Are we ready to turn the page on Trump? (Corrected Version)
What to do with your anger and sadness
Friends, Our apologies for the technical error which abbreviated this post. We were thankfully able to restore the full post, and you can read it below.
Michael
The June 7 primaries provide further evidence that Trump is not quite in control of the Republican electorate. After Brian Kemp’s resounding victory in Georgia, June 7 provided several more examples of establishment Republicans fending off right-wing, Trump-supporting primary challengers. Anyone who believes Trump is a singular threat to democracy, and a uniquely damaging force in the Republican Party, has enough evidence to go on now that merits both the aspiration and the effort of seeing to a Republican Party beyond Trump.
Unfortunately, there are powerful forces and people in the Republican Party, in the Democratic Party, in news media and in the advocacy world who are invested in the ever-looming presence of Donald Trump. Republicans like Kevin McCarthy continue to foolishly believe they can channel the attention Trump gins up toward their own ends, even as we’ve seen conclusively that it is Donald Trump who channels the obsequious deference of people like Kevin McCarthy for his purposes. Some Democrats and progressive activists are eager to malign Republicans, even those who seem to want to move beyond and away from Trump, as beholden to Trump. News media not only give Trump significant airtime, but constantly ask Republican officeholders to position themselves in relation to Trump and his latest antics, reinforcing a perception of Trump’s power.
Now, I believe Trump still has influence. I even believe there needs to be further accounting for who he was and what he did as president, including on January 6, 2021, which is why I’d encourage you to watch tonight’s public hearing.
But I do want to ask a question: do we really want to quit Trump? Do you? If so, it’s worth considering what a viable path forward is for the Republican Party which leads to success, not self-immolation, beyond Trump. And willing it to be so.
I’ve been angry and sad…
As each new piece of information, each new interview, trickles out regarding what happened in Uvalde, Texas, my body grows tenser, my language coarser, my outlook more despondent.
On Saturday, it was this interview.
Today, it was this one.
Maybe you’ve been feeling angry and sad, too. What are we to do with these thoughts and emotions? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Vent (first) in private
Talk openly with someone you trust, with whom you need no caveats or hedging, and just express how you’re processing these events. We’re all so used to broadcasting our thoughts, that I’ve found we sometimes forget what it feels like to express our raw thinking in a way that is low stakes, and that does not come with the filter of mediating our thoughts for public expression or approval. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by emotion, come to terms first with what you actually think, how you’re actually processing things, before doing anything else. And you should do that in community, with someone who knows you, if you can.
Not to be a broken record on this, but do know that you can take all of your feelings to the Lord. He can handle them.
2. It isn’t all politics
Recognize that not everything wrong in the world, not everything worthy of repudiation, requires or is appropriate for political action or advocacy. I think the law enforcement officials who were there that day, particularly those who were in charge, ought to resign. I believe their conduct was shameful, and that they should be ashamed enough to find a new line of work. I don’t know if I want the Mayor of Uvalde or any other official calling for that. I don’t necessarily think it would be right, or that it would even be compatible with the kind of justice and propriety I am seeking, for there to be any political pressure for this to happen. I do not have to have that worked out in order to express my moral sense that this would be just and appropriate. Not every expression, not every desire, needs to make its way into discrete political action.
3. Take What is Healthy For Politics, Into Politics
That being said, I feel comfortable arguing that surely if government is good for anything, if legislating should ever be done at all, there surely must be political action that can be taken to make what happened in Uvalde (and Buffalo, and Ames, and…) less likely to happen elsewhere. We do not need to look to politics to soothe or displace our anger or our sadness. We do not need to claim this legislation or that legislation would solve the problem of gun violence. We should not claim that those who oppose our favored policy approach “have blood on their hands.” But it is a natural and generally healthy approach to respond, substantively, to such evil and such dysfunction. As I’ve called for many times in recent weeks, and will continue to demand, let’s pass commonsense gun safety legislation now.
4. Punch a wall
OK, I can’t really say this is a suggestion, and I have not done it myself these past few weeks. But, look, all I’m saying is I wouldn’t blame you…
I would like to read the rest. It cuts off mid-sentence.
I have abandoned Trump... He has proven that he is not a good judge of character. He is also now allowing his ego to get in the way of what is good for America. His endorsement of candidates he thinks can win (vs. the best person for the job) has become untenable. His endorsement of Dr. Oz was the last straw... I am now a Ron DeSantis supporter. P.S. I threw my Trump hat into the trash last week.