By Sid Schwab / Herald Columnist
Well, that was disappointing.
Since I’ve been wrong about the essential goodness of the American people, I can only hope I’m also wrong about the consequences of Donald Trump doing everything he’s promised with all guardrails removed.
No checks, bygone balances. Elon Musk. Stephen Miller. RFK Jr., J.D. Vance in a couple of years. Tucker Carlson. A Cabinet of unqualified yes-people. Mass deportation (if your roof needs replacing, better get it done right away). Inflationary tariffs. The Department of Justice turned into a vehicle of vengeance; the military turned against protestors. America stepping away from Ukraine and, likely, Gaza and the West Bank; handing Europe to Russia. Pulling out of NATO? The United Nations, too? Outlawing vaccines, or just mandates. Eliminating Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service. We’ll see. If so, it won’t be only blue states that will be on their own when disasters strike.
Pregnant women will die. So will the free press. Science and education will succumb to calculated ignorance. Kids will get cavities. Measles. And, maybe, polio. Pollution will sully the land, which will warm even faster. These things the voters want and we must accept that.
I’d like to think it was an “in spite of” election, but I’d be wrong about that, too. It was a “because of” election. The uglier Trump’s rhetoric became, the louder they cheered. Whatever happens, however dictatorial, it’s what the voting majority wants, and I’ll have to live with that. At my age, it won’t be for long. But my sweet, innocent, loving, empathetic grandchildren? I can’t think about them without wanting to cry. Like the rest of us, they live in the Pacific Northwest, where good-hearted people are still and so far in the majority. So there’s that.
Does the Democratic Party need to search its soul? Do they need to bend the arc of their message toward Trumpism? No. They need to keep standing for what’s right. Maybe, after four years of Trump, people will see and hear, and remember for what America once stood. Assuming they’re not in camps and voting is still a thing.
That’s it. That’s all I have to say. It can, it did happen here. Lawrence Ferlinghetti said it best:
“Pity the nation whose people are sheep, and whose shepherds mislead them.
“Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced, and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
“Pity the nation that raises not its voice, except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
“Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own and no other culture but its own.
“Pity the nation whose breath is money and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
“Pity the nation — oh, pity the people — who allow their rights to erode and their freedoms to be washed away.
“My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.”
Or maybe it’s gonna be great.
Email Sid Schwab at columnsid@gmail.com.
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