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Goldberg’s argument appears to be that everything was okay because Trump was ineffective.
He put children in cages, but was pressured to let them out. And in the end, he lost an election and will have to leave.
Which would be news to the children and families still being tortured by Trump’s brutalizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, Goldberg does admit that Trump has left behind a trail of destruction, especially when it comes to simply getting Americans to participate together in the same view of reality.
Stephens, as might be expected, is far more dismissive of the idea that Trump ever was a threat. Sure, “bad things happened under Trump,” wrote Stephens, “but nothing so bad that it couldn’t be stopped by courts.” However, Stephens, the eternal apologist, is extraordinarily quick to paint Trump as if he was just jabbering to himself. For example, he says that Trump’s coronavirus misinformation was “corrected by civil servants,” which rather seems to ignore the 308,000 dead Americans who were lost not just because of Trump’s words but his actions in failing to treat the pandemic as real.
Ultimately, Stephens admits that Trump was “corrosive” and that it may take decades for the nation to find ways to heal from the last four years. And Goldberg acknowledges that Trump’s time in office has “concluded with America a smoking ruin. Only Trump has ensured that nearly half the country doesn’t see it.” Both of these conclusions are accurate … to a point. The point being that Trump’s time in office has not concluded.
Both views—from the left and the right—seem more focused on Trump’s words than his very real deeds. Trump didn’t just allow Americans to die from incompetence—he caused Americans to die, because that was his plan. Trump was convinced that allowing thousands of Americans in blue states to die was a good thing, something that would be helpful to him politically. So he deliberately, with malice of forethought, scrapped the plans for testing and case tracing so that more Americans would die.
That crime—that not just attempted but actual genocide—is ongoing. So are Trump’s efforts to tear down America’s vital institutions.
That destruction of media, which is still in high gear, may be far more disastrous to the notion of press freedom than simply locking journalists up. When the state takes control of the media and inserts its own message, citizens can understand that what they are being fed is a stream of propaganda. But Trump has simply worked to unbalance the media by diminishing the impact of serious news and playing up the importance of commentary favorable to himself. The result is that Trump followers have self-isolated from facts and voluntarily submitted themselves to a propaganda bath.
This has never been more obvious, or more destructive, than in the month following the election. Having torn a chasm through the media, Trump is now exploiting the schism he created to carry his supporters into a frenzy where calls for martial law are coming from Republican legislators and political parties across the Trump states. It may be fun to sneer at the Proud Boys yammering in the nation’s capital, or to snicker at the frantic voices on Parler, but … what if Trump gives them what they want?
Trump has demonstrated again and again that he is absolutely willing to go beyond all constraints. Meanwhile, Republicans have shown repeatedly that they will not even attempt to hold Trump back from his wildest attacks on democracy. Exactly what will prevent Trump from giving his supporters what they want? Will Sen. Mitch McConnell tell Trump he can’t force states to revote? Will he be turned back by a shake of Susan Collins’ finger, or a timely Bible verse from Marco Rubio?
Republicans in the House just voted to support Trump’s attempt at a government overthrow. Republicans in the Senate proved back in January that they won’t hold him accountable for any action, no matter how obviously criminal. Where is the downside to Donald Trump in doing something even more extreme than the actions he has already taken?
It may not happen. It probably won’t happen. Then both Goldberg and Stephens can scoff at me as one of those leftists who cited dire warnings that did not come to pass. But I’m not writing Trump’s obituary until I see Joe Biden’s right hand go up and this nightmare is really behind us.
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