In the 1964 film The Best Man, Henry Fonda and Cliff
Robertson portrayed rivals for the presidential nomination of an unidentified political
party. Fonda’s William Russell and Robertson’s Joe Cantwell are polar
opposites, the former an intellectual who believes that policy should be
formulated through reason and principles, while the latter is a populist
demagogue and red-baiter who nevertheless has support by important party
leaders because he gives off the aura of “getting things done.” Both have their
skeletons hiding in the closet: Russell has a history of womanizing and had
once suffered a serious mental health issue, while Cantwell behind the scenes
has been engaging in unethical and possibly illegal chicanery to undermine
Russell—and there is a former military colleague willing to testify that he had
a homosexual dalliance with Cantwell years ago. Both men have utter contempt
for each other, as do their supporters, but three other “moderate” candidates
prevent either one from receiving a majority of the delegates. Russell is too “principled”
to use the charge of homosexuality against Cantwell, which likely would have
swayed enough delegates to win him the nomination. Instead, recognizing that neither
he nor Cantwell are the “best man,” Russell releases his delegates to support
Gov. John Merwin, who ends-up winning the nomination.
Wouldn’t it be
nice if we could elect the “best” person for the job of being president of the
United States? It never really happens, although this country has come close to
doing so a few times (Abraham Lincoln, FDR), but more usually it is a contest
between the lesser of two evils, and as we saw in 2016, sometimes not even
that. This season on the Democratic side, Joe Biden initially seemed to be the “best”
of a not particularly inspiring field; unfortunately, Biden no longer seems
mentally up to the task to thwart the relentless assaults on common sense and
human decency posed by Donald Trump. Elizabeth Warren is the next in line, but
with her I’m already seeing a nightmare scenario of her losing by a landslide
just as another out-there liberal, George McGovern, did in 1972 despite the
Watergate scandal starting to enter the public conscience. Unfortunately, there
doesn’t seem to be anyone available with enough gravitas to simply step in the
ring at this late date (and it ain’t Hillary Clinton), and it is rare for a
relative “unknown” like Barack Obama to step in and immediately excite the
better angels in the greater part of the electorate.
But that leaves
us with the problem of Donald Trump, who is clearly as unfit as much as he
never was even close to being the “best” candidate for president. What makes
Trump so dangerous and contemptible is that he never expected to be elected
president to begin with, and thus felt uninhibited to expectorate the most despicable
and dehumanizing outrages on the campaign trail, claiming a desire to “Make
America Great Again” when in fact he was espousing nativist and fascist
propaganda that would insure that the opposite would happen. Most Republicans
who styled themselves as leaders of the party, as opposed to fringe fanatics
like Sen. Jeff Sessions and the “Freedom Caucus” in the House, feared that
Trump was not just unelectable but would damage the party’s image for years to
come. Instead, Trump not only won the election but allowed the worst impulses
of an extremist minority of the population to rise up and take control of public
policy. We saw this when Trump switched gears on condemning the violence by
fascists in Charlottesville, and when he abandoned a bipartisan deal on DACA—referring
to its recipients as coming from “shithole” countries—after being warned that
it would upset his extremist, white nationalist “base.”
Time and time
again Trump was provided opportunities to act with decency and humanity, and he
has repeatedly failed, demonstrating that his word can never be trusted to mean
anything unless it benefits his own twisted narcissism. When he can’t get his
way, he has demonized and dehumanized the “opposition,” referring to them
(among other things) “human scum.” Every time he claims he wants to “discuss”
an issue with those of a differing view, it is always a one-way conversation—his
way, or the ravings of a spoiled child. Even at those times when he was
persuaded to say or do the “right” thing, you knew that he was only forced to
do so, for within a day or two he would tweet what he really thought—or like
the child separation policy, sign an “executive order” allegedly to end it, and
then just keep on doing it. I mean, this is a man who told us that he had
lecherous feelings for his own daughter. Even when he tries to “impress” the press
with evidence of actually thinking-through his pronouncements, he typically
only demonstrates that he has given the matter at hand no thought at all before
opening his mouth; it is all just what he “feels” in his “gut.”
Everything
Trump has done comes not from reasoned principle, but from his and his
familiars worst, most feral impulses and instincts. Nothing he has done makes
any sense. Willy-nilly he has created never-ending trade “wars,” abandoning the
Pacific trade alliance treaty that was meant to thwart Chinese dominance simply
because it had Obama’s signature on it. He treats our long-time allies with
shared democratic values the “enemy,” and has called the forces arraigned
against democracy our—or rather, his—best friends. He has made mock of this
country’s moral leadership role on the international stage, or being a trusted
partner in shared goals when confronting global issues, particularly in regard
to climate change. This is a man who puffs himself up by bullying like a coward
desperate, vulnerable people—especially their children—seeking to escape U.S.-bred violence
“deported” to their already impoverished countries, not helped by the
re-introduction of the banana republic-style presence of American companies
through CAFTA. Again and again, Trump holds forth before delirious crowds who
are completely blind to his folly and crimes, because he has given voice to
those who should never have been allowed to take control of a civilized
society.
If this
country was meant to be a demi-fascist dictatorship aided by a political party
that in the main has unwaveringly—and often fanatically—supports the activities
and rhetoric of the would-be dictator, then it has the “best man” for the job
in Trump. The evil that he has allowed to escape may never be returned to the
box that in the past had opened only just enough to allow the demons of
xenophobia and nativism to slip through. Now that the box has been kicked wide
open, every instinct that makes this country not “great” has been given license
to be acted out—with Trump the principle bandleader and cheerleader. It would seem an easy problem to fix to find
someone who is “better” person for the job, and I’m sure that deep down many
Republicans know Trump isn’t the “best,” and would prefer someone else. But “normal”
Republicans no longer control the party’s “message”—Trump and the extremist-right
fringe in this country does.
That leaves us
for the Democrats to find the “best” person for the job, and instead it looks
like it will come down once again to the “lesser” of two evils—with the
difference being that the electorate may this time see that it is indeed Trump
who is the greater evil, which he always was, and is.
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