Last week, I published a couple of blog entries about one MSN author who seems relentlessly enthusiastic about chiming the bell and calling out how "the end is near" for Trump. Everything that Trump does compromises his popularity, as well as his party's popularity. So surely, that means that Trump and MAGA are pretty well done, right?
The thing is, I have been hearing some form of this for literally over a decade. Back in 2015, it was that surely Trump is a joke candidate (something which I then actually believed) and has no shot. But he kept gaining more momentum, and one by one, the other Republicans dropped out of the race, until Trump was the last one standing.
Then, it was that surely the Republicans would pick someone else to be their candidate. Some mentioned Paul Ryan. However, the Republicans saw that, like it or not, Trump had won their nomination, and they allowed the democratic process to unfold without intervention, unlike the Democrats with Bernie Sanders (twice).
So then it was that he would never, ever be elected president. Not the guy who had dismissed Mexicans as criminals and rapists, and who wanted a national registry of Muslims. Not the guy who had boasted that women allowed him to grab them by the pussy. Surely, that guy couldn't be our next president, right? Hillary surely would sweep him aside.
Then it was that he would be president, but people would come to their sense once they realized how bad he was.
He was worse than what most of us imagined. Yet his loyal base never really diminished, did it?
Next it was that surely he would not finish his term. That he himself did not want to be president, that he would resign, or perhaps be impeached.
And he was impeached. Twice. But he remained in office, so what did that matter?
Then when he lost, it was that nobody bounces back from that. Especially after January 6th, for which he should have been forever disqualified from any kind of public office.
Instead nothing happened. He held a rally a day or two into Biden's administration, and I just knew that he would be back.
Once he was out of office, some people were absolutely sure - adamant, really - that Trump would soon be behind bars. This was something which I felt should happen, although I just knew that somehow, it wouldn't happen.
Sure enough, it never happened.
In 2022, he posted on his Truth Social his belief that some parts of the Constitution might need to be suspended.
Surely that would generate enough outrage to disqualify him from public office forever?
Nope. Just like January 6th, it just largely went away. In fact, most people hardly seemed to notice.
Then he ran again, and surely the Republicans did not want a repeat of his first administration. Ron DeSantis would surely beat him, right?
But DeSantis was easily and quickly swept aside, and Trump got the nomination of his party for a modern record third straight time.
Then he won, and here we are.
More dire prognostications. More doomsday predictions.
But you have to know by now that this guy loves to be underestimated by his enemies. He loves when people don't take him seriously. People feel that his health is failing, which it very well might be.
Yet he's still here.
His presidency is in shambles. Everything is going wrong. His whole administration offers no guard rails, and the country - and indeed the world - is suffering.
Any real signs that this guy is about to go?
No.
Well, how about the midterms? With the Trump party...sorry, with the Republican party tanking in the polls, surely they will lose power, right?
So it's the Supreme Court to the rescue, allowing the Republicans to gerrymander and redistrict to almost assure a victory, despite their stunning unpopularity. Now, it seems that they have an excellent chance of not only not losing, but possibly gaining significantly more seats in many red states.
Now, I don't want to be the kind of guy who says "I told you so, but...."
This week was a good one for Trump. That Supreme Court decision seems now to assure that the Republicans will be able to manipulate and cheat their way to retaining power. Then Fort Lauderdale International Airport was officially renamed Donald J. Trump International Airport. Then Trump literally got his "golden calf" statue in Florida.
Trump's endless desire to win cheap applause and get undeserved praise and even achieve a certain dark immortality seems to be gaining traction, not losing traction. It is a bad sign for this country that a man who presently sits in the Oval Office with very low approval ratings in the low-30's (and it should be much, much lower, frankly) is still able to get so many things named after him, and to manipulate his party's already well-established reputation for cheating in elections. It looks like Trump and MAGA actually now have a chance to superficially gain seats in the upcoming midterms.
Yikes. This is the erosion of democracy that people were warning about.
What will the anti-Trump doomsayers believe to be the next sign that surely this nightmare will end?
Personally, I'm sick and tired of hearing it.
Don't get me wrong: I really would like to see Trump's presidency come to a well-deserved end, once and for all. And I get it, too. People want to believe that our American democracy is stronger than it is, that it really is not as fragile as it has appeared to be since the rise of Trump. In short, Americans still want to believe in our exception. That we cannot, will not allow this to happen. Not to us. Like Sinclair Lewis suggested (tongue in cheek), "It can't happen here."
Except that it is happening here. Right now. Has been happening for some time, step by step. And regardless of how much it makes us feel better to laugh at Trump and look down on him and his following, they just keep winning, don't they?
And the country keeps losing as a result.
Let's face reality: The only Americans who are possibly more self-delusional than the Mindless MAGA Moron cult are those people who are absolutely, positively sure that Trump and MAGA are finally gasping their last breath. This group also consists of far too many people who, like MAGA cult members, allow what they want to believe to construct a whole alternative reality to believe in, instead of the reality that actually exists and is in front of them every single day. Far too many of these people still believe that the United States is and of right ought to be the model for the rest of the world to follow. They feel that Trump - and too often, they feel only Trump himself - is some kind of historical freak accident. That he represents an aberration, and that once he's gone, the United States will return to being the glowing model for the world to follow, that it will be, as Reagan used to say, the "shining city on the hill."
Sorry, but that ship has sailed, and a long, long time ago. To be fair, perhaps there was a time when the United States did seem exceptional. A time when Americans were regarded as liberators in the cause of freedom for the world, as it seemed to be during and shortly after World War II. When Americans seemed to enjoy the highest standard of living that the world had ever seen, and when our education system was the top-ranked, instead of near the bottom among industrialized nations, as it currently is. That was a time when Americans might have known that the country was not perfect, but when they collectively believed (albeit with different and even competing visions) that it was heading in the right direction. This was a time when we elected leaders who inspired the world, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. Leaders whose memories endure in other countries, such as in France (the country which supposedly hates Americans), where each of those leaders has a street in Paris named after them.
Those days, I'm sorry to say, are long gone. They were already largely gone once we as a nation turned away from leaders who told us harsh truths and tried to prepare us for some grim reality checks, and instead decided to elect leaders who had pretty smiles and told us things that we wanted to hear. Things like us being the "shining city on the hill" and the world's last, best hope for mankind. Things like us being God's country and the "leaders of the free world." Things that clearly insinuated that, whatever problems may exist in the country, we were still nevertheless exceptional, and the world continued to regard us as the best example for their own improvement.
Now for a reality check: the world is not waiting with bated breath to lead them again. In fact, our overall reputation has taken such a hit, that most of the world views us negatively now, with a mixture of scorn and fear and loathing and, perhaps in some regions (especially the ones where we regularly launch wars and continually bomb) hatred. If there was still some lingering admiration for Americans and the standard of living and seeming atmosphere of stability and freedom which we enjoyed (and clearly took too much for granted), it now sees us as self-destructive and unstable and prone to electing con artists as our leaders (not just Trump, either). Now, we serve as a very different kind of model for much of the world. Far from being the admirable example for the world to follow, we now serve as a warning of what to avoid for their own countries.
Here is a bit of harsh truth. It is a bitter pill, but I sincerely believe that we need to accept this before things actually finally do change here.
Ready to hear something that you don't want to hear?
Are you sure you are ready?
Okay, here it is.
We are not as exceptional as we wanted to believe or long pretended to be. The whole world knew it long before some Americans woke up to this fact, but it is being exposed to them every single day now, and in screaming headlines. That's what happens when a con artist not only gets elected to the highest office, to be the chosen face and voice of the country on the world stage, but then gets another term in office even after an attempted insurrection and threatening to dismantle the Constitution.
Trump should have been gone a long time ago. Frankly, if the country were half as golden and shining as we collectively pretended that it was, Trump would never have gotten within a thousand miles of the White House. Instead, he has been put in place there twice now. We had a chance to learn from his failures (and our own failures as a country) after the first term. But he was given yet another term, and the country will never be the same. One time could indeed have been chalked up to some kind of an aberration. But two times?
No, sorry, but you cannot pretend like it is some kind of a fluke. So stop saying we are better than this. Stop pretending like Trump does not represent the country. Quite clearly, he does. And he will be the leader for the foreseeable future. I still believe that he will run, and quite possibly win another term, in 2028. Call me delusional if you want. Some people suggested that when I predicted that he would win in 2024. But here we are.
Trump represents what the United States has become more than anyone else. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the harsh truth. This pathetic man, with his ridiculous hair and fake tan and pretending that he has a very athletic physique and is irresistible to women, this absurdly needy man demanding attention at all times and literally pouting when he does not get it, this manchild with the emotional intelligence of a child, is what we as a nation have become. Yes, I am opposed to Trump, but I am also opposed to the constant patting ourselves on the back and insistence that we are truly exceptional and serve as the model for the rest of the world to follow. We as a nation constantly want that attention and validation every bit as much as Trump. In fact, that is what made someone like Trump possible in the first place. Note, I'm not just blaming MAGA now. Our superiority complex, based in part on an inferiority complex, is the reason we now have Trump. Until we get past this self-delusion, Trump will remain o serve as a wakeup call, as a mirror to our uglier instincts and collective character traits. This ugly man in every way will continue to be the visual underbelly of what Americans have allowed their country to become, until we finally rid ourselves of the delusion that we are great and exceptional and deserve special praise and recognition from the rest of the world.
In short, we need to get back in touch with reality before we actually get out from under the shadow of this small man, who is making our country smaller in very meaningful and lasting ways every single day. Because we as a country have allowed ourselves to become defined by Trump in a way that we will not be able to sever for a long, long time to come. Long after he is gone, the world will identify us with him. Even after he is gone, he will continue to overshadow how this country is viewed and perceived the world over, likely for decades.
Let's absorb that reality, and then go from there. Only then can we redefine ourselves.
Yes, what is happening is disgraceful and should be beneath our dignity. Yes I agree, we should be better than this. But apparently we're not. And yes, this is embarrassing for the country. Absolutely humiliating, in fact.
Here's the thing: it happens.
Wait. That's it? That's all I can offer? "It happens?"
Yup. It happens to everyone at points. History is filled with countries and empires rising and falling. I mentioned France, and perceptions of how they supposedly hate Americans. But the truth is, they don't. When I went to France several times as a child in the 1980's, I was shocked by the similarities. French people ate American-style fast food. They listened to American music and watched American television shows and movies. They dressed in American styles. I would go to the local news stand to pick up American comic books dubbed in French.
Now, does that really sound like a country that hates Americans?
In fact, being French myself, here's what I suspect: as mentioned earlier, the exaggerated superiority complex that far too many Americans believe in (American exceptionalism) is actually born of an inferiority complex. Why do Americans target the French so much? It's because deep down, they know that France was pretty much in the same position as Americans find themselves in now. That's right, tiny little France, a country smaller than Texas, used to be the most powerful, most influential country in the world politically, militarily, economically, and culturally. What happened in France used to have reverberations felt almost around the world, much like what now happens in the United States has reverberations around the world. France has a very rich tradition of art and culture, of traditions in various fields, from culinary to art to historical to political. And yes, these traditions are things which "the French" tend to turn to and trust more than the American example in some prime ways. That is why we react (overreact) so strongly to them.
Of course, the French had some rude wakeup calls. Americans themselves still seem to define "the French" through these. Unsavory chapters in French history, such as the military failure and collapse to Germany during World War II, and the disgraceful collaborationist government that followed under German occupation. Things like the ugly excesses of colonialism and oppression. In some regions and with some people in the world, France is still associated with these ugly, compromising legacies. Also, France had some sobering reality checks. With rather astonishing speed, it went from a country which itself seemed like the envy of the world to just a tiny blip on the overall radar.
Nor are they alone. Britain endured many of the same things. Their colonial history was even more all-encompassing, because they had a larger empire. I might argue that the legacy of British colonialism defines the British today more than it does the French today, although that can admittedly be argued. What cannot be argued is that Great Britain also went from the world's most powerful empire of it's day to a relative blip on the world radar screen.
It has happened to many other countries and empires, as well. Countries which used to dominate the world scene, or at least threatened to, have come and gone. In my own lifetime, I saw the Soviet Union collapse from a superpower, with Russia still struggling to find a new niche, a new identity. Germany went from being the seemingly emerging dominant world power to literally largely reduced to rubble. So did Japan in the Far East. So have empires throughout time.
Did we really believe that the United States alone would prove an exception to this?
Indeed it seems that we did. Which is why all of what is happening now serves as our own reality check. The world is literally turning away from the United States. Moreover, it is happening with such breathtaking speed that is feels astonishing. Admittedly, I had long assumed that dark days were coming to the United States. Yet, even I am astonished at how quickly we seem to be falling, and how completely and determinedly we seem to be isolating ourselves from the rest of the world. Countries are making trade deals and political arrangements specifically to avoid having to deal with us.
How embarrassing. At least it would be if we saw it for what it was. If we saw the reality, instead of these continuing, nagging delusions of grandeur, which both the left and the right in the United States are guilty of. Sadly, that is the reality as I see it. It will continue to define our reality until enough of us are willing to accept that it was indeed a delusion and be willing to move on from it.
Until then, present-day realities will continue to make things worse. The right will continue to praise the hollow Golden Calf of Donald Trump, and likely with the belief that they are being good Christians in so doing. Meanwhile, the left will also continue to praise it's own figurative Golden Calf with a very outdated and, frankly, out of touch perception of what the United States is, or used to be, with an eye to restoring some former greatness (does that not itself resemble the talking points of MAGA). They will continue to actively look for signs of Trump's decline, and convince themselves that yes, this time, the end truly is near. Regardless of their political leanings, too many Americans seem to automatically turn to self-delusion instead of being brave enough to face reality. Again, I'm not just talking about MAGA supporters here.
Democracy will continue to erode here, because Trump is not going anywhere.
Not until we collectively get over our own sense of delusion and grandeur - every bit as entrenched as Trump's, and get our heads out of our asses.
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