This Won't Be Over When Trump's Gone

When Trump's gone.

At this point, it's far from a foregone conclusion that he will be gone next January.  As far as the likelihood of that happening is concerned, it's not public opinion I fear.  True, there are times when I wonder why, as one fiasco has been piled on top of another, he has as many supporters as he does, somewhere around 40 percent of the voting population.  But I remind myself that, even at the deepest point of Richard Nixon's Watergate disgrace, he still had roughly one out of every four Americans behind him.  No, what I fear is not the voice of the people, but the insidious, behind-the-scenes activities of the real Deep State:  the one that has spent decades using dark money, gerrymandering, and outright voter suppression to squash that voice.

A free and fair election is not guaranteed by any means, but I hope and pray that it happens, as should we all, and will do whatever I can to ensure that outcome, as should we all.  So let's assume that it does, and Trump is sent packing (or into the arms of the law), and we get President Biden and, G-d willing, overwhelming Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.  What then?

I wish I could say that, to borrow a phrase from General Electric, a great big beautiful tomorrow for all of us.  But there's just one problem:  all of us will still be living in the same America that put Trump in the White House in the first place.

And that America, I'm sorry to say, is in several respects a fundamentally corrupt place, at times almost as corrupt as are Trump and his fellow-travelers.

This corruption stems fundamentally from two basic, related facts.  Too many Americans define patriotism in essentially self-centered terms.  Perhaps worse yet, that self-centered perspective is flavored with a heavy, and not always well-concealed, dose of racism.

Both of those characteristics have been on display over that past few weeks, as demonstration after demonstration has taken place all over the country, in both red and blue states, allegedly protesting the perceived unreasonableness of various stay-at-home orders issued by governors in response to the coronavirus pandemic.  If you paid attention to the visuals that accompany the news coverage of these protests, however, you might be hard-pressed to know that that's what they're all about.  Between the pro-Trump signs and the Confederate flags, to say nothing of the military-level arms decorating many of the protestors, it's very hard to see the intentions behind these events as being strictly benign.

And they are not.

Listen very closely to what a lot of these people are asking for.  We're supposed to think that the protests are a reflection of small-business America, itching to roll up its sleeves and get back to pumping up the economy through good-old fashioned hard work.  The chattering classes on the far right are happy to help promote that image, even to the point of describing the pandemic in the language of class warfare, while simultaneously decrying the use by others of that very same language.  Sadly, Peggy Noonan, for whom I'd like to have a measure of respect, seems to have jumped on this particular bandwagon.

But these protesters aren't protesting the loss of their jobs  They're protesting the loss of being serviced by people in jobs that are often held by people of color.  They're protesting the loss of white privilege.  They regard masks as a sign of cowardice, and not as the cheapest, most practical way of protecting everyone from coronavirus transmission.  And they are willing to disable representative government itself in order to garner their fifteen minutes of "fame," even though the size of their crowds is not reflected in the popularity of their governors in the polls.  It's not an exaggeration to say that the Michigan state legislature's decision to cancel its session for this year is an existential threat to democracy throughout the nation.

Somehow, the us-versus-them posture of modern conservatism has left the movement and its followers utterly unprepared to fight a menace that doesn't care about where people live, or how educated they are, or whether they work with their hands or their head, or how much money they are or are not making, or (let's just say it) whether or not they look or sound like each other.  It's a virus, folks.  This is not about advancing one section of the country over another.  It's about protecting all of us from a menace we could be sharing with anyone and everyone without realizing it!  So no, you don't have a patriotic right to live your life in such a way that it threatens someone else's.  Freedom isn't a gift to one political party or another; here in the U.S., it's a gift that's meant to be enjoyed by everyone.

And, as those on the right are so fond of saying, it isn't free.  Sometimes, it requires sacrifice.  Should that sacrifice be spread as broadly as possible?  You bet.  That's why Democrats in the House of Representatives just approved a $3 trillion spending package to do that--a package that has already been shot down by Republicans, since it doesn't do enough for those who have already had enough done for them.

The protesters like the ones in these "events," and those who fund their Astroturf demonstrations, will still be around when Trump is gone, still wrapped up in themselves, still animated by bigotry, still willing to use violence to disable constitutional government.  They aren't going anywhere, and the media, dedicated as ever to the illusion of covering "both sides," will pump them up for short-term ratings at the expense of long-term safety.  That's why this won't be over when Trump is gone.

And I don't know what the cure for this state of affairs is, any more than I know what the cure for the coronavirus is.  I fear that suffering is the only immediate guarantee for the immediate months ahead.