I wrote a letter to the Calhoun school community, where I served as head at the time, shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration. It was instigated by his initial expressions of immigrant hatred and a plan to ban Muslims from entering the country. The letter began this way:
“I am not inclined toward understatement. (Perhaps that’s an understatement!) But to say we are living in challenging times may be significantly understated. Since I lead a school, not a retirement community, I am somewhat more “mature” than most members of the extended Calhoun family. I lived through the war in Vietnam (literally ‘lived,’ as I was a U.S. Army officer and, by good luck alone, never saw combat). I walked the complex inner-city streets of Cleveland during the racial unrest of the ’60s. I was in rural Georgia when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Tennessee. I watched every moment of the Watergate hearings that led to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon. I watched soot-covered New Yorkers grimly trudging north on West End Avenue on Sept. 11, 2001. I am more troubled now.”
The letter was “leaked” to the New York Post, which willfully mischaracterized it: “School Principal Says Trump Worse Than 9/11.” Fox News featured my “treasonous” letter on its website and evening news broadcast. I endured hundreds of emails and phone calls, including a few death threats and many suggestions of other countries where I might feel more at home.
Trump has turned out to be worse than even I expected.
My wife implored me to find a different approach to the most recent events, since news commentary has been thorough and relentless. And so I shall.
I am buoyantly optimistic.
The efforts to defend or rationalize the president’s behavior are increasingly desperate — laughable in most cases. Fox News host Tucker Carlson, wearing smug white privilege on his sleeve, says white supremacy is a hoax. Many Republicans take whataboutism to high art when they point out that the Dayton killer liked Bernie Sanders, thereby negating the straight line from Trump’s anti-immigrant rants (“Shoot ’em!”) through Patrick Crusius’ online screed and to El Paso’s blood-drenched Walmart. I swear that I’ve never heard Bernie Sanders say, “Kill your sister.”
I’m buoyantly optimistic because it is clear that Donald Trump cannot, will not, control himself.
During his campaign he famously claimed, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” He was “joking.” But like many sociopaths, he may eventually give it a try. His repeated and increasingly vile statements are not simply political ploys to enchant his supporters. They are the tests of a disturbed man-child who pushes limits over and over again until someone finally stops him. He is like a serial killer who takes great pleasure in taunting authorities with cryptic clues but then ups the ante when they don’t catch him.
I am buoyantly optimistic because it is now clear that he can’t and won’t stop.
It is profoundly disappointing to watch his GOP enablers and MAGA-hat-wearing sycophants double down on their support. But doubling down is always a losing strategy. You win until you lose — bigly. The pot Trump and his cronies have created is big and boiling. The crash is coming and history will record that it was just the last of Trump’s casinos to go bankrupt.
I am buoyantly optimistic because women of color in Congress are speaking truth to corrupt power. I am buoyantly optimistic because the people of Dayton and El Paso know better than to even open a sympathy card from this insincere narcissist.
Maya Angelou famously quipped, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Because many Americans are hopeful people, we didn’t want to believe Trump the “first time.” Or the second, third or 50th time. But give Trump credit. He is a persistent teacher. For several years, Fox News and Trump’s lyin’ propagandists have convinced many folks that it’s all Fake News. It’s a “deep state” conspiracy. No collusion. No obstruction. Not a racist bone in the man’s body.
But we Americans are blessed to have a president who is not just corrupt and dishonest. He would be exponentially more dangerous if he weren’t so ignorant and needy. But, thank goodness, he is.
I am buoyantly optimistic because the decent people in our country drastically outnumber the indecent. Polls are relatively meaningless. They don’t capture the overwhelming disgust that the younger generation feels at this president. They don’t capture the grassroots groundswell of black voters, particularly women, who will march over any obstacles put in their path to the voting place. They don’t capture the pent-up fury of millions of decent people who will engage in the 2020 election because they know they must.
Trump has spent his entire campaign and presidency trying to show America who he is. He won’t stop because he can’t. He is a sick man. The end is nigh.
Steve Nelson lives in Boulder, Colo., and Sharon. He can be reached at stevehutnelson@gmail.com.