The specific things that he did to destroy democratic institutions and processes are too numerous to enumerate. But one common thread runs through all of them in that Donald Trump did all those horrendous things by just one modus operandi: ignore the rule of law.
By his account, Donald Trump accomplished everything he set out to do--and in a sense he is correct. If the definition of an accomplished task is hitting the "bullseye" he hit the centre point each and every time. But the way he did it is not by throwing the dart skillfully enough to stick it in the middle of the board. What he does is throw darts at random and then draw the target board around where each dart hit. He couldn't miss.
Donald Trump's objectives are not the objectives of everyone else. When he wouldn't disavow racist and white supremacist advocacies, people warned that he was gaslighting the supposedly dying embers of systemic discrimination. A failure by many accounts, but not to him. He was trying to do exactly what everyone else was warning against. He wanted to rekindle intolerance because intolerant demogaphics are a peculiar, if bizarre, support niche he alone cared to cultivate. It was "THE BASE" to him.
There are ominous storm clouds in the horizon too. The triumph of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential elections is an imposed self-reflection on America's own self. Trump may have lost but he still garnered over 71 million votes--bested only by Biden's 75 million. It's clear America remains sharply divided and it was a shocking eye-opener for many Americans to witness political nobility beat mediocrity in a down-the-wire photofinish. America now must look at herself in the mirror, see almost half her face covered with warts and then accept the reality that it is what America actually looks like. There is no denying it even if, for the moment, the prospects for better days look bright.
Smarting from the experience, Americans dread the idea of a Donald Trump comeback run in 2024--and will probably work feverishly the next four years sandbagging against that possibility.
That would be a mistake--a failure to recognize what the real danger is simply because you were anticipating its renaissance in familiar form.
Such as he is, Donald trump is not a unique pariah. He is a type--a reusable template for anyone to repackage and repurpose for their own present and future bid to go even farther than Donald Trump did.
There's a reason why everything a US president says and does matters. It matters because it sets the limit of what a US president can say and do. Whether he sets the bar high or low, he justifies his successor going as high and as low at minimum--with the opportunity to push the envelop as farther out until public pushback stops him cold.
But there's an added element of danger: a second incarnation of Donald Trump could come in a prettier package. Imagine everything reprehensible about Trump being woven into the spellbinding charisma of an articulate orator, for example. The problem with Trump is that when he was told by statisticians he was polling poorly among suburban women, the next day he goes out to the podium, spreads his arms wide open and cries, "Suburban women, please like me!" A more gifted charlatan could deliver the message with more finesse and quaintly-faked empathy he would win the vote not only of the suburban woman but her entire family's as well. .
And then there's a second layer to this element of danger. This means you don't have to act like Donald Trump to be Donald Trump. You just have to think like him, and go with your own well-liked and well-received public persona. You don't have to say, after a Ku Klux Klan or a neo-Nazi rally is broken up by police, that in the widening national dialogue about racism "there are fine people on both sides." You might say, instead, that the "national effort to eradicate intolerance follows a universal objective that appeals to all." Same message but kinder-sounding. After all, when you say that tribalism is universal, you make tribalism the virtue in and of itself. That does not advance the cause of healing and uniting a deeply fractured society.
One sector that Trumpism really damaged deeply is the evangelical church community, already hobbled by a whole range of sub-doctrinal differences as it is. The debate on whether or not to support Donald Trump channeled the Reformation Era schism between believers who subscribed to the doctrine of salvation by irresistible grace alone, and those who embraced salvation through the cooperation of divine grace and human obedience.
The church clearly got it wrong, in endorsing the blatantly un-Christian Trump--even if you pile up all the "good works" he has supposedly done for the church (not even for God). If love and adulation to a political leader were the measure of heaven's approval, North Korea's Kim Jong Il ought to be beatified. And if sexual perversion such as Trump is legendary for is only the precursor of a life destined to be ultimately repurposed for God's glory, then let's go easy on all those pedophiles in frocks up and down the Vatican hierarchy. Shall we say these priests sodomized little altar boys so that in their public repentance, people would praise the God they betrayed? With Christians believing that, who needs atheists? Incidentally, Joe Biden is Roman Catholic and he seems to be standing up for God more than many reformist congregation members worming their way through the thickness of Trump's "Make America Great Again" rallies.
Donald Trump once pointed out to a black man in one of his rallies, referring to him as "my African-American"--he forgot to add "slave." It was a masterful stroke of public relations to have Kanye West call on Trump at the Whitehouse and declare to the 'hood that Trump was his superhero. They even tried to put Kanye West on the ballot to try to draw votes away from Biden who wouldn't otherwise vote for Trump anyway. Of course state election officials nixed the idea all across the continent, you'd think Kanye West would at least land a "Plan B" role as campaign curtain-raiser and crowd drawer. He would have been the focus of the rally, something Trump cannot endure.
But what if a second Donald Trump were to emerge who could actually shoot a basketball? Or deliver a few lines of rap? Compared to the unsubtle tricks and antics of Donald Classic, this guy would be a hit. That's because Donald Trump rewrote the rule on character: you don't have to stand firmly for one thing, you just need to know how to stand loosely for everything.
Politics is addition. This used to mean that those who aspire for public office must face a nation, bare his soul, declare his life principles and obtain public approval by the number of people who join him. Donald Trump rewrote it so that a politician must plunge headlong into any group, declare that he stands by whatever they stand for, and would they add their number to his base?
The way he did it grossed out many people. So now the new holy grail of obtaining the skill behind the "Art of the Deal" is who can be Donald Trump the most while seeming like him the least. That heralds the coming of the Second Donald Trump. Here's hoping even the church gets it right next time. Ⓒ 2020 Joel R. Dizon
NOTE FROM JOEL: Hi, folks! Recently, I started a YouTube channel which is called "Parables and Reason" It is kind of similar to this blog content-wise. You can check out my channel by clicking the link below:
Joel R. Dizon - PARABLES AND REASON
No comments:
Post a Comment