Accepting the unacceptable: On getting over the election

I am getting over the election. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve accepted it for what it is. Unfortunately, I have lost a lot of faith in my fellow Americans.

Part of getting over it is seeing more clearly that, despite Donald Trump’s bluster, he and his associates will not be able to run roughshod over our democratic institutions.

First, Mr. Trump does not seem to have much interest in actually governing. For him, it seems to be all about being in the spotlight, staying out of prison and making money through grift. In his recent interview with Time magazine connected with his being named “Person of the Year” (cough, cough), he indicated that the pressing issues of the day, such as the price of groceries (inflation), immigration and the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, are “very hard” and that the public shouldn’t expect quick or easy answers (despite his many campaign promises - does anyone seem to care?) Furthermore, there are people within democratic institutions that are more loyal to those Institutions than to whomever is in charge and will do their darnedest to protect them.

The second is Trump’s incompetence and lack of integrity. The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols writes, “Paradoxically, Trump’s reckless venality is a reason for hope. Trump has the soul of a fascist but the mind of a disordered child. He will be surrounded by terrible but incompetent people. All of them can be beaten: in court, in Congress, in statehouses around the nation, and in the public arena. America is a federal republic, and the states—at least those in the union that will still care about democracy—have ways to protect their citizens from a rogue president. Nothing is inevitable, and democracy will not fall.” While I don’t often say this, lawyers will be our friends in this resistance.

Finally, it is much harder to be the party in charge and easier to criticize the one who is. The rhetorical bluster that Mr. Trump employed in attacking Biden (and then Harris) will not serve him well when he is the one in charge, and thus has the responsibility for producing tangible results.