Like so many of us in this moment, I am still struggling to make sense of the world in this new configuration. For instance, we spent the last two years and more, watching all the literal trials and tribulations around the indictments and even a few convictions of Donald Trump, the man who is the president-elect of the greatest nation on the face of the earth, the one that has the largest economy and represents 26% of the world’s GDP. And then today we hear that Jack Smith, the special prosecutor on the case, has recommended dismissal of the two cases he indicted Trump for. His reasoning is quite simple, and that is that Trump is the duly elected president and the Justice Department, the same Justice Department that Trump has claimed has been weaponized against him, has a policy of not pursuing charges against the sitting president. Some argue that the charges should have just been deferred until after his term, but Smith, to his credit, clearly realized that that would be a dark cloud over the next four years and an even darker cloud over him and the rest of the DOJ, just for the sake of seeking retribution of what will be an 82-year-old twice ex-president about charges that have long since ceased to be so relevant, all things considered. That is all hard to make sense of on many levels.
We have spent the last few weeks watching his selections for Trump’s cabinet and other senior administrative advisors. That process, for any newly elected president, is usually filled with some surprises and some unpleasant choices, but Trump has set a whole new standard for shock and awe in selecting an array of underwhelming and unqualified candidates, many of whom were chosen either only because they are intensely loyal to him or because they, like him, want to preside over the dismantling of the American ship of state in one way or another. We are all being forced to prioritize which of our American toes we are willing to have shot off by virtue of concentrating our collective ire against too few of those candidates. Should it be Pete Hegseth who might destroy our military capabilities and allow the presidency to run roughshod over the American populace with the help of the military against domestic disrupters? Perhaps we should be more concerned about Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence and her ability to undercut our intelligence network by getting us excluded from the world’s most vital secrets. Maybe we should be more concerned about RFK Jr. and the damage he could do to the CDC, FDA or NIH, undermining public confidence in our medical science altogether. It’s amazing how all this makes us accept whatever Marco Rubio might do to our alliances around the world or how Linda McMahon might turn the Department of Education into the next WWE WrestleMania grudge match.
When I heard today that Trump has indicated that he will be inflicting 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico and Canada while imposing 35% tariffs on China, I realized just how confusing the times ahead will be for us all on this continent of North America. We are the favored ones compared to the rest of the world, right? Our closest neighbors and biggest trading partners are Mexico and Canada, and yet we are starting the next phase of global trade policy by poking them in both eyes. At least we are not like Russia and inflicting harm on our closest neighbors…or are we? And while Trump continues his coziness with the likes of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, we seem poised to help Israel obliterate the hopes of Palestinians and create who knows what havoc in the Middle East. Imagine how Iran must be feeling right now. For that matter, how must Canada and Mexico be feeling?
Sometimes the world gets put on its head and that seems to be what we are in for in the next few years. Things are always changing, so why so much concern? These changes seem somewhat random and not anchored in anything close to rationality as I’ve come to know it in my 70 years. That seems to be what at least a plurality of Americans seem to want right now. They do not like the status quo or the gradualist approach to change that the Democrats represented by contrast. They want lots of change and they want it now. That seems to be where we are headed, so I guess we have to just buckle up and ride this out as best we can. There is such a strong vested interest and so much support we can expect to get from our new AI-driven ecosystem that perhaps things will get better. It’s just disconcerting to not understand exactly how that is supposed to happen in any way that comports with what might be called doing the right thing.
I was listening to Ali Velshi on MSNBC, that old standard for us liberals, a cable network that is rumored to be on Elon Musk’s radar to be purchased as NBCUniversal seems to be interested in selling its flagging cable news networks. Velshi or one of his guests quoted Winston Churchill and his famous reference to the United States during the darkest hours of WWII, a mere 80 years ago. He is purported to have said that “Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” The truth is that no one can exactly pinpoint the fact that Churchill actually ever spoke those words, but it does comport with his sentiment about how the Americans handled their support for England and their eventual entry into the European theater of WWII. When I heard that expression, one which I had heard several times before, it really jumped out at me as the perfect sentiment for our times right now. What I mean by that is that I refuse to give up on America or Americans. Despite the recent angst over the vote and the shifts rightward that it represents, I want to believe that my country really does want to do the right thing. I am not necessarily talking about Donald Trump (since I don’t believe Trump has ever in his life prioritized doing the right thing). I am certainly not talking about the Trump hangers-on who are trying their damnedest to take advantage of their moment for their own advancement. But the broader American populace that wants change and somehow thinks Trump can bring that to the country is what I’m inclined to believe in. That is the real heart of America and I want so desperately to believe it is a good heart.
That all makes me anxious to say that America can, indeed, always be trusted to do the right thing, but that we may have to exhaust all the other possibilities before we get to there. That feels like precisely the moment we are in right now. To make a pun of it, it is also very exhausting to exhaust these other possibilities, but there we have it. I was watching the movie Fury where Brad Pitt is commanding a gritty M4 Sherman tank as he rushes across Germany towards Berlin in the final days of WWII. He tells his young protege who is struggling with the realities of war that “Ideas are peaceful, history is violent”. That struck me as something that also rang true at this moment when violence seems to be more acceptable than it has been most of my life and idealistic thinking about peace and righteousness is taking a back seat to the other exigencies of the moment. The faith I must hold onto for dear life at this moment is that this too shall pass and doing the right thing will prevail.