In “1984” the Winston Smith character finally reads the book which gives him the truth about the society in which he lives and how it actually came to be, a tale far different from the one he was taught in school. He opines, “the best books are the ones that tell you what you already know.” I had that exact experience this morning when reading Jennifer Rubin’s latest column. She pops the MAGA balloon six ways to Sunday.
Donald Trump wants to Make America Great Again, presupposing that America has lost something. That there was some halcyon time of unity and bipartisanship in government (wrong. Conflict is baked in, although we did used to be a bit more civil) and that people had it so much better. Not so. Here are a few stats from the past, the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s the era that Trump remembers as so wonderful but the facts don’t bear that out.
The past was simply not “better” by any objective standard. Economically, we were all a lot poorer. “In 1960, there were roughly 400 vehicles per 1,000 Americans, about half of today’s car ownership rate. In other words, a family in 1960 could afford a car on one income, but today they would have two cars,” Matthew Yglesias wrote. Tom Nichols has written extensively on the politics of false memory. (“Times are always bad. Nothing gets better. And the past 50 years have not been a temporary economic purgatory but a permanent hell, if only the elites would be brave enough to peer through the gloom and see it all for what it is,” he wrote. “This obsession with decline is one of the myths surrounding postindustrial democracy that will not die.”)
Crime was higher by a lot in the 1970s. Poverty, child mortality, deaths from virtually any major disease, workplace injuries, high school dropout rates, etc., were all much worse in the 1950s. Also, kids got polio, Jim Crow was in full swing, gays had to be in the closet and no one had cellphones, home computers or microwave ovens. Very few people had air conditioning or could afford to fly.
Much more could be added to this list. Reliable birth control and being able to access safe and legal abortions are major steps forward, at least if you’re a female you have perceived them as such. And abortion rights are on the line right now, in the return to a “great” America of the past.
We have it so much better on levels that we don’t even recognize, the improvements are so baked into the cake. I know young people who never drove a car before the era of the GPS. They have no idea what a Thomas guide, is, a book of maps that you bloody well owned if you ever lived in Los Angeles. It was your way to figure out where you were going. The ability to put the cell phone on a stand attached to the dashboard and have a pleasant voice give you directions, and help you redirect yourself if you mess up, is a miracle invention. Yet we’re so used to it that nobody even thinks about it. Would Trumpty take us back to an age when that simple luxury didn’t exist?
Rubin then proceeds to blow up these notions of bipartisan unity — what Trump really means is that he will bring unity to America by being a dictator. There will be nothing bipartisan about it.
You can flip through the history of presidential insults, devastating feuds and congressional violence. None of this suggests we ever enjoyed a sustained halcyon period of unity. To be certain, we had brief interludes when World War II united the country and when the ideological gaps between the parties were not as vast. However, we “got things done” mostly when one party (in modern times, usually Republicans) got wiped out in elections, leaving Democrats to construct the New Deal and the Great Society. Republicans vilified Democrats every step of the way (even testing out a coup against Franklin D. Roosevelt).
What we have not had before is a president who rejected democracy, attempted to retain power by force and wound up indicted on 91 criminal counts. So yes, four-times-indicted Donald Trump was worse than every president who preceded him. The resulting venom, violence and loss of faith in elections have taken a heavy toll on our democracy.
Where does that leave us? The past (especially the immediate past president!) was infinitely worse in myriad ways. (This is not to say that we don’t have our problems, from climate change to homelessness to suicide; we do, however, have more resources and knowledge to address these.) Conflict and even violence have been a constant presence in American life. But so, too, has been progress, albeit halting at times, toward greater freedom and prosperity. We generally are living healthier, longer lives. If nothing else, the 21st century is evidence that we are a resilient people.
So, as we look forward to 2024 be wary: Nostalgia, especially nostalgia for a time of less freedom, less opportunity and fewer rights for many of us, is the stuff of snake-oil salesmen. Instead, bet on American progress.
This is spot on. Trump, God forbid he gets reelected, will lead us straight to the gates of Hell. Nowhere else. He’s running for the worst possible reasons, as a desperate, eleventh hour power play to save himself from his legal problems and possible incarceration. It’s sheer madness that he’s even gotten this far.
But, you know why that is: concurrent with the ascension of Trump and responsible for the ascension of Trump, is the collapse of the Republican party. Trump is the instrumentality of their final demise. He is the knife that the party is using to commit political seppuku. Republicans are banding together behind the MAGA fringe looney leader because there is nobody else. The GOP primary has shown us the shallowness of the Republican bench. So, since they’ve got nothing going better than the charismatic cult leader, then that’s who shall be on the top of their ticket. Again.
And if the past three elections, which the Republicans have lost have taught us anything, it’s that they will lose again. The GOP right now is hoping for a miracle, although even they — and even Trump, for that matter — know that as the trials proceed, Trump looks worse and worse all the time. One conviction and he’s toast. The GOP will not be able to lie or spin its way out of that. Although they’ll probably try.
The GOP will collapse and something new will arise. Nature abhors a vacuum. What that will look like or when it will be only the Oracle at Delphi knows. Maybe not even her, at this point.
The truth is politicians have long done this. They conjure up visions of “simpler times” because people’s memories fade on how dark or difficult past times actually were, or make them think of childhood, where parents try to shield their children from harsh realities. And of course there were these fictional, idealized families on TV and Trump sure as hell remembers that because one of the few things he knows and worse knows how to manipulate is TV.
The thing is, this shit works and does so more often than we want to admit.
United States of America. You in trouble girl.
More so if the complacency sets in when it should be eradicated.
When ignorance is bliss, there is something amiss.
As a kid born in 1953, to working class parents, who never owned a home, I don’t recall having much stuff. What I did have was the great outdoors, something few seem to treasure, with noses perpetually stuck looking into a phone or with earbuds in their ears. When I see people walking outside, I see them with a phone reading, or talking to someone, or listening with an ear bud stuck in their ear. It seems silly to me when you can do that crap while at home indoors. I actually feel lucky to have been forced to entertain myself or create games outdoors with my friends. Something has been lost. The art of conversation is another casualty since everyone is looking down at their phone. Good times for chiropractors! We do have more material wealth and access to more information, but it seems huge segments of our citizens don’t know much really about anything real. If so, please explain how a criminal fraud like Trump could ascent to the office of President even with foreign help.
Your parents did right by you, Scott, by affording you access to the great outdoors. Many people equate it to GOD. That feels right to me.
The one thing that I think I’d like to see return from the 50s–Trump and MAGAts’ mythical golden age of greatness–is the 80+% tax rate for millionaires and large corporations. (Of course, that rate would have to account for income differences between then and now. The top income bracket in the 1950s started at $400,000–the equivalent of an average of $4.5 million in today’s dollars.)
Remember the writings of Tom Peters?…the great business consultant/author of “In Search of Excellence,” “Thriving on Chaos,” and my favorite “The Pursuit of Wow!” He used to warn against “the false nostalgia for shitty times.” We can’t return to our heyday because it is always ahead of us. It sure feels better to work on a heyday that I am creating rather than looking for one that some already dead people may have had a hand in. Just sayin’!