streets yapping and yelling, crazed with disdain for the man. Madonna fantasized burning down the White House. Ashley Judd had a psychotic moment on stage adjacent to the White House. Johnny Depp thought an assassination may be overdue. Actors, not so subtly, did just that in a play in Central Park. Kathy Griffin thought a life-size model of Trump’s severed head was funny. Thousands demonstrated against the election result, Trump, wearing hideous pink caps. The fact that virulent anti-Semites led the rally was of little note. Why check whose banner you protest under when you share hate for Trump?
They were ruthless and he poked at them every chance he could. That only enraged them further. It was a viscous cycle of anger and ego. The business of America was secondary to the two bases mutual distaste for one another.
More than fifty percent of the public does not identify as TDS sufferer or MAGA. With legacy media, entertainment, and academia on one side and Trump’s invective clique on the other, the vast middle remains in the shadows. Out of sight, out of mind. Ironically, that’s were victory resides.
We are living in an unrulily Trump zeitgeist. Plenty of blame could be assigned to both Trump and his detractors. Moderation and objectivity are labeled sell-out. If you didn’t hate the man deep in your soul, you were labeled MAGA by Democrats. Legacy media misrepresented MAGA as a movement composed of racist war mongers. MAGA is nothing more than a longing by middle America for a return to Reagan’s “shining city on the hill”. Unfortunately, the messenger, Trump, is no Ronald Reagan. An appealing message has been lost in the raw hysteria of our time.
I remember sitting in a restaurant in D.C. a few months after Trump announced his run in 2015. A group of well-educated professionals, all very conservative, dismissed my apprehensions about Trump’s demeanor, attitude and electability. I had no idea he could win or govern as a conservative. They were certainly right about victory and mostly conservative (debt, entitlements and tariffs aside). Maybe I was right about the price of his hubris. I’ll let others determine the cost benefit analysis eight years hence. I fully understand the dire dangers posed by more Biden. However, I do not look forward to four more years of the Trumpian zeitgeist.
