WHAT TRUMP WROUGHT

It is hard not to argue that we live in a profoundly different political world than we did when Donald Trump began his run for the presidency in 2016. Since then, the institutions of government have experienced an acceleration of the dysfunctional turmoil that began with the election of Ronald Reagan forty two years ago.

The world of elected American office holders, particularly of Republican office holders, has become an exercise in the denial of reality. And, we have been forced to recognize that despite virtually universal public education a huge number of adults find it comforting to retreat from reality and to live in the nightmarish world of QAnon.

The most depressing outcome is that Americans, having long celebrated themselves as an example of the success of a free people, find themselves forced to an awareness of their vulnerability because of one aging dysfunctional man.

Had Donald Trump not decided to rescue his “brand” by running for the presidency (and then to his surprise and dismay actually winning), we would be cycling in a normal evolution away the upward distribution of wealth wrought by the conservative “Reagan revolution” of 1980. It would be a very different world.

Donald Trump wanted to actively campaign. He loved going out in his big plane with his name on the side and speaking to adoring and responsive audiences. As a candidate he did have some unique problems. Traditionally presidential candidates had spent years in one political party. They had spent years actively involved as party actives and as office holders. That meant that their political vocabulary could often come across as too “professional” for the least informed in their audiences.

. Donald Trump had the opposite problem. He had never been active in any political party (although he had given money to candidates in both parties if he had thought it might help his businesses). He didn’t know very much about the actual government he was running to lead and, in fact, never seemed to have paid much attention to it at all.

Some background: We are living through a period of economic change that the leaders of neither political party have really attempted to deal with. Changes in technology have created a world where the real wealth and creative energy of its owners have become increasingly clustered in large urban areas on both coasts.

The farm and small town economies that for years were the backbone of the historic Republican Party have been, and are, falling increasingly behind. Many of the less educationally and financially successful in those areas feel abandoned and resentful. To many of those unhappy people, most political candidates might as well be from Mars.

Donald Trump was the first candidate in modern times to really concentrate a campaign to those who feel left behind. He didn’t really know much about the government and they didn’t either. They were waiting, reasonably, for some candidate to really paint a better future for them, and Donald Trump did! And, without having to know much, they got to participate (It was fun to chant “Lock her up!”).

For Trump, they became an audience he had all to himself. And, he needed them. His lack of any real information meant that they were the only audience available to him. He could talk over and over about his “great big beautiful wall” without them questioning what he planned to do beyond that. And, that was a blessing because there were no plans for anything beyond that!

They still remain loyal and that loyalty has created a quagmire for the Republican Party. The rally goers feel little connection with it. They also have little loyalty to its candidates in Congress. Those candidates, having accomplished almost nothing, desperately need someone to be loyal. Candidates fear that many traditional Republicans, believing Trump and his refusal to accept defeat is an embarrassment, won’t vote

We have congressional elections in November. What are Republican candidates to do? Now, at the end of January, that is only eleven months away. Every one of 435 members of the House has to run, including 212 Republicans. What are they to say if anyone in their audiences asks them if Trump really lost? How can they deal with the attackers on the Capitol a year ago when Trump is already talking about pardoning them?

What they can do is retreat (as Republicans have done too often before) to phony cultural issues. They can argue that socialism is creeping in everywhere (socialism has been creeping in Republican campaigns for the last one hundred and thirty years). They can arouse fear of reading dangerous books in public schools. What they cannot talk about is what the government with them in charge will actually do if they are elected.

In some ways they deserve sympathy. If you were running as a Republican in these circumstances what would you say? Your response might be that the Party would be better off if candidates simply told the truth: That Trump never had the knowledge, the interest, or the attention span to really do anything to help those ralliers; time to move on.

You could do that, but you would lose. You and your family would get death threats. Other candidates would not even want to be seen with you. In the end, you would not get to that office with all that marble after all. If you were there, you might have been able to do something.

All of that because of one man with a big plane with his name on the side!

H.J. Rishel

1/31/2022