The Wrong Side of Liberty
Was it worth it?
I did not write the following to add another entry to the Told You So genre. Anyone who has read me for a while knows I like to look back — and that I have a better record with reflection rather than prediction. Remembering the why’s and how’s of a thing make it easier to, say, avoid the same mistake in the future. Knowing now what we didn’t know then is a fine time to ask if it was all worth it. Besides, there are enough I-should’ve-seens for me in the past 5 years to keep me from getting cocky.
It was the summer of 2016 the first time someone called me a traitor. She, a friend to that point, seemed almost panicked that even after all of the other candidates had conceded, I still refused to get behind Donald J. Trump for President of the United States. My unwillingness to follow the party down that ominous path was — somehow — a betrayal of my country, not just the political party, which I was in fact leaving (or being left by, as the old twist on a Reagan quote goes. No matter who left whom, though, the split happened.)
That friend, and many others, told us, the reluctant, that voting for Trump would be worth it. For the price of accepting a man without manners, as they often phrased it, we could get long-wished-for policies enacted. Once in office, other leaders in the party, the top notch advisors he would appoint, and thought leaders at now established right leaning publications would hold him to account on his excesses. They would be his conscience.
That we did not believe any of this somehow made us the problem, which did not bode well for their promises. I can’t recall the precise phrasing of the early threat to get with the program and defend him publicly or shut up, as I had gone deaf to them at the word “traitor,” but shut up was the demand. How would accountability happen if other conservatives shut up? It would be done, we were told, behind the scenes, by those top notch advisors he’d appoint. Meanwhile, behind those scenes, many of the promised top notch people refused positions. I suspect that many had the experience working with narcissists to know what one sounds like and how things don’t usually end well for anyone. Soon enough, we all got to watch the fun house of the advisor exits and trapdoors whenever those who did accept a job stood up to the man…
