Life after Trump
He will eventually be gone, but after what damage? And how quickly will our democracy recover?
Let’s imagine for one glorious moment that Donald Trump loses to Vice President Kamala Harris in a landslide on Nov. 5. Let’s also entertain a scenario in which Trump – ala Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” – flees to Russia in his private jet to avoid further prosecution and prison.
If any of this happens, how much might Trump’s absence from American politics influence what’s left of the Trump Cult/Republican Party? How much would Trump’s crushing defeat and disappearance influence the behavior of his MAGA followers?
Put another way: Is Trump the primary reason for our rancid political environment, or is he now a symptom of something larger at work in American society?
If we get rid of Trump, do we get rid of Trumpism?
There was a time when I thought Trump was the most significant part of our problem — the disease that afflicted us. Send Trump packing — or constrain him with all the constitutional and other guardrails of democracy — and I thought his impact on society and politics would become minimal or short-lasting.
I made that argument in my Times-Picayune column in 2015. It shows just how much I and others not only misjudged Trump but also underestimated his ability to bend the government, the GOP, and greater society to his will.
But we realize now that Trump was not like the common cold. America didn’t get a case of the sniffles. Our country was infected with a political version of the plague. And the disease that Trump and his allies have injected into the body politic is not easy to cure.
Even if we banish that disease, the damage it has caused is severe and likely to be long-lasting.
Just look around Louisiana and consider what Trumpism has wrought in our part of the country.
In Jeff Landry, we have a governor who conspired with Trump and his aides to overturn a free and fair election. Not only did this act of near-treason not harm Landry’s political prospects, but it helped propel him to the governor’s office in 2023 without a runoff. The unfounded distrust in our election system that Landry and others helped stoke with their election-denial lies will persist.
The anti-vaccine madness that Trump and his crowd unleashed in 2020-21 found its way quickly to Louisiana, where Landry and his friends imbibed with gusto.
Landry appointed a radical, opioid-pushing surgeon general who has urged the public to forgo the COVID-19 vaccine.
The death and destruction from Landry’s lies about public health will cost many lives. And the poison of disinformation he and other Republicans are spreading about established science will have continuing and deadly consequences.
Long after Landry and Trump are gone, skepticism of vaccines of all kinds will remain. Children and others will die or become deathly ill because of our governor’s cynical lies. And ridding ourselves of Trump and Landry will not soon repair that damage.
I suspect that Landry also shares Trump’s tolerance for corruption and self-dealing. We’ve already seen solid hints that Landry’s approach to governing is much closer to Trump's corrupt, authoritarian ways than even some of his loyal supporters might be willing to tolerate. Landry hasn’t had his first big corruption scandal yet, but judging by what I know of him and how he’s operated in his first ten months in office, it’s coming.
Trump and Landry are also one in their disdain for women having the freedom to control their bodies. Their misogyny – masquerading as “pro-life” politics – will cost many women their lives or deprive them of their reproductive health.
Coarseness, cruelty, violence, and profanity have become commonplace at Trump rallies and in our national politics. (For the latest example, see Trump’s discussion of Arnold Palmer’s genitals on Saturday.) All of this is now a part of Louisiana politics.
Sen. John Kennedy routinely insults women at committee hearings with his racism and sneering, faux-hillbilly rudeness. Rep. Clay Higgins exudes unhinged racism and celebrates political violence.
And yet both men are untouchable with party councils in Washington and Louisiana.
Trumpism has not only fed the rise of racism in Louisiana, especially hatred of legal immigrants and transgender people; it’s also supercharged the tolerance many in his party have for virulent bigotry and political violence.
I guarantee you that we all have friends and neighbors who not only think the violence of Jan. 6 was justified; they also will cheer whatever mayhem and bloodshed Trump demands after he — we fervently pray — loses.
And, speaking of prayer, the damage that Christian evangelicals here and elsewhere have done to the faith by their worship of Trump is incalculable.
Trump’s poisonous lies, corruption, racism, coarseness, and willful ignorance are in our water supply. The quality of that water will not likely improve any time soon in Louisiana. And it could get much worse because of the low character of the people now in charge of Louisiana’s government and the tolerance — or yearning — that too many white voters have for what Trump is serving.
If we’re determined to put our country and state back on course to becoming a place that values decency, truth, science, and the rule of law, then tossing Trump into the trashcan of history will be a great start.
If he loses in November, it’s not likely that the GOP will make him its standard bearer again in 2028. He might be in prison, after all. (I know I could be wrong about this, assuming Trump lives that long or hasn’t been consumed by his advancing dementia by then.)
But even if he’s gone for good, the deplorable behavior Trump taught his disciples — as well as the open racism, hatred, and misogyny he enabled and encouraged — will not soon disappear.
And Jeff Landry and his crowd will still be in charge in Louisiana.
So we must keep working to make sure that racists and criminals like Trump and his cheap imitators in Louisiana never again have positions of power or respect in our politics.
That means focusing quickly on ridding our politics of Landry and his type.
That process will be something like the boil-water edicts that many New Orleans-area residents routinely endure. The unhealthy, poisoned water will take a while to clear the system.
In other words, our work will only begin the day after Trump, we hope, is declared the loser.
David Duke, who walked around the LSU campus in full Nazi regalia in 1970 was a Republican leader ahead of his time.
There’s nothing new about Trump. American History is filled with his ilk and he tapped the reaction to the election of the first black President.
So, just about every election for a long, long time will be the “most important of our lifetime.” Never underestimate the dark history of America or its resilience.
Don’t forget about the employment of illegal immigrants in Lake Charles by Jeffy and his brother’s contracting company a few years ago. He is OK with immigration if he can make a bigger profit from it.