Our Long National Nightmare
I remember waking up on Wednesday, November 9th, 2016. I hoped it was a nightmare, that the election results I watched until the darkest hours of the night had somehow changed. I wished that Hillary Clinton, up on the stage, doing her best to show “what was right” and acknowledging the unthinkable, was a dream. Donald Trump was the next President of the United States. It was the sublime to the ridiculous: Barack Obama to Donald Trump. It took days to even believe it was possible, and it didn’t take much effort at all to wonder if it was true.
It was in that first month of the Trump Administration that I began to write the essays, now called “Our America”. And some of those questioned the veracity of the election results, decided by such a fractional margin of the popular vote: the number 77,744 is etched in my brain. It was the difference in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that put Trump in charge.
Crossfire Hurricane
Then we discovered “Crossfire Hurricane”, the FBI investigation into Russian connections to the Trump campaign. And while MAGA world did (and still does) everything they could to discredit them, there were connections. Paul Manafort, the Trump Campaign Manager, was passing inside campaign information to the Russian government. There were connections between Mike Flynn and Russia, and even more with Türkiye (the modern spelling of Turkey – just like Peking became Beijing). Jared Kushner was on the phone to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. But it wasn’t enough, even after the Mueller Report; enough to “bring down the king”.
There’s a saying attributed to Emerson: “When you strike at a king, you must kill him”. Crossfire Hurricane struck at a king, and the result was ridiculed like a seventies sit-com as “Russia-Russia-Russia”. Even the gravitas of Robert Mueller and Adam Schiff were unable to save the investigation from the machinations of Attorney General Barr and the propaganda wing of MAGA-world. What we learned is that if you strike at a King, you can’t afford to be “close”. This ain’t horseshoes or hand grenades.
That was strike one.
A Perfect Call
Then came the “perfect phone call”. It was absolutely obvious: Donald Trump, the President of the United States was using US aid to Ukraine to extort Ukraine’s President for “evidence” against Trump’s likely opponent in 2020, Joe Biden. My gosh; it that isn’t illegal, using public money to get personal political gain, I don’t know what is. And while Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House, was slow to acknowledge it, other Democrats in the House felt they MUST hold Trump accountable. They impeached him.
The evidence was clear. But political partisanship and MAGA threats were more important than the truth. So the Republican controlled US Senate failed to reach the 2/3 majority required to remove Trump from office. It wasn’t even that close, despite the “prima facie” case that Trump committed an actual crime. The expectation, that somehow Republicans would show “Profiles in Courage” in the face of the truth, showed to be the nonsense of political fiction. It still is.
That was strike two.
Insurrection
And it emboldened MAGA-world. Two strikes at the “King”, two failures. No wonder they thought they were invincible. Only Covid was able to “strike down” the Trump Presidency, and then by an even narrower margin than he won the first time. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise that January 6th, 2021 happened. And no matter how hard MAGA-world tries to rewrite the history of that moment, we can all honestly still feel the fear and nausea as we watched the crowd on the steps of the Capitol. We could literally feel the strain of our democracy, our Constitution, nearly tearing in half, as our Representatives and Senators determined to go back in the night and finish their work.
Trump had to be held accountable. He was impeached again in the House, and tried again in the Senate. And this time, there was a clear choice for Republicans. They could end the Trump era, for good, for all. Or they could hope to endear MAGA-world to themselves, to assure their own political future. And their leader, Mitch McConnell, who clearly acknowledged to the world that Trump was responsible for the devastation, chose to vote against conviction, taking the needed 2/3 majority with him.
Democrats weren’t wrong. But it was still strike three.
You’re Out
Three strikes, in American culture, that means you’re out. No wonder Joe Biden and his Attorney General, Merrick Garland, were in no hurry to investigate Trump. But the January 6th Committee held their feet to the fire of Trump’s planned “coup d’état”. And so, with almost visible reluctance, the Jack Smith investigation began. It was really a matter of too little, too late. The Supreme Court stalled, then intervened. While Smith’s report made it clear he had “the goods” on Trump, it didn’t matter. In the end, Trump’s lawyers were able to run out the clock. Trump had to run for President in 2024; it was his only way to avoid conviction.
Think of that all or nothing proposition: win and be President, or lose and be in jail. What would a billionaire give to make sure he won? What deals would he make, and what lengths would he go? Was the 2024 election somehow rigged? This time, the number was around 255,000; the difference in the swing states that put Trump back in the Oval Office instead of a prison cell.
That was strike four.
We probably will never know. Even if somehow our Constitutional system survives this growing authoritarian regime; even if Democrats win back the Congress in 2026 (a fair election?) or the Presidency in 2028. No one will go back; they’ll be no American “Truth and Reconciliation Commission”. It’s likely we’ll simply put Trump and MAGA behind us, like the Japanese Internment Camps or McCarthyism. That is, if we get the chance to do so. Otherwise, America, already radically changed in just over 100 days, will be unrecognizable, to us, and to the world.
There will be no strike five.
Earlier Essays about Elections
- 77744 – 3/22/17
- Put on My Foil Hat 4/29/19
- Foil Hat Two – 1/26/22
- Foil is Real!!!! – 1/27/23
