Hope After Trump?

On June 7^th, 2025, Nicholas Kristoff, of the New York Times wrote a provocative piece titled:  “Hope After Trump”.

I am a sympathetic observer on the (somewhat safer) Canadian side of the Canada – U.S. border.  I’m concerned that Mr. Kristoff, like many Americans, is whistling past the graveyard.  So, I add a question mark.

Don’t think of an elephant.  Think of a herd of elephants.

(First, a word of explanation.  I almost never name the President of the U.S.  He could not be doing what he is doing except that he is being enabled by the Republican Party.  When the mid-terms roll around, Republican members of the House of Representatives, Senators, state Governors and others need to be held to account for what they support enthusiastically or reluctantly.  They cannot be allowed to say something like, “I’m in a different branch of government.  If you don’t like what he is doing vote your anger when the next Presidential election rolls around.”)

“Trumpism” is not an aberration for Americans to live through, retaining some shards of democracy with the hope of a return to full democracy on the other side of the next election.

The U.S.A. is not a democracy

Right now U.S. is not a democracy.  The trajectory doesn’t suggest any early or easy return to democracy.  Democracy doesn’t really exist because of a country’s Constitution, or its decision-making institutions and processes.  Democracy is known by the ends it sets for itself.  Is the U.S.A free from tyranny and forces that run amok?  The answer is ‘no’.  Is the U.S.A a harmonious community in which citizens attempt to live together notwithstanding differences?  The answer is ‘no’.  Does the U.S.A. accept the rule of law, equally applicable to every person and organization, and does it value the pursuit of justice?  The answer is ‘no’.  Does the U.S.A. accept the natural equality of all people?  The answer is ‘no’.  Does the U.S.A. value education for citizenship?  Is that kind of education equally available to all?  The answer is ‘no’.  Does the U.S.A. believe in the wise outcome of deliberations by all citizens?  The answer is ‘no’.

Some readers may respond that surveys of American opinion indicate that a majority of Americans do believe in some or all of these ends:  they retain some strong sense of democracy.  To which I respond, the authoritarian doesn’t care about the opinions of the majority of Americans.  He cares about the opinion of the plurality who support him no matter what he says or does.  So he works all the levers he has at hand to encourage his base alone, no matter what the majority signals.

As far as the Republicans are concerned, they are winning with the only constituency that matters

When the Republican administration sends troops into Los Angeles and opinion polls suggest that a majority of Americans are opposed, commentators opine that this is a ‘loser’ for the Republicans.  But the Republican calculation disregards the majority altogether:  as far as the Republican leader is concerned the action is a winner.

Among the base of the Republican Party, many have been very clear that they do not want democracy and will work hard to maintain an anti-democratic trajectory.  Some Republicans argue in favour of a technocratic neo-monarch.  Some argue that the U.S. is a republic which, they say, is not a democracy and is even better than a democracy.  Some argue that many of the drafters of the U.S. Constitution opposed the very idea of democracy (which they did.  I always chose to think that there were enough proto-democrats involved in the drafting of the Constitution that they successfully crafted something they hoped might allow the emergence of democracy, eventually.)

Democracy usually dies from inattention and starvation

When the Republican administration of the U.S. sends Marines into Los Angeles, over the objections of the Mayor and the Governor of the State, it is delusional to use the term “competitive authoritarianism” as though such a condition is a slow moving, more or less stable state, from which democrats may claw their way back to some semblance of democracy.  Authoritarians allow ‘competition’ only as a transitional stage — useful for only so long as is necessary to demolish any and all limits on their power.  The faster the limits can be removed the faster the ‘competition’ is removed.  Unlike Mr. Orban and others, the Republican administration immediately looks past “competitive authoritarianism” toward very ordinary authoritarianism.  The Leader of the Republican Party NEVER sees  limits. His life’s experience is that he denies the existence of any limits on his ambitions.

So many commentators appear surprised that every single thing the Leader of the Republican Party does is for his personal benefit and is pushed as though there is no limit.  The surprise astonishes me. News and book writers have archives going back more than 50 years, replete with the man’s complete disregard for limits, his personal corruption, his complete disregard for others, and his petty bullying.

Democracy is inevitable, but not immortal.  It dies in flames and is reborn.

The U.S. is demonstrating that democracy is not embedded in a Constitution, or black letter law or bureaucracies and cannot be preserved by any of these.  Democracy is inevitable (and at some point it will come to all), but it is not immortal.  It has lived and died any number of times, and it inevitably dies when the public is found to be negligent, or without character or courage.  American democracy did not die from a single blow, or even from 1,000 tiny cuts (although they have been grotesquely administered to the dying body).  American democracy died of malnutrition and starvation when those who should have nourished it – citizens, media, and politicians — turned their attention to other matters.  So far, I have seen a few individual judges, corporate and academic and religious leaders, media commentators and some American citizens with character and courage.  But so far, the Republican administrations believes such people lack the courage and character to persevere.  We shall see what the next few months reveal.

America is not in good shape to save itself

Mr. Kristoff finds comfort in the future prospects of American democracy by looking to the economy and some very fragile institutions.  Any nation’s economy is a measure of the justice available to all citizens.  By that standard, the American  economy is not in good shape.  The federal courts have “mostly” stood strong, but they haven’t yet been forcefully challenged.  (Consider:  Appeals Court Rules that Trump can Restrict A.P. Journalists’ Access.  NYT. June 8))  “Some law firms” have mostly stood strong, but many have caved.  Harvard University has stood strong, while many of the more than 5,500 other post-secondary institutions in the country have already caved.  The University of Florida has just repudiated the appointment of a new President because the State of Florida opposes the appointment.

And what about saving the rest of the world?

Mr. Kristoff writes, “On balance, I think the United States can recover from Trump at home.  I’m less confident that the United States can fix the Trumpian mess internationally.”  The U.S. has doesn’t need to worry about fixing the mess this Republican administration has created internationally, although a mea culpa would be appreciated.  The rest of the world knows full well that the U.S. can’t be relied on, at all.  For better or worse, the international fixing that goes on in future will be led by others who will treat the U.S. as a presence, sometimes a drag, and sometimes an asset.  For years to come, no matter what happens domestically, the international community will be always uncertain about which U.S. will show up.

Conclusion

As for the U.S. recovering from Mr. Trump at home.  Of course.  It only took Germany – complete destruction, 20 years, and the Marshall Plan.