There is a great scene in the AMC classic series Mad Men when Pete Campbell, a heretofore character one only loved to hate, begins his arc toward anti-hero redemption by refusing to go celebrate the wedding of his boss’s daughter in the immediate aftermath of JFK’s assassination. “Things seemed like they were changing,” rues Campbell to his wife Trudy, declaring his refusal to allow normalcy to beguile him from his grief for Kennedy. Campbell can’t believe anyone could carry on as if time has not stopped in the wake of the unthinkable. “They won’t cancel because they’re happy about it,” he charges, recounting inappropriate responses expressed at the office the day before as events unfolded. The scene clarifies the earliest signs of political chasm in 60s America, foretelling one of the most divisive decades in our history.
The roiling 60s reflected a generational split anchored in two presumptions that parents and grandparents expected their children to abide as they had before them. One, that blacks were inferior to whites, or at least undeserving of empathy equal to that shown other countrymen. Two, that war requires unflinching duty and unthinking obedience, regardless of who the enemy is and the level of direct threat they pose. It was the results of events, nationally televised in real time, that taught us the lessons of this era. Dogs ripping pants, hoses knocking people flat, dead kids coming out of jungles. The images reinforced how unreasonable the original premises were, and eventually drove home they shouldn’t be leaned on ever again.
For near half a century those epiphanies stood us in relatively good stead. At the very least, Jim Crow was condemned and foreign military adventures as necessary to obscure geopolitical strategies were no longer unquestioned. Moreover, Roe v Wade, the EEOC and a vibrant EPA signaled the federal government’s acceptance of its rightful role in ensuring states obey the emerging national consensus on basic issues like equal rights and environmental protection.
The promise of democracy is not that demagogues won’t emerge; it’s that an enlightened population will be informed enough to resist their message and send them packing. It got so bad for old George Wallace that, after being shot and paralyzed, and deserted politically, he actually repented for his bigotry, dying with a restored conscience. There is little doubt, given similar circumstances, our current President’s campaign never would have gained any traction, relegating him to single digits before his cheapness dictated an end to the exercise. Of course, one added variable made all the difference… a two-decade multi-billion dollar, 24/7 multimedia propaganda effort that created optimal conditions within the GOP for exactly his regressive message, delivered exactly with his unhinged cadence.
After eight years of apocalyptic fiction about America’s first black President, the GOP base was primed to embrace another time and place, where the requirements of social, environmental, economic and societal progress no longer existed. A time where white entitlement was considered nothing more than the status quo, and American exceptionalism was a given. That these expectations translated into mostly shrill identity screeds, and a contest to select who was most unbound by decency and decorum, meant Trump found himself in his wheelhouse, while pols like Bush and even Rubio, a Tea Party darling, were too encumbered by a sense of shame to compete effectively. It was no contest. Trump knew less than nothing, but spoke louder, nastier and more fact-free than anyone else. That was enough.
The Donald never imagined himself President, and the record is already clear his shocking election was something nobody on team Trump, least of all the candidate, was prepared for. Instead of growing pains, this Administration has undergone seismic convulsions, in line with Trump’s historic inadequacies. Yet and still, to the degree there exists a governing blueprint, it reflects the regressive messaging of the general campaign, a cavalry charge back in time. Trumpism stands for retrograde nihilism, an unabashed attack on previously settled axioms for government conduct and policy objectives. It fully pursues nothing less than the redefinition of America’s evolution since the 50s as harmful recklessness by dangerous progressives bent on seizing and holding power. In other words, the narrative Fox/AM has spewed forth since it’s founding. After all, our President is, from the tip of his weave to his bone spurs, a shit river consumer with no other significant knowledge base. His political identity was fully created by Roger Ailes. And so it’s cleeeaan coal and tariffs, immigrant bashing and voter fraud conspiracies.
Now we are left, like Pete Campbell, to sit and wonder aloud what the hell is happening. Weren’t we just celebrating a watershed of our country’s growth? Didn’t hundreds of thousands in foreign lands just clog the streets to see our dashing young leader, who sought only to unite? Didn’t we just have the smartest guy in the room as President, comfortable and secure in his own black skin? Deliberate and almost annoyingly thoughtful, who couldn’t be provoked into losing his cool even after the most disgusting attacks on him and his family? Weren’t we moving past worrying about settled issues like voting rights and LGBT equality, environmental protections and climate change science? These arguments were over, discussions now only centered on details for achieving ends mainstream sensibilities had agreed on. Things didn’t seem like they were changing, They had changed for the better! Done. Settled.
Edmond Burke said famously all that is necessary for evil to thrive is good men do nothing. In America, since January, 2017, there are plenty of those, even as the President and the party he now lords over confirm our worst fears about their disregard for the national interest. But beyond that, a minority wants to erase our nation’s maturation to impair our future. At every turn, there is a bulldozer moving to bury what we’ve learned, erase what we’ve bettered, destroy what has been fixed, often after decades of blood shed by many, hardships suffered as necessary to reform we now have to fret is being undone. Worse, we’re supposed to pretend it’s normal, the back and forth of political fortune…. get over it and attend the wedding. Way too many have simply shrugged and complied. I’m staying home! BC