“To emphasize the commonality of the 99 percent, to declare an enmity of interest with the 1 percent, is to do exactly what the governments of the United States, and the wealthy elite allied to them -- from the Founding Fathers to now -- have tried their best to prevent.” Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present
After making two dark, end-of-America-as-we-know-it speeches for the 4th of July holiday, it’s clear that Donald J. Trump is going to stay the course of division and fear and ride his smoking chariot all the way to the fiery gates of Hell. Trump is contemptuous of the ongoing pandemic which is responsible for the deaths of nearly 130,000 Americans, but determined to protect monuments to traitors and white supremacists until the end.
Trump goads his supporters to believe in an America that never existed, a Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best sort of place, where white, heterosexual men ruled and prospered, and women, blacks, and queers knew to stay in their subservient places. In Trump’s mythical America, there was no genocide of the indigineous people, no broken treaties, no Trail of Tears. Slavery existed, but it was benevolent and paternal, and white masters treated their human property with kindness and generosity. The Confederates were not traitors against the United States, they were stalwart defenders of the right of states to regulate their own affairs. Reconstruction was a peaceful period of advancement for formerly enslaved people. The Ku Klux Klan was far less murderous than the “radical left” insists it was. Had the Supreme Court not overreached in 1954, forcing the integration of schools, many lives would have been spared. If only the black minority hadn’t tried to impose its will on the white majority. No wonder white people are so aggrieved.
Getting an American history lesson from Donald Trump is like taking advice about mercy from Satan. Trump’s speeches were no doubt penned by his malevolent minion, Stephen Miller, but Miller is only putting language to Trump’s twisted thoughts. In Trump’s worldview, the circle of acceptable people is very small, restricted to the white and wealthy, with allowances for certain immigrant women attached to white men. Morality is for suckers and sentimental fools. Any show of compassion or empathy or kindness is a sign of weakness.
The Trump Gang’s new strategy for the Covid-19 pandemic is to simply ignore it entirely, to declare the virus, as Trump did on July 4th, as “99 percent harmless.” With more infections and more recorded deaths than any nation on the planet, Americans must accept the risks and go about their lives as if nothing is amiss. In other words, we must accept Trump’s terms: when he couldn’t bring the virus to heel with his usual tactics of bullying, gaslighting, lying, or threatening, he threw in the towel, declared victory, and demanded that the nation deal with the consequences of his failure.
When we finally wake from this Trumpian nightmare, and we will, the work stacked on our collective breakfast table will reach the ceiling. Make no mistake, it will take time to eradicate every last vestige of Trumpism from our body politic. The damage Trump has wrought in less than one term is stunning. Our fabled institutions and “free” press failed to hold this aspiring autocrat to account.
As Masha Gessen writes in her excellent book, Surviving Autocracy, “There will come a time when the Trump era is over. In the best-case scenario, it is ended by the voters at the ballot box. In the worst-case scenario, it lasts more than four years.”
Can you imagine four more years of Donald Trump? The proposition haunts my sleep, perverts my dreams, and weighs heavy on every waking hour. Trump and Trumpism are like a metastasizing cancer that threatens the very heart of America.
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