Amid the many thoughts I have regarding Donald Trump being President, what has emerged clearer than most in recent days is that all of us bear responsibility for it.
That is a hard truth to consider, I fear one that will be met with such defensiveness that it will not receive the consideration its implications warrant.
Like many other Americans, I want to blame the people who voted for him, and, make no mistake, they are responsible for this terrible man being in the White House.
But any hope that our nation can survive his presidency, slight as it may be, lies in all of us realizing that when it comes to Trump, no one has clean hands.
That is because he is the mirror into which all of us can look to see what we have become as a society.
Put bluntly, to a degree most of us do not want to consider, especially those of us who are white, Donald Trump is us.
There are good reasons for saying this.
He is a man consumed by the pursuit of wealth, and so is our nation.
He is a man consumed by the pursuit of power and pleasure, and so is our nation.
He is a man consumed by latent racism, and with all the outward progress we have made, inwardly so is our nation.
He is a man consumed by signs of success that have no lasting substance to them, and so is our nation.
He is a man consumed by a vision of America that assumes might makes right, and so is our nation.
The truth about Donald Trump is that we see in him the vacuous values, priorities, and measures of what is good and bad and right and wrong, that we have embraced as a nation.
As I said, a hard truth to consider, but I submit truth nonetheless.
What we see in Trump is the worst about us as country, and his presidency is the price we are paying for ignoring too long that our country no longer works for everyone who tries hard and plays by the rules.
What is more, he didn’t just appear out of nowhere.
His election came on the heels of our nation tolerating a Republican member of Congress calling the first black president a liar as he delivered his first State of the Union address.
We tolerated Senate Republicans declaring before he was even inaugurated that their only goal was to make him a one term president.
But we did more than tolerate such racist behavior. A year later voters affirmed it by electing a majority of these same people to control the House and the Senate.
We then watched with stunning detachment as a Republican Senate refused to give the first black President’s Supreme Court nominee a hearing for an entire year, essentially saying by that inaction what they had been saying for seven years, that his tenure in the White House was illegitimate.
This was NOT politics as usual as many Americans tried to make themselves believe.
No, this was race based politics as none of this – none – had ever happened before to any white president. But it did happen to the first black president.
Given all that led up to Trump’s election, is anyone surprised that since taking office he has had one agenda and one agenda only, to erase the legacy of the Obama presidency?
These actions arise out of two obvious factors: (1) He doesn’t know anything else to do; and (2) his chosen course of action is to continue his efforts to delegitimize Barack Obama’s presidency as he did when he raised questions about where he was born.
What we know at this point in Trump’s presidency is that he is skilled in playing to his white supremacist Republican base, a fact that serves to indict every American who voted for him.
As Ta-Nehisi Coates recently observed, “Certainly not every Trump voter is a white supremacist, just as not every white person in the Jim Crow South was a white supremacist. But every Trump voter felt it acceptable to hand the fate of the country over to one.”
But the rest of us are not off the hook when it come to the perils we are facing as a country because of the Trump presidency.
Those Americans who chose not to vote in the last election and those who supported a third party candidate put Trump in office as much as those who voted for him.
There was no justification for them walking away from the election as almost half the country did or casting a vote for someone with no chance to win.
Either choice lent de facto support to a Trump victory.
But Democratic Party leaders who were determined to make Hillary Clinton their presidential nominee and tried to rig the scales in her favor also share responsibility for Trump being in the White House.
A better choice than Trump to be sure (the bar being seriously low), Hillary carried too much baggage by virtue of her family name and had aligned herself with corporate donors too much to credibly claim that she understood the views and struggles of ordinary Americans.
Meanwhile Bernie Sanders was proving that a Democrat could raise all the money needed for an effective campaign from the people whose struggles Democrats understood before they became corporate.
In the end, though, Hillary Democrats made the same fatal and fateful mistake apathetic Americans and voters supporting third party candidates made.
They failed to understand that the election of 2016 was unlike any election before, given the fact that the soul of the country was hanging in the balance.
So here we are in the fall of 2017 wondering what in the world has happened to us as a country and whether or not there is any hope for the country.
That, of course, remains to be seen, but the hard and difficult truth we must confront if we have any chance of saving our country is that when we look at Donald Trump, truly look at him, we see ourselves and what we have allowed ourselves to become as a people.
If enough of us are sufficiently dismayed and saddened by that truth to get involved in influencing where we go from here, we have a good chance of making better choices going forward that may give us the fortitude and wisdom to survive this thing called the Trump presidency we brought down on ourselves.
linnposts.com 
The Ta-Nehisi Coates quote is certainly sobering! – “Certainly not every Trump voter is a white supremacist, just as not every white person in the Jim Crow South was a white supremacist. But every Trump voter felt it acceptable to hand the fate of the country over to one.”
You have identified our problem as a nation as few white southerners dare. Sad kudos to you. This blog post is poignant and very disturbing.
Rollie, it was emotionally painful to write, but something I believed- and still believe – needed to be said. Thanks.
Bernie and those of us who value his platform are still here. Resist and believe. and work like hell. God have mercy.
Unfortunately, Bernie will be 80+ for the 2020 election.
I think he will still be I his 70s, but still too old to run again. We need him where he is.
Yes, Bernie would be 79 at swearing-in and turn 80 in Sep 2020. (North Dakota math failed me… again.)
As I said, still too old to run again. The nation needs fresh and younger leadership. After all, Trump’s an old man, too.
Keep resisting, Dixcy, only at the moment I think that is needed in the Democratic Party as much as the country.
Thanks Jan. Thought provoking and challenging. Always good to look inward I guess. I also agree that by refusing to work with Obama, the Republican Party nurtured a growing disrespect for congress and the constitution. Now it’s obvious they created a monster they can’t control. In that sense they are getting what they deserve. Unfortunately the rest of us are getting it as well. But then, maybe I am deflecting my own responsibility. Your words are worth consideration.
Wilbur, I think what you are feeling is the dilemma of knowing what Republicans have done while accepting our own role in the creating the nationwide context Trump exploited. That is why it is a both/and not an either/or, as much as we would wish we share no responsibility for what has happened. Tough on and for all of us.
Yes, I agree.
Jan, you write, “Those Americans who chose not to vote in the last election and those who supported a third party candidate put Trump in office as much as those who voted for him.” But not voting is not the same as voting for Trump. I wish about 80,000 people who reluctantly voted for Trump had the integrity not to have voted if they couldn’t support Hillary.
Craig, I share your wish, but it doesn’t change the fact that had apathetic people voted we would not have needed 80,000 less votes for Trump. Both would have been nice, but with 49% of eligible voters passing on the election, there was by far enough of them to have changed the outcome had they not done so. Apathy has consequences, and I believe Trump is living proof.
Ironically, just before reading this I read an article on “Embracing Your Shadow Self.” The message is to consciously acknowledge the darkness within, so that you can consciously lift up your higher self. You have helped us embrace our nation’s (and our own) shadow. May we all now lift up our higher selves (and that of our nation.)
Judy, I think that is the task, for sure, but whether or not we will lift up our higher selves individually and collectively is the big question. I don’t know where I am on that one.
Jan, this is an accurately insightful essay. As difficult as it was for you to write, it is difficult to read and seriously consider. Having entertained similar thoughts for some time, some for years, I have nothing to question, nor to add. Reading it, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer came to mind, both dealing with the theme of Pogo’s observation, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
Thanks for the examination of conscience.
Cheerz!
Gene
Gene, the Pogo quote has lived on because it is so true, and summarizes exactly what I was trying to say. But it not an easy confession to make. All our self-preservation instincts fight against it. Thanks for reminding us of it.
Thanks Jan. I think this is one of your all time classics. I very much admire your ability to put your thoughts into words on paper. I think you have described our situation very well. I know people here who still sing the Trump tune, praising all he has done and all he is going to do. I’m still trying to figure out what he has done that is of any value to our country. I consider him to be a nut case. At may age, I hope I’m around to see the day he is thrown out on his ear. I consider him to be a disaster for our country.
Wally, you are not alone in how you think and feel. I am amazed at what people say he has done when he has absolutely nothing to show for his first eight months except chaos. I suppose that is what they want, but I don’t believe most Americans do. He is a disaster and a tragedy for out country.
I admit to being “white privileged,” which may be offset somewhat by being a female, but I will never say trump is me.
Liza, my blog is focused on the collective “us,” not the individual “me.” It’s not just “white privilege” that makes us culpable. It is the values and priorities we have embraced and promoted as Americans that made it possible for Trump to exploit the nation’s fears and phobias. I will expand on this more in future blogs.