With the holidays approaching, I have been eagerly looking for anything that might allay my political anxiety and dyspepsia. So, I was thrilled when I read Mr. Philip Terzian’s OP-ED piece “Trump’s Rhetoric Has Precedent” in the NYT this Wednesday.
For three years now, I, along with millions of fellow Americans, have been living under the spell of the existential threat the Trump presidency supposedly means for all of us weak-in-the knees and soft in the brain liberals. But now, here comes Mr. Terzian and puts all our fears to rest. I look back at all my thoughts and utterings the past three plus years and I wonder how I could be so wrong.
Here it is how Mr. Terzian delivers his magical therapy.
Mr. Trump’s tweets “are very nearly as entertaining as their memorable content.” Wow! I left all that joy slip by!
“Even his nicknames – “Crooked Hillary” Clinton and “Sleepy Joe” Biden – while occasionally puerile and cruel, deftly capture something essential in their subjects.” How could I miss Mr. Trump’s talent as an adept wordsmith that contributes to the richness of our political vocabulary?
“He is not our first divorced president (Ronald Reagan),” (which, therefore, makes Donald Trump so typical of his humble subjects – since close to one in two marriages ends in a divorce) Nor [is he] the first to have been harried by allegations of a sex scandal (Thomas Jefferson among others).” Poor Tom. Even writing the Declaration of Independence does not set you apart from consummate philanderers.
“We might wish, at times, that Mr. Trump were a little less juvenile, or insensitive or hypersensitive; but we might also wish that every president achieves perfection.” Oh, how stupid of me to miss that Mr. Trump is so close to perfection, if he could just find the right balance of sensitivity. Near perfection before my eyes! This holiday season will be my happiest!
“Even the tweets are more likely to be remembered as mastery of new technology.” I can already see grammar school classes using Mr. Trump’s tweets to teach social media effectiveness and also build character thanks to their content.
“It’s useful to consider Mr. Trump’s opprobrium – as racist, proto-fascist and aspiring dictator – in light of the history of partisan rhetoric. It’s essentially forgotten now, but the standard enlightened view of Mr. Reagan in the Oval Office was as an “amiable dunce…” Again. What’s wrong with me? Did I miss that being racist and proto-fascist are now better attributions for present-day Republicans than being a little slow up there?
Finally, Mr Terzian puts to rest the gravest source of our worries. “While unique in his way, Mr. Trump is not a president like no other, nor a threat to democracy or the constitutional order. He has roots in the American civic tradition….” Well, Mr. Terzian, here you are off the mark. Mr. Trump is not a threat to democracy because his roots are in his self-interest and exaltation. And because he is not an ideologue and does not have the discipline, steadiness and political vision to usher in a different political order. He is a gifted demagogue without a strategic plan.
His apparent autocratic management style comes from his running personal businesses with no checks and balances from boards of directors or shareholders. He has failed to transition his management style to one compatible with a system of shared governance just like many corporate chieftains who find it very challenging to manage academic institutions. I have seen some of them in my academic career. His problem is that either by genetic predisposition or cultural upbringing or his advanced age, he is disinclined to learn new ways.
If President Trump is a threat, albeit an indirect one, to democracy, it is because he has proven that a good fraction of American voters are willing to entrust their future with politicians, regardless of the tone of their political language or their character, who stand ready to engaged in tribal wars with no-holds-barred tactics. More refined, competent and ideologically committed politicians, like Mike Pompeo and Bill Barr, pose, in my opinion, a much more direct threat to the American liberal democracy than Donald Trump.
Whether or not comments like these make Democrats or “Never-Trump” Republicans feel any better, what about the hard core of the President’s supporters? Do they have reasons to close the third year of the Trump presidency in a mood of euphoria and vindication? I am not so sure. I feel Mr. Terzian owes them a soothing column as well.
I can see a Trump supporter who, after the “sugar high” of a rally, starts having some really nagging questions. “Why is the Wall taking so long? Where is the money from Mexico?” “Why does this arrogant North Korean guy still have his nukes? Don’t tell me he outplayed my man and he can now dance around as a legit nuclear power?” “Where are all those manufacturing jobs promised to us?” When I took a sneaky look at that liberal fake-news paper at the barber’s I read that even the revised NAFTA will not restore the old Rust Belt glory. “And how about that huge tax cut? I can hardly feel it. The fake news says most of it went to the fat cats. Can it be true? I won’t tell my cousin Maggie. It will break her heart.”
“And then there is that Lavrov guy in the Oval Office. Every time he goes there it means trouble for my guy. If you, just a secretary, get the right to plop your ass in my President’s den the least you can do is not to contradict him about discussing elections. When that scoundrel Larry crossed me in the pub, I didn’t talk to him for weeks. I ‘m confused. Can anybody please explain again what ‘Make America Great Again’ means.”
Well folks, that’s the best I can do to lighten up the mood. I leave the rest to you.
Let's Reason 
Enjoyable read, though disheartening material. It’s amazing to me that his silly juvenile tweets could warrant any respect.
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I have not read the piece by Terzian. To the extent however, that it purports to minimize Trump’s Tweets as mere exaggerated satire, Terzian misses the point and ignores historical perspective and reasonable reflection. I would ask Terzian for his academic reflection, would not Goebbels have purposefully embraced Twitter in the same way as Trump, had such a medium been available to him?
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