STAND BY – The War Between Trump’s Enablers and Moral Rebels

There’s an interesting and timely article in the current Amherst College alumni magazine. Psychology professor Catherine Sanderson explains the science of bystander inaction—why otherwise nice people fail to act when they witness something that, in other, clearer-headed circumstances, they might not allow.

Of course, the author cites last May’s police killing of George Floyd as an example. But it strikes me how this bystander-inaction science might also apply on a broader, societal level, accounting for the political debacle that's played out over the past four years.

Specifically, how millions of Americans have stood by and not lifted a finger as the leader they chose, and who represents them, allows thousands and thousands of their countrymen to die of COVID-19 while he's Twitter-twiddled his little thumbs. Not to mention as he's systematically trashed our democratic institutions and norms of civility.

 

 

The hands are those of a great nation, drowning while Trumpublicans turn away.

             Are there enough of them to
             bring down the massive, gaudy
             dam that’s been holding back
             America’s incredible potential
             for the past four years?

MORAL REBELS
Sanderson calls those who do step forward and act to thwart cruelty “moral rebels.” These, her study suggests, tend to be people with a more accurate sense of what others around them are thinking. And who, in many cases, grew up free of heavy-handed, authoritarian parental control.

So, who have the moral rebels been who've broken from the lock-step Trumpublican ranks to act with integrity and courage? Certainly not the likes of the McConnells, the Grahams, the Barrs, who are ultimately going down with the ship. And not those who've scrambled like rats to abandon ship at the last minute.

Nor those, like John Bolton or Michael Cohen, who've only shown up when they no longer had anything to lose.

No, the moral rebels were those folks, like Mitt Romney, John McCain or Christine Whitman, who did have something to lose and acted with decency anyway. We’ve witnessed, over the past year or so, more and more of these genuine American heroes, standing up to defend our time-honored values against an angry, vengeful bully.

There are many other pre-Trump Republicans who have consistently spoken out: Colin Powell, John Kasich, hundreds of former Justice Department officials, the former Republican strategists behind the Lincoln Project and many more.

We’ve witnessed more and more of these genuine American heroes, standing up to defend our time-honored values against a tyrant. An angry, vengeful bully who, literally since birth, has had nothing on his feeble little mind but feeding his insatiable ego.

LEAKS IN THE DAMN DAM
I wonder, on this, Election Day 2020: Have there been, among political leaders and the ranks of erstwhile Trump supporters, enough moral rebels who, like pinprick leaks in the massive, gaudy dam that’s been holding back America’s incredible potential for the past four years, have grown and joined and brought that dam down? We shall see…

 

THE SQUEEZE IS ON – The Trump Debacle Comes to a Head

I’ve spent the better part of the past four years torn between my deeply-felt need to resist the worst president in American history and what just might be a better instinct: to spare myself the damage I know intense, sustained anger and fear can inflict on one’s body and soul.

I’ve been moderately successful in following my mantra: Channel your fear and rage into resolve. I started, way back in March, to volunteer with Vote Forward, hand-writing get-out-the-vote letters to folks identified as likely non-voters in key districts across the country.

Whenever I watched, heard or read anything—anything at all—about the little brat-monster pretending to be smart and important enough to run a country, I simply turned off the offended senses, walked to the dining room table, and started writing.

Thank God for that pressure-relief valve. (I ended up writing 560 of the more than 17,000,000 letters Vote Forward volunteers mailed out October 17.)

A SHIFT IN THE FORCE
Now, with the election just a couple weeks away, I’m finding it even easier to just ignore the lying, hateful bullshit spewing from the philanderer-in-chief and his lackeys. 

No, I still can’t resist the chance to share an especially clever Trump-mocking Facebook post. But I’m also starting to realize a deep sense of letting go, of relief and peace. The kind marathoners feel when the chute is in sight and, no matter where they place, they know they’ve given it their all and are going to make it.

Between my own effort to both resist and take positive action, and those I’m sure millions of other have made in their own ways, I’m feeling a growing sense of momentum. And, besides this “earned” glow of satisfaction, there’s also an inkling of destiny. I’ve just got to believe that there are millions and millions of people who might have voted for the idiot four years ago who’ve noticed something at least a little troubling about him.

It’s like there’s been a shift in The Force. Americans, this amazing country, is simply too good to go the way of this hateful, self-obsessed little man a second time. I can almost hear the collective sigh of relief—more likely the kind of hooting and hollering one hears after one’s team just won the Super Bowl—echoing from the streets around this great land.

            Enough of us have finally taken
            a look in the mirror.

TO A HEAD
I really, really want to say that the celebration will begin sometime late on the evening of November 3. But thanks to the systematic undermining of the democratic process by Trumpublicans for the past four years—and the fake president’s and his base’s probable tantrum when they see he’s losing—it’s doubtful the results will be known for weeks.

So be patient, my friends. We’ve waited nearly four years; we can wait another few weeks.

Make no mistake; the moment of truth is at hand. This painful, pus-filled boil on our country’s face has come to a head. Enough of us have finally taken a look in the mirror. We hate how it disfigures us; our friends hate it…and it really, really hurts. 

The hand of reason, of vision, of decency, of love is reaching up, drawing thumb and index finger together around the offending abscess. And slowly, surely, they squeeze…

WELL, YOU NEVER ASKED – Trump’s Shameful Failure of Expectation

One would be perfectly justified in blaming Donald Trump for the outrageous things he does—or the tremendous amount of good he could do but won’t. But these are, for Trump and his ilk, just the bright shiny objects they dangle to lure the attention of an undisciplined media and of gullible folks with lots of rage and short attention spans.

The least-appreciated failing of this near-total failure of a president is not his behavior, his policies—more like childish impulses—his corruption, his pathological lying, his lack of civility, nor even his outrageous immorality. Everyone knows these faults.

No, Donald Trump’s most under-condemned failure as a leader is how little he’s expected—of himself, of others, of us, the citizens of this great and good nation.

   

LIVING DOWN TO EXPECTATION
Healthy, functioning social entities, be they nations, communities, businesses or families, ask something of their constituents. Sometimes a lot.

They ask folks to balance their personal freedoms and wants with the welfare of the group. They needn’t see eye to eye on everything, but they do agree on a constructive, civil process for resolving those differences.

In a democracy it’s just assumed that citizens make small sacrifices for the common good. We pay taxes; we share our time, talents and resources; we abide by laws ensuring no one causes harm or takes more than their share of common resources; we look after our less-fortunate fellow citizens. 

          

And during periods of extreme challenge or crisis— like wars, natural disasters, economic collapse or a super-ambitious national initiative like our War on Poverty or the Space Race, great nations—the ones that come through the crisis stronger and wiser—are those which ask their citizens to rise to, and grow with, the challenge.

On the other hand, failed nations, from Angola to Russia to Venezuela, and their paranoid, iron-fisted dictators—for many of which Donald Trump can barely conceal his admiration— expect nothing approaching a higher order of thinking from their subjects. Just hard labor to feed the insatiable corruption. And, of course, often on pain of humiliation, ruin or death, their loyalty. Sound familiar?

    Go ahead and show your utter contempt for
    common decency by coughing and sneezing
    on anyone you damn well please.

INDULGING FOLKS’ WORST INSTINCTS
So here we are. It’s 2020 and the United States of America is facing an unprecedented “perfect storm” of catastrophe: a global pandemic; a firestorm of rage and grief over long-smoldering racial injustice; the looming cataclysm of global warming; and a chilling, brazen assault by oligarchs and disciples of chaos on the bedrock of our democracy.

And what of any virtue at all has Donald S. Trump asked of the American people? Absolutely nothing, especially from his base. Nothing more, that is, than what he sees as the status quo. Just keep doing your own thing. Don’t listen to—hell, just go ahead and beat the shit out of—those crying out for justice. 

    

Don’t give an inch on your, or your employer’s, “right” to continue fouling the air, water and soil. Don’t worry if people’s constitutional rights are the price we have to pay for "law and order." Don’t even pretend to stifle your meanest, basest instincts to demonize those you deem a threat to your perceived entitlement.

And, for God’s sake, don’t listen to the scientists or public health experts about this COVID-19 “hoax.” In fact, go right ahead and show your utter contempt for common decency by coughing and sneezing on anyone you damn well please. Those few (hundred thousand) frail old folks were dying soon anyway; small price to pay so Billy Bob can go party hearty in Sturgis.

Do whatever you want…oh, unless you disagree with me or refuse to kiss my ass, says Donald Trump. If you fail that, well then, you’re yesterday’s news. You’re fired.

    Instead of an expectation, Trump has given
    his base what Barak Obama wouldn’t give
    them: permission.

BORN TO BE BOORISH
It’s not simply failing to expect the best of Americans; it’s insisting on their worst. And, sure enough, hundreds of thousands of folks this charlatan has somehow managed to hypnotize dutifully line up, sporting their "Don't tread on me!" flags and MAGA caps, eager to comply. After all, this is what they love about the man.

Instead of an expectation, Trump’s given them something they’d been praying for during the entire unbearable eight-year “reign” of Barak Obama. Something that college-boy, holier-than-thou, liberal elite (oh, and uppity black man) with the impudence to expect Americans to act like adults wouldn’t give them: permission.

         

The reality-show president is playing to folks who are already so aggrieved, so afraid of evolving, that many literally see him as a gift from God. Trump's one rude, ignorant, corrupt, self-obsessed little man who’s finally given them his okay to be as shallow and hostile as they really are.

He’s legitimized their fantasy that it’s their God-given right not to grow intellectually, socially or spiritually. And to distrust anyone who does.

      I don’t know which came first, Trump’s
      inability to ask for anything resembling
      higher-order thinking from his followers,
      or their inability to give it.

LOYALTY TRUMPS ALL 
Say what you will about Donald Trump and his disastrous personal shortcomings. The man could have, despite those considerable handicaps, been a decent president—could, indeed, have helped make America at least not worse again.

He could have, as the nearly-as-dull-witted ex-pro wrestler Jesse Venture once did when he found himself governor of Minnesota, at least surrounded himself with smart, capable people. But for Trump, too threatened by anyone’s pretending to know anything he doesn’t, there’s simply no help.

Nope, he doesn’t dare expect intelligence, competence, aspiration, creativity, challenge, sacrifice. None of those positive, constructive qualities. Not from those who support him politically, and certainly not from anyone who works for him. He doesn’t even expect basic human decency.

All Donald expects is what every petty tyrant expects: blind allegiance— not even to the country, but to him. I don’t know which came first, his inability to ask for anything resembling higher-order thinking from his followers, or their inability to give it.

   

Their portrayal of their enemy as a bunch of pretentious, snot-nosed, holier-than-though little brats is ironic, for it’s exactly those traits that have been exposed in them during their little MAGA tantrum these past few years.

And, for folks who so vehemently reject expectation of any kind, it begs the question, “How’s that goin’ for ya?” With the economy? With our country’s standing in the world? With crime rates? With the condition of our air, water and land? With natural disasters? The list is long and the answers chillingly mass-delusional.

        

TO ASK OR TO ASK NOT
Throughout this whole moral, constitutional crisis—it feels like a street fight between the sordid underbelly of America and its noble soul—I keep hearing echoes of John F. Kennedy’s famous entreaty: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

And I’m wishing, praying, for a couple of great leaders who, come January, 2021, might articulate that kind of aspiration. Might rekindle the spark of kindness, generosity and hope I’m convinced still smolders deep inside every true American.