So many of those who supported Donald Trump claimed they wanted a change; that they wanted a government that would work for them, that they wanted to “drain the swamp”. Donald Trump has appointed a Goldman Sachs executive who was directly involved in some of the most egregious excesses in the mortgage-fueled collapse of the economy in 2008 to be Secretary of the Treasury. His chief of staff was the chief apparatchik of the Republican Party. He has still not released his tax returns, so that we might be aware of his potential conflicts of interest.
They claimed that they wanted a government that avoids stupid wars and stupid foreign policy, and instead invests at home. Donald Trump has appointed generals to every position possible, two of whom are known to have more aggressive views with regards to military intervention in the Middle East than the current administration. He broke years of precedent to talk to Taiwan’s president and antagonize China. He wants to appoint a man too neo-conservative to be confirmed as ambassador to the UN by a Bush-era Republican Senate, a man who suggested that we bomb Iran to stop their nuclear program, as deputy Secretary of State.
They claimed that Donald Trump would surround himself with the best, most qualified people. He has chosen a neurosurgeon to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a general who tweets conspiracy theories about Sharia law in the US to be National Security Advisor, a governor of a small Southern state to be ambassador to the United Nations, and an oil company CEO to lead the State Department.
They claimed that Donald Trump would act more presidentially if he won. He attacked the head of a union for daring to go on TV and criticize him, threatened to cancel a deal with Boeing and wrecked their stock price for a day, tweeted invective at the actors of a Broadway play who had the temerity to ask his administration to listen to their hopes and fears for the future, claimed millions of people voted illegally with no evidence, and lied about the size of his electoral victory. He has refused regular intelligence briefings, claiming he is a “smart person”.
They claimed that Donald Trump would help the working class. His Secretary of Labor nominee opposes raising the minimum wage, wants to aggressively pursue replacing workers with machines, and supports immigration reform (like a plantation owner supporting the slave trade, though). His congressional allies are already threatening to gut the Affordable Care Act without a clear replacement plan, which will wreak havoc on the healthcare of those who can afford it the least, and make substantial cuts to Social Security and Medicaid.
They claimed that Donald Trump would work for all Americans. He exulted in the fact that some black people didn’t vote, helping him win, in Michigan. He appointed a man who ran a website with a “black crime” section as his chief strategist. His attempts (if they can be called that) to defuse the documented surge of hate crimes in the wake of his election amount to a mild scolding of misbehaving child. The slimy, thuggish people who work for him like Kellyanne Conway and Corey Lewandowski continue to threaten their enemies with consequences for daring to oppose him. He has chosen to continue his rallies with his staunchest supporters, rather than reaching out to his most committed opponents.
They claimed that they were not racist or sexist or anti-Semitic; they just wanted change, they just wanted their country back. They see people of color distraught and pooh-pooh their concerns. They say that Barack Obama “took sides” against them. They say that Hillary Clinton spent too much time talking about minorities and immigrants, not “everyday Americans” like them. Women are being harassed and assaulted simply for the act of being brown and wearing headscarves in New York City, and all I hear is crickets from Trump and his supporters, or worse, denial or rationalization.
Republicans claimed that they were the true patriots, that Obama and Clinton were too soft on Russia, that they wanted to dispel with the fiction that Obama didn’t know what he was doing to America, that he was acting like an emperor. Their leaders were told that Russia was trying to skew our election, and they chose to dismiss it rather than investigate further. Republican state legislatures are falling all over themselves to add more restrictions to voting rights. Meanwhile, Paul Ryan continues with his platitudes about a better way and the party of Lincoln, a man assassinated by white supremacist traitors to the Union.
All of these things were entirely predictable. Donald Trump is exactly who he showed himself to be. And yet, so many people ignored that. Maybe the real problem is that they didn’t, and all of this is actually what they wanted.