Since I disagree with virtually everything that Michael has written, it is difficult to know where to begin. I will offer one historical note and a few current observations.
The historical note: I appreciate Michael’s reference to Reheboam, who was briefly the fourth King of Israel before a ttibal rebellion destroyed the United Monarchy. Reheboam was a young, inexperienced ruler who lost the better part of his kingdom precisely because he chose not to listen to the sage and seasoned advice of his father’s counelors — the Tony Faucis of his day. As a much older man with much greater experience, Trump has no excuse for making the same error.
I came from Middle Anerica, and I did not recognize it in Michael’s description. The Middle Americans that I know are generally decent people living in small towns and rural America. They have grown up with, worshipped with, played with and worked with people who typically look, think, and act the same as they do. They are aware that they don’t have the means to buy the kind of home that their parents or grandparents bought, and they feel that they are being left behind. Many voted for Obama, because he was different — and he said that he didn’t see red states or blue states, he saw only the United States. But with a shrinking labor force, and a retired population larger than ever before in history, our recovery from the 2008 economic collapse was painfully slow, and it didn’t reach very far into Middle America. Those people living in small towns and rural areas were now more afraid and frustrated than ever. When, they wondered, was it going to be their turn?
They were ripe for exploitation by a demagogue who had no interest in helping them, but was happy to use them. And Donald Trump, with his dramatic descent on the escalator and a campaign launch based on identifying the awful “Other” that had stolen their American dream (Mexicans, initially) was delighted to assume the role.
It is now abundantly clear that Trump’s re-election campaign is going to be focused entirely on the “threat” posed by the “Other.” He held his first campaign rally in three months, originally scheduled for Juneteenth in Tulsa, Oklahoma — the site of the bloodiest race massacre in American history. Then the continual references to the “Kung Flu” (“Hate Asians, not me!”), then two successive mornings he sends out tweets with someone shouting “White power!” and an image of a white couple training their guns on Black Lives Mattet marchers. And now, if you will, go to the official Trump campaign store and you will find “America First” tee shirts with a logo almost identical to Adolf Hitler’s Reichsadler. The dog whistles are impossible to ignore, inless you are cowering in willful ignorance.
Of course, I do agree with Michael’s conclusion … Trump will be defeated. Middle America may nurse its grievances and may fear the “Other,” but we now have over 130,000 dead Americans killed by a president who trusted his “gut” rather than the epidemiologists and public health officials who Michael dismisses — but who knew what needed to be done before this became the tragedy that it is. And at the end of the day, Middle Americans are not stupid — and they are not eager to die.
