I’m forever going back to the Founders for examples of exemplary political behavior.  They did, after all, pull off a rare feat, a successful revolution that didn’t turn into an awful bloodbath (not that it wasn’t bloody enough) and didn’t leave the nation’s people in fear of their new government.

A recent article by the fine libertarian/conservative writer Kevin D. Williamson pointed out that the War for Independence was in fact an act of sedition, the difference being that ours was successful.  True; Benjamin Franklin joked to his fellow delegates to the Continental Congress, with characteristic dark humor, that they would have to hang together if they were not to hang separately.  There was also the fact that almost all still felt great affection for the mother country in spite of its efforts to tighten control over its rambunctious colonies.  With a few hotheaded exceptions, the American leaders in the years preceding 1776 were in favor of reconciliation, warned Parliament repeatedly that the colonies were being goaded into an insurrection that (almost) no one wanted, and practically begged that it find an accommodation.

It was not to be; the Americans would be reminded that America was a colony, and the scoundrels would learn their place and keep it.  I can only imagine the agony of the debate in the spring and summer of 1776 in Philadelphia, and the sense of dread that accompanied the vote for independence.  Church bells rang and crowds cheered as the news spread, but the delegates themselves, the cream of America, had no illusions.  For them, it really was a matter of life and death.

But what an exquisite sense of timing they displayed!  The ideas upon which they based their action – “we hold these truths to be self-evident”, etc. – were, in fact, not self-evident, but by this time were widely shared throughout western Europe and America.  Britain’s get-tough tactics in and around Boston made their intentions crystal-clear.  Had independence been declared a year earlier, right after Lexington and Concord, it might have seemed precipitous and premature.  Instead, the Continental Congress could convincingly argue that it had tried everything to prevent the unraveling.  The justice of their action was undeniable, even to many Englishmen, but more crucially to many wavering Americans, who could now choose the patriot side with a clear conscience.

The first key to this successful break with Britain, I think, was their sincerity.  The American colonials sincerely wanted and pleaded for reconciliation.  Their elected leaders followed this policy to the bitter end.  But not beyond the bitter end – and that’s the second key to success.  Once it was clear that reconciliation was not in the cards, they accepted it and moved deliberately but decisively to independence.

This clear-eyed blend of idealism, realism, virtue and valor has been the hallmark of American governance ever since, with rare and very regrettable exceptions.  Stake your position, declare your candidacy, and vigorously make your case.  Then vote, accept the results, and get on with life.  It has worked every time except 1860, even when the results were a bitter pill for the losers to swallow. 

Until we get to Donald Trump.  I understand why he was elected; I voted for him twice.  But I did so with serious misgivings, and worried both times that we would probably regret it.  The reasons are now clear; of the 4 qualities I mentioned – idealism, realism, virtue and valor – which of them does he exemplify?  Let’s make it easier: Which of them does he display in good, or at least adequate, measure?  As far as I can tell, none of them.  Instead, he was elected in a fit of populist rage at an incompetent elite that was either oblivious to, or actively hostile toward, the ordinary people of the nation, and which was so out of touch that it seemed genuinely unaware of the damage it was doing, or so callous that it didn’t care.  Trump played the anger, disaffection and alienation like a Stradivarius, and many people, like me, recognizing that there was a core of truth to what he was saying, decided to ally ourselves with him in spite of our concerns.

But events have proven that partisan brawling is all he knows how to do, and he never managed to rise above it to effectively govern the nation.  He never even tried to make peace with his enemies, or calm the waters, or do any of the things that every president must at least try to do. Unlike the Founding Fathers, he followed his path to the bitter end and then beyond.  Perhaps he lacked the ability, but he certainly lacked the good sense to recognize the end when it arrived.  The limits of his approach were finally revealed at the Stop the Steal riot, when Trump and his followers hit the wall with disastrous results.

Being an equal-opportunity critic, I have nothing good to say about Trump’s opponents in the Democratic Party.  Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real thing, and the left-wing paranoia and disgusting willingness, even eagerness, to “lie for a good cause” it put on display only fed the paranoia of the lunatic right wing.  If the left had treated Trump like a normal president, they would have defanged him and made him look ridiculous rather than like the mirror image of his slavering opponents.  This is a subject well beyond the limits of a short essay, but the last 4 years should be a cautionary tale to the vast majority in the middle, whether they lean left or right. 

It’s impossible to say yet how much damage has been done to both political parties, but it’s certainly immense.  The Republicans are moving (somewhat chaotically and hesitantly) to dissociate themselves from Trump, which, as painful as it will be in the short term, seems to me a necessary step.  To be more specific, the party needs to repudiate Trump himself, who has proven toxic, but remember why he was elected, incorporate the core of truth it contains into their platform, and choose candidates who can articulate it without succumbing to the obnoxious Trumpian style or the paranoia of the extreme right.

As for the Democrats, they need to remember that, while the voters rejected Trump, they did not reject the policies he advanced, as proved by the fact that they lost seats in the House of Representatives; and, were it not for Trump’s suicidal behavior in the aftermath of the November election, they would have lost the Senate as well.  If they don’t repudiate their lunatic-left wing they will only confirm the worst fears of the middle class, which already looks at them with alarm.  And if, God forbid, it transforms itself into a democratic-socialist party, as its left wing would have, it will lose the country. (Think it can’t happen?  Look at what happened to Labour in Great Britain.)  Like the Republicans, the Democrats have a very difficult balancing act to perform.  Both parties, if they are not to hit the wall, need to adjust course and shed their extremists.

This country’s leadership – and by that, I mean not only its political leadership, but its spiritual, intellectual, business, entertainment, news media and civic leadership as well, and especially Big Tech – has some serious soul searching to do.  A nation-state as diverse as ours is barely governable in the first place, but when its leadership is wittingly or unwittingly promoting division, governance becomes impossible.  The paranoid style which has come to dominate our discourse over the last 20 or so years on both the right and the left, culminating in the madness of the Trump years, is a road to ruin. Whether we have the wits, the character, the morality, the courage and the belief in ourselves to keep ruin at bay remains to be seen.  Until we decide, look out wall, here we come.

• Kenneth D. Gough © 2021