While what is happening to the presidency of Donald J. Trump is sad and disastrous, there are some things to exult in during this fiasco that have a common theme: the celebration of the power of American democracy and our constitutional system.
And this is where each of you who are reading this article that committed yourself to what has been both applaudingly and mockingly called the “resistance” must honor yourself for: your part in what we have done together to preserve the integrity of our nation. We have created the context for the Mueller findings coming to light that are now starting to leak out that have rightly put this presidency in peril.
So, while there is much to mourn concerning what happened on and since that fateful Tuesday night in November of 2016, there is much that bodes well for the future of our nation, this great American experiment. Here are a few I see, issued with caveats because there is indeed much damage to fix wreaked by this presidency.
Donald Trump created new voters and activists
First, so many more people who had for such a long time dismissed politics as irrelevant to their lives or too petty to get themselves involved with, are now paying attention and become neophyte activists. Recently, while taking an Uber ride to a meeting, the driver told me he had not voted in twenty years before doing so in the recent midterm elections. Like many, he was not just saddened but also immersed in righteous indignation about what was happening to the nation he had left Iran for many years ago, with his wife and young children, yearning for the pluralistic society that promised equal opportunity for all. Many others have testified to this same paradigm happening in themselves, when this clearly unqualified, self-serving man, became President of the greatest nation on earth, a position he has shown himself clearly unworthy of. This unfortunate, and in many ways, a catastrophic event for our country, awakened the sleeping giant of American goodness and American democracy and made many people lifetime voters.
Do not doubt for one second that public pressure from so many in our nation, much of it on social media, gave rise to the social and political context that has made it untenable for Donald Trump to fire Robert Mueller. Twitter and other social media platforms have become outlets for regular, everyday people to express their voice and join the “resistance.” Do not think for one minute any of what you see now, or what will happen to President Trump- whether it be impeachment, indictment, resignation, removal- would have occurred without the voices of so many- including you- who became activated or more stirred by his election.
Transformative Legislation will emerge
Something I wrote about in my recent book, Letters of Gratitude to American Heroes of Social Justice: Where Would We Be Without Them? is that socially traumatic events in American history have usually produced reactive, corrective, and permanently transformative legislation that still shapes our lives today.
The Civil War led to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the Great Depression led to the Social Security Act- the creation of a social insurance program that still goes strong today-, as well as federal unemployment insurance, the FDIC, the SEC, and more institutions that have been bedrocks of our society. Additionally, the 9/11 terrorist attacks produced laws that- although were at times Orwellian- have kept us, after proper adjustments for civil liberties concerns, relatively safe.
Similarly, Donald Trump’s unfortunate election, which has been disastrous on so many levels, will produce legislation that will serve to prevent another demagogic, felonious, and divisive person from rising to the most important office in the world. We will learn from this. We have seen the beginning of this process. For example, we already have seen some states take action toward laws that would prevent anyone, given President Trump’s lack of transparency on the issue, from getting on the presidential ballot who has not released their tax returns. There will be more laws and policies put in place to prevent what occurred on that November 2016 night from happening again.
One thing we can be sure of is that we will become stronger from this. I wrote in my recently-released book that America always has a hero come along at just the right time- Lincoln, Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, Dr. King, and others. We will need a lot more than one in this case, and there will be, but so many have emerged already and held up the integrity of this great American experiment in self-government based on the then-radical notion that “all men are created equal.” Donald J. Trump has not and cannot destroy who we are at our core, and we will rise and fight again after his cataclysmic election, as we always do.
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Justin M. Buffer is a political and historical analyst, and author of “Letters of Gratitude to American Heroes of Social Justice: Where Would We Be Without Them?” available on Amazon.Com, Barnes and Noble.Com, and more. You can visit his author site at www.justinmbuffer.com or socialjusticeheroes.com.
