Opinion | We Can Fight Later. Now Is the Time to Mourn.
Attribution...Thalassa Raasch for The New York Times
Attribution… Thalassa Raasch for The New York Times
When Donald Trump first won the election, I reached out to a journalist friend in Turkey to share my feelings about the situation. I mentioned the numerous protests that were being organized, and she kindly cautioned me to brace for disappointment. She recounted how she and her friends had rallied against Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his time as prime minister, but eventually, those protests faded, and life in a country with eroding freedoms continued. This conversation lingered in my thoughts throughout Trump's presidency, serving as a reminder to stay vigilant. When Trump was finally removed from office, I felt a sense of pride in the resilience of the anti-Trump movement, which had never accepted his authoritarian antics as the new normal.
This time will be different. Trump's initial election felt like a random occurrence, a troubling twist that happened because the Democrats weren't vigilant enough. However, this year, the champions of liberal values and fundamental civic responsibility threw everything they had into the battle, yet they not only lost the Electoral College but probably the popular vote as well. The American voters, fully aware of Trump's character, made a conscious choice to support him. Ultimately, this reflects our true identity as a nation.
I anticipate that the upcoming months will lean more towards a time of sadness than rebellion. My natural inclination—though it often clashes with my work obligations—is to seek comfort in my family, to find joy in spending time with friends, enjoying theater, and immersing myself in novels. I want to shut out the painful reality of what my country has chosen to become. On Wednesday morning, I revisited an essay from The New York Review of Books published in 2019 discussing the Russian concept of “vnutrennaya emigratsia,” which means internal emigration, a conscious choice to accept one’s own feelings of isolation. Viv Groskop noted that for many Russian writers and artists over the centuries, the ability to "turn inward" and remain indifferent to the political issues of their time has been essential, almost like an art form. I believe this is a skill that many of us will try to develop, at least for a while, as a way to cope and maintain our sanity.
Eventually, the grief we feel may either begin to lessen or spiral into sadness and hopelessness. If that happens, the resistance we build against the new MAGA will look different than in the past. The aspiration to redeem our country from the influence of Trumpism and to see it as an anomaly will be absent. Instead, we will focus on the more practical task of easing the pain that his administration is likely to cause us. There’s no value in protesting his inauguration like millions did back in 2017. However, we should gather in solidarity if his supporters come to our neighborhoods to forcibly remove migrant families. We must also reinforce the support systems that help women in conservative states obtain abortions, especially if Trump’s Justice Department takes action against the mailing of abortion pills or if his F.D.A. decides to revoke their approval. In upcoming state and local elections, I will want to hear candidates' plans to safeguard our public health and education systems from the threats posed by the MAGA movement.
In the long run, we will need progressive politics that go beyond merely countering right-wing movements. Donald Trump is, after all, a troubling product of broader historical trends that are transforming political landscapes across the West, giving rise to nationalist figures like Viktor Orban in Hungary and Giorgia Meloni in Italy, while also fueling the popularity of parties such as the far-right Alternative for Germany and France's National Rally. Some may criticize Kamala Harris for focusing too much on appealing to moderate Republican women or for the ambiguity of her "opportunity economy" messaging. However, few politicians have succeeded in uniting a diverse coalition that brings together wealthy, educated urbanites with blue-collar workers who value tradition and social stability. Whether it’s still achievable remains uncertain, but at the very least, it will demand a clear and compelling vision of what a successful progressive society should look like.
In the end, Trump's greatest flaw might actually be his lack of competence. Looking back at history, it seems that a lot of the people he brings into his administration will eventually come to resent him. He is unlikely to provide the economic support that people desperately need. If he goes ahead with his plans for widespread tariffs, experts predict that inflation will rise. His close associate, Elon Musk, who has been pushing for strict budget cuts in the government, has warned that Americans might have to face "some temporary hardship." We witnessed Trump's approach to a significant crisis during the Covid pandemic, and there’s no reason to think he would handle another situation any better. I believe many of his supporters will likely come to regret their choice. He might even undermine the loud, right-wing nationalism in the way George W. Bush discredited neoconservatism after his re-election, an outcome that also disappointed me deeply.
The real question is what will remain of our system when that day comes and whether Trump's rivals will have developed an alternative that can give people back their sense of dignity and hope. This is the challenge we will face in the next four years—preserving what we can and envisioning a better future. But for now, all I can do is mourn.
Michelle Goldberg has been writing Op-Eds since 2017. She has penned multiple books focusing on politics, religion, and women's rights. Additionally, she was part of the team that earned a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2018 for their coverage of sexual harassment in the workplace.
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