The things that matter

Trump's enablers stayed silent as he damaged our country, hoping for narrow political wins while sacrificing the trust of our allies and further dividing our nation.

I did not plan to write today, mainly because I don’t have anything adequate to honor Martin Luther King Jr. on the day that we recognize him. Writing about other topics feels like distracting from his legacy, but I’ll use as an excuse the sentiment King expressed when he said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” The statement is a pretty good summary of why I write.

At the top of my Twitter feed this morning was a post by Charles Murray, the conservative political scientist who co-wrote the controversial book The Bell Curve. In response to Trump’s insane memo to the Norwegian prime minister about Greenland, Murray tweeted, “I have made no secret of my view of Trump-the-man, but I have also come to acknowledge that many of the things he is doing are good. With that has come a ‘that’s just Trump being Trump’ reaction to a lot of things that I used to see as serious mental instability. His recent Greenland statements feel like something next-level crazy.”

Murray’s tweet sums up the deal with the devil that too many conservatives made. They knew who Trump was before they supported him. They rationalized that he would get them some of what they want while occasionally embarrassing himself. Instead, the bad far outweighs the good. It’s not going to end well.

Republicans like Senators Thom Tillis, Mitch McConnell, and Bill Cassidy and conservative publications like the National Review and The Free Press decided the benefits of Trump were worth the gamble. At times, it seemed to pay off. They got their tax cuts. Trump actually bombed Iran. The Supreme Court, with Trump’s appointees, overturned Roe v. Wade, restricted voting rights, and ended affirmative action. Trump sent Elon Musk to slash the federal bureaucracy in a way that Congress would not have.

The price of these victories is tremendous. Internationally, Trump’s bullying is upending the world order, costing us the trust and confidence of Canada and the European democracies while strengthening dictatorships, especially Russia and China. He’s allowing corruption to run wild, using the country’s foreign policies to benefit his family and administration cronies. He’s outright selling pardons, putting criminals back on the streets. He’s using the Department of Justice to go after his political enemies. He’s turned ICE and Border Patrol into paramilitary organizations that occupy cities and antagonize residents.

Before Trump, the United States was both respected and liked. People from other places wanted to come here, and they welcomed Americans in their own countries. A friend whose daughter is training in Europe for the Olympics says the team won’t wear their jerseys or hats in public. The trust we’ve lost with European countries will not return when Trump is gone because they know we could elect another person just as bad in the future.

Within the country, Trump and MAGA have sowed seeds of division that will continue to grow. They’ve brought back outright racism and bigotry that had been made socially unacceptable in the wake of the civil rights movement. They’ve empowered an antisemitism within GOP circles that is growing quickly among young conservatives.

In short, Trump has made us more divided internally, less respected internationally, more corrupt, and more economically isolated. We’re a weaker country now than we’ve been in decades, and we’re getting weaker every day.

Conservatives like Murray knew who Trump was long before he became president. He didn’t magically pop onto the political scene. He spent decades bragging about his sexual escapades, failing spectacularly in the business world, and pretending to be a CEO on a reality show. Murray, Tillis, McConnell, and so many others watched him try to subvert our democracy, heard him promise to abuse his power, and decided to give him a second chance anyhow.

They are the Trump enablers and are as responsible for the results of Trump’s destructive antics as the man himself. They could have stopped him, but they chose narrow political wins at the expense of our reputation and trust. As King would note, they stayed silent in the face of things that matter. The result is a diminished America.