Become Better Than This
I want to be perfectly clear so that I am impossible to misconstrue: Donald Trump has legitimately won a democratic election, and that notwithstanding, his Presidency notwithstanding, his popularity notwithstanding, none of that makes him or his movement normal, respectable, or acceptable. There is, I suppose, little point in trying to heap rebuke upon the shameless, and I’m not going to waste words that will simply be mocked and ignored. So I will be brief.
Some of you doubtless struggle to relate to the way in which I see our political moment. Perhaps it feels normal because you are younger than me, and do not remember a politics prior to Trump – but I do. I remember the way in which normal, reasonable, moral Americans of both parties reacted to him during his first campaign, and I remember those who then defected and betrayed the truth they had previously averred. I remember election night in 2016, when it became clear that the course of history would allow Trump’s followers to continue to mock the good and tell themselves that they had done nothing wrong, because they had gotten away with it, and now we are back there again, only worse. My views on a number of issues have changed over the past decade, but my views on Trump and his ilk have been steady and consistent. So while I understand if you find him normal because you grew up in this moment, if like many of Trump’s voters you find him normal simply because time has passed, and he’s been around, and people treat this as a normal reality – then that concession to the monstrous is precisely why I insist on being so loudly insistent that he is not normal or acceptable. He only seems so because people have allowed themselves to act as if it were so.
Some of you may wonder why I don’t have anything nice to say about the inauguration, or Trump’s speech. After all, I am someone who believes the United States faces many crises, some of which he gestured to, and I believe we need optimistic, ambitious, patriotic leadership. I even think spending money on space colonization is actually a good thing to do. But Trump is to this sort of strong leadership what the golden calf was to the God of Sinai. He can point out problems, he can claim values, but none of that qualifies him or his policies to further even the goals of his which are not intrinsically objectionable. America does need reform, and common sense, and strong leadership, and Trump is a sorry mockery of the genuine article, and he makes a mockery of all who support him. And as for his promises, even if Trump somehow changes tomorrow, and only does good instead of evil, and the economy soars, and peace breaks out across the world, and all his gassed-up followers feel totally vindicated in their vote, none of that will retroactively justify or excuse in any way the choice they made to vote for him, knowing what we knew at the time.
Some of you raise the objection that I am a committed liberal democrat, in the sense of supporting liberal democracy, and a democratic majority of the country elected Trump. How can I respect the will of the people and speak so ill of their choice? I have three responses.
First, the people are allowed to make a wrong choice, and while that grants it democratic political legitimacy, it has no relation whatsoever to moral rectitude. The great national evils of American history have all been popular in their day, and that popularity did not excuse them in any way.
Second, we are neighbors, we inevitably share a community – and I do not want things to be otherwise. I want to go on in relationship with all of you, I want all people everywhere to be reconciled. But when we talk about the concept of the American people as a body with a political will, in this moment, we are riven. The good news is that in this, we are not so different nationally from a single soul, riven and in conflict with itself, as we all are; the bad news is that, when I hear some of the things that people today say and do who claim to speak on behalf of groups I belong to, it is hard not to completely disown them and say that we are not in community with one another.
Finally, the way to repair a popular moral breach is by a moral reformation of the people. I can condemn utterly the result of our democracy, and yet remain committed to democracy as a proposition and principle. The way forward is for Americans to recognize the reality of their actions, and begin to choose to be better.
