Avoiding the Trumpocalypse
Let's choose and pursue political sanity
There comes a point when wild threats are more annoying than alarming. The previous president increasingly resembles a crazy person camping out across from the White House with handwritten signs detailing his paranoid fantasies. The difference is that he uses Truth Social posts instead of signs.
Trump gets more help than he deserves from media mavens who look for something wrong in everything President Biden does. New York Times photographer Doug Mills tweeted on July 9 that Biden had boarded Air Force One wearing sneakers without socks. Wow, that's another article of impeachment right there.
Trumpists love accusing Democrats of things Trump has done. Trump claims Biden weaponizes the Department of Justice against him, when Trump constantly sought to weaponize DOJ. By contrast, Special Counsel Jack Smith's federal charges against Trump in the classified documents case last month were based on the facts and the law, and approved by a grand jury.
A perfect example of Republican bankruptcy and hypocrisy is their dumpster-diving for corruption charges against Hunter Biden despite his not being on the White House staff—unlike Jared and Ivanka, whose official duties during the Trump years did not stop them from cutting profitable deals with the Saudis and Chinese.
Especially bizarre and revolting are conservative accusations that liberals groom children sexually when, as Justin Horowitz reports in Media Matters for America, "Various right-wing figures have defended child molesters, worked with sex offenders, and attempted to normalize teen pregnancy and forced child marriage." Talk about foxes guarding hen houses.
The Republicans' working assumption appears to be that simply inventing a narrative, the more preposterous the better, is sufficient to prove their baseless charges. They were completely unfazed after losing sixty court cases claiming a stolen 2020 election.
Republicans' endless rage-mongering with conspiracy theories and wild speculation is designed to prevent governance. But our shared problems are not solved by ignoring or lying about them. As Neil deGrasse Tyson says, "The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it." Insisting that global warming isn't happening and human use of fossil fuels didn't contribute to it does not magically make the problem disappear.
When public policy is made by people who don't understand the difference between weather and climate, we get the idiotic claim that global warming is a lie because we still have winters. Clinging to ignorance and mocking experts only prevents the strong collective response needed to stop heating up our planet.
Much of Republican politics is fueled by resentment against anyone with knowledge or expertise. What greatness can America hope for if know-nothingism is the basis for government? Imagine the horde of legacy hires we can expect in a second Trump term. Seasoned diplomats will be replaced with an army of Jareds who lack the requisite training or experience but are filled with smug confidence stemming from wealth and social connections. Every day would see echoes of the brilliant Ketanji Brown Jackson, before she became Justice Jackson, being grilled by the malignant clowns on the Republican side of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
It is unclear what we can do to make our fascist-leaning fellow citizens let go of their false narratives. It is as if they are floating in midair, and if we awaken them they will suddenly come crashing down to earth. If so, that's wokeness I can get behind.
Many of our challenges require technical innovations. How long will America keep its competitive edge if its tech firms are all taken over by know-it-alls like Elon Musk? I am no big fan of Mark Zuckerberg, but his rollout of the Threads social media platform shows there are still billionaires who hire experts instead of firing them.
Some progressives await the day when everything collapses, we finally stick it to The Man, and a progressive utopia sprouts from the ruins. Sure, and Adonis Creed will show up at my door any day declaring his undying love. Alexa, dim the light.
In the meantime, let's contrast ourselves with the MAGA mob by facing reality. A third-party candidate like RFK Jr. or Cornel West will not lead us into a Golden Age. They will only help the 45th president become the 47th. And if you think the Trumpocalypse will bring us to a land of milk and honey, I have to question your political judgment as well as your dietary choices.
To preserve our constitutional republic, and to restore sanity, it has to be Biden and the Democrats in 2024.
Richard J. Rosendall is a writer and activist at [email protected].
Copyright © 2023 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.