Except they–or rather, the radical right wing that has taken over the Republican party–has actually gotten what they want. Look forward to more restrictive laws on abortion and availability of contraception, denial of climate change and an expansion of drilling and hydraulic fractioning for petroleum versus investment in developing renewable and synthetic energy sources, eviceraton of educational standards and the ability to teach non-science like creationism as “an alternative” to science, reconstituting the Supreme Court with heavily conservative justices who will take a “strict” (e.g. non-progressive) reading of Constitutional law, and removal of protections if not outright persecution of disfavored minorities. Trump has shown the radical right that they can have everything they want if they are just audacioiusly upfront about it and appeal to bigotry and fear. And this is a lesson that will persist long after Trump is playing his golden harp.
Whatever Trump and his administration does in the next few years is nothing compared to the longer term impact on politics and governance in this country. The presidency has been allowed to become a powerful position by fiat, and we’ve largely depended on the fundamental decency and benevolence of a president not to be a raging asshole. Even with the worst of presidents in the modern era there was a need to be seen as being even-tempered and judicious in the exercise of power, but Trump has violated these preconceptions even before he has taken office. He is literally a man-baby with no sense of decorum or responsibility, and has set a new standard for what is acceptable in the behavior of a presidential candidate, and it is hard to see how we can ever fully unlearn that ‘lesson’ even after Trump goes away as a figure.
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