A quiet coup for civility
WOOSTER, OHIO » The split in American politics we may be missing is not left vs. right or pro-Trump vs. anti-Trump but normality vs. the Trump-inspired Washington circus.
First, the entire White House is seized by vicious infighting over its inability to tell the truth about what it knew when concerning allegations of domestic violence against a top aide. President Trump has ratified the maxim that a leader gets the staff he deserves.
Combine this with the astounding disconnect between what Trump’s own intelligence officials told us on Tuesday about the threat of Russian meddling in our midterm elections and Trump’s denials and inactivity. It signals that Trump doesn’t care what happens to the nation he leads. He is only concerned that Russian meddling taints his triumph, and that he could be in real trouble.
Oh, yes, and there was also that payoff to the porn star.
His fiscal policies contradict both his promises of budgetary prudence and his pledges to be a pro-worker populist. They tilt toward the wealthiest, punish the least advantaged and throw the nation’s finances into chaos — an impressively perverse trifecta. And his infrastructure program effectively relies on everyone but the federal government to do the new building.
Trump’s foes reached their conclusion about his contradictions and misadventures long ago. They have responded by surging to the polls in just about every election held since 2016. The latest example was the Democrats’ pickup of a seat in the FloridaHouse of Representatives in a special election on Tuesday. Margaret Good prevailed on a swing of roughly 12 points in a district that had voted for Trump by 5 points. It was the 36th Democratic state legislative gain since Trump’s election.
The hardest of the hardcore Trump loyalists are still likely to cast ballots this year. But he also drew support from loyal Republicans and white working-class swing voters. It’s hard to imagine they’re overjoyed with the last 13 months.
Some members of this dispirited group overlap with a third key constituency. They are citizens who ask from their government for some dignity and decorum, a focus on problemsolving, and orderliness rather than chaos.
It is not to romanticize the heartland to say that anyone who spends time in the Midwest runs into such solid citizens all the time. They are horrified by spousal abuse. They include small-business owners who prefer low taxes but care about schools, roads, librar- ies and parks. They may be critical of government, but they also expect it to do useful things. They don’t much like bragging or obsessions with enemies.
They are churchgoers who don’t watch TV preachers, and don’t tell others how religious they are. But they take from their faith and scripture that they have obligations to their communities. They like to look up to their leaders with respect and feel betrayed when those leaders give them every reason not to.
The obvious political calculation is that this fall’s elections will be decided by which side mobilizes its most ardent supporters. But here is a bet that there is also a quiet revolution of conscience in the country among those who are sick to death of the chaos they see every day on the news, a White House whose energy is devoted to stabbing internal foes in the back and a president who can’t stop thinking about himself. In the face of this, demanding simple decency is a radical and subversive act.