The endgame was always just to blow things up
Public domain photo
The war with Iran is not only a perfect metaphor for Trump’s presidency and the MAGA movement in general, but it is also revealing of a basic truth that MAGA opponents can never quite seem to grasp: Trump’s supporters do not now, nor have they ever, looked to him for consistency, coherence, dignity, wisdom or even decency.
His popularity is the result of one thing and one thing only — the failure of the two-party system and modern politics to speak to, much less address, their problems. The election of Trump in 2016 was a stunning rebuke of “politics as usual.” Trump was not just a sledgehammer elected to knock down specific walls in the structure. He was the bomb that was supposed to blow it all to hell.
To the extent that Trump does whatever he wants, indulging every whim, saying whatever he likes, however offensive, and ranting nearly every day about his many enemies — basically everyone who is not loyal to him without exception or condition — the MAGA crowd loves him all the more, because it reinforces what they liked about him in the first place. He will not be “tamed” or controlled by anyone or anything.
This, by the way, is why there are “No Kings” marches, which infuriates the MAGA crowd because it is a reminder that the country is, after all, based on a certain set of principles enshrined in the Constitution, a document that was once much discussed in MAGA land, but not so much these days. Trump often flirts with the idea of a third term, much to the delight of his supporters, whose grasp of the actual details in the Constitution is apparently as tenuous as right-wing Evangelicals’ grasp of the details in the New Testament.
There is an element of schadenfreude to all of this as well. Right-wing media has been very persuasive in blaming liberals for every single problem that people have, both real and perceived. The left has done a terrible job of making its case, or even having a case to make, and therein lies one huge part of the problem.
It is great fun, even cathartic, for MAGAs to see Trump blasting liberals day in and day out, since they blame liberals and not Trump for their problems, even as they confront — or refuse to confront — the reality that Trump has been a massive failure on every single campaign promise he made: no war, lower prices and the release of the Epstein files (with prosecution of the pedophiles and justice for the victims).
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In spite of this, the Democrats have trouble making any hay of it. Quite the opposite of popular perception, the party has for the most part been moving to the center or even center-right on most of the big issues for the past several decades.
Bill Clinton was certainly no liberal. Neither was Hillary, and certainly not Joe Biden. Even Barack Obama felt that he had to move toward the center to get elected. He took some heat from the left for refusing to take a strong stance on gay marriage during his first campaign, just as one example.
Even a cursory examination of their voting records on the issues would reveal that they are all centrists, more or less, on most things. Of course, Bill Clinton, Obama and Biden were all elected, and the Democrats believed they had learned an important lesson about the country — that most people are either very conservative or somewhat conservative, and that you can’t win an election without appealing to these voters and their issues.
That was the wrong lesson, but the party’s belief in it has cost them dearly. The actual lesson should have been as follows: people may identify as conservative or liberal or moderate, but what everyone wants is someone who will provide answers or direction to their problems. People want genuine reform of the system. They want campaign finance reform. They want term limits. They want to curb the corrupting influence of power. They want to be able to afford a home where they grew up. They want politicians who don’t talk down to them or make them feel stupid.
This is why the right wing’s strategy of winning elections by misdirection has been so effective. When you get people focusing on illegal immigration or transgender athletes instead of income disparity or the lack of healthcare options in America, you win by controlling the narrative. Time and time again, Democrats fail to seize the narrative because they think they have to play moderate to win. This is both a colossal failure of nerve and a terrible political miscalculation.
To win, the Democrats must understand and address the anger of these voters, of all voters. They must admit that the system has not served “we the people” for decades. They must have ideas and then articulate those ideas. Other than taxing the rich for their fair share, how will income disparity be addressed on the other side? What will the healthcare plan be? How will it be paid for, and why will it be worth it?
What we are seeing every day is an orgy of blowing stuff up, the “bombs bursting in air,” and tough guy posturing and preening by our feckless Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, whose every press conference is an utter embarrassment.
It is beside the point that there is no plan, no strategy at all, no concept of what all of this will look like in six months, or what it will cost not only in terms of dollars, which is already staggering beyond belief, but in terms of U.S. investment in the Middle East.
Blowing stuff up is one thing. But then what? With Trump, there was never going to be anything more than rubble, not in Iran and not in America. For him, the only endgame is the adulation of the MAGA crowd to feed his ego and the enormous increase of wealth of his family and his cronies that will be much-discussed for generations to come, as people struggle to understand how this could have happened in the United States of America.
It happened because the system was broken, and nobody had a real plan to fix it. Blowing it up has been something to see. But what is next? Whoever can answer that question can redefine the future of their party and possibly save this dying republic.
(Chris Cox is a recently retired college English teacher and Haywood County resident whose columns have appeared in The Smoky Mountain News for nearly two decades. Reach him at (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and find more of his writing at chriscox157.substack.com.)
