He who must not be named: a political manifesto

The sheer number of insipid thinkpieces dissecting this year’s political tsunami for the benefit of a baffled commentariat is astonishing. Countless self-appointed experts have tried to interpret Mr. Drumpf in the mold of Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon, who famously exploited the electorate’s basest anxieties in a quixotic attempt to drag America back to the 1920s. Others have gone even further, drawing an analogy between the Republican nominee and fascist dictators. This, too, is misguided.

This nominee is truly beyond the pale. He is utterly unique. Efforts to compare him longitudinally with past political movements will inevitably fail. Like those who describe the tactics of Daesh as “medieval,” the bloggers, pollsters, political analysts and op-ed writers who seek to interpret contemporary phenomena through the lens of history completely miss the point. “Make America Great Again” is a unique product of the Facebook age, heralding the total segregation of right and left into mutually exclusive, self-contained information ecosystems. The bizarre dynamics of this election cycle are the result of a concerted effort to cultivate a voting bloc that meekly swallows the racist bile and voodoo economics peddled by the bloodsucking, feckless GOP establishment.

(Small mercies: Roger Ailes is finally out of the picture. Murdoch’s Ministry of Truth will keep chugging along, no doubt, but I’ll permit myself a moment of harmless schadenfreude.)

This makes it difficult to respond effectively. Efforts to meet this threat to democracy and common sense with conventional means will fail. The voters who find the empty bluster appealing do not care about facts or statistics. Calling attention to the obvious hypocrisy under-girding the endless pledges to deport undocumented workers, get big money out of politics, and restore “traditional” morality will solve nothing.

The only way to clean up the foul bilge contaminating American politics is to start ignoring it.

Every time the Republican candidate’s name is mentioned in the media, every time he makes a comment that offends common decency, his poll numbers rise. Nothing he has said, from belittling the suffering of POWs to calling for killing the families of jihadists, has made a dent in his wide appeal.

This menace thrives on the fleeting glamor of the spotlight. Social media are his greatest weapon, as they are devoid of meaningful content or thoughtful analysis. The Donald is somewhat like a rodent in a laboratory presented with a button that remotely activates the regions of the brain that control orgasm. He’ll keep hitting the Publish Tweet button until he dies of ecstasy. Eventually, one might hope, the novelty of his aggressive stupidity will wear off, and voters may begin to lose interest.

Like a child throwing a tantrum, he will eventually shut up if we stop paying attention. By provoking the political class, he taps a vein of deep-seated resentment against an out-of-touch urban elite many regard as effete and perverse. This strain in American politics is not new (cf. Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson et al.), but it has now reached a fever pitch. The sublime irony is that he, himself, is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with that socioeconomic stratum.

This is not a call for complacency. The outcome of this election remains unpredictable. Polls this far out from November mean little. Democrats will have to fight to earn the trust of the body politic. If they give up, or start to take victory for granted, they will lose, and they will deserve it.

The best chance for victory is to avoid plunging into the gutter. Almost every Democratic politician, and a fair number of disenchanted Republicans, are responding with schoolyard barbs of their own. While this might offer temporary satisfaction, the best way for for liberals to prove themselves worthy of the sacred obligations of government is to hold themselves above the fray. They must not allow themselves to sink to the level of discourse that has come to define this election. They must set forth policy proposals that will actually provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

I’m as critical of my homeland as almost anyone. I think blind patriotism is a curse. But I refuse to believe that the majority of Americans are prepared to accept a nominee as ludicrously repulsive as Donald Drumpf. I have at least that much faith in my country.

This is the last post I will make about the matter. Over and out.