Donald Trump’s America: Welcome to the void

Trump is a born campaigning demagogue. But will he be too lazy to rule?

by Sam Tanenhaus / November 10, 2016 / Leave a comment
Published in December 2016 issue of Prospect Magazine

You’re hired: Trump’s image projected on the Empire State Building on the night of his election victory ©Smith/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock/

In the early hours of 9th November, at the tag-end of perhaps the most improbable election night in history, tens of millions of Americans who had spent a long night absorbed in a heart-stopping drama of Donald Trump’s astounding victory, staggered off to bed knowing one big thing: a revolution had happened. But what would come next? It was too much even for seasoned heads to fathom.

A 70-year-old washed-up television celebrity, with a dubious fortune made in real-estate and “branding,” had ridden a gift for rousing large crowds (which sometimes assumed the ugly character of mobs) into the presidency. Some candidates grow over time. Trump did too, but only in the sense that he got bigger—not wiser, not deeper, not better. At the end of the campaign, which began in June 2015, he continued to exhibit an almost brazen indifference to policy and governance—even to the ground rules of politics. He had exasperated handlers and advisers, declined even to do rudimentary homework for his debates with Hillary Clinton. More ominously still, he had dismally failed every attempt at governing himself—his appetites, his grievances, his thirst for vengeance, his childish need to have the last tweeted word.

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DEBUG messsage: regular

A Donald Trump supporter walks through New York ©Anders Ahlgren/TT/TT News Agency/Press Association Images

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Comments

StephenKMackSD
November 11, 2016 at 14:58
Tanenhaus' flair for Political Melodrama almost rivals that of Cukor's 1943 MGM potboiler 'The Keeper of the Flame'. Starring the celebrated Tracy and Hepburn, playing their respective roles, as brave inquiring reporter, and the anguished wife of a politician secretly allied with Fascism. Script by Donald Ogden Stewart, who was eventually Blacklisted. Premature Antifascist? The great advantage of 'Keeper' is that it had two actors of high reputation, and a script that kept the melodrama moving. With Mr Tanenhaus' essay the reader is condemned to actually having to read his prose awash in near breathless hyperbole. After his exercise in hyperbole, Mr. Tanenhaus recap of the political story descends to the level of good grey reportage, with stock heroes and villains of the American political establishment making quick entrances, as the in order to of keeping his rickety melodrama moving. And quoting perpetual political dull wit Colin Powell as some kind of 'American Statesmen' is exemplary of this writers grasp of the American political scene! And true to form, the alliance between Trump and Putin, and Putin and Assange seek to make concrete, in the readers mind, the New Cold War narrative, of an ever present 5th Column in the midst of American political virtue. Additionally, brevity is not a Tanenhaus practice. What is most telling is that Mr. Tanenhaus has missed the most salient statistic of all, in this presidential race: 49.6% of all voters did not cast a vote for Trump or Clinton. The meaning of this is stark in its clarity, almost half the voters were so disaffected from both candidates, that they did not vote for either! One half of voters decided this contest between two loathsome politicians. StephenKMackSD
Reply
JamesG
November 12, 2016 at 14:29
"More ominously still, he had dismally failed every attempt at governing himself—his appetites, his grievances, his thirst for vengeance, his childish need to have the last tweeted word.More ominously still, he had dismally failed every attempt at governing himself—his appetites, his grievances, his thirst for vengeance, his childish need to have the last tweeted word." Not true. He began using Teleprompters weeks ago. He tweeted a stupid message about the riots and retracted it the next day. Did you not hear his acceptance speech? He did moderate his behavior. He did it very late but he has done it. I look forward to the knee-jerk Trump haters to do the same.
Reply
Anthony St. John
November 13, 2016 at 08:12
Great observations. But one was left out. The decline of Western Civilization. These are just symptoms of that disaster in the making.
Reply
Anthony St. John
November 13, 2016 at 08:13
I'm not a robot
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