The Long Game

One sign of the declining maturity of the American voter is the extent to which he is impressed by the electoral successes of his chosen candidates or party with seemingly no thought of what use those candidates make of the trust that has been conferred upon them.  I should perhaps revise that statement because I may be jumping to an unjustified conclusion.

I spend considerable time, probably far more time than is good for my mental well-being, reading through the comments threads on internet opinion and news articles.  And I have no way of knowing to what extent the attitudes expressed in those comments reflect those of the voting public at large.  But the comments reveal a mean-spiritedness, a contempt for the public good and a total lack of respect for the responsibility we have as voters to be educated about the values that shaped the founding of this country and the issues that currently confront it.

This phenomenon manifests itself most prominently at the moment in the words of Donald Trump's most devoted followers.  Like rabid sports fans who derive some sense of self-worth from the performance of local teams even though they themselves play no part in that performance, Trump followers seem to be under the influence of some mind-altering drug ever since the election.  They seem to believe themselves members of some privileged class with the authority to silence all dissenters with childish epithets, profanity and over-the-top verdicts on their motives and fates.

The fact that Trump won the election means more to them than whether or not he actually follows through on the positions he appeared to champion during the campaign.  For example, before November 8, Trump couldn't pronounce Hillary Clinton's name without putting the word "Crooked" before it.  His rallies were punctuated with chants of "Lock her up!"  He once told Clinton to her face, during a debate, that if he were president, she would be behind bars.

What a difference a day makes.  In his first post-election interview he said that the Clintons are "good people" and that he doesn't want to see them hurt.  Those of us who had concluded, based on his history, that Trump has no fixed principles, felt vindicated.  He says what he thinks he needs to say to get what he wants at any given moment.  The Trump worshipers who praised his mastery of the Art of the Deal didn't realize that they were the ones being played.  Trump wanted their votes.  Now that he's gotten the votes, he doesn't need the voters anymore.

But the Trump supporters don't seem to care.  They possess a strange mental flexibility that allows them to celebrate his new positions even if they're 180 degrees from the positions they cheered 2 months ago.  Because Trump is a winner and they want to believe they are associated with him and his victories.  Meanwhile, the question of what is the best policy for preserving a free republic goes completely unaddressed.