Is Trump melting down before our eyes?

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2024

Sometimes a questionable notion: Our car doors opened a few hours later. In a word, there came the sun!

That said:

On the New York Times opinion page (print edition), we found these four headlines today:

In the Shelter of a Weeping Beech (Jesse Wegman)

When the World Feels Dark, Seek Out Delight (Catherine Price)

What Trump Voters Understand About the Economy (Roger Loewenstein)

Trump Just Keeps Doing Appalling Things, and the Ranks of the Disengaged Are Growing (Michelle Goldberg)

The writers agreed—these are terrible times. Even as Roger Loewenstein said that the economic situation is not as good as our blue tribe keeps insisting, he offered this personal assessment of the upcoming election:

"In a phrase, Mr. Trump is unfit for office."

That's Loewenstein's personal view of the current political scene. Even so, he was saying that Trump voters aren't being as irrational in their preference as our thought leaders typically claim. 

In the past few weeks, other anti-Trump writers have made similar claims. In short, these are deeply disturbing times.

What else did we see on that opinion page? Within the uplifting half of the page, Catherine Price was suggesting the institution of what she calls a "delight practice." Here's the way she starts:

PRICE (1/20/24): Here’s an idea for the new year: Let’s make 2024 the year of delight.

Does that sound ridiculous, given the state of the world right now? Hear me out.

The basic premise of a delight practice (which I learned about in the essay collection “The Book of Delights” by Ross Gay) is simple: You make a point to notice things in your everyday life that delight you. This could be anything—a pretty flower, a smile you share with a stranger...Nothing is too small or absurd. Then whenever you notice something that delights you, you lift your arm, raise your index finger in the air and say, out loud and with enthusiasm, “Delight!” (Yes, even if you’re alone.) Ideally, you share your delights with another person.

The concept of prioritizing delight may sound silly or almost irresponsible, given the heaviness of current events, feelings of burnout and the upcoming U.S. presidential election, in which it seems democracy itself could be at stake. But this is exactly why it is so important. Far from being a frivolous practice, making a point to notice and share things we find delightful can improve our moods, outlooks, relationships and even physical health.

We're not saying that any of that is "wrong." But on the gloomier half of this morning's page, Michelle Goldberg reports that many blue tribers are beginning to "disengage" in the face of Trump's enduring political success.

Early on, this passage offers a taste of what she's worried about:

GOLDBERG (12/20/24): In 2019, Viv Groskop wrote in The New York Review of Books about how some in Vladimir Putin’s Russia had resurrected the Soviet idea of internal exile or internal emigration, a disillusioned retreat from politics into private life and aesthetic satisfactions. If Trump is re-elected, I’d expect to see a lot of Americans adopting a similar stance as an emotional survival strategy. 

Ah yes, the "internal exile." A few months back, we wrote about the impulse toward "internal exile"  which forms the heart of Peter Weir's Oscar-nominated 1985 film, Witness.

In that film, the Harrison Ford character seeks an exile in Pennsylvania's Amish country—an exile from his life as a police sergeant in a violent and corrupted Philadelphia. 

By the end of the film, he realizes that he has to return and continue his efforts within his own world. But the longing for a form of escape had been strong.

Our blue tribe is beginning to realize that Donald J. Trump could win again this year. We strongly advise against a theme which is currently being pushed around the blue tribe dial.

In that theme, we convince ourselves that Candidate Trump is melting down before our eyes—that he's been displaying the type of senility which is constantly being attributed to President Biden.

Kevin Drum has been advancing this idea, as you can see in this new post. Joe Scarborough has been pushing this notion for weeks.

Yesterday, we got an email from a journalist friend who is apparently going there too. The idea strikes us as a form of wishful thinking in the face of impending defeat, a modern-day blue tribe ghost dance.

We hope to discuss this matter next week. We don't think that Candidate / Defendant Trump is melting down in that way, and we don't think we should start telling ourselves that he is. 

On the other hand, our concerns about President / Candidate Biden are quite strong at this site. Our concerns could be wrong, of course.

For members of our own blue tribe, this is a very dangerous time. How can we prevent the worst?

As readers may already know, we're inclined to think it's already too late. There is much, much more to say about this—and we do recommend delight. 

Update concerning delight: Two hours later, our car doors opened! "There came the sun," we exclaimed.

Here Comes the Sun, George Harrison wrote, in a brilliantly simple ode to delight.

We play this video when we want to recall how much pleasure there can (sometimes) be in the world, depending perhaps on where you live. Also, though in second place, pretty much any version of the wonderfully simple Colours.