Dear America,
In the aftermath of the presidential election, Donald Trump showed his true colors. Prior to election day, Trump said he wouldn't claim victory until there actually was victory. No need for games, he said. Then, after the polls were closed he reiterated that sentiment, looking weary and sounding hoarse he said that winning was easy, but losing was hard, especially for him, his words reflecting a sober, and for him uncharacteristic, humility. That humility lasted a matter of no more than a few hours after which he claimed victory, contrary to what he had said in his most sane and noble moment just moments earlier. It was quintessential Trump, and for that matter, the response of those in the room when he spoke those ignominious words, quintessential Trumpism. His obsequious fans cheered when he made his peremptory claim, and they continued to do so as he paradoxically admitted that he would marshal his legal team to challenge the results in court...an admission that he actually hadn't won given all the evidence of the moment. The votes counted to that point put his opponent ahead in total electoral college votes and popular votes nation-wide, but Trump was undeterred by reality...as usual. His brief lapse into integrity was over, and the blight that has been Trump for seventy-four years was back before you could say the word "psychotic."
True, Biden is far from assured the victory as well. He leads overall, but there are still millions of votes to be counted and reported. But Biden said just before Trump spoke that no conclusions should be reached because there were still votes to be counted. He made no reference to the fact that the votes on the record already showed him in the lead. He was the embodiment cautious optimism, showing the voters and the world what rationality looks like, and this is what bothers me. Even after the two men spoke, if the election were held again, Trump's voters would still vote for him. His egomania, megalomania, hypocrisy, deviousness, duplicity...the full panoply of his vicious qualities in full evidence, his supporters would still support him, which is ominous for our future as a nation. No matter what the end result of our election, nearly half our citizenry discounts the inexpiable lack of character Trump openly...evenly proudly...exhibits. They seem to revere the qualities in him that would precipitate an answer of "no" from anyone of whom one asked the question, "Would you buy a used car from this man?" Trump has said it best: he regards all of his tax cheating and his evasions of financial responsibility in the form of bankruptcies and various frauds as indicia of how smart he is: a stable genius indeed.
The fact is that Trump's appeal to people who characterize themselves as conservatives isn't a matter of policy, and thus Trump's amorality is no deterrent to their allegiance. People cleave to Trump because the things he implies without saying so about matters like race, social programs, liberality, immigration, and for that matter honor, are all racing about in the minds of his acolytes and "his base." They are things they would never admit openly. Trump is their surrogate, which allows them to silently disavow the things that they too believe in. And now, as he openly threatens to claim the presidency regardless of the outcome of the election process on the totally unsupported and insupportable pretext that mail-in ballots are inherently illegitimate, conservatives cheer him on. What kind of a people have we become?
My father was born in Vienna in 1910, and was raised there until he left for Paris in March of 1938 as the Nazi's marched into the city to the cheers of the Viennese crowds who welcomed them. As Nixon whipped his "silent majority" into a frenzy in opposition to the protests against the Vietnam war in the early 70's, my father said that the United States looked just like Nazi Germany before Hitler's attempt at arrogation of world power. I bring that anecdote up because I wonder what he would say about America today. Trump famously said in 2016 that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and wouldn't lose a single vote, and apparently he was right...and still is. That is no revelation about Trump. It is a revelation about the United States of America. The fact that someone could say things as subversive of our democracy so openly and even proudly without an iota of repudiation from his supporters, who number in the tens of millions, seems very pre-war-Germany to me. And as to Hitler, I wouldn't be surprised if in his heart of hearts, Trump admires the way in which he ascended to unquestioning fealty from his countrymen. I wouldn't be surprised if Hitler was Trump's role model.
All that being said, we are free, at least at the moment, to reject Trumpianism, even though we may ultimately be ineffectual in preventing the contamination of our nation with his sinister ethos. As for me, I will continue to sequester my family behind tall shrubs and woodlands to keep us from being exposed to what is becoming an increasingly insane world. Even if Biden wins the election, it will not be Trump I fear. It will be us, America.
Your friend,
Mike
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