OVERCOMING TRUMP FATIGUE

By Ronald T. Fox

Are you tired of being bombarded with news about Donald Trump? About his half-truths, lies, fabrications, and contradictions, his well-documented bigotry, greed, name-calling, intimidation and vindictiveness, his hypocrisy, bullying, misogyny,  xenophobia, and disrespect for our allies and blustering threats to our enemies? What about his narcissism, boasting, false claims and blame avoidance, or his fox-in-the-hen-house administrative appointments? How about his cuts in social programs, deregulating, and looting of the nation to enhance the wealth of his one-percenter friends? Does Trump’s utter contempt for our Constitution and principles of democracy, including speech, press and religious freedom, make you want to vomit? Are you sick of all the media attention he attracts—his every utterance treated as “breaking news” (often at the expense of more important issues)? Are you terrified by what this visibly mentally disturbed man might do at home and abroad?

Has all this become overwhelming? If it has, then you could be suffering from Trump Fatigue.

I admit to being victimized by Trump Fatigue, which is why I have posted far fewer commentaries on American political affairs since the Orangutan’s shocking election over a year ago. The powerful forces Trump and his fellow right-wing extremists unleashed have altered the political realities that kindled, and have sustained, my interest in politics for over a half century. I now find myself overwhelmed and dispirited. It’s hard to imagine a worst case political scenario for anyone who values truth, reason, peace and justice, and harbors humanistic, progressive, and egalitarian sentiments.

In past essays, I’ve offered a Left perspective on a number of contemporary political, social and economic issues. In my writings, I’ve tried to separate fact from fiction, point out hypocrisy, double-standards, logical contradictions, and highlight historical amnesia. I sought to provide readers information they weren’t getting from the mainstream media. I hoped to inspire critical thought.

A year of Donald Trump, however, has left me at a loss for words. What can I possibly say about the words and actions of this despicable human that hasn’t been said? What difference would more words make? Trump Fatigue!

Trump Fatigue has even crept into my personal relationships. Whereas I used to relish verbal combat with someone of conservative persuasion, now, once I realize the person is a Trump supporter, I back off. What’s the use of arguing with someone who disregards facts and reason and believes the nonsense they read in Trump tweets, or hear on talk radio and Fox News? For me, partisan debate has become a futile and aggravating exercise. It appears to be so for many others as well. A December national poll revealed that a majority of Americans were worried that partisan bickering among family and friends would spoil their holiday celebrations. Many said they would thus try to ban all political talk. Fortunately, my extended family all despise Donald Trump and his lapdog faithful. We no longer draw much pleasure, however, in kicking the Trumpster around. Although less frustrating, preaching to the choir has become equally unrewarding.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t care anymore; I just feel overwhelmed. Trump is depressing enough, but the forces that paved the way for his political rise, and now enable his presidency, are even more despairing. Right-wing extremism has become deeply entrenched in our political culture. It’s hard to believe that all the evilness Trump has bestowed on America, all the lies, insults, and favoritism toward the wealthy, hasn’t eroded the fervent support of his political base. If anything, it’s only strengthened their resolve.

While many have grown tired of everything Trump, fortunately for America, Trump’s broadside on our democratic sensibilities has energized millions of Americans to become politically active, many for the first time. The grassroots are alive with a progressive political energy I haven’t seen in decades. America's political left is on the move, this time from the bottom up rather than the usual down down.

Growing legions of Americans--young people, women, blacks, Indigenous people, LGBTQs, immigrants, and other disaffected folks, who have been insulted, ridiculed, beaten-back, and dismissed by Donald Trump and the shameless party that continues to support him are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore. They realize the ideals they’ve been raised to believe in-- ideals that make America exceptional—are in peril. A growing number of hard-working Americans have come to realize that Trump’s brand of populism is phony; it’s a smokescreen to hide his real mission: to boost the fortunes of wealthy people like himself. This realization, along with his unmistakable contempt for women, minorities and poor people, is energizing legions of disrespected folk; it’s turning voters into activists.

Trumpism has inspired an explosion of grassroots political organizing, strategizing, mobilizing, and, as recent state and local special elections document, winning, reminiscent of the rebellious 1960’s. Across the country, aroused folks are marching against Trump’s xenophobic anti-immigration policies, his reckless climate change denial, gutting of national health care, his misogyny, and hostility toward “Dreamers.” Membership in organizations like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and the Democratic Socialists of America has surged. Energizing networks like People's Action, the Progressive Democrats for America and the Movement Voter Project have proliferred.  Trump’s racism and vile and misogynist rhetoric has helped spur the Black Lives Matter movement as well as #MeToo, a social-media based movement that has empowered the victims of sexual harassment and assault. The hashtag is now trending in at least 85 countries. Women, and supportive men, are marching in solidarity all over the world.

Political Arousal on the Left

The right-wing causes that have lately dominated grassroots political organizing, and helped pave the way for the rise of Trumpism, are being overtaken by movements of the progressive left, movements advocating for equal rights, justice, and personal freedoms. This activism has sharpened the contrast between Republicans, the party of white wealth and privilege, and the more inclusive and tolerant Democrats (who would be wise to respond to what progressive activists are saying and avoid the temptation to turn to the right for Republican votes).

Grassroots activism is already showing results at the ballot box where voter registration and election day turn-out drives have helped produce Democrat victories in some unlikely regions of the country. In Virginia, Democrat Ralph Northam won the governorship by a wide margin over race-baiting Ed Gillespie. Democrats took control over legislative and executive branches in New Jersey. In a widely-watched election, Doug Jones defeated the racist, sexual-predator Roy Moore, who was endorsed by Trump. Danica Roem defeated a virulently anti-LGBTQ opponent, becoming the first openly transgender person elected to Congress. Her win ended 26 years of Republic rule in that district. A self-described democratic socialist, Lee Carter, was also elected in Virginia, defeating Republican mainstay Jackson Miller.

Determined progressive get-out-the-vote efforts have been successful in getting young people (only one in six citizens between 18 and 29 voted in the 2014 mid-terms), blacks, Latinos and Asian-Americans to the polls, to the polls, where they've been voting overwhelmingly for Democrats. Five-percent more Blacks voted in the Alabama election than had turned out for Barack Obama in 2012. Jones couldn’t have won without them. These unexpected victories could signal the beginning of a radical transformation of American politics. Growing rebelliousness is sending a clear message: future candidates that identify too closely with Donald Trump and the status quo, and, for that matter, with mainstream Democrats, do so at your own electoral risk.

One would think that Republicans would learn from recent elections that their party needed to be more inclusive, less associated with giant corporations and the super-rich, and less linked with President Trump. Today’s Republican party? No way. Unless the Supreme Court strikes down voter discrimination practices, expect the GOP response to be a further tightening of restrictions that prevent millions of non-white and lower income people from voting. If the legal status quo is maintained, as I sadly suspect it will, we are certain to witness even more draconian voter ID laws, more banishing of voters from voter lists, and more poll closings.  In addition, after the 2020 census, if the Court does not establish a strict guideline specifying what constitutes a discriminatory district map, we can expect to see more districts drawn, cracked and packed in order to benefit Republicans. This would make well-organized voter registration and voting campaigns even more critical.

Worse for its longer-term implications, conservatives, fully understanding the widespread unpopularity of Trumpist policies, will no doubt redouble their efforts to permanently lock in the wealth, power and influence of the predominantly white male power structure.  This will include intensified efforts to stack the courts with virulent conservatives, cutting off the flow of immigrants who might lean Democrat, punishing Democratic states while carving out favors to those friendly to the GOP, and returning to failed drug and crime policies that disproportionately discriminate against people of color.  These actions will pose an even more daunting challenge for progressive activists.

While activism is on the rise, it is premature to conclude that a more progressive era is dawning. After all, we have seen progressive starts fizzle in the past. But this time, things may be different. Idealists who have long dreamed of a more just, equitable and compassionate political order, and average folks who simply want a better life, are translating wishful thinking into action. One can only hope that mobilizations for progressive change won’t get short-circuited by clashing agendas and priorities among different factions, a phenomenon that has plagued the Left in the past. Solidarity is essential.

The Trump/GOP assault on constitutional and civil rights and liberties, equal justice and the rule of law, immigration, public education, healthcare, the environment, net neutrality, and entitlements, not to mention the President’s cavalier talk about “rage and ruin” and nuclear war, has raised the stakes for the overwhelming majority of Americans, especially for the younger generation, which has the most to lose in a right-wing extremist, Trumpian future.

Think about it. A future of weather extremes, increasingly dirty air and water, millions of Americans without healthcare, decaying infrastructure, a vanishing social safety net, including Medicare, Medicaid, and other forms of government assistance. If people lose their jobs to globalization, downsizing, automation and artificial intelligence, or get sick or injured, what will they have to fall back on? Will there even be any jobs? I can envision a future of endless wars across the planet, overseen by a gargantuan national security state with the power to listen to our conversations, read our mailings, and censor what we hear and read. We could see an isolated America standing against the world.

A Raging President

Worse yet, under Trump’s stewardship things could get even more catastrophic. If psychiatrists and other mental health experts, who have chosen to speak publicly are correct, and there is every reason to believe they are, Donald Trump suffers from a variety of personality disorders, including extreme hedonism, malignant narcissism, sociopathy, hypomanic grandiosity, paranoia, delusional and anxiety disorder. Clinical psychologist John Gartner sums up the potentially catastrophic danger this raises:

“Trump is a profoundly evil man exhibiting malignant narcissism. His worsening hypomania is making him increasingly more irrational, grandiose, paranoid, aggressive, irritable, and impulsive. Trump is bad, mad, and getting worse. He evinces the most destructive and dangerous collection of psychiatric symptoms possible for a leader. The worst-case scenario is now our reality.”*

Gartner and many of his fellow mental health professionals are so concerned about the dangers the mentally-disturbed Trump poses, they chose to violate the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater Rule,” which discourages professionals in the field from giving a professional medical opinion about public figures they have not formally examined. Citing a moral and civic “duty to warn” Americans, they have chosen to speak out.

Given what’s at stake, we don’t have the luxury to tune out of what’s going on—Trump Fatigue notwithstanding. Not speaking out against Trump’s assault on our democratic ways of life means providing tacit approval. We will be partners in his crimes and any future catastrophes that occur.

Young People on the March

The lies and horrors surrounding the Vietnam War, aided by the Draft, mobilized a young population that was paying the highest price for the Johnson-Nixon madness. Trumpian horrors may now be unleashing a similar dynamic. Resistance is on the rise, not just to President Trump, but to a status quo that finds most Americans still shut out of the American Dream. Progressives are demanding a new conversation that challenges old orthodoxies. Citizens are taking to the polls, streets, government offices, and everywhere people gather to preach the gospel of progressive change. Millions of Americans appear to be responding.

Trump Fatigue may be infectious, but it’s not terminal. Donald Trump, as is his nature, is proving to be his own worst enemy, and, by his rhetoric and actions, a vital instigator for change. I recently attended the Women’s march and rally in Sacramento, which was better attended, more inclusive, and more optimistic than the one held last year. At the rally, I saw a sign that read: This Pussy Grabs Back. That just about says it all.

The times they are a’changin’—at least they better be.

*Yale School of Medicine psychiatrist Dr. Bandy Lee edited a book containing the testimonials of 27 psychiatrists and other mental health experts about President Trump’s mental health titled The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. Gartner’s contribution is titled: “Donald Trump is: (A) Bad, (B) Mad, (C) All of the above,” pp. 93-109. (Note: A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 48 percent of Americans believe Trump is stable and 47 percent think he is not.).