Lessons of the Trump years
Not as simple or complex as you think
The Trump years are over. Now begins the fight about how we remember them. In that spirit, here are six lessons of the Trump years, each packing an intentional, memory-shaping agenda:
1. Character is destiny, after all.
Buying a Big Mac arguably is the world’s best transaction. No matter where you go in the world, it tastes the same. You’re not just buying a sandwich, you’re buying reliability. Not so for Trump, who quickly realized he only needed to be reliable to his diehard supporters. Trump never had to take any notion of character seriously because he knew it was absent from his supporters’ list of must-haves. With a free pass and no off switch, Trump could make his own transactions. He could freely swap democratic values, norms, and institutions for his own id; he could guilefully champion a small, energized tribe in exchange for its loyalty. We now know how the story ends. Politically, the loss of the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, and the White House in a single term. Historically, a mob provoked to storm the U.S. Capitol resulting in the only president to be impeached twice. Personally, gangs of exacting prosecutors, vengeful plaintiffs, and unforgiving bankers waiting to get their turn. Poetically, a famine of character ending in tribal cannibalism. Pride comes before the…
