Surviving Trump -- and Helping the Republic Do So

Friends ask, “If anyone has any advice on how to survive this, please share it.”

This is both familiar territory and not.

In 1952, just five, I wore a sandwich sign urging a vote for Adlai Stevenson. My father, a Stevensonian Democrat, won a minor local office in that election. But General Eisenhower beat Adlai. Both were decent, competent men serving their country.

In 1964. a college freshman, I campaigned for Lyndon Baines Johnson, whom I soon came to loathe as he escalated the inexcusably stupid Viet Nam War.

1968 I cast my first presidential vote – for Black Panther ex-con Eldridge Cleaver. A college dropout, I asked passengers entering my New York City cab, “Which of the three little pigs are you voting for?” Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and segregationist George Wallace all seemed unacceptable -- as some now equate Trump and Harris, because of Palestine. When Chicago police beat antiwar demonstrators outside the Democratic Convention, I listened on radio, late at night, concluding that the only course for a person of conscience was to begin assassinating high U.S. officials, killing as many as possible before being killed. [I didn’t!] Four years later, during Nixon’s re-election, marked by Watergate, I was the kind of young dissenter Nixon wanted to destroy.

In 2000, we elected Al Gore but five supreme court justices gave us George Bush.

I believed Richard Nixon would continue the Viet Nam War [despite his “secret peace plan”] and break laws to punish us; I believed Bush was a wholly unqualified fellow who’d be the tool of right-wingers, and disbelieved his silly excuses for starting two wars. I was right. But Trump is different: he’s not only wrong on policies, he abhors our democracy.

In 2016, in Democrats’ local headquarters on Election Night, we were shocked and dismayed, believing Mr. Trump was an incompetent narcissist, somewhat spiteful and lacking in compassion or judgment, all of which proved true. In 2020, Mr. Biden wasn’t my first choice for nominee, but he was a decent and competent gent who prevailed. If only he’d stuck to his promise to stay one term then let younger folks take over!

For more than five weeks, although a civilized nation re-electing Mr. Trump, who promised to be even worse this time seemed unthinkable, I thought it was probably about to happen. It has.

Two questions: will what we have of democracy survive? And will progressives?

First, Mr. Trump, disgusted that his Attorneys-General, VP Pence, and others chose patriotism over licking Trump’s golf shoes, will appoint worse flunkeys this time. He and his advisors have announced plans to challenge our Democratic system. Smarter folks than Trump have detailed plans. He and allies have weakened a lot of the guard-rails we once relied on; but people of good will acting lawfully and non-violently, might just manage to thwart his effort and save the republic. Stay loyal – but watchful.

Individually, we must face this directly without letting it eat us up inside. As Buddhists say about getting others’ criticism, meanness, or bad acts, they’ve handed you a chalice of poison. You alone decide whether or not you drink it, by choosing to take that anger and hatred inside you. Hating Trump does nothing to control his excesses, but weakens you, when our country might need you. And you’ve a life!

Also, recall that many Trump voters are much better people than he. They’re our neighbors, too.

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[This column appeared Sunday, 10 November, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News

and will presently appear on the newspaper’s website and on KRWG’s website, under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/). For further information on the topic of this column, please go to my blog, https://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/ .]

As far as surviving this personally, try not to let it poison everything! That’s hard, at times; but the better we do at it, the more we enjoy our personal lives and the stronger we are to do what little we can do. We’re all that hummingbird in the old tribal legend: as all the animals flee the huge forest fire, the leopard sees the humming bird repeatedly flying toward the fire, then away again, and asks why. The hummer explains that the forest has sustained it all its life, and, in gratitude, it is flying to the river to drink, then dropping water on the fire; and to the leopard’s comment that the fire is too big to be controlled that way, the hummer says that doing what it can beats the alternatives, and if everyone does what s/he can, who knows?

I’d also recommend a glance at Nicholas Kristof’s Manifesto for Despairing Democrats in the New York Times. One on his list that I work on is: “5. I will try to understand why so many Americans disagree with me. Too many Democrats reflexively assume that any person backing Trump must be a bigot or an idiot. But let’s beware of invidious stereotypes, for finger-wagging condescension alienates centrist voters; it’s difficult to win support from people you’re calling idiots and racists. Many working-class Americans have been left behind economically and have reason to feel angry. And Democrats aren’t going to win elections as long as they seethe at a majority of voters. ”

As far as our democracy, in a previous column [A Grim Direction We Might Take], ’ve made clear how this could go, and why, as best I could within the 570-word Sun-News limit.

Will it?

Mr. Trump’s own actions and words suggest that his Presidency will be an assault on our democracy in the sense that it will further weaken the “guardrails” and be dominated by Mr. Trump’s personal/political interest.

Where will that leave us? Friends who assert the traditional protections will save our democracy are unreasonably optimistic. Friends who say that there’s no chance we can save democracy are too pessimistic. We have some chance. Our greatest hope is Mr. Trump’s own incompetence.

Another factor is Trump’s health. His mind appears to be softening toward dementia – but how fast is anyone’s guess. He’s a fat slob of advanced years, which is not ideal for continuing good health.

Normally, one would figure that if Trump screws up badly or overreaches in obvious ways, popular opinion will punish him politically. However: so far, the conservative sources many people read or watch are doing a great job of presenting inaccuaracies; while some Trump voters aknowledge this but vote for him anyway, others believe and repeat wildly inaccurate facts Neither is a hopeful sign.