51吃瓜

Americans are voting in the 2018 midterm elections, which is seen as a referendum on the presidency of Donald Trump.

Who could forget that moment? The blue [red] wave 鈥� long promised but also doubted — had, however modestly [however massively], hit Washington and [the Democrats had just retaken Congress] [the Republicans had held Congress] [the Democrats had taken the House]. The media, Fox News and the usual right-wing websites aside, hailed the moment. [Fox News and the usual right-wing websites cheered the president on.] Donald Trump鈥檚 grip on America had finally been broken [reinforced]. Celebrations were widespread. Congressional investigations, possibly even impeachment, were only months and a new Congress away [were now a faint memory], and it was then, of course, that the unexpected struck. It was then that President Donald Trump, citing national security concerns and a crisis on the US-Mexico border, began the process whose end point we, of course, already know…

Midterm Elections 2018听

OK, consider that the dystopian me speaking.听We don鈥檛, of course, really know how our story yet ends, not faintly.听While I was writing this piece, I didn鈥檛 even know how the vote on November 6 would turn out, though by the time you read it, you may.听Given the experience of election 2016, it would take a brave (foolish) soul to make a prediction this time around.

I certainly learned a lesson that November. During the previous months of campaigning that election season, I never wrote a piece at听TomDispatch听that didn鈥檛 leave open the possibility of Donald Trump winning the presidency.听In the couple of weeks before that fateful day, however, I got hooked on the polling results and on Nate Silver鈥檚听 website and became convinced that Hillary Clinton was a shoo-in.

Of course, I was in good company.听As Michael Wolff would听听in his bestselling book,听, on election eve, few in the Trump campaign, including the candidate himself, expected to win. Most of them, again including The Donald, were already trying to parlay what they assumed was an assured loss into their next jobs or activities, including in the candidate鈥檚 case a possible 鈥淭rump network.鈥�

So when, sometime after midnight, reality finally began to sink in 鈥� fittingly enough, I had a 103-degree fever and was considering heading for an emergency room 鈥� I was as disbelieving as the president-to-be. (He had, Wolff tells us, 鈥溾�� his wife, Melania, who was reportedly in tears of anything but joy that night, that he would never win and that she would never find herself in the White House.) By then, it was for me a fever dream to imagine that bizarre, belligerent, orange-haired salesman-cum-con-artist entering the Oval Office.

Honestly, I shouldn鈥檛 have been the least bit surprised. During election campaign 2016, I grasped much of this. I wrote of the future president, for instance, as a con artist (particularly in reference to听听of his that we couldn鈥檛 see) and how Clinton鈥檚 crew hadn鈥檛 grasped the obvious: That many Americans would admire him for gaming the system, even if they couldn鈥檛 do the same themselves.听As I听听at the time: 鈥淚t鈥檚 something Donald Trump knows in his bones, even if all those pundits and commentators and pollsters (and for that matter Hillary Clinton鈥檚 advisers) don鈥檛: Americans love a con man.鈥�

I also saw that he was daring in ways unimaginable to an American politician 鈥� because, of course, he wasn鈥檛 one 鈥� particularly in promoting his slogan, Make America Great Again (MAGA), whose key word few of the political cognoscenti paid the slightest attention to: 鈥渁gain.鈥� At that moment, for听听or听听who wanted to become just that, it was obligatory to claim that the United States wasn鈥檛 just great but the greatest, most exceptional, most indispensable land ever.听(As Hillary Clinton typically听听that election season: 鈥淎merica is indispensable 鈥� and exceptional 鈥� because of our values.鈥�)听Trump鈥檚 鈥渁gain鈥� in Make America Great Again suggested something quite different and so rang a bell in the heartland.听In the process, he became America鈥檚听.

Early that October, I听:

鈥淸A] significant part of the white working class, at least, feels as if, whether economically or psychologically, its back is up against the wall and there鈥檚 nowhere left to go.听 Under such circumstances, many of these voters have evidently decided that they鈥檙e ready to send a literal loose cannon into the White House; they鈥檙e willing, that is, to take a chance on the roof collapsing, even if it collapses on them. That is the new and unrecognizable role that Donald Trump has filled.听 It鈥檚 hard to conjure up another example of it in our recent past. The Donald represents, as a friend of mine likes to say, the suicide bomber in us all. And voting for him, among other things, will be an act of nihilism, a mood that fits well with imperial decline.

鈥淭hink of him as a message in a bottle washing up on our shore…鈥�

And yet, on that day of decision, I evidently reverted to the boy I had once been, the boy who grew up with a vision of an idealized America that would always do the right thing.听So I was shocked to the core by Donald Trump鈥檚 victory.

In that fever dream of a night, when he washed up on all our shores, I had certainly been trumped, but then, so had he, so had we all.听Under the circumstances, I鈥檓 sure you鈥檒l understand why I鈥檝e remained hesitant about putting my faith in polls in this election season or giving special significance to听听that the White House staff was glum as hell about the 2018 midterm elections and expected the worst. (After all, mightn鈥檛 this be that Michael Wolff election night all over again?)听

The American Shooting Gallery

Two years after that fateful November night in 2016, we鈥檙e still living in a fever dream of some sort, enveloped 24/7 by the universe of President Trump and the 鈥渇ake news media,鈥� that provides him and the rest of us with a strange, all-encompassing听.听America, you might say, now has a 103-degree temperature and there isn鈥檛 an emergency room in sight.

And it鈥檚 unlikely to get better, whatever happens in the midterm elections.听Those who expect that a Democratic victory or a听听in the weeks to come will be the beginning of the end for the Trump presidency (or, for that matter, that the victory of an ever听听Republican Party will simply prove more of the grisly same) might want to reconsider.

Perhaps it’s worth weighing other grimmer possibilities in the as-yet-unending rise of what鈥檚 still called 鈥渞ight-wing populism,鈥� not just locally but听.听Here in the United States, with hate and venom surging (and, yes indeed, being听听by President Trump for his own purposes), a genuinely ugly strain central to this country鈥檚 history is being resurrected. In the process, a burgeoning number of deeply disturbed (and deeply animated) figures from among the most听听civilian population on the planet 鈥� Yemen, of all the grim places, comes in a听听鈥� are turning this country into a shooting gallery.

Win or lose today, don鈥檛 think that the Donald Trump we have is the one we鈥檙e fated to have until the day he goes down in flames. He is distinctly a work in progress, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say: in regress.听In that context, let me mention an evolution of a grim sort in my own thinking over the last two years.

For some time now, there have been both thinkers and activists who have been convinced that Donald Trump is an听, an outright fascist.听(According to his ex-wife, in the early 1990s he kept a book of Adolf Hitler鈥檚 speeches听 and, during the 2016 election campaign, he听听a Mussolini quote, defending himself for doing so.)

I鈥檝e always disagreed, however.听To my mind, he鈥檚 clearly been a man who wants to be idolized and adulated (as happens at any of his rallies) 鈥� wants, that is, to have fans, not (in the fascistic sense) followers; applause and the eternal spotlight, not a social movement.听That, it seems to me, has been an accurate description of the president who entered the Oval Office and occupied it in such a suggestive way these last nearly two years.听But I鈥檝e recently started to wonder.听After all, once upon a time, Donald Trump wasn鈥檛 a Republican either. Let鈥檚 face it, he鈥檚 a quick learner when it comes to whatever may benefit The Donald.

And keep in mind that he entered an unsettled world already听听for such a presidency by his predecessors in Washington.听If the fascist or, if you prefer, autocratic tendency that lurks in him and in the situation that surrounds him does come out more fully, he will obviously be aided by the ever more imperial presidency that was created in the decades before he left Trump Tower for the White House.

When he entered the Oval Office, he found there a presidency in which 鈥� particularly on the subject of war (the president was, for instance, already America鈥檚 global听) 鈥� his powers increasingly stood outside both Congress and the Constitution. The weapons he鈥檚 now bringing to bear, including听听and the US military, were already well prepared for him.听The refugees he makes such effective use of, whether from Syria or Central America, came to him, at least in part, thanks to this country鈥檚 war and other policies that had already roiled significant parts of the planet.听Before entering the Oval Office, the only aspect of such preparations he had any role in was the increasingly听 that gave a 鈥減opulist鈥� billionaire president, always ready to put more money in the hands of his .01% pals, a pained but receptive audience in the heartland.

In other words, this world and the fever dream that goes with it were Donald Trump鈥檚 oyster before he ever lifted a finger in the White House.听As a result, no election results, no matter whether the Democrats or the Republicans 鈥渨in,鈥� are likely to bring that temperature down.听In fact, if the Democrats do take the House (or even Congress), Trump is unlikely to become more pliable. If the Mueller report results in impeachment proceedings in the House, he won鈥檛 be humbled. In the face of any such development, my guess is that his impulse will be to become more autocratic, more imperial and even possibly more fascistic. And the same may hold if the Republicans hang onto both houses of Congress.

Waiting for the Red Hats

Even before the vote was in, the evidence was there.听In the lead-up to the election,听听US troops (or maybe听?) are headed for the US-Mexico border to deal with what the president has called both an 鈥溾�� and a 鈥�.鈥� (“Fake news!”) There, those troops will essentially听听their thumbs (since they are听听to do little) simply because the president wanted it so.听There may, in fact, be two soldiers for every desperate refugee, including children and babies, headed toward the US border in that now notorious 鈥渃aravan鈥� from Honduras.

In other words, on a whim, Trump is already capable of building a wall (of troops) at that border.听The question worth asking is this: In an embattled near-future moment in which a听听(think of 鈥渉im鈥� as the next John Bolton) is in place as secretary of defense and another 鈥渘ational emergency鈥� is declared, where might those troops go next because the president wanted it so?

In the days before the election, the president also听听to sign an executive order to nullify birthright citizenship 鈥� in the process, threatening to functionally nullify the Constitution (see the 14th Amendment), while bringing back to life听听of American racial history just because he wanted it so.听At the moment, he might not even sign that order or, if he does, it might go down big time in Congress and the courts. But who knows what the future of an executive-order presidency holds, especially with another Supreme Court justice听听in place, no matter who controls Congress?

As for those听听of his: Tell me you can鈥檛 conceive of a future America in which his adulatory crowds have stopped simply cheering and shouting for him (鈥淏uild the wall!鈥� 鈥淟ock her up!鈥�) and are now marching for him as well. Is it really so hard to imagine a future in which there would be a place for a Trump Corps or for 鈥渢he Red Hats鈥�; for, that is, the kind of social movement that would no longer be confined to the arenas and stadiums of red-state America or even the polling booths of Election Day, one that might indeed be in the streets of this country at the beck and call of a fierce and autocratic billionaire?

In an increasingly unsettled world, an Autocrats, Incorporated moment globally, with an ever more powerful chief executive, and a right wing still on the march, everything that Donald Trump inherited could certainly be intensified further. And he might be just the man to do it. In a world in which Congress is no longer fully in his camp, in which legal charges against him, his family and his cronies only grow, to adapt a title from a听听of the early 20th century, unquiet could flow The Don 鈥� and in that lies peril for us all.

Now, excuse me, I鈥檓 heading out to vote.

*[This article was originally published by .]听

The views expressed in this article are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect 51吃瓜鈥檚 editorial policy.