All of these years, some of us had this certain picture in our minds of what a president should be like. How were we to know there were so many people who didn’t want that at ALL?
To translate from the Shakespeare: That’s why this disaster called Trump isn’t going away soon.
I refer you to this story today in The Washington Post: “Trump supporters see a successful president — and are frustrated with critics who don’t.”
There’s just this enormous cognitive gulf, and we’ve apparently made little progress in bridging it.
Most of us who would never, ever have dreamed of even joking about voting for Donald Trump see his daily insanities, and think, All those people who voted for him have to be regretting it all now.
But the truly shocking thing is, apparently they’re not. Apparently, these folks and their philosophical forebears had been waiting for a president just like this for the last 228 years. Ever since the election of 1788, we’ve seen a progression of presidents who were serious, well-informed individuals who approached the duties of the office with respectful decorum and dignity and hewed mainly to more or less intelligent policies that served the national interest. And most of us thought that was a good thing, and disapproved of those who in one way or another strayed from the norm, such as James Buchanan and Andrew Jackson.
But apparently, these folks didn’t want qualifications or gravitas or depth of understanding or honesty or any of those other qualities in a president at all. They wanted — a Reality TV star.
(Remember that exchange in “Ghostbusters” when Sigourney Weaver says “You know, you don’t act like a scientist,” then Bill Murray, taking it as a compliment, says, “They’re usually pretty stiff,” and Sigourney slam-dunks that by saying, “You’re more like a game show host?” Well, this is kind of like that, only without Murray’s goofball appeal as a protagonist.)
So they’re happy with what they got — if The Post has it right, but remember, the media are the Enemies of the People — and they can’t imagine why the rest of us would be so critical of their guy. They assume that it’s about being sore losers or big babies, or having nasty ulterior motives or something. As one supporter puts it:
“There’s such hatred for the man,” she said. “I just don’t get it.”
And that’s a huge problem, the not getting it. If none of the chaos we’ve seen out of the White House since Jan. 20 has clued these folks in yet, if this in fact is what they want, then there’s little hope of Republicans in Congress seeing the kind of movement in polls that would embolden them to initiate proceedings to get rid of this guy. (And yeah, some of y’all will say I’m getting ahead of myself even thinking that way, but hey, I see a problem of this magnitude and I immediately start looking for the solution, whether everybody else is ready for it or not.)
It would be poignant, if it weren’t so awful for the country. As the Post says of these folks:
Many of President Trump’s most dedicated supporters — the sort who waited for hours in the Florida sun this weekend for his first post-inauguration campaign rally — say their lives changed on election night. Suddenly they felt like their views were actually respected and in the majority.
But less than one month into Trump’s term, many of his supporters say they once again feel under attack — perhaps even more so than before….
It’s almost enough to make me feel bad for them. But not quite, because, you know, they’re getting their way. And it looks like they will continue to do so for quite some time….
“You’re more like a game show host.”
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Yesterday a friend was groaning, “What if the aliens showed up for first contact? What would they think?”
The aliens, if they have been paying attention to us, have been getting Entertainment Tonight via terrestrial airwaves for at least twenty years now. So they were already betting on either Tom Cruise, Oprah, or Donald Trump –maybe OJ Simpson was their dark horse candidate.
The President will do all he can to heighten rather than bridge the gulf between these two halves of America, whipping up his supporters at rallies, tossing all sorts of made-up “alternative facts” to buttress his justification for this or that action, and portraying any who stand in his way (including Republicans who might have the courage to do so) as part of the “swamp,” elitists who have it in for “real Americans.” The question is, if Trump feels that he can do or say pretty much anything and not only retain but reinforce the devotion of his legions, will that embolden him to push the envelope of executive power still further? How far will he actually go? Is there actually anything he might do that would alienate large segments of his supporters? I’m not sure there is, even if his supporters’ economic prospects sour further, because I still think his support is a kind of counter-cultural reaction more than an economic one, or an urban-nonurban divide, more-educated-vs-less-educated, however you want to parse it.
I think Trump can pretty much get away with almost anything, and so we’ll be at the mercy of his self-discipline and sense of fairness and restraint. Not much to hope for, is it?!