I read a lot history books and biographies. Perhaps that’s why I find myself speculating about the histories that will be written about Donald Trump’s time as president of the United States, and in particular the period from Election Day 2020 to Inauguration Day 2021. I have no doubt that entire books will be written about these 78 days, during which a sitting president of the United States for the first time actively and openly attempted to subvert the outcome of a presidential election and discredit the American democratic process. . . .
Category: Politics
Evil Geniuses, by Kurt Andersen
I just finished reading Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America – A Recent History, by Kurt Andersen. The primary thesis of this book is similar to that of Robert Reich’s book, The System: Who Rigged It and How to Fix It, which I read and blogged about a couple of months ago. But Evil Geniuses is a longer and more ambitious book. Andersen tells the story of how conservatives in America — specifically CEOs, conservative politicians and academics, and some hugely wealthy people — set about starting in the 1970s to change the minds of Americans about the nature of markets, the source of American prosperity, and the role of government in managing the economy. It’s a fascinating story, and one I’ve never seen told in such journalistic detail. . . .
Why Republican Leaders Are Enabling Trump’s Nonsense
Many of my Democratic friends, while unsurprised that Donald Trump is refusing to acknowledge that he lost the election, are surprised, not to mention dismayed, that top Republicans like Mitch McConnell are playing along with the president’s meritless claims that there is sufficient evidence of voter fraud to call Joseph Biden’s victory into question. Yesterday I heard an analysis of this Republican pandering to the president that entirely made sense of it. . . .
The Future of Trump and Trumpism
The fact that the election did not deliver a landslide victory to the Democrats, and thereby a repudiation of the president, means that Donald Trump will continue to play a leadership role in the Republican Party long after January 20th. As long as his holds 80% of the Republican electorate in his thrall, anyone seeking high elective office as a Republican will need to go down to Mar-a-Lago and kiss the ring, swearing their fealty to the former president. . . .
Abandoning My News Diet
I wrote in July about cutting back on my consumption of news, and in August about how bad a steady diet of news can be for our mental health. But that all went out the window this week. Whenever we weren’t busy with something else, Jennifer and I were glued to the television — CBS, MSNBC, CNN, even Fox. . . .
And the Waiting Is Over
I was in the middle of drafting a blog post entitled “And Still We Wait” when I heard a shriek from the other room. My wife had just gotten a text from her sister in Manhattan saying, “People are cheering outside!” She then turned on the TV and saw that Joe Biden had been projected as the winner in Pennsylvania, and thus the election. . . .
Still Waiting (Officially)
In the wee hours this morning, Joe Biden took the lead in the Georgia vote count, and since then he’s pulled ahead in Pennsylvania. He now leads in four of the battlegrounds where a winner has yet to be projected. The networks are wisely waiting until the math is such that there’s no conceivable way Trump could regain the lead before declaring a winner. So, technically, the election is still undecided (though we’re breathing a lot easier in the Knight/Guy household). Some, however, are not waiting to indulge in some schadenfreude. . . .
The Waiting Continues
Jennifer and I attended a “Count Every Vote” rally in Princeton yesterday. Given that there didn’t appear to be an imminent threat that the election would be subverted by Trump or his minions, it was a relatively low-key affair attended by a couple hundred people wearing masks and socially distanced. One high point was this t-shirt. . . .
And So We Wait
I noticed two things when I woke up this morning to learn that the presidential election was still undecided and was so close that Donald Trump might win. The first was how heartsick I was at the idea that Trump might be re-elected. I could feel despair and resignation start to settle over me like a heavy blanket. . . .