Maybe we should have seen this coming. Timing is everything.
The world is too much with us, and we don’t like a lot of it. Dumb, unnecessary wars. Alliances that we take for granted. Trade deals that inevitably don’t work for everybody. Immigration paranoia in a post-9/11, ISIS world.
Plus, upward mobility that leaves too many behind. And Washington gridlock. And all the frustration that begets.
And yet.
You don’t elect a Donald Trump to fix it. Any more than he will fix Trump University credibility, make good on the Trump Tower Tampa, get up to date on everything he doesn’t know about running a government and dealing with allies and trade partners or adopt a classy mien toward women and all things requiring an ethical approach.
The world inherited by the leader of the Free World is a complex cultural, economic and geopolitical mosaic, one requiring experience, intelligence and temperament–not bluster, vanity and simplistic memes. One flawed candidate, however personally off-putting, was up to the job. The other flawed candidate, beyond off-putting, indecent and ignorant, was up to a con job. His own party knew it–but was too craven, hypocritical and Hillary-hating to disavow him and take one for their country.
This electorate, with its perfect-storm troopers fueled by frustration and anti-establishment resentment, was ripe for picking by someone who was a beacon of perverted populism. Huey Long never looked so good.
Lose a job in the global economy? Blame NAFTA or TPP. The fact that the job went to a microchip–not a Mexican–is beside the point. Worried about the ISIS threat? Insult the very people who are needed to help gather intelligence amid the Muslim community. Resentful that your life reeks and a black guy has been president for eight years? Channel your inner bigot with the founder of the birther movement.
Here’s the bottom line. We have allowed ourselves to become a democratic society that undervalues its underpinnings: an informed, participatory electorate. We now have an electorate that has arguably become lazy, uninformed and ripe for pandering. So we have Sarah Palin on ‘roids, the pitchfork-and-flambeau-crowd candidate who will now morph into America’s deus ex MOCKina.
As noted, timing is everything. This was not a Mitt Romney, John Kasich or Joe Biden moment. This was an anti-Clinton, anti-establishment implosion.
And, yeah, I’m pissed. This is my country too.
The markets could take a hit because they loathe uncertainty. Has there ever been a more certain uncertainty than the unconscionably unqualified, temperamentally unhinged Donald Trump in the Oval Office?
Our global partners could doubt our allegiance, while our adversaries can fist bump over American chaos.
Civil unrest can’t be precluded. Does the in-your-face, “Lock her up” candidate with fans who channeled their favorite drunk at last call now reach out to all those he demonized?
But the final take has to be this. America is bigger than Donald Trump and his white-flight, fanatical fan base. We’ve been through trying times before–depressions, wars, assassinations. We are far more resilient as a nation than we realize. We have a democratic republic with separation of powers. We are the leader of the free world with the largest global economy–and a special calling.
That didn’t change.