One day sooner or later the Trump cult is going to end. He's already an old man and the only thing between him and the Grim Reaper is the best healthcare money can buy. I have a running bet with a friend that he will not live out his term. Even if he does, the chance of another term is almost zero. It should be zero but we live in strange times. It should be obvious by now but let me be clear, I'm no fan of Donald Trump or his Administration. To get into why that is is beyond the scope of this blog. I'm more concerned about what happens next. How can we rebuild our relationships, trust in institutions, a better media and an economy that works for more than just the 1%?
Of course poles can be manipulated but when they are all pointing in the same direction, Donald Trump is deeply unpopular and underwater on every issue, we can trust them. Those who still support him after everything that has come out and happened I believe are in a cult, a cult of personality. I think this cult is shrinking daily but there will still be those who never leave believing only Trump can save us. What will happen to this group once Trump leaves this Earth or office? I believe when he dies, the cult will quickly melt away. Some will try to find a new cult leader to cling on to, one who still hates the same people they do and fears the same things they fear. In order to avoid future cult-like authority figures those who leave on their own should be encouraged instead of ridiculed. We have all been duped at some time or another. It may be better if they actually work to avoid a repeat of the rise of the next Cult of Personality. Check with these folks in 5 or 10 years and they will claim they never actually supported Trump. I, for one, will let this polite fiction pass. Those leaving a cult need a soft place to land. Scorn and ridicule will only drive people directly into the next cult. Those supporters who still remain will gleefully join with the next authoritarian figure to come along. Let's hope their numbers are small. How can we restore faith in institutions?
Whoever becomes president next has a number of messes to clean up. Two big ones are Health and Human Services and our military. Trust me, there are a number of others that will need rebuilding and reform. Rebuilding faith in institutions will take time. I think it starts with education, an education that's more than passing out tablets with AI and hoping for the best. We need to make learning fun and a cool thing to do. For more people to have faith in expertise, like health, the environment and a reality-based foreign policy they need to know why they work. They need to understand why logic and the scientific method is better than feelings, hearsay and blind faith. It might also be helpful to teach people about distortions created by a for profit only economy. Exactly how to do all this is best left to the education professionals. The biggest downside is this will take time, maybe time we do not have. Perhaps we should let the military pick who should be Secretary of Defense so it is no longer a political appointee? At the very least, this position needs some minimum requirements. Any reforms to our military must also come with a rebuilding of our alliance system. We need to honor our commitments around the world. We also need to do everything possible to reverse proliferation of nuclear weapons. Each new nuclear armed power brings us closer to the unthinkable. A media that could better articulate this obvious and present danger would be most helpful.
Our for profit and ratings driven media do little to actually inform the public. Things are distorted by money. We need to do more to encourage independent media and have better protections for actual reporters. Rather than a myopic focus on two sides of every issue, there needs to be a more holistic approach. There are not two sides to climate change, there is only climate change. Insisting there are sides to all issues is detrimental to understanding. And we certainly need more than five media conglomerations telling us what the news is. There used to be hundreds of independent newspapers all across the country. Surely with all of our technology, we can come up with something as good or even better. Local TV news should be locally owned and operated rather than controlled by a conglomeration based in another state. Having an educated and informed public would be a huge step in the right direction. We also need major economic reforms.
We need an economy that works for more than just Wall Street. I think a good start would be raking up some of the near monopolies. Capitalism works best when there are numerous competitors driving innovation and keeping prices down. That alone is not enough. I think we need to have a measure for happiness and healthiness that’s left out of the GDP. Maybe we can still have millionaires and billionaires but only after everyone's needs are met. Contrary to popular belief, we have the resources to meet everyone's needs. The problem lies in our system of distribution where a tiny fraction hoard most of the wealth. Rather than a sole focus on the bottom line, we should consider the work that needs to be done like elder care, rebuilding our infrastructure and addressing climate change. Maybe before we reach for the moon, plants and stars we should make Earth livable for everyone.
We can count on a lot of work needing to be done after what I hope is the last gasp of the winner-take-all ideology. My short list here has only scratched the surface of things that will need to be done to help create a better future for all of us rather than a tiny minority. Here are a few things you can do right now. Start with getting informed, not outraged. Learn how to pause and respond, rather than react. Hear something scary on the news? Give it a little time and check other outlets to get a better picture of what's going on. Turn off the computer and TV and spend time with actual other human beings doing something positive. Let's work to create more third spaces where we can gather. Simply put, a third space is somewhere other than your home or work where you are not expected to spend money. America used to be full of such places- amateur sports teams, neighborhood associations, union halls, various church groups and hobby clubs. Expose yourself to new ideas and ways of thinking. Together, we can create a bright future!
