What I Think

Probably a trick question.

I was asked recently about my thoughts on President Trump. Hmmm. In truth, I can’t think of anything to say that hasn’t already been said about the guy with greater elocution and execution than I can muster, and it is out there in abundance.

So, feel free, if you desire to check it out.

Perhaps the question is directed at whether I would vote for Trump. The answer is no. I won’t vote for him in 2020 for the same reason I didn’t vote for him in 2016: I don’t believe he has any interest in being a working president.

That he demands attention is, in some respects, no different from those who preceded him, outside of the volume, which for him is incessant and ceaseless (I personally find it wearying to the point that I avoid any television or media news). It is more his obvious ambivalence to the administrative aspect of the job; of putting in the hours and devoting the time to best understand what’s going on and how best to meet those demands.

He shows no interest in rolling up his sleeves and getting to it, rather playing on his own sense of self-worth, and based on the many now disillusioned former members of his administration, has no interest in trying. Which in a sense is a shame because a lot of what he supposedly ran for and against in 2016 is still important to a good number of Americans, and their disaffection for politics as usual is risible. Yet, for the most part, it’s as it ever was. Only noisier and more brittle. Can we honestly be surprised that people are still angry and disheartened?

I would also argue that playing to our worst impulses has no good endgame other than more anger and misery, which we seem to have in spades these days. If the only reason you’re voting for this party is because they hate the people who would vote for that party, then I don’t see how greatness of any stripe will find its way home.

It is here that I’ll admit to being one of those sad morons who believes that honesty is important, that earnestness has its place, and perhaps surprisingly, that the idea of government solving everyone’s problems is misplaced. That doesn’t mean, however, that government has no place in our lives other than as a cudgel to keep us in line. I think we’ve all had enough of that. But we do have problems that need to be dealt with that affect everyone from infrastructure to immigration to public safety, and the idea that we can exclude large swaths of people from that based on color, gender, and religion is a dead end.

I don’t see Trump solving any of those issues because I don’t think he has any interest whatsoever in the work it would take to tackle them. We need someone who will.

©2020 David WIlliam Pearce