Purists
There are some of us who are “purists”. We were the ones who had faith in Americans to see through the Trump campaign back in 2016. We thought we saw Mr. Trump as he was, a charlatan, a “one trick pony” actor who was playing “The Apprentice” on a national scale.
We read the national polls going into November of 2016. And we fell for the “scientificity” of polling in October. Sure, Trump had clawed back much of the advantage Clinton held throughout the summer and fall, but she still held a lead. That critical “margin of error” in tiny type at the bottom of each graph, wasn’t really important, was it? And the fact that Trump had climbed within that margin, aided by FBI Director Jim Comeys’ leaked letter to Congress, should have sounded alarms. It didn’t.
Nightmares
And there is that other factor, the one that still haunts us today. That somehow polling didn’t reach the “closet” Trump voter, the one that won’t admit to voting for the man, but in the secrecy of the voting booth still commits the deed. Afterward, many of us made a big deal of the “closet vote”. But reality was there weren’t that many. Vote counts were all within the polling margin of error. Looking back, I think it was more a matter of hubris. We thought, “How dare someone we knew, maybe even our friends, vote for ‘that man’? Of course they wouldn’t admit it, even to pollsters. They hid their ‘evil’ intentions.”
And the “purists” share a searing memory. That moment, somewhere in the middle of the night, when we realized that Barack Obama was going to be succeeded by Donald Trump. That somehow, someway, the America that had progressed to the point of electing the first Black President, instead of choosing the first woman, was now electing — him. All of the issues we hoped could be resolved by Hillary Clinton were now at risk. It wasn’t a nightmare, because we weren’t asleep. We cried for America.
Even Worse
We had no idea how bad it would really be. Many tried to find a way to hang on to progressivism. It was called “the Resistance”, and the purists signed on from inauguration day on. Millions marched in the streets, chanting “not my President”. But, of course, he was.
There were small victories. John McCain, of all people, saved the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court stopped the “Muslim Ban”. The FBI investigated Russia’s involvement, and when Comey was fired, we had great hopes for the Mueller Investigation. And, Donald Trump, President, was the third in history to be impeached.
But Trump had great victories as well. The Border Wall, whether it really is being built or not, was a winning issue for the President. And environmental rules have been slashed. America stopped its leadership on climate change and renewable energy. And perhaps saddest of all, children are still being separated at the border, in spite of Federal Court intervention.
The one unifying theme of the Trump Administration has been a cavalier ignorance of the Constitutional norms of America’s Democracy. They’ve broken all the “rules” to improve life for the 1%. And they have committed the most egregious sin of all: incompetence. The “team” that came in, the Trump Organization writ large, failed to protect America from the ravages of pandemic. They didn’t just fumble the ball they threw the entire game. In industrialized nations, our response rates as one of the worst. It costs thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives.
A Grand Alliance
There is an old phrase: “beggars can’t be choosers”. We are an America in crisis. Resistors cannot be Puritan about who can join our cause. We must accept the aid of other Americans, wherever they are coming from, and whenever they “saw the light”. Maybe it’s the “Never-Trump” Republicans, like those in the Lincoln Project. Sure, they remain traditional Republican conservatives, and in normal times they would be battling progressive ideas.
But we are not living in normal times. They bring their skills to the table, and we should embrace their energy. We need them to reach out to their kindred spirits, now “closeted” Republicans who cannot stand to vote for Trump again. The Lincoln Project Republicans can legitimize their vote. While they cannot embrace “the Resistance”, or heaven forbid, Black Lives Matter, they can see McCain’s campaign manager, and a Republican candidate for White House Counsel, George Conway, as leaders they can follow.
And, my Resistance friends remember this. The President has already hinted that he won’t accept the election outcome. He doesn’t have to, but it would absolutely help if there were an overwhelming mandate to remove him from office. We need every vote, not just to win, but also to win decisively and end the Trump reign.
“The Enemy of My Enemy is my Friend”. If you are voting against Donald Trump, you are welcome to the cause. Whether you were a “Resistor” from the beginning, or a realist who finally recognizes the incompetence of the pandemic response, welcome. We can argue about our philosophical differences later. Right now we are in an existential crisis, perhaps at the crossroads of our Democracy.
Late or early, welcome to the Resistance.
