He’s going to lose today, and he knows it. I’m wondering what’s going to happen in the hours and days to come.
Watching his rallies lately, he’s clearly not enjoying himself. He appears tired and, most of the time, bored. He reads from teleprompters in a dreary monotone and sounds like every second-rate, uninspired, unpolished politician who ever ran for Congress.
He’s not going to be happy about losing, and the question is whom is he going to blame? He’ll blame the media, of course, and I suppose the Establishment and maybe the Republican party.
I half expect him to blame his supporters. Hey, he did his job, made the sacrifice of setting aside his awesome life to go through this grueling ordeal. He’s a winner who knows how to win. He did everything right and should have won. So, if he didn’t win it isn’t because he failed, it’s because his supporters failed him.
And I guess the way the relationship works, his supporters will hang their heads in shame and say, “Oh, Mr. Trump, we know you did everything you could. We’re so sorry for failing you.” That’s the bond between him and his supporters: the mutual belief that Trump can do no wrong.
What about the surrogates and campaign officials? I’m looking forward to no longer seeing the likes of Kellyanne Conway, Corey Lewandowski, Jeffrey Lord, Kayleigh McEnany, and (for crying out loud) Katrina Pierson on my YouTube home page, but in the next few days they’re often going to be asked for campaign post-mortems. I wonder how much pent-up frustration and resentment is going to burst forth. Mostly they’re going to blame the media, I’m sure, but I won’t be surprised if there are a lot of accusations and recriminations tossed between them.
I suppose there’s a part of me that will enjoy seeing them humiliated by defeat, but mostly I’m just sick of them and want them to go away. At this point in my life, I’ve seen a few things in American politics, and some awful and discouraging things, but nothing like this, ever. Trump’s candidacy has humiliated us all, disgraced our country, degraded our discourse, and done great harm that may never heal.
We’re about to dodge a bullet. Trump came very close. It’s hard to gauge the extent to which infantile behavior and proud ignorance are essential to Trump’s appeal, but what might have happened if he had been just a little less ridiculous, a little less horrible? What if he wasn’t a complete idiot? What if he wasn’t a sexual creep? What if he knew how to talk and behave like an adult? What if he had just a little discipline, just a little bit of class?
The next person who tries to Trump us could be smarter, more competent, more mature, more skilled, more eloquent. What will happen then?
If his defeat today is unexpectedly decisive and resounding, it will be easier to move forward. But I don’t think his candidacy is an aberration that we can just put behind us and “get back to normal.” Trump’s success reflects a serious problem in how American democracy is evolving, and we need to examine it and figure out how to address it.