We Have Battered Nation Syndrome

Our Inability to Muster Outrage at Trump is a Disease. Let's Discuss the Cure.

Last week, Donald Trump shared with his followers on social media a post that suggested in the crudest terms possible that Kamala Harris succeeded by offering sexual favors. It was a repugnant lie. And it came and went in little more than a single news cycle. It caused barely a ripple of public reaction.

Since then, almost four years to the day after it was reported Trump had called service members who had lost their lives “suckers and losers,” he has broken federal law by desecrating Arlington National Cemetery. He has admitted on camera that he interfered in the 2020 elections . He has said—yet again and in writing—that he supported “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” in support of his 2020 election Big Lie.

His surrogates like Elon Musk, a man who Trump said he would consider for a top job in his administration, have published falsified photos of Harris in a communist uniform along with the offensive lie that she promised to be “a communist dictator on day one.” (Trump is the one who has repeatedly said he would be a dictator on day one.) Musk also promoted the idea of “a Republic of high status males.” He has lied time and again about his opponents and his own performance, in particular saying one thing and then the opposite about his view on the issue of reproductive rights.

Often during the same period—just the past few days—he appeared lost, disoriented, unable to hold a thought in his head. At the same time, House Democrats launched an investigation into allegations that Trump may have accepted a $10 million bribe from the Egyptian government several years ago and that Trump’s own Justice Department quashed the investigation into that allegation. He also complained that not enough attention was devoted to the shooting incident in Pennsylvania in July even though he has steadfastly blocked any efforts to get an official, independent medical report of what happened to him on that day. 

This is just the past week, people. Just the past week.

Any of these developments not only could have but should have ended his candidacy, permanently disqualified him from seeking higher office. But so too should have the fact that he fomented an insurrection, stole national secrets, raped a woman, was credibly accused of sexually abusing dozens of others, was impeached twice, profited corruptly from his time in the presidency, and serially obstructed justice according to a special counsels findings. Again, each and every one of these offenses should have ended his career. Several should have resulted in his imprisonment.

Yet here we are with him just a couple of points in the polls behind a qualified, quality opponent.

One of the mysteries of our time is why this man who should be many times erased from the public view remains so central, so empowered and, at the moment, so close to seizing power again.