Don't
sweep Trump's dangerous messages under the rug
Trump isn’t interested in health reform or housing initiatives. He
repeats Kremlin talking points and gives outsized influence to Elon Musk, who
seeks fascist-adjacent leaders abroad to support.
By Mona Charen
It’s important in a democracy that the losing side grapple
with its defeat and learn the right lessons for next time. A certain amount of
reflection and self-criticism is healthy, but we’ve blown past that point and
are in danger of over-interpreting the 2024 results.
Despite headlines proclaiming the GOP
won in a “rout” or declaring that “This is the collapse of the Democratic
Party,” November’s election was actually quite close. Donald Trump received
49.9% to Kamala Harris’s 48.4%, a difference of a point and a half. That’s a
smaller margin than any winner since Richard Nixon in 1968. The popular vote
margin in 2000 was also razor-thin, but the candidate who received more votes
that year was not the Electoral College winner. If the same percentage of
Hispanic voters that chose Hillary Clinton in 2016 had voted Democratic in
2024, Harris would have been the victor. The Republicans took control of the
Senate, but their margin in the House was reduced.
This is not to say that the Democrats
don’t have lessons to learn. It seems pretty obvious that shaking off the
outsized influence of “the groups” — the immigration rights, LGBTQ rights,
anti-development, anti-police agitators — is a good place to start. By all
means, Democrats should convene conclaves and discuss all of that with their
pollsters and graybeards.
But in the meanwhile, Donald Trump did
not suddenly become more normal or less of a threat to democratic norms and
institutions than he was on Nov. 3. Yet a fog of obfuscation has settled on the
country, one in which Democrats are offering peace pipes, withholding judgment
on some of the wilder Trump Cabinet nominees, and focusing on areas in which
the two parties can work together rather than the ones on which they differ.
The papers have been filled with chirpy articles offering how Trump can really
make a difference on housing policy or public health or our energy future.
If the
Democrats have concluded, with Rep. Jared Moskowitz, that “we (Democrats) were
to the left of the American people” on immigration, fine. And if Democrats want
to pay lip service, with Rep. Ro Khanna, to the DOGE initiative (if it
even is an initiative), OK, though it would be nice if they
noted that other commissions have addressed the matter of government waste and
deficit spending to zero effect. The Grace Commission in the 1980s and the
Simpson-Bowles Commission in the 2010s made substantive proposals to Congress
and the president. But in order for anything to happen, Congress and the
president must take their duties seriously and, just perhaps, enact laws.
Instead, our elected leaders said thank you very much for your service and
ignored them.
In keeping with the unseriousness of
MAGA, this DOGE (the title is an acronym for Department of Government
Efficiency but also a reference to, what else, an internet meme) is not even a
congressionally authorized investigation, far less a new government agency.
It’s a chimera, and even before Trump has taken the oath, Elon Musk is already
retreating from the fantastical claim of cutting the budget by $2 trillion.
The
influence of Elon Musk
Democrats and others should focus a
bit less on last November’s election and a bit more on what Musk has become.
Not content with threatening to primary any Republican who dares assert
independence from Trump, Musk has gone abroad seeking fascist-adjacent leaders
to support and promote. The man Trump has entrusted with vast influence has
endorsed the German AfD, a Russia-philic, extremist right-wing party that
cannot seem to stop using racist and antisemitic slogans; agitated against the
British government by spreading lies; promoted the cause of right-wing
provocateur Tommy Robinson; and announced, as it were ex cathedra,
that Nigel Farage is no longer acceptable as the leader of the Reform UK.
Where are the calls for Trump to
repudiate Musk?
Perhaps people are feeling defeated.
After all, Trump gave a press conference in which he repeated Kremlin talking
points (totally false) about the origins of the Ukraine war. It’s perfectly
reasonable for Democrats and others to conclude that Trump is aligned with
Putin and with the fascists worldwide who adore him.
Remember how he responded to news that
Putin’s tanks had rolled into Ukraine? He thought it was brilliant. Maybe he’s
trolling when he threatens to use force to retake the Panama Canal, or God help
us, Canada. But maybe his authoritarian juices are rising as Inauguration Day
beckons. It’s impossible to say at this moment, but what is possible to say is
that most Americans do not perceive Trump to be a would-be Putin. They may be
OK with him firing some bureaucrats and deporting some illegal immigrants, but they
didn’t sign up for unabashed authoritarianism.
Or perhaps they did. But one thing is
certain: We’ll never know unless the opposition shakes off its torpor.
If Democrats and tech barons and
newspaper owners and columnists keep pretending that Trump is really interested
in health reform or housing initiatives and continue to sweep the dangerous and
fascist messages under the rug, there is zero chance that the American people
will understand what is happening.
Mona Charen is policy
editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast.
