From American Carnage to American Klonopin (2025)

From American Carnage to American Klonopin (1)

After Trump’s inauguration in 2016, I wrote the following:

I’ve felt sick since November 8th, but sickest of all this week, hoping (in vain) for some sort of deus ex machina to prevent the final conjoining of the words “President of the US” and “Donald Trump”. And yet, it has been a long time coming. The whole time “we” were feeling astounded, wonderful, or just merely content that Obama was President, Trumpism was brewing.

As terrified as I am, I have come to several conclusions about the outcome of this election that give me some measure of consolation:

  • Trump being elected doesn't define America. Yes, this election will have consequences, possibly terrible ones, but Trump's election hasn't changed who we are as individuals. We remain the same people we were before November 8th, and so we are as free as we were then to think and act. We do not have to ever consider Trump a legitimate, qualified, or decent holder of the Office of the President. I know I never will.

  • There is a strategic silver lining in Hillary Clinton’s defeat. If Hillary Rodham were being inaugurated tomorrow morning, I’d be taking the day off in celebration. And I’m sad about that. I’m sad for her, I’m sad for women, and I’m sad for our country. But her tenure would have surely been marked by the same level (or worse) of obstructionism from the Republicans and rage from those people who flocked to Trump rallies. As it stands now, the right gets a chance to satisfy the demands of its base. The reaction to their attempt has a far better chance of transforming the GOP than four or eight more years of a Democratic President. After all, it didn’t work during eight years of Obama.

  • Our fear should motivate us to get involved in local government. The striking thing (to me, anyway) is that the parties of both constituencies appear to believe that the solution to all America's problems reside in national laws and policies. If only we could get the right people in power, the thinking goes, everything can be fixed! The passive voice in that last phrase is purposeful: what we are hoping for is not just salvational change, but the permission to check out until the next election. Democrats now have a lot of very powerful reasons not to do that. And I am convinced that local action is the key to all political renewal. Voting is wonderful, but it is not enough.

Watching a much older, lower-energy Trump give a second inaugural address, I was surprised at how little his tune had changed. While this speech was not the “American carnage” of 2017, it was still the same petty, grievance-infused, Chicken-little-the-sky-is-falling indictment of the administration he was replacing. It was still things are terrible and only I can fix them, even if not put in those words.1 And the fact that it was held inside the Capital rotunda made it all the more gruesome, given how physically close Biden and Harris (et al.) were sitting to the Ego in Chief delivering it.

In contrast, my views have changed a lot since January 2017. Just re-reading the above, I realize how striking the term “legitimate” seems to me now — the last eight years have proven that this notion of legitimacy is a technicality. I think we confused the idea of palatable with legitimate — we didn’t have a model in which someone so obviously unfit could fill that office, so we resisted the idea that it was proper. But this, I see now, is mere political posturing. In its own way, MAGA returned the favor when they refused to concede that Trump lost in 2020. I bet the number of people who voted for Trump this time because they didn’t want to risk the danger of him losing and not conceding is non-zero.

Also, I could care less about a woman being President, now or ever. I just don’t care. The Democrats have driven us off a cliff by valorizing identity over qualifications: we literally would have forgotten all about Kamala Harris had she been a white man who ran a shite presidential primary campaign in 2020. But because she was female and “of color”, Biden made her his VP. In hindsight, that decision — along with Biden’s own asinine insistence on seeking a second term — is why Trump was standing on that dais this morning. A better candidate could have beaten Trump. A (Bill) Clinton — a clever moderate with good looks and charm — could have beaten him handily. What cannot beat Trump is identity politics — probably not ever again, considering the shifts in the electorate, but especially not when people are mostly voting their economic anger, as they were this go-round.

Regarding the demands of Trump’s base, the fact of the matter is that many of the issues Trump ran on this time, I actually agree with. Trump’s party supports the reality of two sexes; it will act to reduce illegal immigration — including revising birthright citizenship as part of that process. (If we need construction workers, let’s set up a visa program! Not that hard, folks!) Trump is the head of the party not cowed by a radical faction that supports Hamas over Israel. And, as I’ve already said above, Trump — re-inaugurated on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, no less! — believes that our institutions should be colorblind and merit-based.

So do I! But that makes you a fascist now, according to the progressives. And since Biden lent them his ear and his executive order pen, I’ve become a disaffected Democrat. Proud NeverTrumper, but I’m delighted that one reason Harris lost was the culture war. And I’m perfectly content to watch the Democratic Party melt into irrelevance until it figures out that trans and DEI are pure poison, and that supporting these unpopular initiatives will condemn them into permanent minority status until they dump them. It may take 2 years, it may take 10, but no sex-denying politician is getting my vote again, period.

At least I was right about the last part. Local action is key; and I think the most important local action is no longer being afraid to voice opinions under threat of cancellation by the radical left. Trump is a criminal, a pathological narcissist, and a dangerous President2, yet nonetheless he’s provided a key political lesson: being unafraid to say out loud what people are thinking is the most powerful political tool. We are uniquely oriented, as a nation, around this idea, and while it has gotten us into the disaster named Trump once again, it’s also the only thing that is going to get us anything better.

1

The inaugural address was tame compared to the endless, ranting weave he did at the luncheon. Pure stump speech torture.

2

Seriously, watching J.D. Vance take his oath of office this afternoon, I couldn’t help wondering if he wasn’t a bit worried that he’d fallen into a trap. I mean, the last guy in that job with Trump almost got hanged — with Trump’s encouragement!

From American Carnage to American Klonopin (2025)
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