Readjusting to Trump's America

In both my head and my heart, I knew that Donald Trump and MAGA were going to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats. For the last few years, I have desperately tried to warn the public of this growing reality. I am not a “doomsayer” or “alarmist.” I am a realist committed to democracy and the hard work it takes to protect it. Black Americans, as a people, deeply understand and carry this history and lived experience and the knowledge and burden of democracy as contingent and imperiled in our collective bodies, psyches, and memories. For us, America has only been a democracy for sixty years. As I often remind myself, there are white people alive right now who personally watched (and participated in) the lynchings of Black people during the Jim and Jane Crow terror regime. Unfortunately, too few Americans listened. 

Even worse, as seen last Tuesday, there are tens of millions of Americans, who want what Trump and his fascist MAGA movement are offering. A week later, the words do not exist yet to accurately describe such a national and global tragedy.

I was not going to watch the election results on Tuesday. My plan was to go somewhere far away from the television or any screen. I planned to read about the election that night or the next day. I relented. For reasons of “history” and professional responsibility, I decided to turn on the TV to confirm my worries in real time. I knew that this version of the United States of America was not going to elect a supremely qualified Black woman even if the alternative is an aspiring dictator who is a White man. And there it was, the creeping inevitability that became a torrent. The hosts and guests on the cable news networks — two in particular — looked sickened as 2016 repeated itself and they tried to convince themselves and the viewers that matters could not possibly be so dire and that somehow Harris was going to find a way to win.

At 9 pm I turned off the cable news programs and decided there was no need to watch the American people doom themselves in real time. I put on my old Army trench coat and boots and, as I have on many days, and especially in these monumental moments, I made my pilgrimage to Trump Tower in downtown Chicago. I would sit there and think and try to find some peace as I talked to myself and looked up at that horrible building. I asked several of my friends who are psychologists about my ritual. Is it healthy? They told me that my trips to Trump Tower are a reasonable and positive response to extreme danger and stress because, unlike others, I am making Trump and Trumpism into something tangible so I can manage my feelings and do my work properly. They both added that if I were not doing something like taking these long walks they would be very concerned about my state of mind because it would indicate, that like too many of their patients, I am in a state of deep denial and/or not finding a constructive way to work through my feelings.

So, I walked all over downtown Chicago in the rain at night. There were only a few people outside at first and I felt like I was in some type of bad film noir, a Black man wearing an old trench coat in the rain as his country succumbs to fascism is walking to one of the headquarters of the elected dictator. I walked by the emergency room of one of the big hospitals downtown. Sometimes I go to the emergency room late at night to gain some life perspective. So many people are experiencing hard times in this country.

The rain had stopped. There were more people outside. Some were drunk. Others were dressed up like they were going to a fancy party or a formal event. They appeared to be indifferent to the world-historical events that were happening that day and night.

I crossed over the bridge to Trump Tower. In the middle of the bridge, an attractive young woman was wearing a stylish dress. Of course, she was trying to take a picture of herself. A middle-aged man asked her if she needed some help. She said yes. He was German or Austrian. “Do you want the Trump Tower in the background on this very historic night?” His emphasis on “historic” did not have a tone of dread, pathos, or regret. He was almost gleeful or somehow found the situation humorous. I watched, disgusted at both of them.

On the street immediately next to Trump Tower, there were dozens of police and other security. One of the police was a Hispanic man. He took out his phone, smiled, and took a picture of himself with the huge “Trump” sign in the background, as he gave a big “thumbs up”. I murmured, “You did this to us all….” Such people are common across history; in prison, there are always snitches; on the chattel slavery plantations of the American South and elsewhere (what are more accurately described as slave labor camps) the driver (he served under the White overseer) was often a Black man.

A Black man walked by and dutifully played the role of sycophant. He was performing for the police and the security outside of Trump Tower, loudly proclaiming that “Trump is about to be president again, he is the boss, and we better respect him! Trump is back in the seat. We better respect him. This is Donald Trump’s building! Thank God he is back!” I said to myself, we are in hell. I again pleaded with the entity that is running this infernal simulation to please stop. We “the Americans” have suffered enough. The (mostly) white police and security guards laughed and generally showed their approval of him.

I stood there outside of Trump Tower, watching more people walk by. Most of them, as before, did not appear to care what was happening that night with the election, or maybe they just wanted some respite or escape from it.

I heard more laughter and cheers. A large group of White Trumpists were coming out of the building, leaving what looked like an Election Night Watch Party. There were the obligatory Black and South Asian Trumpists scattered about in different groups or standing alone outside. It was almost like they were trying to get attention (and affirmation) from the White Trumpists for being the “good ones” who are “special” and “exceptional” and so very "articulate." Almost all of the Trumpists I saw were pleasantly drunk or appeared to be almost there. They had on their MAGA hats. Some wore the Trump uniform of tan khakis and a white dress shirt. Other Trumpists had on his signature red tie. They were a reminder that on this Election Day and night, and more generally, one group’s dystopia is another group’s utopia. These Trumpists, like the much larger mass of them in all parts of the United States, radiated entitlement and menace. They had won.

I was tired and spent. But I had one more place to go to confirm a nagging instinct. I walked several more blocks north to the casino. It is a temporary casino and very sad and desperate in its energy. I am unsure if that energy is from the building itself or the people who it attracts or the combination of the two.

There was a group of young red hat-wearing MAGA men inside. They were playing cheap hands of Blackjack (fifteen dollars) and poker. Many of the people at the casino that night were working-class (or working poor) Black and brown people. There is always a very large group of older Asian people from Chinatown at the casino too. There was also a smaller group of white men who were more serious gamblers, quiet and not very social, playing at one of the more high dollar tables. I surveyed this radically democratic space of people, all of them united in their gambling, in their own worlds, and the MAGA people there desperate for attention (and/or trouble). A few people looked askance at them, their eyes and facial expressions signaling annoyance or disgust mixed with curiosity, but they quickly went back to playing cards or craps.

Here is the enduring problem and fact that too many Americans, especially in the news media and political class, continue to ignore: Trump and Trumpism and American fascism are symptoms and not a cause of much deeper problems. These malign forces will not magically disappear if Harris or some other Democrat or even a responsible Republican and real “small c” conservative were to become president. The Age of Trump and his elevation back to the White House reflect a deep nihilism and despair. When people are made to feel like nothing really matters anymore, and the “system” and “the elites” and their society are broken and illegitimate, they will engage in behavior that is individually and collectively destructive. The election of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement (he won both the popular vote and the Electoral College) is a distillation of this collective malaise and nihilism.

In a comprehensive must-read new essay in Time Magazine, Eric Cortellessa describes the magnitude of Trump’s victory on Tuesday:

The scale of his success was stunning. Trump carried North Carolina, flipped Georgia back to his column, and smashed through the Blue Wall. His campaign outperformed its goal of turning out men and holding women. Exit polls showed Trump winning large numbers of Latino men in key battleground states, improving his numbers with that group in Pennsylvania from 27% to 42%. Nationally, Trump's support among Latino men leaped from 36% to 54%. Trump also increased his share of voters without a college degree, gained ground with Black voters in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and held steady nationally with white women, shocking Democrats who had expected a post-Dobbs uprising. Among first-time voters, Trump boosted his support from 32% four years ago to a 54% majority.

Here is an important qualifier: There were fewer votes in 2024 than in 2020. That so many Republicans and Democrats did not vote in one of the most important presidential elections in the country’s history, is an exclamation mark on a society in crisis. Authoritarians, fascists, autocrats, and demagogues actively encourage such malaise and surrender and related sentiments and behavior.

Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris and the Democrats will likely not be the last one for the MAGA movement and the American (and global) fascists and other enemies of democracy. America’s political culture and society may be irrevocably broken — at least in the near to mid-term. Cortellessa warns us that “Come Jan. 20, we will all be living in Trump’s America.” The American people did this to themselves. Trump and his agents are experts at political sadism, trauma, and cruelty. On Election Day 2024, the American people said “Yes! Please! Give us more!” They are soon going to regret giving that permission and invitation, but then it will be much too late.