Do Not Root For Trump
Support silver linings, but do not normalize his evil
In this dark hour for democracy, silver linings will come. Donald Trump will bring so many changes that some of them will be good.
I’ll go further. Good people should even take jobs with the Trump Administration. They can mitigate the risks of Trumpism while maintaining their integrity — provided they have undated resignation letters ready at a moment’s notice.
No one, however, should root for Trump to succeed. Trump mainlined countless poisonous racial lies into national discourse, elevating them to the level of perceived truth among his millions of followers. Trump’s campaign, at its core, was built around a strategy of mobilizing white nationalism. Thus, as Jamelle Bouie explained, any success for Trump “legitimizes and gives fuel to white tribalism as a political strategy.”
It seems insane that we still haven’t learned that prosperity and morality cannot co-exist with a leadership based on racist authoritarian lies. Unless Trump is somehow able to undo his toxic mendacity, nothing else he accomplishes can make his presidency a net positive.
Could Trump actually reverse the damage he has done?
Many Americans, including many who opposed Trump, offer calm arguments for “giving Trump a chance” or even rooting for his success. They look back to history, to Americans who changed their minds for the better about Reagan, about Bush, about Clinton, about W. Bush, and about Obama.
The possibility has a storybook quality. Could Trump redeem the manner in which he acquired his enormous platform and influence — his rallies, his Twitter feed, and his surrogates — by using them to shape America for the better? Could it be like A Christmas Carol, or Heaven Can Wait? If Trump wished to do so, his efforts might include:
- Retract and apologize for his claim that Indiana-born federal judge Gonzalo Curiel could not be a fair judge because of his race
- Retract and apologize for lying about the facts about race-based and religious-based violence, such as that immigrants commit higher levels of crime than native-born Americans, or that most Americans face any serious risk of death from Islamic fundamentalists
- Retract his claim that “thousands” of American Muslims celebrated on rooftops at the terror attacks of 9/11
- Disavow the neo-Nazi sources that he retweeted dozens of times during the campaign to propagate lies, and retract the claims he retweeted
- Condemn Nazis and white supremacists with greater vigor than if he were reading a teleprompter on fiscal policy — perhaps instead using the same or even greater vigor than, say, he criticizes late-night comedy television
Other items that would help might include retracting his full-page ads calling for the execution of the Central Park Five; firing Michael Flynn; firing Steve Bannon; disavowing Alex Jones; and adding some religious and ethnic diversity to his Administration.
Except we all know that is not going to happen
Even the simple act of writing this list of redemptive Trump actions underscores how out of character it would be. On the contrary, he has doubled down on every lie, reasserting falsehoods about Muslims, about Mexicans, and about other groups. He’s gone even further, creating an Orwellian web of hatred and deceit, by referring to his lies as honesty, as hard-nosed truths, as willingness to reject political correctness. At every opportunity, he pushes the poison of racial and religious lies deeper into our nation’s heart. Trump’s America is grounded in anger, lies, and resentment against anyone who is not a white Christian man.
Most Americans prefer a different idea of America: an America of the ideals captured in the Constitution; a land that welcomes the progress we’ve made in health, longevity, prosperity, and especially tolerance; a land of immigrants; a city on a hill. Sorry, but rooting for Trump is not rooting for America. Rooting for Trump to succeed is rooting against that America.
So don’t root for him. Resist.
