President Donald Trump is living a “Life of Riley”: He can lie daily, and we accept his lies; he can sell his political power for cash in plain sight, and America doesn’t punish him for it; he can start a war on his whim and calculus alone, and our Congress does nothing to stop him. Normally, a persona like Trump would not rise above a county dogcatcher, much less the leader of the soon-to-be-unfree world.
Such “comedies” (or tragedies) cannot go on, and American voters must face their judgment of history for what they have done. One of these “judgments” materialized during the Republican “midterm convention” in Dallas (Sept. 10), where President Trump offered $5,000 to every adult American “if Republicans win midterms.” Of course, he might have done it simply as a distraction or in jest (and just after he accused Democrats of communism for free government giveaways). But, hearing the amount, most American voters immediately started fantasizing about what they could do with that money. As consumers, our wish list is always longer than our money reserve, and the president just offered us money for our votes, which we often throw away. It’s a win-win situation, as they say. Although the news may be passé by the time you read this column, Trump’s IOU has been firmly registered in our subconscious pocket.
Predictably, the news media wonders whether there is such money in Trump’s coffers, or if the chronic liar would keep his promise. But none mention the blackness of America’s moral comedy: Now we know the precise value of our vote: USD 5,000! Our president publicly offered to pay for our votes, which had somehow been kept safely from outright offerings of money. But now even that last sanctuary has fallen to petty greed. Although America’s avarice was world-famous, the president just made its official, on-record confirmation: Yes, America is a money-mad pigsty, and we are all little pigs squealing for one more piece of silver!
In a nation where we trust neither man nor institutions, voters (along with consumers) are among the most untrustworthy entities: As voters, we can cast our votes any way we want, no rhyme, or reason required. Once in our secret ballot booth, we are gods: No power in the universe can tell us how to vote (any more than tell consumers how to spend their dollars). With $5,000 already dancing in our mind’s bank account, all we have to do is vote Republican and nobody would ever know how we voted.
To continue America’s black moral comedy, Democrats can decide to double Trump’s offer to $10,000 if they win midterms (already mentioned, but as a joke). Trump, not to be outdone, could double the Democratic offer to $20,000, even including children (but not illegal immigrants). Democrats can come back with $40,000. These doubling duels could continue until the black comedy becomes unmanageable or meaningless (if offers reach $1 trillion … is it still considered real money in our minds?)
If you think such a scenario is too absurd to imagine, remember that Trump just offered us $5,000 for our votes — for real: For all that, he is not arrested, he is not impeached; he just knows Americans better than his opponents. Are American voters that corrupt? Well, we live in a capitalist system where money, especially free money, is holier than God. Are American voters that stupid? Well, we elected Trump president, didn’t we? Of course, Trump’s money offer says as much about American voters as Trump himself. If we were like FDR’s voters, Trump would have never dared to buy our votes without risking an instant dethronement. Today, few Americans are recoiling in horror at Trump’s offer, and fewer are silently mouthing: “This is the end of America!”
Much has changed in the character of American voters since FDR’s time, whose wheelchair and popularity symbolized not only the frailty of the sitting president, but also the spirit of democracy that pervaded America. Three generations later — and now saturated with trash TV, social media on the internet, and infused with AI power — American voters consume like kings without the real money, swagger without the real power, and are about to welcome a sleeper president for life, who has more power asleep. Absent for days, just playing golf, falling asleep at meetings, and spewing non-sequiturs when awake, he is more powerful than all of America’s active institutions put together. In his sleepy absence, his military fights his war, his officials carry out his orders, his billionaires keep making money, and his voters are busy having a good time on reality TV, th internet and opioids. The whole nation of America — president and citizens — is on daily autopilot.
With his masterstroke of a money offer, the devil has already whispered in our ears and the seeds of evil have already been planted in the Rose Garden, and there ain’t roses coming up. In America’s liberal democracy, voters sow, politicians harvest, and generations pay the price.
Democrats, still stuck in FDR’s America, don’t realize that, if they want to return to power, they must out-trash Trumpsters and play dirtier than Trump: They cannot afford to go “high road” when Trump is the adversary, and Trumpism is the mode of operation.
As voters, we face a stark reality in which both Trumpsters and Democrats must out-trash each other for our love. Unable to go backward with Democrats’ still-Promised Land or forward with Trump’s own cashable-America Made Great — and always tempted by Hollywood and Wall Street fantasies for backup — we struggle to find who we really are.
Then, in this great indecision, there is the $5,000 offer that’s a $1 bill five thousand times!
Jon Huer, retired professor and columnist for the Recorder, lives in Greenfield and writes for posterity.