A Time of Relief and Dread

I will preface this post by admitting that I was, and still am, overjoyed with the defeat of Mr. Trump in last week’s election. His crass, cruel cudgel-waving I have found to be repulsive and a regression from civil discourse and basic human decency. His lack of empathy and appeals to base emotion while eschewing expertise and knowledge are especially egregious to me. I am looking forward to his coterie of sycophants, lackeys and grifters being cut off from the trough of federal funds being filled by yours and my tax dollars, though I’m sure most will find some other way to feast on what is not theirs.

Yes, I despise Mr. Trump and all of the fascist ideals he stands for and the authoritarian propaganda he incessantly spews across the mediaverse. I despise that he fans the flames of fear among his ardent supporters with fact-free assertions, unabashedly and unrepentantly bearing false witness to a populace that should know better but, instead, they buckle under the pressure of a mass psychosis stemming from their untended dismay of a system that has left them behind economically, politically and socially.

I reiterate, I am overjoyed with Mr. Trump’s pending eviction from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Despite the relief I felt on 11/7/2020 at roughly 11:35 a.m. when the preliminary Electoral College majority became unattainable for Mr. Trump and will hopefully deny him a second administration—of this I am not convinced, though—I still feel a sense of increasing dread. Yes, I celebrated with friends and neighbors, sitting socially-distanced on my porch on a freakishly warm November evening. I’ve talked with small groups of others, masked and appropriately distanced, supposing and debating the nearing horizon of a Biden Administration.

I must admit, however, that I am at best lukewarm in my support of Mr. Biden and the current iteration of the Democratic Party. It is unbelievable that the 2020 Election even turned into a horserace. It shouldn’t have been a contest at all, what with a fascist demagogue at the helm of the GOP which is bent on perpetuating the very neoliberal policies that have inordinately harmed the base that they count on for quadrennial support. I find it mystifying how such a large block of voters (over 71 million at the time of this writing) could offer full-throated fealty to a “leader” who promised to cancel healthcare coverage for many of them, destroy Social Security if reelected, and abdicated any and all responsibility and plans of action for a hemorrhaging pandemic. I just don’t understand the appeal of a national leader whose entire message is promising to enact policies that will hurt you, but not as much as those considered to be enemies. Where does such self-loathing come from?

As incredible as it is, nearly half the electorate gave Mr. Trump a vote of confidence, confounding the vast majority of pundits and pollsters. In 2016, it was unknown how Mr. Trump would approach the venerable office of the U.S Presidency. Despite all of Mr. Trump’s bombast and bloviating, the American population was assured that the gravity of the office would temper Mr. Trump’s more incendiary notions and that precedents and traditions would reign him in. Reality, however, proved otherwise, as the Oval Office, White House and countless rallies across the country acted as a megaphone (MAGAphone?) for the toxic, xenophobic, reductionist diatribes of Mr. Trump’s stream of consciousness. That so many Americans, after non-stop news coverage for four years clearly showing the mendacity, venality, and hypocrisy of Mr. Trump continue to support him should tell us much about the zeitgeist. The hatred, victimhood, blaming and shaming on full blast was lapped up by Mr. Trump followers as if they had been wandering in a hot, dry desert for days with nary a drop to drink.

In many ways this is true and this is what concerns me about a Biden Administration and a Democratic Party that is unwilling and/or unable to face up to the fact that this large segment of the population will be very difficult to persuade to even consider changing course. This large swath of Americans rightly feel that they have been left behind, high and dry, economically and, as a result, politically because they have. As have most of us as Corporate America has continued to grow into behemothic proportions over the past 40-some years, earning record profits and using those profits to influence—or outright run--all three branches of the U.S. Government. Mr. Trump is adept at controlling the narrative. He is, dare I say, a genius at doing this. That so many people continue to support him despite his myriad flaws attests to this fact.

I’ve listened to Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, just as I’ve listened to Mr. Trump, Mr. Pence and various other GOP luminaries. Mr. Biden keeps talking of unifying the country, brining us together, etc., etc., etc. These are merely words at this point and I realize that the votes haven’t even been certified yet or the looming electoral lawsuits brought and settled, but I fear this message and the subsequent actions won’t deal with the foundational issues that created such a traumatized voting bloc that brought about Mr. Trump’s first term and have nearly brought about a second.

Until and unless the Democrats truly embrace the mantle of being the party of the people, all the people and not just convenient identity politics groupings, and shed the Third Wayism of the Clintonian Democrats and the reliance on corporate and Wall Street money, then the Trumpist demagogic message will continue to resonate, setting the stage for an eventual successor to Mr. Trump, but next time one who is just as adept at mass manipulation but much more ideologically focused.

The Democratic Party can ill afford to silence the Progressive and leftist voices in the party. It is these very voices and the policy proposals they put forth that give people hope and a vision for the future. If you believe that the Democrats are a socialist or a communist organization, I beg you to please do some research. The Democrats of today fall pretty close to what the Republicans of the 1980s were ideologically. The Democrats just seem far-left at the present time as the GOP was hijacked first by the “Contract With America” set and then the Tea Partiers, both of which used wedge issues to send the GOP far, far to the right politically.

Controlling the narrative via right-wing echo chamber media has made this task much easier as it continues to convince huge numbers of their eager listeners that Democrats are going to turn the U.S. into the new Venezuela, forcibly take everyone’s guns and open abortion clinics on every street corner. And that Democrats are evil, anti-American, and demonic blood-drinking pedophiles, if you follow the burgeoning conspiracy theories propagating the darker corridors of the Internet.

So how, exactly, does a Biden Administration try to win back such a large group of people who are so far gone that they are calling for the extermination of traitorous Democrats? How can Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris lead us into the unity that they are extolling? Definitely not by trying to bring back the “normalcy” of the Obama years. Definitely not by trying to cooperate with Mr. McConnell and his continued efforts to undermine the spirit of the legislative and judicial processes as set forth in the Constitution. So what’s it going to take? It is going to take vision and policy and communication. It is going to require a different way, a different route, a different approach.

Many of us sighed with relief and unclenched our jaws for the first time in four years last Saturday. And there is nothing wrong with this. We should all take a bit of time to celebrate if we disagree with the current state of our country and see a victory in 2020’s election. Mr. Trump is a pariah, and his American style of fascism is abhorrent, but removing him from office is just the first step in rebuilding a United States that is fairer, more just, and more equitable for everyone. Educate yourself. Be a voice. Stay steadfast in the pursuit of brining about a better world for all.

People over profits, rights over revenue, decency over denigration, empathy over empire.