It’s Moving! AKA, Trump’s False Dystopia
There’s an old Russian joke from the Soviet period. The leaders of the Communist party are sitting on a train, when suddenly it grinds to a halt. Lenin gets up and says, “I know what to do! I’ll exhort the workers and peasants to rise up and get the train moving again.” He goes out for a while, but when he comes back, the train still doesn’t move. Stalin says, “I’ll take care of this.” He leans out the window and yells, “If this train doesn’t start moving again, the conductors and their families will be shot!” After a few minutes, several shots ring out. Yet still nothing happens. Khruschev says, “The families of the conductors are hereby rehabilitated. Now the train will move.” Unsurprisingly, it does not. Finally, Brezhnev leans over to the window of the train. With a flourish, he pulls the curtains closed. No one can see outside. Brezhnev turns to his comrades and declares, “It’s moving!”
Donald Trump’s strategy, as illustrated by his Inaugural address, is the reverse of Brezhnev’s. America is enjoying a period of economic recovery, crime is near historic lows, the stock market is at record highs, and the U.S. remains the most powerful, innovative, and inspirational nation in the world. In short, America is still great. Yet Trump closes the curtains to describe a dark America of crime, economic failure, weakness, and “carnage.” Yes we have problems, and yes one can criticize Obama’s foreign policy, but the dystopia Trump describes is not reality. Why offer such a vision, instead of the inspirational worldview more typical for Presidents taking office?
The answer is that now that he’s in charge, Trump can’t blame problems on his predecessor forever. At some point, he owns the state of the country. He has already picked out his 2020 re-election slogan: “Keep America Great.” So at some point America has to, in Trump’s telling, become great. Conveniently enough, all Trump has to do is open the curtains. Crime is near historic lows! Unemployment and inflation are low! Gas is cheap! After blaming President Obama falsely for imagined failures, he will take credit falsely for successes that are not his own.
Trump feels no compunction about lying, and lying again, and changing his positions at the drop of a hat. But few people are so craven. The American people will reject the falsehoods and inconsistencies… if only they notice the sleight of hand. That is the task those of us in the opposition now face.
