Republican Presidential nominee, former president Donald J. Trump at a Nov. 3, 2024 campaign event in Pennsylvania. (Photo by Matt Petras for the Capital-Star)
Combine the adjectives of anger, fear and apathy to describe any audience, and it predictably equates to trouble. Those descriptors are the features of the American electorate today.
Imagine any organization of people, of any kind, that makes its decisions while grounded in those emotions. What could that collective mindset possibly accomplish? While I’m sure there are some things, they would be few, and for those few, I expect the value of these accomplishments would be minimal, or simply the result of dumb luck. Really dumb luck.
This year’s election, the latest in a string of the most important election of our lifetimes, delivered a litany of results featuring contradictions and just plain thoughtlessness. But that’s what happens when decision makers are mad, scared and don’t care about productive outcomes.
Donald Trump returns to the White House in January for his second, and last, presidential term. He will be inaugurated two weeks after the four-year anniversary of the coup he inspired at the scene of the crime. I’m sorry, I meant crimes, plural. I’m sure the crowd on January 20, 2025, will be an interesting one. There will almost certainly be people in attendance who are on parole because of what they did the last time they were there.
The January 6, 2021, crowd was angry. With rage and denial over their candidate’s defeat, they exploded. No surprise, really. It was and continues to be a coalition united by shared grievances.
It’s remarkable how committed that coalition is to the bit. But what we are learning about the bit, albeit the hard way, is that those who are fueled by grievance will never be satisfied. To satisfy its grievance-based mindset is to eliminate its purpose, its usefulness and its energy. After all these years of watching the MAGA cult, this truth has become abundantly clear.
So, the anger, and all of the things that come with it, is the cult’s most valuable feature.
A focus on fear
Where did the grievance mindset come from with this bunch? In a word, fear. Now, everyone is afraid of something. I’m a little bit afraid of heights and a little bit afraid of speed. Put them together, and what you get is a grown man who won’t get on a roller coaster. At least not without a good reason.
Thankfully for me, it’s easy to avoid roller coasters. Far easier than it is to avoid “the other.”
The other is a terrible thing to fear. It takes too many forms and comes from too many directions. I know more people than can be counted and I’ve never met anyone like me. Being afraid of them all would be overwhelming, and an infinite supply of crippling anxiety. I imagine it feels like being circled by those flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz, all day, every day.
The American government can’t resolve that kind of fear. In theory though, if those living their lives under that cloud could choose a time free from that horror, it would be sometime in our distant past. It would not be in our foreseeable future.
So, when Kamala Harris leads chants of “we’re not going back,” with the throngs of people at her campaign rallies, it scares people who cling to a hope for the opposite. She is the other to them. And she’s leading cheers of a tomorrow that embraces all others.
Apathy is the closing garnish of this perfect recipe that is relentlessly poisoning the American Dream.
The road ahead
MAGA types are apathetic that government can take us back to a comfortable and safe place, which makes it easy for them to vote in favor of burning it to the ground. Mission accomplished this week.
Democrats rooting for progress and a brighter tomorrow are apathetic in a whole different way. Too many behave as if they don’t have any responsibility to actively make that tomorrow come true. The result is a shameful voter turnout.
From time to time, I remind readers why I write about politics in the first place. It’s important for context and credibility. When I consume news or punditry, I always ask the question, “who is that writing or talking, and why should anyone listen to them?” Here’s why I do it.
I have thirteen years of public service experience, another twenty of government consulting, and extensive education in public affairs and communication. To me, politics is only a mechanism to achieve governing that works for people.
When I worked for the government, I helped people. Everyone around me did too.
I wasn’t mad at or scared of anyone. And I still care.
This election’s results will lead to bad governing. Maybe the anger over that will lead America back to the dream next time around.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.