COMING ATTRACTIONS
A NATION ADRIFT ON A SEA OF DREAD
I was wandering the radio dial soon after Trump’s election victory and while he was in the midst of selecting his dream team of misfits and miscreants to lead his administration to the right-wing promised land. I found my way to one of the many NPR public affairs offerings during which there was a discussion about the totality of the Trump list of intended cabinet officials and others to be named to high level US Government positions. The program was unremarkable except for the host's characterization of the group as a whole as “unconventional.”
There are lots of ways to describe Trump’s nominee honor roll but “unconventional” isn't one of them. Unconventional is an understatement of epic proportions finding an ever-lower bar with every new name added to the list. But it bears noting that America is experiencing this assault on governance, in part, because the mainstream media has so normalized Trump, his candidacy, his acolytes, and his mission that our national public radio settled on “unconventional,” apparently ignoring other far more apt possibilities like “unqualified,” “inappropriate,” or even just plain “dangerous.”
Unconventional, really? How cute. “Unconventional” is wearing sweatpants to dinner at the country club. “Unconventional” is preparing vegan fare in beef broth. “Unconventional” is getting married in a treehouse. Unconventional is not dangerous and generally is not even risky.
In the coming weeks, we will watch Republican senators sing the praises of one after another of these miscreants pushed to prominence to serve Trump’s wet dreams of grandeur. We have seen this project before. Remember those now-Supreme Court Justices who looked most of those same senators in the eye and promised a different legal world than they have delivered. Well, the stage is set for another round of the same deceitful embrace, this time executed to pollute the executive branch of government.
As a convenient reminder of what we are about to see and its corrupting influence on governance, let’s roll the old tape of Senator Susan Collins (Republican - Maine) bleating about how sure she was that the Brett Kavanaugh she was about to vote to confirm for the Supreme Court was dedicated to the sanctity of precedent in the context of Roe v. Wade.* Senator Collins is still there and still charged with honestly and responsibly serving the nation during the Senate confirmation process for high-level appointed officials. She will be joined by all those Republican Senators who joined the Trump circus after having previously assessed his danger to the nation the first time around. The list is too long for this space, but senatorial “heroes” like Mitch McConnel, Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz and the now vice-stooge J. D. Vance should never be forgotten.
So now it is time to sit back and relax, as FBI Director nominee Kash Patel explains his lifelong devotion to the rule of law, Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth provides assurances that the military will not be deployed against US civilian populations, Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Robert Kennedy, Jr. talks of a future filled with universal access to meaningful healthcare, and Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi assures us that she will be an Attorney General for all the people, even including people who are not White Christian nationalists. Also keep a wary eye on any and all of the miscreants whenever climate change is mentioned, a subject sure to come up and so certain to be dodged.
How have we been so easily led to forget the dangerous part – remember Charlottesville, remember the covid death count and internal bleaching, remember January 6? How can we now listen to this rambling grifter and his acolytes and so easily forget so much. The answer is that our institutions have failed the nation. No accountability has led inexorably to normalization. Normalization has led to legitimacy.
Unfortunately for the nation, much of the blame for the normalization of Trump lies with the mainstream media. Somehow, when he says something racist or ranting or just plain demented, a reporter or media host is quick to ask us to “take a listen.” Then Trump is given the stage again so we can all see/hear him repeat what he said, giving it added gravitas. Next up is the panel discussion where the “prophet’s” words get parsed out like we were examining some biblical text for its underlying and often obscure meaning. Context matters, repetition matters, validation matters.
However, like it or not, first normalization and now legitimacy are upon us. The crushing impact of the legitimization of Trump will truly begin on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025. On that day, Trump inherits the full measure of powers invested in the executive branch of the US Government, including all the authority that is subsumed in the roll of commander-in-chief of all US military forces. As a nation, America has been fortunate to this point in time that we have almost no experience with a President who has no concept of accountability and no historical perspective against which to measure the limits of his authority.
We do now. To make matters worse, this time around Trump is not just putting his toe in the water of disconnecting the US Government from the human and financial resources necessary to meet critical institutional needs, he is going all in. And he is doing so at the behest of those with a dangerous agenda that they have telegraphed to the world and proven capable of implementing. Where will the checks and balances come from this time?
Last time, as our institutions faltered, the electorate stepped up to reject Trump and his chaos and to provide space for our institutions to right themselves and reimpose at least some of the checks and balances contemplated by the US Constitution. Biden, as constitutional caretaker, did a good job holding steady and responding to the challenges from the right-wing sycophants corrupting Congress and the Supreme Court. But too much ground had been yielded and what seemed unthinkable became reality on November 5, when that same American electorate decided to ignore the institutional threat that is about to be unleashed.
While the nation hasn’t yet imploded and probably won’t, there will be the dispiriting presence of Trump and his cast of corrupt miscreants and grifters given every opportunity to take what they will. Meanwhile, social justice and economic equity will be notions for the fanciful to contemplate while so many of those who should know better will find it so much easier and more profitable to piggyback on the grift.
I wish that there were a way to make it all go away. But there isn’t. The best hope is that those who often suffer least and care less will suffer some and come to care more. Maybe then, enough of them will find each other and work together for a better nation and even a better world. They will find allies in strange places - in soup kitchens, in substandard housing, in emergency rooms, and in some of our most challenged environments. When both groups find common cause, transformative change may be possible.
For now, at least, the American flag will be flying at half staff on inauguration day, a wonderful reminder of how much so many of us feel we have lost and a fitting final gift to the nation from Jimmy Carter, a most remarkable public servant. I will not be watching, but I will be imagining how utterly galling that flag at half staff will be to Trump as his imperial parade gets rained upon by someone like Jimmy Carter. Thanks Jimmy. Rest in peace.
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