Weariness and Trump

We are limping to the finish line of 2023. As I reflect on the year about to end, the dominant feeling I have is weariness. Weariness with the war in Ukraine. Weariness with witnessing the murder and maiming of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians (including children) in Gaza. Weariness with an out-of-touch Supreme Court, with a separate weariness with the hypocritical behavior of Clarence Thomas. Weariness with Elon Musk. Hunter Biden also contributes to my weariness. Weariness with the daily travails of an aging house, a broken furnace, sick relatives, and aging itself. But the largest contributor to my weariness is Donald J. Trump.?

Trump is like the proverbial “bad penny” that never goes out of circulation and is passed from one consumer to the next forever. I do not know how the man is still standing after 2 impeachments, several civil lawsuits, 4 indictments on 91 criminal charges, and multiple public gaffs (that would have doomed lesser politicians to the trash heap had they made even a fraction of the ignorant and despicable comments Trump has made). I have worked hard not to use my column this year to talk about Trump. The subject of Trump, his co-conspirators, his unwavering supporters, and the media’s coverage of him have ample coverage without adding my two cents -- one of which is that bad penny.?

It must be the case that the fascination with Trump is entertainment, but not just any entertainment. Trump entertainment, like his show that I can proudly admit I never watched, revels in human misery. The conclusion of a show that shouts “you’re fired” has the entertainment appeal of a car accident on a crowded highway. You want to stop and gawk and wonder about the poor principals in this sad drama who could have just as easily been you. This is not of the Agatha Christy or Sherlock Holmes variety, or more recently, The Law According to Lidia Poet. In these more traditional shows, we can rest comfortably knowing the bad guy will get his or her just desserts. In the Trump show, the bad guy may not win, but he does not seem to lose, even while all around him there is chaos and destruction. ?He walks away from hell as orange tinged as ever, while everyone who supports him is ruined.?

This week the show without end had a new twist that is surely to keep our attention into the new year. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump engaged in an insurrection and is therefore ineligible to be President of the country he attempted to overthrow. This violation of the 3rd clause of the 14th Amendment is also playing out in other states and seems to be headed to the Supreme Court. I wrote in the column on October 30, 2021, that Trump should be ineligible to run again because of his violation of the 14th Amendment. I knew this two years ago (and I am not even a lawyer). Did I mention that I am weary because no one seems to be listening? ?

The January 6th insurrection occurred nearly three years ago. ?The question of Trump’s ineligibility for public office could have -- and arguably should have -- been resolved long before now. But here we are, less than a year away from the next Presidential election and we are finally getting to this issue. Trump and his supporters are crying foul. In an ironic twist (given Trump’s utterly undemocratic resistance to a peaceful transfer of power), they believe the Colorado ruling is nothing more than an anti-democratic attempt to beat him in the courts because he cannot be beaten in the polls. ?

We must remind people that he had three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016, and 7 million fewer votes than Joseph Biden in 2020. His only chance of becoming President again is to win a majority of electoral college votes. He has zero chance of winning a majority of the popular vote. Trump’s hopes in 2024 rely on several contingencies. First, he does not get convicted of any of the 91 felony counts before the election - thus his strategy to delay, delay, delay. ?Second, he is successful in overturning the Colorado and any other related 14th Amendment cases before the election. Third, more non-Republican candidates enter the race to siphon off marginal support for President Biden, namely Cornell West with progressives and some Black voters, Joe Manchin with blue-collar Democrats, and most importantly Robert Kennedy, Jr. with unaffiliated nuts. With all his troubles, Trump knows that a majority of the electorate is out of his reach, but a plurality is possible, particularly if President Biden weakens because of his position on Gaza. The path to the White House for Trump depends on a lot of things falling into place, but stranger things have happened.?

I would be willing to make a deal: ?drop ?all of the 14th Amendment claims in exchange for abolishing the Electoral College. Let the people decide through a democratic popular vote! Trump could no longer argue that his removal from the ballot would disenfranchise his followers from voting for him. But Trump really does not care about democracy. ?He has all but said that. He, like Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, and other autocrats could never win a democratic election. The autocrat’s power is based on fear, bribery, and ignorance.?

I know that deal will never happen, which is another reason for my weariness. I admit to being a political junkie, but there is no end in sight to the national tragedy of Trump. Even if all his contingencies work out in his favor and he still loses the 2024 election, who really believes that that will be the end of the Trump show? Weariness, even when you get to the end of the Trump story, starts up again; and every new episode is worse than the last.?

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