The hate mail has slowed down.
It hasn't stopped, and I'm probably inviting more of it with this column, though if you're thinking about sending me some you probably should understand I find it hard to imagine a well-adjusted adult wasting much time firing off nasty emails to people they don't know or leaving anonymous comments online. But for some folks it's like watching baseball.
The reasons are obvious; at least a few of the folks who were so ready to defend this brave new POTUS have gotten tired of his act. The only folks still defending him either have a vested interest in his personal success or got sucked into the Say Macintosh/Clinton Chronicles matrix back in the '90s. People still share that list of "mysterious" deaths, and people who know better still refuse to denounce it as utter garbage. Just like some people will still argue that Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
It's hard to take those people seriously, even if that on some other level they're perfectly reasonable taxpayers. I regard them pretty much the same way as those folks who believe pro wrasslin' is a legitimate athletic contest.
Maybe that's not true. Most pro wrasslin' fans understand the WWE is scripted. They just go along with the kefaybe because wrasslin' is more fun if you pretend to believe in it. That's not so hard to understand. We suspend our disbelief for movies. They suspend their disbelief for whoever the big pro wrestlers are these days. It's fun.
At least some of the people who talk about politics in overheated ways know what they're saying isn't the truth; it's just the rhetoric that scores the most points. I don't think for a second that Donald Trump ever doubted that Obama was born in Hawaii, and a lot of the people who have parroted that opinion know it's a ludicrious position. They also know it resonates with a certain unwashed TV-fed voter, the sort who hasn't the patience for nuanced policy arguments but loves the drama.
Some people really want to believe they're living in a spy novel, that the black helicopters are coming to get their guns, and they might have to shoot it out with roving bands of Muslim zombies any day now. This sort of paranoia isn't unique to the right, though the right has been better at providing fan service.
Progressives may have the higher-brow comedians (John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee) but their self-selected elitist audiences tune in for the show then go about their lives. Matt Drudge, Sean Hannity, Alex Jones and even that delicate flower Rush Limbaugh command acolytes willing to stuff dollars into envelopes and mail them off to fight the liberal menace.
Which is a complete canard. Richard Nixon was more "liberal" than Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump is no kind of conservative--he's just a vulgar, self-consciously rich guy who tramples on norms, a nihilistic opportunist who cares for nothing other than his own personal enrichment and self-aggrandizement.
Most of America, and now even close to half of Arkansas, recognizes that.
Sure, he still has his supporters. Every demagogue has supporters. There is a frighteningly high percentage of the population--maybe 20 percent--who would genuinely welcome fascism. More of the people who voted for Trump were doing so because they didn't like the Democratic alternative, which was understandable to a point. I would have preferred another candidate (as I wrote last year, my preferred presidential race would have been between dull John Kasich and amiable Martin O'Malley) but while Clinton was problematic, Trump was unfit.
My main objection to Trump has always been that he's a con man and a grifter devoid of any moral substance. And I'm still disappointed that so many Americans voted to reward a lifetime of bad behavior.
That's not to let Clinton and the Democrats off the hook; she campaigned poorly and actually helped legitimize Trump's campaign. (She was likely gleeful when he won the Republican nomination.)
Now you've got your Not Hillary. And most of you, in your heart, know it's pretty awful.
Most people, no matter what they think their political philosophy is, tend to decide which personalities they like, then build a rationale for voting for them. The louder they shout, the less serious they tend to be about finding genuinely workable ways to move the country forward. Most people like to identify with one tribe or the other; they like to dress up and play conservative or progressive. They like the circus of the TV shouters. They expect to be entertained.
I was once amused by people who called themselves "political animals" and wore buttons and ribbons. It was healthy fun; if some people wanted to wear blue face paint and others wanted to wear red, it was just part of the rich American pageant. I used to regard politics as a necessary but minor part of life. While there were real differences between parties, all of us were basically on the same side. I used to believe that to be an American meant something.
It meant we were supposed to try to be brave. We were supposed to recognize that if we wanted to be free to say what we wanted and to worship as we pleased, we were compelled to extend that courtesy to others. It meant that we didn't try to kill each other with tax cuts for our patrons. It meant that while we acknowledged that government's role in maintaining civilization, we never took the sometimes pitiable people trying to salve their wounded egos by running for office too seriously. It meant we laughed at the idea of big daddies, the sort of swaggering rulers who'd put themselves above the law. Who would rule by fiat and fear.
You can claim you didn't know about Trump (though plenty of people told you) but you can't pretend you don't know now. Maybe it's starting to sink in. Our bystander Congress hasn't the courage to help us.
God save Robert Mueller and the Deep State.
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Philip Martin is a columnist and critic for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at pmartin@arkansasonline.com and read his blog at blooddirtandangels.com.
Editorial on 08/01/2017