My dad always told me that any given president did not make that much difference — Congress and the Supreme Court, along with a stable policy structure of laws, government agencies and local and state offices would ensure that, no matter how extreme, incompetent or corrupt any given individual president was, we, the people, a free press and our elected (and non-elected) representatives, would ensure a balance of power, decency and fairness.
He was right — at least until the arrival of Donald J. Trump.
To be fair, which was also possible and one of the givens before the arrival of Donald J. Trump, whatever transpired under the reign of any president was forever associated with him.
Scandals, catastrophes, wars and economic collapses, for better or worse, fairly or not, were attributed to the person holding office during those years.
As an interesting political exercise, it might be revealing to consider how different life was for most Americans before and after any given president.
If you consider any relatively recent president, from Nixon, to Clinton, to Bush or Obama, even those who served two terms, for most of us, we, our economic standing and our government policies and institutions barely changed over the term of any given president.
Our presidents, no matter how inept, corrupt or compromised, had their worst instincts held in check by our prevailing public watch and durable systems.
Again, up until the election of Donald J. Trump, this was true.
Multiple books could (and certainly will) be written about how life was before, and after, the election of Donald J. Trump.
Love him or hate him, Donald J. Trump succeeded in ways no previous (or future) president ever could — or even could have imagined.
From withdrawing from international agreements and organizations (like NATO, WHO and many others) to auctioning off our National Parks, to disabling national agencies (like HUD, EPA and the Department of Education) to cutting “safety net” policies like Social Security and Medicare, upending long-standing policies on immigration the environment and the economy, Donald J. Trump has done what none of us imagined possible; he has “shaken up the system”.
Which is exactly why so many voted for him.
Our legal system, our economic system, the typical routine for almost every one of us, especially in terms of school or work, and of course the atmosphere of our major cities — and the economic viability of our smaller cities and towns — is literally unrecognizable from just a few short years ago.
In fact those few years seem more like decades, if not centuries. Under President Donald J. Trump, each week is packed with the scandals, dismissals, denials and bizarre statements that used to fill a year’s worth of headlines. A week of Trump, again whether one hates or loves him (for with him, or every issue it seems, today, there is no middle ground) is like a year under any other president.
As most of us have known for decades, Donald J. Trump thrives on chaos, upheaval and non-stop publicity.
His scandals, infidelities and lawsuits have been fodder for headlines for a generation.
No one should be surprised by how his first term has turned out — in fact most of his “base” got exactly what they wanted.
But try to picture any year pre-Trump; a bucolic, innocent time, when children’s birthday parties were routine, where we might curse the traffic and our own work schedules, people worked — and went to school — and went shopping — and had stable incomes and the stock market didn’t have thousand point swings on a regular basis.
It seems like a fantasy now, like a dream world where schedules were stable, grocery store shelves were full, virtually all of us could afford at least the basics, parks and playgrounds were open and our streets and downtown areas felt safe. And we were all busy.
What have we got to lose?
Much to our surprise, we could lose everything that made our lives possible safe and worth living. We could lose our livelihoods, our recreation, our communities, the rituals and celebrations that mark our lives, define our calendars and culture. We could literally lose our human connection with each other. When every celebration, even funeral, is denied us, who are we and what are we becoming?
Each one of us, from child to incarcerated prisoner, has become isolated and dependent, a victim of forces beyond our control or understanding.
And to a large degree, most of us are expressing signs of Stockholm Syndrome (https://getpocket.com/explore/item/what-is-stockholm-syndrome?) a state of emotional attachment on the one who endangers us.
To some, glorification and idealization of Mr. Trump has been visible all along, others, even those who don’t like him, can’t stop talking about him.
In the old days, before Trump, those of us who worked got paid for our work (or time).
Now few of us work, many of us are on unemployment. Some of us receive checks — even bonus “stimulus” checks — others get nothing. Everything is arbitrary. Nothing is certain.
In fact to live in Trump’s America is to live in George Orwell’s Animal Farm where “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”.
“Liberty and justice for all” may be the closing lines of our pledge of allegiance, but conditions may apply. Don’t expect to work, or shop, or vote, or go to school, or receive adequate medical car or even walk down the street if you don’t meet certain (and constantly changing) criteria.
“What have you got to lose?” has turned out to be the ultimate political slogan, but who among us would have imagined it to be the basis of a policy check-off list; the environment, the economy, social cohesion, the drop in value of what, in simpler times, had been the world currency, the right to vote, rule of law, citizenship, even humanity itself.
The veneer of civilization itself is being peeled away. The parasites and enablers are busy quarrying away their hoards and building their escape refuges. The rest of us, with fires in our streets, lethal viruses in the air and first responders armed for domestic assaults are on our own.
What have we got to lose?
Now we know.
