What are we to think about our political tantrums or worse? Or maybe, how will today’s divisiveness inform and influence tomorrow?
Today, it seems like every day, the polling prophets tell us what we think. But while they inform us, we are only seeing the surface. Scratches, rough spots, some gouges, but rarely do we get a view of the core. And while defacement distracts us, builders concentrate on the core. Will it hold and protect what we have built?
So let me turn to our Republic. In a journal kept by James McHenry, a Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he recorded events of the last day of the convention, September 18, 1787. He wrote: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”
There have been watershed events in the history of our country and the 2016 election, as it turned out, was one of those. Donald J. Trump’s appeal to voters was often based on harsh criticism of the past. He even questioned the end results of Abraham Lincoln’s actions. He used direct and emotional language. The government was a “swamp” and his opponents were “crooked”. The attacks became especially sharp at his rallies. Hillary Clinton, who he defeated in 2016, was “crooked Hillary” and then at his rallies he led a chant, “lock her up”.
Some mix of Trump’s tactics and Clinton’s weaknesses combined to give Trump a razor-thin election victory. He won the electoral college while losing the popular vote. Yet, in succeeding elections either he or a high percentage of candidates he endorsed lost.
The losing pattern was so clear that Democratic Party funders and operatives began to support the most Trump-like candidate in the Republican primary contest. It was an unseemly but often successful tactic. In essence, candidates on the Left were being given a gift by Trump imitators.
Today the political kingmakers have concluded that it relieves the Democratic Party from having to make the hard decision as to its next nominee. The conclusion: Donald Trump’s negatives will elect Joe Biden regardless of his unpopularity. They are rooting for Trump’s nomination.
In the aftermath of his loss of the Presidency in 2020, the former President’s attacks became feverish. He attacked the integrity of our elections. Since in a democracy elections are a hinge, this attack went to the core of our structure.
And when the Courts—all of them—said there was no evidence that the voting results had been corrupted in Biden’s favor, Trump became even more fevered. And then the attacks on the Capitol occurred. Most recently as investigations of his actions have intensified the attacks have become especially harsh. To sum up. The government: “a swamp.” The Courts: “corrupt.” Elections: “bogus.” In effect Trump claims America is a failed State headed by a corrupt President.
I would suggest that our prophets, the pollsters, expand the scope of opinion sampling. The more searching inquiry: what effect is Trump-style populism having on America’s place in the world beginning with youth in America?
Perhaps America’s teenagers pay no attention to public affairs, but I doubt it. It should be our hope that America’s youth are paying attention—watching their elders and looking for ways to do better. Or, are we raising a generation of distracted cynics?
Our very security is underwritten by faith in America and the rightness of the American dream. America has never been perfect, but the constitutional, legal and economic underpinnings of our immigrant community has mostly been successful and hopeful. While looking back with regret is not infrequent, looking forward with hope is far more common.
I also wonder what the consequences of these attacks are overseas. Our very existence depends in part on how our foreign enemies see us as military and commercial weapons seek their target.
When I was interviewing for a job in the Reagan Administration the then Secretary of Commerce, Malcolm Baldrige asked me this question. Al, he said, “in Washington everybody is after a piece of your ass. How do you rate yourself for aggressiveness?” Yes, Washington is a tough town and New York City, where Trump spent his business career, has a razor-sharp edge. The stakes are high and everybody is looking for an edge.
Yet in both cities there was an informal decorum and for most an ethical baseline. And if tactics edged up to the civil or criminal penalty lines, combatants knew that America’s courts were fair and generally backed off. But, as Trump’s fever peaks he attacks decorum, ethics and the courts. If he doesn’t succeed, he says, then it is because everything we rely on is corrupt. In effect, America is only good if I am winning.
There is, I repeat, an underlying political assumption—a nihilistic one. Rather than appealing to our better instincts, do everything possible to drive up the negatives of your opponents. I can hear the campaign professionals (pragmatists all) saying: “We should do everything possible to make your opponent unacceptable and then you win as the lesser of evils.”
Maybe this is all simply the fumes of politics. A gaseous outpouring that will quickly dissipate and only historians will note. We certainly know that this is not the first time in America’s history that poison has entered the public bloodstream. Always, however, the sooner an antidote is found and used the better off America will be.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
Jay Plager says
Beautiful – one of Al’s best.
Deirdre LaMotte says
And meanwhile President Biden quietly Is accomplishing an astonishing amount in his first term. He stays under the radar, lacks the drama of his predecessor, and cares. Easily mocked for his stutter, he is under-estimated by many.
Good. He is in office to do his job and he has exceeded expectations to help all Americans, not just cronies.
The Republicans believe it is their God-given duty to “protect” democracy by suspending it until everyone agrees with them. They are doomed because people want their Representatives to listen to them, whether about gun reform,
a woman’s basic autonomy over her body, social safety net and the environment, and basic personal rights. No, this R Party is now authoritarian
and makes no excuses for this. Forget the former GOP, you know GHWBUSH. He, by the way is rolling in his grave, I’m sure. That GOP is History and this new Federalist Society driven group of, again, authoritarians will try in every way to destroy voices of decent, and do so in-underhanded ways like extreme gerrymandering and voting restrictions. The reason is they know their brand of Politics would never pass a smell test in a democracy. So they cheat.
No thank you.
Paul Rybon says
Mr. Sykes might regret what he wishes for. The constant missteps by this President are so awful that practically any contender could beat him, as the recent polls show. Time after time Mr. Trumps observations and travails have served to point out how bad the state of our existence really is. And almost weekly observations of our Vice Presideny’s cancel culture and virtue signaling aren’t making her look very good either. As was in 2016, we find the present administration so obviously drowning in failure that even Donald Trump could do better.
Mickey Terrone says
Certainly your commentaries on Trump are essentially true. He’s at least as toxic to our country as you describe. His degenerate activities aimed at tearing down the edifice of our system of government and trying to finish the job on January 6, 2021 should have isolated him as an unworthy American.
Yet its actually the rank and file of the Republican Party in both Houses of Congress and across state houses and governorships in all parts of the country, where Trump supporters are more overt than ever in their support of authoritarian and anti-democratic legislation and policies.
These unworthy Americans have been led down the corrupt path of devotion by a degenerate scoundrel and liar, even as far invoking Christian religiosity to the barrage of falsehoods and bigotry. The Republican Party has become a willing partner for Trump and have become equally culpable for state and local Trumpism. Republican-backed efforts to deprive women of their reproductive rights, tax breaks for large corporations and the wealthiest 1% of Americans, utterly abased claims of election fraud, mindless support for making assault weapons more easily available, denying climate change, suppporting the January 6th insurrection and so much more, have dragged the mainstream of the GOP down into the category of extremists.
Trump’s attacks on America would be meaningless if they weren’t so passionately supported by so many Republicans who either believe this junk or are afraid to speak out, much as those who oppose autocrats like Putin, Erdogan, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un. That many of these charlatans profess devout evangelical christianity and superpatriotism are horrendous reflections of Republican cynicism.
I would hope that reasonable Republicans would make a better effort to articulate the grave reality of their party’s desperate hypocrisy so there may be less pressure on them publicly to
disavow and/or condemn Trumpism to the point that average Republican voters might begin to get over their self-delusion.
Deirdre LaMotte says
“Reasonable Republicans” are all former Republicans.
Anyone left is bat-s crazy and anti democracy. Literally.
The complete idiocy of the Tennessee Republicans, the
women hating Idaho, Texas, Florida…all Red State Governments is so appalling that our Allies abroad are saying: WTH is going on? We’ll we know. It is a form
of anti Christian nationalism that the former Third Reich
embraced. Combine that with hatred of people of color, women, immigrants and it’s like the South in 1850. Except this is 2023.
What is demoralizing for our nation is the total lack of compassion for others,
the lack of a moral compass for guidance and the flippancy of hating women and racism that the GOP
promotes.
My former Party is rotten.
Patti Wells says
Excellent piece. Thank you.