As if anyone needed more evidence, surely Donald Trump's foray into the science of "sunlight and disinfectant" as potential treatments for COVID 19 were proof enough of the problem he poses as President.
But last week's disaster is really the culmination of six weeks of lasting proof that Trump is more or less done proving he's simply too incompetent to continue as President.
I'm not saying "it's over" or even confidently asserting victory in November - that, despite their complacency, is the actual work the Biden team will have to do to get this thing wrapped up. What am I saying, though, is that we should all simply move on from engaging with the ridiculous discussion of whether Trump's presidency has been anything other than a disaster form start to finish.
One of the reasons I stepped away from blogging obsessively about Trump as President is that from Day 1, it was clear there just weren't enough synonyms for "incompetent." From his failure to staff up appropriately (dozens of White House roles and thousands of Executive Branch positions have simply gone unfilled), to the disastrous appointees he has had to repeatedly replace (More cabinet secretaries than there are in the heavens, the revolving door of "Communications Director"), Trump established in short order that he was not and would not be up to the task of being President.
It's a failure that covers every level, every standard, every notion of what it is to be President. His conspiracy theory obsessed, petty mindset meant that from the start he failed to provide the necessary (and customary) approach to politics of trying to work with both sides of the political divide. This stymied even reasonable suggestions that he could construct some worthwhile legislation (infrastructure week, how we miss you) to advance his own stated priorities. Instead he has exercised a ham handed, largely unsuccessful approach to do just what Republicans attacked Barack Obama for - ruling by executive fiat, trying to manhandle the regulatory state, and refusing to submit to even basic oversight.
And what domestic policy was there to speak of, anyway? His promised wall amounted to a small project of fence construction, a spot of refurbishment, and years of ill will as he attempted to seize miles of private property along the southern border (almost entirely unsuccessfully, and very likely striking the death blow for "government taking" libertarians have craved, but big business GOP interests, like builders, have opposed). While Trump has made a practical mess of immigration and set back environmental regulation by 30 years, these efforts have at best been scattershot, and have forged unlikely coalitions of opposition that could have lasting impact. While Trump drove through a horrendous tax package that eviscerated the corporate side of federal taxation, inaugurating a stock market bubble it took the pandemic to burst, the scorching deficits and laughable economic policies he produced have largely underlined that the "business acumen" he supposedly brought to bear as President was a dreadful stew of failure, financial idiocy and seventies era thinking that never worked to begin with.
Trump ignited so much passionate opposition and resistance to his plans and policies that the nation saw more dramatic protests in the space of weeks after his taking office that normally take years. Millions of women protested. Charlottesville blew up in ugly chants of racial and ethnic hatred. Thousands turned out at international airports to protest the draconian and misbegotten "Muslim ban." And in short order, thousands of neophyte activists, organizers and candidates had built a powerful new network of political strength that destroyed Republican control of the House of Representatives, returned Nancy Pelosi to her key role as Speaker, and up ended the political dominance of the GOP in numerous states as Governorships and state house dominance evaporated overnight.
On foreign policy, Trump's approach wasn't just quixotic: it was haphazard, incoherent and foolish. Trump lurched into conflicts with NATO that called into question the fundamental organizing principles of our entire postwar approach to diplomacy. His romancing of Putin and the Russian state was clearly motivated by venal self interest. His dalliance with North Korea and Kim Jong Un was dangerously shortsighted and irrelevant. And his middle eastern policies simply made no sense - a misunderstanding of nearly every geopolitical imperative of every actor in the region that left death, destruction and chaos in the wake of everything he touched.
Trump, of course, has no sense of personal responsibility, no moral compass and no shame. Trying to indict him on his failings doesn't just result in defensiveness it ignites a storm of invective and blame shifting that reflects childlike notions of behavior and comportment. Bullying. Childish name calling. A tyrant of the toy shop with literally no supervision, Trump would surely be a master of corruption and pillaging of his office, if only he knew how. From ham handed moves to personally profit from government largesse, misusing the pardon power to clearly thwart thorough investigations of previous acts, Trump would love to abuse power, but lacks the cleverness to even try to hide it. And while impeachment may not have resulted in removal from office, the stain of the process - never mind the desperate kitchen sink maneuvering to save him - will not only follow him, it may very well presage the implosion of the party that decided protecting him at all costs was safer than simply admitting the litany of errors that got him to the most powerful job in the land. At this point, the likely loss of his reelection effort may not simply be a rejection of him and his failings, but a broad based thumping that recasts the Senate majority and leaves the remaining GOP a shell of itself, incapable of ever reconstituting in its current form.
On top of all of this, then... comes a pandemic of unthinkable proportions that has upended nearly every aspect of every American's everyday life. It took a week to puncture Trump's economic bubble, a week more to destroy the international oil market, and six weeks of dithering to force a public health response to a crisis Trump treated, initially, as yet another political enemy he could simply slogan out of existence. No president is as uniquely unsuited to this disaster as Trump has been, and the failed response, every day, at every level, is testament to how completely he has managed every bit of federal executive power into meaninglessness. Plan? What plan? Tests? What tests? Thorough reporting and clearly measured progress? You must be joking. It's not that anyone could have predicted this (though some did) or that so many things were caught so underplanned and under prepared (clearly, they were). No, the "secret sauce" of American ingenuity has been that, often almost miraculously, our leaders rise to occasions where failure seemed the only option. Trump is, as much as anything, simply proof that we may well have run out of miracles. Because what we failed to appreciate is that it's not miracles. It's competence. And decency. And the capacity of all Americans to come together in difficult moments, knowing we can and should do what's right and what's best, inspired by the commitment of our leaders. Trump is, literally, none of that.
And here we are. The noise making, perpetual generating anger machine of the right still wheezes along, making mountains out of molehills, trying to turn Tump shit into Shinola, but no amount of lipstick will dress up that pig. Americans - the people who exist as a nation built on an idea, not an identity - believe in the upbeat and the story of success. Failure is not an option. We tend to look away from failure, to try and ignore the stench of a thing as it collapses and dies. The final months of the GW Bush presidency (remember when he was the worst?) were an obvious exercise in "let's not even talk about how bad this has gotten" as we focused on the bright, shiny promise of the Obama to come. I suspect that, come this summer, that's the real story of the unwinding of Trump, even as a farce of MAGA hats and shrill complaints animates the public discourse. Don't engage, don't even start with them... look away. It may, like a train wreck, be hard to look away. But it's wrong to enjoy, too much, watching a thing as it dies.
There's no "I wonder if he can salvage this." At best/worst, Trump can maybe manhandle the whole process of elections in a pandemic to his advantage; I genuinely doubt that will work. Even if he tries, there's just no getting around it: what seemed unthinkable - whether "he can't be that bad" to "there's no way he'll win it" to "you can't really believe he's lying now" - has all been proven out. You can't say you don't know. You can't wonder if it will somehow be different. We can, yes, choose to have more of this. But i have to say... I think we're done here.
Comments