President Donald Trump is frequently ridiculous, as almost everyone knows.
asserted
everyone → know → ?
The latest evidence is his absurd name-changing, his orders that Lake Ontario become Lake America, and artificial intelligence become superintelligence.
asserted
intelligence → become → America
As chief executive, he can force these solecisms into official U.S. documents, but everyone else will continue using the proper names, and some future president will reorder federal officialdom back to normality.
asserted
president → force → normality
A poll this week found that 59% of Democrats, who are members of a party that touts its qualifications as the vital defender of democracy, would feel very or somewhat positive if the president were removed from the White House by a military coup.
asserted
president → find → coup
The Center for Strategic Politics asked people how they’d feel if they woke up in the morning and learned that various scenarios had taken place.
asserted
scenarios → ask → place
This framing creates distance between respondents and the action they are asked to assess, making affirmative answers more likely; it is, after all, easier to be pleased by something drastic having already taken place than to advocate such a thing.
asserted
it → create → thing
Nevertheless, even with that caveat, the proportion of Democrats welcoming news that Trump had been removed from office by radical means unprecedented in this nation is startlingly high.
asserted
Trump → welcome → nation
If he were ousted under the Constitution’s 25th Amendment by his Cabinet declaring him unfit for office, 84% of Democrats would be happy.
asserted
% → oust → Democrats
Only a tiny minority would object.
asserted
minority → object → ?
If he were impeached, found guilty, and removed from his job, 87% of Democrats would welcome the news.
asserted
% → impeach → news
If Trump died overnight in his sleep, 55% of Democrats would view this positively (although doubtless their hair would instantly burst into flames over Vice-President JD Vance moving into the Oval Office).
asserted
Vance → die → Office
Democrats draw a line only at a putative assassination of Trump.
asserted
Democrats → draw → Trump
If that were to be the morning headline, 32% would have a very negative response, and 11% would feel somewhat negative about it.
asserted
% → have → it
But on the other side of the ledger, 23% would feel very positive, and 9% would feel somewhat positive.
asserted
% → feel → ledger
In other words, 57% of Democrats, adherents of a party that parades its opposition to “gun violence,” would not feel even slightly dismayed if the president were to be taken down by a fatal bullet.
asserted
president → parade → bullet
The gulf between who the Democrats think they are and who they really are is wider than the Grand Canyon.
asserted
they → think → Canyon
They believe they’re against autocracy but would be happy if the army shoved aside the people’s democratically elected president; they think they’re against “gun culture” but if it produced the political outcome they favor, most would not object; they’ve already impeached Trump twice, but they’re itching to do so again.
asserted
they → believe → Trump
So, as though further evidence were necessary, it is clear that Trump drives the Left crazy.
asserted
Trump → drive → Left
Such whacked-out sentiments as those revealed by the Center for Strategic Politics are symptoms not simply of dislike for a particular leader but of a society that has lost its bearings.
asserted
that → whack → bearings
In a properly ordered society with a stable and self-confident culture, political parties dislike but broadly accept government by opponents who have won power in a legitimate election, as Trump did.
asserted
Trump → order → election
Democrat daydreams about their head of state being removed from office by military coup, abuse of the Constitution, lawfare, sudden death, and even murder should be seen as part of a picture of wide public distrust and dissatisfaction.
asserted
head → remove → distrust
The New York Times ran a news story this week declaring that “Americans have a pervasive sense that they are being lied to.”
asserted
they → run → sense
Characteristically, the paper couched its story and skewed its analysis to taint Trump and Republicans in the run-up to the November midterm congressional elections.
asserted
paper → couch → elections
But set its bias aside, and the story nevertheless revealed something important.
asserted
story → set → something
Trust peaked at 73% in 1958 but has declined since then and has been bumping along below 20% through the presidencies of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump.
asserted
Trust → peak → Obama
It is clear to anyone with their eyes open that distrust is not confined to opinion about the federal government.
asserted
distrust → confine → government
And that particular distrust has been dwindling about equally through the Republican- and Democrat-led administrations.
asserted
distrust → dwindle → administrations
One needs to look beyond politics for the cause.
asserted
One → need → cause
It began at a point, frequently cited by conservatives, when counter-cultural movements took off in the 1960s, and every institution — the nation, patriotism, marriage, family, community, merit, diligence, honor, and much else — was subjected to hostile deconstruction.
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institution → begin → deconstruction
American culture is fragmented.
asserted
culture → fragment → ?
Instead of sharing common understandings and assumptions with our compatriots, the nation was balkanized into increasingly, then thoroughly, divided subgroups.
asserted
nation → share → subgroups
In this unlovely dispensation, people are inclined to become alienated from others not in their tribe, and to assume malicious intent where there is merely disagreement.
asserted
people → incline → intent
It is harder and harder in this environment to accept that people who do not share one’s own opinions may be just as smart and well-intentioned as oneself.
uncertain
who → accept → oneself
It is then that public opinion polls find that members of one tribe would be glad to hear that the leader of another tribe had been drummed out of office, toppled, died, or even been murdered.
asserted
leader → find → office
The Aporia
