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A Brief Thought on the Election Experiment
This morning my mind reverted to the empirical. This election was an experiment, and the results revealed that Donald Trump is what approximately half of the people in this country want. Even with everything that has happened over the last 8 years, and all the lies, January 6, and so on, like a dog returning to its vomit, they chose him and validated his behavior along with that of the Republican party that stood by him. They set their hearts on him. Oh, people will have their reasons, but I wouldn't take most of them too seriously (more on that in a minute).
Yes, this is disappointing, but also revealing. It's like learning that a romantic interest no longer cares about you. Some of the signals in the past could be interpreted in a more charitable light, but now there is no question and the state of your relationship is bracingly clear. Similarly, we are not in this position due to an unfortunate set of circumstances or flawed strategic decisions. About half of the people in this country know what Trump is and want him. I've already begun to see articles that say things along the lines of, "voters were concerned about the economy," blah blah blah, but I'm not buying it. These are after-the-fact justifications for a decision that was made in their gut. Who Trump is and/or what he was selling appealed to them for whatever subconscious reason. The rest is mostly window dressing to convince others (and perhaps themselves) that they had a good reason to accept his obvious poor character and pathologies [1].
We are in a new era. It is what it is, and now it is plain to see.
Notes:
1. This wasn't simply a choice in the lesser of two evils forced upon a reluctant electorate. Trump overwhelmingly won the primary election [2].
2. I'm proud to say that I have voted against Trump in every primary and general election that he has been on the ballot. I did what I could.
3 comments:
I didn't vote for Trump. But I must say that when one side over the course of a quarter of a century calls the other side a bunch of deplorable racist sexist misogynistic homophobic materialistic white supremacists who need to go extinct--well, there's bound to be some backlash.
I'm not sure that I fully accept your premise, since I believe that conservative media often amplifies and widens such insults beyond their intended target in order to feed the conservative persecution complex. But be that as it may, there is plenty of it from the Republican side as well, and they have controlled the White House for half of the last quarter century.
I agree with what you say. There's a lot of silliness on the right. But as I've said elsewhere -- this is Jack by the way (I forgot to publish my handle with my last comment) -- the comparative methods of delivery sound like a rusty old bullhorn on the right and a double Marshall stack on the left.
The left has owned the mainstream media and the academy since the beginning of the mainstream media. And because of that "ownership" they tend wield and air of respectability. And there's hardly a step at all from respectability to smugness. And so what we have is a media-war between right-leaning silliness and left-leaning smugness. And as much as I hate both--If I were forced to chose one of the two at gunpoint I'd take the silliness over the smugness.
And remember, as unsettling as "Trumpism" may be it wasn't limited to the U.S--folks from all over were fed up with being reminded of how deplorable they were. And I think that's one of the reasons -- not the only reason mind you -- why Trump won again. It's the quiet people--the regular Joe and Jane Americans--who are tired of being told how bad they are when most of them are just trying to raise a family and make ends meet.
Jack
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