“Well, he was president before and it wasn’t the end of the world.” Thus do many Americans complacently shrug at the prospect of Trump’s election.
Huge mistake.
End of the world? Actually it was, for vast numbers who needlessly died due to Trump’s opera buffa Covid performance.
Some also romanticize the economy under Trump. In truth that was luck, being bequeathed prosperity by President Obama (who’d inherited a hot mess and fixed it). And already forgotten is the 2020 pandemic-related economic implosion, which Trump’s fecklessness made worse. While few have any notion what damage his promised tariff lunacy will do.
But those are details. The bigger reality is his monstrous depravity of character and behavior. So many fools don’t see it. Or else cravenly accept it for the sake of some socio-political agenda or tribalistic cultism (or just racism). Oblivious to making America — to use his phrase — a shithole country.
He’s also virtually pledged to end our role as leader of the free world, tossing our alliances and aligning instead with dictators, like Putin, whom he admires as role models. Anti-democratic authoritarianism is now a core Republican value. They’re helping Russia crush Ukraine by blocking U.S. aid. Making for a world far worse for our interests. “America First” my ass.
The party is an edifice of lies. The great “Trump won” lie now akin to a religious dogma. Likewise the “witch hunt” narrative that he’s unfairly persecuted by politically biased justice systems. In reality this criminal has gotten away with too much for too long.
It all came together on January 6, 2021, with his conspiracy to overthrow his election defeat and our democracy. While lying that the election was stolen, it was Trump himself trying to steal it. If his presidency was not the end of the world, it was only because that effort failed.
Mainstream news media does try to remind us. Yet half-heartedly, half the time making it seem this election is merely another normal-ish choice; fallen into acceptance of Trump’s inevitability. While half the country tunes them out anyway. And Republican politicians treat Trump as though he’s God’s gift to America, and January 6 never happened. Or its perpetrators were heroes. It feels like a grotesque carnival hall of mirrors.
Proving how insane it was to elect Trump the first time. And if, after his coup attempt — literally the greatest crime in U.S. political history — we nevertheless do it again, that will be the end of America. The end of an America that cherishes democracy, human decency, and rationality itself. The end of an America that leads the world as a beacon for those ideals and values. And thus, yes, the end of that world.
But I’m an old bore taking it too seriously. In today’s Tiktokified culture, Trump is the more entertaining candidate. That’s what matters.