Trump and Trumpism teaches us many lessons, but one of them is hardly ever acknowledged: Trump got one big thing right that we need to take to heart if we are going to get beyond him and his acolytes anytime soon.
I believe that the thuggish political uprising that we are experiencing here in America is not aimed at Democrats per se. In fact, it is aimed at both parties — and more generally at a political system and social order that has been significantly skewed toward privileging a small elite of Americans for over four decades (effectively since Reagan was elected). The middle/working class has been literally disenfranchised from effective representation in our governing societal priorities. The resulting resentment and widespread sense of anomie and mistrust gave Trump room to present another approach, including a plague on both their houses.
The extreme right wing is making the most noise in response to Trump’s opening, with performance politics designed to “Own the Libs.” They have then been further and dangerously catalyzed towards outright authoritarian thuggery by Trump’s resort to strong-arm politics when he failed miserably at actual politics and governing.
The silence and seeming capitulation of the more “moderate” silent majority of Republican leaders, including capitulation in impeding normalcy in governing -- and thereby stoking political, economic, and health care stalemate and chaos -- simply confirms and reinforces the overall disaffected middle class sense that our political system is unresponsive to them and functions for only a small elite who are protected by wealth and privilege. At the moment, all of this provides the Republican Party with a higher share of middle class support than one might otherwise expect because the Republican Party has either embraced or accommodated the Trumpian turn.
Democrats don’t get this overall sense of extreme disaffection. We all somehow think that being “anti-Trump” is the answer. Well, it’s not. Trump represents the first inkling that many in the middle class have had for more than a generation of the viability of a different path with different priorities. Unfortunately, that path is the path of thuggery and corruption, on the way towards outright authoritarianism.
The answer to Trumpism not “anti-Trumpism,” but, to coin a phrase, something like “para-Trumpism.” The answer is to acknowledge the Trumpian insight that some fires need to be lit under a lot of people and institutions, and bold new priorities need to be set, and that many reforms need to be made to make government and public policy accessible to and focused on the wellbeing of our “average” citizens.
Leadership is what matters here. We need leadership that is all-in for the middle class and for the promise of America as the land of opportunity. In my previous post, I sited 21 actions that Democrats need to lead and take along these lines.
As FDR wisely prophesied:
“If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land.”