At every stage of the Trump saga, since he first came down the escalator (like a parody of a parody) to announce his candidacy in 2016, I never wanted to believe that a Trump win was possible. I never wanted to admit that so many of my fellow Americans would keep falling for this con man, let alone embrace him as their Dear Leader. Surely, I thought, Trump cannot win the Republican nomination. Okay, so he got the nomination, but he can’t win the general election. Surely he will have his Joe McCarthy Moment and the public will realize he has no sense of decency.
Unfortunately, even Senator McCarthy never lost all of his support. In fact, a small, but active and passionate minority believed that the Communists who allegedly controlled the government, including President Eisenhower, had shut McCarthy down because he was the only one truly fighting Communism. Trump seemed to reach his tipping point with the January 6 attack on the Capitol, when even the Republican Speaker of the House publicly admitted that Trump had to take some responsibility for what happened. But never count a pathologically dishonest and amoral man out, I guess, because the Speaker soon showed up at Mar-a-Lago to grovel at Trump’s feet and pretend Jan 6 never happened. Being a Trump disciple requires a good deal of pretending, more than I would like to believe most people could bear.
Pauline Kael, a once influential film critic for the New Yorker has been quoted for decades as saying: “I can’t believe Nixon won. I don’t know anyone who voted for him.” Apparently, that isn’t what she actually said, but it has become a truism of American politics; an example of how people silo themselves and lose sight of other people’s thinking. While I do know individuals who voted for Trump, I could not fathom that his support could possibly grow and he would win back any of the states that rejected him in 2020; let alone, five states. You could call November 5, 2024, my Pauline Kael Moment.
It’s not just the fact that I dislike Trump that the news of his win hit me so hard on election night, it is the fact that he is a real and present danger to the Constitution, the survival of the republic, and the upholding of human rights. Sadly, I am confident that the next four years, or longer, will be a disaster, for America and the world, but the price we will pay is not my focus here. Here, I am interested in how I became complacent in my hope that Trump would lose. So complacent that I believed it without really examining why I believed it.
Trump Wins and Wins and Wins
I have always held off on the “Trump is Hitler” rhetoric, or “the United States is going to turn into Nazi Germany.” Weimar, pre-Nazi Germany, had significant differences from the US and Hitler is hard to fully compare to anyone when you get into the details. Certainly, most of the comparisons made to Hitler (Bush, Obama, Clinton, etc.) are ridiculous, but there are some reasonable similarities between all so-called “strongman leaders” and Hitler; and this includes Trump. Knowing these things, and knowing that millions of people once admired, loved, and even worshipped that evil little man and his funny mustache, it really shouldn’t come as a big surprise that millions have chosen to see comparatively petty criminals, like Trump, through an endlessly positive and forgiving lens. At least, it should come as no big surprise in theory, but real life is different.
Despite the time I have spent studying authoritarians, totalitarians, dictators, despots, tyrants, and history in general, I just kept telling myself, “Trump is a fad whose time has passed,” because that is what I wanted the truth to be. I, like millions of others, reinforced this belief with seemingly obvious facts, e.g. Trump’s crowd size seemed to be shrinking, with people leaving early, while Harris had huge, enthusiastic crowds, with no shortage of celebrity and government endorsements; including high profile Republicans and former Trump Administration officials. But I made no effort to measure these things against any other information. I completely ignored the fact that many, if not most of Trump’s supporters dislike, hate, and sometimes fear “the elites;” particularly “Hollywood Celebrities” (a concept that began with movie stars but seems to have extended to all entertainers, streaming influencers, and TV journalists in the minds of many). In hindsight, it is obvious to me that these people were driven closer to The Donald every time they heard an establishment figure say, “I’m voting for Harris.”
All of this begs the question: Am I wrong about Trump too? But no, I’m not. The fact that I wanted to believe more of my fellow Americans were done with Trump than the actual number proved to be was based on wishful thinking that I made little effort to verify. The case against Trump is very different. It consists of objective facts about his behavior over several decades that I have tried to validate and found abundant evidence against him.
It Just Doesn’t Matter
Clearly, at this point, my attempt to point out Trump’s flaws, which make up the majority of the man, will only be met with indifference or hostility by his fans and cult members. Nevertheless, allow me to end with a short list of high points demonstrating how low Trump is, in terms of morals and decency.
- Housing Discrimination (1970s): The Nixon Administration investigated Trump and his father for discriminatory practices in their real estate business, specifically against African American tenants. Trump used the toughest and sleaziest lawyer he could find, Joe McCarthy’s former right-hand man, Roy Cohn, to intimidate the government into a settlement that allowed the Trumps to avoid admitting guilt. Years later, Cohn was disbarred for one of his countless unethical actions, but not before he became The Donald’s mentor and surrogate father, as many have described the relationship.
- Central Park Five (1989): Trump took out a full-page ad calling for the death penalty for the five African American and Latino teenagers wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. Despite their exoneration and the real attacker being matched to the crime through DNA, years later, Trump refuses to admit that he was wrong in any way and continues to suggest that these men still could be guilty.
- Bankruptcies (1990s): Trump filed for bankruptcy multiple times, leaving creditors unpaid and impacting many working-class individuals and businesses.
- Refusal to Pay Contractors: Numerous reports indicate Trump has refused to pay contractors and workers, leading to lawsuits and civil judgments.
- Inflated Wealth Claims: Trump has consistently exaggerated his wealth and business success, raising questions about the truth behind his financial claims.
- Allegations of Sexual Assault: Multiple women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, leading to civil judgments against him.
- Rhetoric Against Immigrants: Throughout his campaign and presidency, Trump made inflammatory remarks about immigrants, contributing to a divisive political climate.
- On July 25, 2019, Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and requested Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden for unsubstantiated and phony claims of misconduct. The request came with a threat to hold up US aid necessary for the Ukrainians to stand up to Putin. The House of Representatives ultimately voted to impeach Trump in December 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Although Trump was acquitted by the Senate in early 2020, that doesn’t make his actions right in any way.
- Election Fraud Claims (2020): Trump repeatedly claimed widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election without evidence, undermining public trust in the electoral process.
- Attempts to Pressure Officials: Trump pressured state officials to overturn election results, notably in Georgia, which raised serious ethical and legal concerns. He also had fake, illegal documents created, claiming he won states he did not, and then he tried to get his Vice President to recognize these things as legitimate in an effort to stop his electoral defeat from being certified by Congress.
- January 6 Capitol Riot (2021): Trump incited a mob to storm the Capitol, attempting to overturn the election results, and then failed to act to stop the violence. This led to him being the first president to be impeached twice. Again, Senate Republicans saved him, but they could not change the facts and remove the stain Trump forever left on the republic.
I know, the MAGA faithful can sidestep all these things with justifications and evasions that ignore reality, just as people have ignored the reality of anyone from Hitler to Huey P. Long, because they see what they want to see. People can, however, make an effort to recognize their mistakes and learn from them, so they can take a more objective look at things in the future. That is what I am trying to do for myself and what I wish Trump voters would finally do.
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