“Trump will fix it.”
So said many a campaign sign in the final days before the US went to the polls this week. As I wrote Wednesday, the slogan amounted to a full-on embrace of a tried-and-true populist political ploy: Promise quick fixes to complex problems.
Typically, the fixes are couched in various flavors of jingoism and the problems tend to be explained by way of “us versus them” rhetoric. A lot of Trump’s supporters — and, I’d argue, Trump himself — don’t fully understand the extent to which Trump’s a cookie-cutter demagogue. To be clear: He’s unique in a lot of ways, but through the lens of historical populist movements predicated on demagoguery, the MAGA platform’s a cliché-ridden stereotype.
Trump’s not going to “fix it.” Really he isn’t. I’m not suggesting he won’t be a measure of successful in his second term, nor am I necessarily suggesting the next four years won’t be better than the last four. What I am suggesting, though, is that there’s no real plan to “fix it,” whatever “it” is. And even in cases where Trump has a “concept of a plan,” to use his own description of how his transition team’s thinking about health care reform, it’s not as if his ideas hadn’t occurred to anyone.
Do note: MAGA isn’t even Trump’s idea. He stole the whole thing from Pat Buchanan. The shtick’s Pat’s. If it were possible to litigate such a thing, Pat could probably make a decent case for copyright infringement, given that he spelled it out in numerous published books. The problem for Pat was timing and the fact that he’s not Trump, for lack of a more poignant, precise way to describe the difference between the two men. Pat’s a bummer. Trump’s Trump. The charisma differential is vast.
It doesn’t take a visionary to wonder whether a border wall might work to curb illegal immigration, or to ask whether bucking neoliberal dogma by instituting tariffs might be a kind of best, last recourse against China in a trade relationship that’s self-evidently unfair on some vectors. The issue isn’t that those kinds of ideas never occurred to anybody but Trump. The issue is that they occurred to everyone and everyone decided they’re bad ideas, or at least bad ideas on net, where that means once you net out the various and sundry costs, collateral damage and second-order effects, the “math” doesn’t work from a cost-benefit perspective.
I go back and forth on whether to be sympathetic towards the many millions of Americas buying into the idea that “Trump will fix it,” and I gotta tell you: I can’t get there. Trump’s just flagrantly dumb. Outwardly moronic. Never in my life — and at this point, I’ve been around a while — have I been so perpetually entertained by someone who’s dangerous. That’s not a good thing. It’s not a silver lining, nor a saving grace. It’s good news, obviously, that Trump’s not a Hitler, nor a Putin, nor a Saddam Hussein, nor even a Viktor Orban. But it’s wholly (wildly) unfortunate that half of America doesn’t know a doofus when they see one.
That’s generally been Barack Obama’s message. Why, he’s demanded of voters, would anyone believe that this guy — this outwardly clownish, unapologetically pompous, visibly ignorant — billionaire, is the guy? Your guy? Anyone‘s guy? It’s absurd in a way that, with sincere apologies to everyone who feels they’ve been forced by an aloof establishment to grasp at straws, is impossible for me to look past.
I’ve listened to and read I don’t even know how many long-winded, well-meaning, introspective assessments and postmortems of this week’s US election. See Ezra Klein’s excellent assessment (here) for example. As interesting and insightful as they are, and as important as it is to extract whatever “meaning” there is to extract from Trump’s win, I don’t think it does any good to gloss over this simple reality: Americans are dumbasses. Famously. That’s almost a truism by now, and it extends well beyond the political context. Indeed, it permeates every aspect of American life and culture. If you want to explain a given US cultural phenomenon — obesity, you name it — that truism’s everywhere and always the best place to start. Trump’s win this week is no exception.
I was taught in school that America represented progress, reason, freedom, science and duty. What a pile of sh*t, huh? It’s really about superstition, cults, racism, serial killers, narcissism and gun violence. Nothing special about this country at all. Just the same sorry history of our species. The bright side, I guess, is that Sulla’s proscriptions (mass murder of elites), civil wars, and religious reformation didn’t destroy the Roman Empire. In fact, many men became rich collecting bounties on former senators. But life remained hard, brutish and short… Shining City on the Hill? Maybe, if you’re a greedy, white christofascist, then things are looking up!
I’ve agreed with a lot of what you write, but I’ve never agreed with you more than this piece. I’ve read all the introspections: too socially radical, too close to the Cheneys, too pretentious/priggish, yada yada yada. At the end of the day, this is the correct assessment. As I said yesterday, there is only one serious party in this country. When the other party is unserious and society can’t absorb change, you get the populist demagogue. It is what it is at this point and I’m not even worried about it at this point.
In the interest of maximizing our entertainment value, I’m hoping Republicans end up with a 1 seat advantage in the House. Can you imagine the hilarity that would ensue watching them try to wrangle votes with a 1 seat advantage? That would be the truly be the greatest gift of all.
I certainly agree with the thesis of twin pillars of ass-dumbery. I think there is a third pillar, which is the people who care more about their own personal, idiosyncratic causes than about, not only the greater good, but about winning. I speak here broadly of Democrats, and progressives in general.
Incidentally, folks: Sometimes I don’t send out articles like this as real-time email alerts, which is why you didn’t see one on Friday morning for this. It’s kind of an executive decision on my part. Even if I agreed with the thesis, I’m not sure I’d want the subject line “Dumbasses” in my inbox early in the morning. I try to respect that in case it’s true of other people too. So, always check the site for new content. I do “sneak some in” occasionally that don’t go out as real-time email blasts.
In the last three days I’ve made enough money in the market to replace the income my daughter will lose next year as a result of her two year lay-off and fund a new car to replace the one with 200,000 miles on it and a bad transmission. I gave her the dough two days ago. A couple of my free balances are gone but that’s life. The thing is how many of Trump’ sad followers actually made any dough off his election? They assume they are “in on it” but for the last three days I have been reading my neighborhood chat boards and everyone’s comments reveal complete animus with the governments under which they are subjects, their rising local taxes, prices, insurance costs, etc, none of which will ever be dealt with by Trump. They will see the end of his term no better off than they were on Monday. The smart people in the bottom 25% are mostly on his deportation list.
Mr. Lucky- that is so awesome that you were able to give your daughter a meaningful financial gift, while you are still alive. I hope to do that, as well, someday- but not yet, as my kids are all working hard to put their lives together, in the way they want to, and I don’t want to “derail” them (I am pretty sure my kids are decades younger than your daughter).
Has America lost its shadow? Did America ever have one? HR, you make me think too much! Being a dumbass has a certain comfort to it. I will keep reading, thinking and reassessing. Thank you – includes those who provide thoughtful comment. Well done!