Of course, a United Healthcare CEO was assassinated just days after an election where Democrats can’t seem to grasp why people are so mad at the institutions that run the country. The pearl-clutching was almost immediate. Democrats, Republicans, and media types of all stripes lined up to scold working-class America for its understandable schadenfreude. These talking heads would begin with an admission of the poor way healthcare is administered in this country, an acknowledgment of the anger people feel towards health insurance companies in particular, and finish with a patronizing rant about how violence isn’t the answer and how any complaints should be taken up at the ballot box. All in all, it is a laughable response to a widespread lack of empathy at the murder of just one of many avatars of a broken system.
We’ve all watched for a year as Republicans have tried to dig up dirt on Biden and the “Biden crime family.” From the inane hysteria over Hunter Biden’s laptop to the fruitless impeachment inquiries, Republicans made every effort to pin something on the President. But after repeated failures, they ultimately decided to substitute President Biden’s mess of a son in for Joe Biden, making Hunter the new target, all in the name of throwing red meat to a rabid base whose sole reason for existence is to torture liberals.
I think many, including myself, thought Biden would wade into the sunset as a caretaker president not doing anything of note for the final few weeks of his presidency, clinging to norms and crumbling institutions, willing to let his son go to jail in the name of some vague notion of trust in a system that is broken. Many are shocked by this sudden about-face from the President. This move is generally surprising, not only because it’s in direct contradiction from what Biden had said he would do mere days ago but also it comes from a man with a political career steeped in institutionalism. To say there were plenty of clutched pearls is an understatement. Nevertheless, I applaud Joe Biden for taking this step.
During the first Trump administration, a common thread that was repeated was some version of the idea that his election was an anomaly, an odd reactionary blip in a trajectory towards a “more perfect union” as Barack Obama would say. Well-meaning liberals and progressives wanted to believe that Trump got lucky, that it wasn’t any more complicated than that, that there was nothing else at play here, and that if we held on long enough, we could easily course-correct.
It was easy to give almost half the country a pass back then, convincing ourselves that they were duped or that they didn’t know better. This was an easy pill to swallow because Trump was a bit of an unknown in a political sense. He spent most of his life as a New York Democrat, spent most of the campaign criticizing both Republican and Democrat establishment types, and seemed genuinely surprised himself when he pulled it off. We sought refuge in the idea of his political vagueness back then reasoning that surely once the public experienced the brunt of four full years of his presidency, warts and all, they would never invite him within a stone’s throw of the office again.
It’s almost criminal how naive many were back then because the truth is that what many voters wanted back then is exactly what they want now.
They want their money back.
And depending on who voters think is the culprit will determine which way the general electorate votes.
The date is November 3rd, 2024. The Institutionalists have been pronounced dead. Never to rise again. Cause of death: sudden collapse due to acute exhaustion and rapid decay. This was a shock to some and a surprise to many, but one that must be acknowledged in order for the grieving process to begin in earnest. We now endeavor to remember the Institutionalists for what they were, both the good and the bad. They represented themselves as bastions of decency, honor, and decorum. They strived for order and civility above all else, even to a fault some would say. But deep down inside there was a hollowing out, a rot that began somewhere deep inside and expanded in all directions.
It’s in times like these that the past can feel like a curse, filled with specters that aim to torment and fill you with grief. Looking back can feel futile, largely avoided, because, for the most part, the main reason to look back is to examine and confront failure, to hone in on the turning points, the seminal choices that felt routine in the moment but would have a monumental impact on the future. Additionally, in that initial moment of introspection, you finally realize how much time has truly passed and how vastly different the world can be compared to when you first began your journey. You look around and see the proud edifices of vaunted institutions now starting to crumble and fade. What was once bustling thoroughfares filled with fiery rhetoric are now mostly empty save for the few underpaid souls still charged with keeping the buses running on time.
Everything that was built has faded, and you wonder if it’s too late to correct the course. But we must also consider that the future is vast and unknowable like the deepest stretches of the ocean or the golden shimmer of a morning mist. As long as we draw breath here today, there is still time to change, and thus the hard, necessary work of introspection must commence, a process that will be messy and take time and be slow and prodding and a little chaotic.
But what other choice is there?
It’s how the world works for now, and it’s how hope continues.
Deep down I knew this was possible. We were often told that this election was a coin toss and that we could easily be staring once again at an incoming Trump presidency by the end of this election. But I didn’t want to believe it. Like so many, I wanted to believe that after knowing what we know about this man, there’s no way we would send him back, right? That surely the many convictions, the blatant corruption he and his family have engaged in over the years, the violent insurrection at the Capitol in 2020, the horrible racism and sexism that has swirled in this man’s orbit, and frankly almost every other data point that resides in the totality of this man’s professional and political career, that when faced with as stark and clear a choice as that, we wouldn’t choose chaos and cruelty again.
I realize now how naive I was and as I now mull over the results of this election, I am left wondering what happens now. What will a second Trump presidency mean for the United States? There are many potential answers to that question, and it’s impossible to know for sure at this moment. My true hope is that his less “diehard” supporters are right and that while Trump and those around him like to talk a big game, their worst impulses will be tempered by decency or unpopularity or something else entirely, that not every single piece of heinous shit he or the people around him have advocated for will come to pass.
Reading that back, it seems silly to imagine this vengeful vindictive posse that we’ve now elected into power won’t send this country back in a dozen different ways, but we have seen Trump’s laziness get the better of him before. The problem now is that he will be surrounded by sycophants instead of the institutionalist adults who tried to moderate him during his first turn. He will also be enabled by a court system stocked to the brim with conservative cultists and idealogues who are more than willing to ignore facts in service of gross partisanship. The truth is that most people in his orbit will be there for the sole purpose of enabling Trump instead of keeping him on a leash, so if we’re being realistic, this time around it will likely be much worse.
