Losing isn’t easy, and James Fallows is not taking it well.
The storied national correspondent at the Atlantic and former chief speechwriter in the Carter White House writes that Trump’s victory stands as the “most grievous blow” America has endured in his lifetime.
What happened on Election Night was a disaster, he argues, a national catastrophe more tragic than even the Sept. 11th terror attacks.
Running through a laundry list of calamities, Fallows argues that “the wars in Vietnam and Iraq” along with “the Kennedy and King assassinations and the 9/11 attacks” pale in comparison to the 2016 presidential election. “For a democratic process,” he concludes, “to elevate a man expressing total disregard for democratic norms and institutions is worse.”
To quickly recap, Fallows considers the most recent peaceful transition of power more scarring than the 47,434 Americans who died on jungles of Vietnam, the 4,497 in the sands of Iraq, and the 2,606 trapped in the collapsing infernos of the Twin Towers.
Of course that loss of life was rough, the reporter insists, but eventually the “nation recovered.” That’s simply not a possibility after Trump takes the presidency. The incoming executive will succeed where communists and jihadists failed. Fallows predicts that the next president will destroy representative democracy.
And he’s not alone. The masthead of the Atlantic quickly endorsed their correspondent’s take. So did Jon Favreau, Obama’s former chief speechwriter, who tweeted that the story was “a great, tough read.” It seems that even a month after the election, many still haven’t stepped away from the ledge.
But everything’s probably going to be okay. Even after two years in Carter’s Oval Office, Fallows must have forgotten how the separation of powers works. Despite the current executives eight years of overreach, the safeguards of the Constitution continue to check and balance.
Yes, Democrats are out of power at the local, state and federal level. But no, it’s not all bad. There’s a solid liberal resistance forming in the upper chamber, led by a gutsy senator from Brooklyn. And there are four liberal Supreme Court justices who still draw breath. Things change in politics faster than anyone expects, and there are reasons for progressives to hope.
While detailing the “Despair and Hope in Trump’s America,” Fallows even comes close to stumbling upon that conclusion. He’s not so blind to miss the how most Americans have more faith in their local societies than the national government. Ultimately, he misses that federalist data point and tumbles headlong into the depths of despair he spent 1,600 words digging.
Until he decides to emerge, whether it’s in 2018 or 2020, Fallows would do well to reconsider his pessimism. Or at least in the meantime, he ought to rethink equating a temporary political loss with a real national tragedy.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
