Are There Still 10 Reasons Not To Be Depressed About A Trump Win?
I evaluated the accuracy of a blog post I wrote after Trump won in 2016.
Eight years ago, the day after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency in what was considered to be a huge upset, I wrote a blog post titled “10 Reasons Not To Be Depressed About Trump” for the Times of Israel. It was an attempt to share an optimistic view for those who felt devastated by Trump’s shocking win. Today, I’m revisiting that post and evaluating each of the ten points I made then in light of what I know now.
The post started off with a dedication to my daughter, Etana, who at the time was quite unhappy with the results. Soon after, she had a political transformation which she recently wrote about. While I certainly don’t agree with much of her politics, she’s a wonderful writer with a far broader reach that her old man. As I wrote yesterday, my love for her “Trumps” our political differences and, as always, I’m very proud of her.
Highlighted in bold below are the items from my list 8 years ago with commentary below each one.
1. Trump can’t be as bad as the character he played on TV. Seriously, we’ve made him out to be such a monster. Nobody can be THAT bad. And maybe, just maybe, he’ll even rise to the gravity of the office and the occasion. (His gracious victory speech was definitely a step in the right direction.)
Unfortunately, he was worse than I could have imagined. He’s now a convicted sexual predator, he regularly denigrates soldiers who were killed, wounded and captured, he exhibits a psychopathic level of heartlessness, treats dignified statesmen and military underlings with contempt and derision, etc. I could go on, but as a friend of mine who was planning to vote for him stated to me, “I know he’s gross”.
2. Given his relationship with the truth, there’s simply no way Trump can do many of the awful things he “promised” to do.
His lies are legendary, I think people have lost count, but it’s easily in the 75% range. However, he did do some of the things he promised like moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, he started building a wall on the southern border and pulled out of the JCPOA (Iran Deal). (Whether these are good or bad is separate issue.) So while he lies with abandon, he also does attempt fulfill some of his campaign promises. Which, this year could be terrifying. He’s said he’d deport millions of illegal immigrants, exact revenge on his political enemies, use the military to put down protests, impose broad tariffs that would likely cripple the robust economy he inherited, and so much more.
3. We get to play four years of offense instead of defense.
This is still a silver lining for me. I’m surrounded by a lot of Trump voters both in real life and online. (Seriously, just today someone assumed I’d want to join them in a celebratory drink to celebrate Trump’s victory!) If Harris had won I would have expected to endure another four years of inane nitpicking and endless dissemination of fake news. Trump will undoubtedly provide me with tons of material to write about as I, and millions of others, keep close tabs on his behavior.
4. Democracy! We may not like the outcome, but America’s democracy is alive and well, and it’s certainly not “rigged”.
This could have been the worst one. When Trump lost in 2020 he had already predisposed his followers to assume that if he lost the only way that could happen would have been if the election was “rigged”. And, sure enough right on cue, millions of MAGAs bought into endless canards regarding the integrity of the election, culminating with the January 6th insurrection. To this day a majority of republicans cling to the inane conspiracy that the 2020 election was “stolen”. With his traitorous behavior, Trump showed us just how fragile U.S. democracy can be. I guess the silver lining here is that, since he won, he and his followers won’t have to resort to their planned attempts to overthrow an election. Also, since the democrats lost, there will be a smooth transfer of power, unlike what would have likely happened had they won.
5. The “other” America is no longer invisible. Hopefully, regardless of how Trump performs, this has served as a wake-up call that will help address the issues that have been dividing the country.
Trump had four years to address these issues and “drain to the swamp”. And yet, when the time came, they threw him out. Rather than draining the swamp, it became obvious that he merely created a bigger swamp of his own.
6. While Trump is certainly not the “outsider” he claims to be, any large, entrenched system and bureaucracy needs the rejuvenation and cleansing that this shock should provide.
See above. Also, even in 2016 he had been a part of the New York political machine for decades. The “outsider” façade was merely another lie to many of his gullible followers who hadn’t lived through his years of political shenanigans in NYC. In the last 4 years he’s had a chance to build his own political machine. As president, he’s promised to surround himself with loyal acolytes who’ll pledge fealty to their dear leader even over the U.S. and its constitution.
7. Trump, at heart, is way more liberal than people think he is. We’ll likely get the last laugh on many issues.
What I’ve learned since then is that Trump has no metaphorical heart. He’s not liberal or conservative. He has no ideology and he’s amoral. He’s a pure transactional machine. He’s all cost/benefit and the more he personally benefits, the better. Sometimes, if his personal benefit aligns with that of the greater good, it actually works out OK, but often, not. It’s still possible that this tendency will provide some ironic twists that will preciously screw his MAGA base.
8. The best disinfectant is light. Trump’s rhetoric has exposed the dark underbelly of America that has been lurking in the shadows. Now that it’s out in the open we can work on eradicating it.
So, while Trump’s mindless rhetoric has exposed that darkness, rather than working to eradicate it, it’s served to amplify it and allow it to grow, in broad daylight.
9. America and the Western World have been too “PC” for their own good on certain issues. You can’t fight an enemy if you can’t identify it. Trump’s crude bluntness may allow us to swing back enough to save ourselves in the growing war against the noble values of freedom and liberty that underpin so many of our societies.
Ironically, while this was true to some extent, rather than helping liberty and freedom thrive, the MAGA right has joined the fray with book bannings, speech codes, etc. The left was stupid in its excesses, the right will be brutal and methodical.
10. Comedy! Fours years of non-stop laughter from comedians and late night comedy/talk shows. Go Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, John Oliver, Saturday Night Live and, my favorite, Randy Rainbow! Laughter is always good for what ails you.
This was probably the most accurate one. Trump provided no shortage of material to lampoon. Sometimes comic writers merely needed to quote him verbatim to get laughs. And Randy is firing on all cylinders once again. Those won’t change.
Unfortunately, there’s less to laugh about this time around. Climate change is beginning to wreck havoc around the world and as a non-believer in, well, any science, Trump has erratic interest in working to mitigate its effects. Trump has said he’ll appoint anti-vaxxer, RFK Jr. as a “health czar” of some sort. What could possibly go wrong there? The Dobbs decision repealing Roe has already cost some women their lives. Radical anti-abortionists will now be empowered to risk millions of lives in their ironic crusade to be “pro-life”. This will probably the most serious and harmful domestic effect of Trump’s victory.
And yet, I’m still not depressed today. I’m 8 years older and have developed a more “cosmic” perspective. I see us as mere microbes in the vastness of the universe, popping in and out of time for relative nanoseconds. A single election in the course of all of human history will likely be a mere ripple in the fabric of our existence.
More practically, while I have very specific and negative views about Trump and MAGA in general, I also know, for a fact, that not everyone who voted for him is a deplorable idiot. I know far too many intelligent, politically astute people who voted for Trump and not merely as the lesser of two evils. Maybe they see something I don’t? And maybe those things they are seeing will carry the day and there’ll be a net positive change. I can hope.
The United States of America is not some dinghy floating about on a rough seas. It’s a massive ship that is both impervious to incremental vicissitudes and so huge that its momentum resists impetuous attempts to change its direction. The founding fathers thoughtfully and brilliantly constructed this magnificent ship to withstand a lot of turbulence, and she has for nearly 250 years. May she continue to do so and to live long and prosper.