(Excerpted from VERY FINE PEOPLE, from an essay 1st published October 2020)
We now know that—even though Trump is a disruption to the status quo in some ways—he isn’t *only* a disruption to the status quo. In many ways, he is a part of that status quo’s inevitable progression.
He’s the result you can expect to see, in a society which believes that we have no shared society, that life must be earned, that profit is how you earn it, and that violence redeems.
We can see that Trump isn’t a disruption to business as usual, but rather a purified concentrate of that business. Even though he spread supremacy's virus, Trump isn’t a virus. He’s the first unignorable tumor—for those of us comfortable enough to have ignored previous symptoms.
Yes, he’ll have to be removed completely, but afterward things are going to have to be different. If they aren’t, then we’ll find ourselves here again.
And we may well find ourselves here again.
Even many opposed to the spiritual virus of MAGA aren’t interested in quarantining or vaccinating against it. Some remain opposed to radical transformations to our lifestyle. Some want only to remove the tumor of Trump, then return to the exact situation that allowed it to grow.
We’ve heard all the justifications for this, because we know them. We often are them. These complacent masses aren’t strangers, any more than the cheering red-capped throngs are strangers.
Often, they’re us.
Happy, smiling, friendly, many of them. They love their kids. They go to church. They work hard. They pay their taxes. They walk their dogs. They love us, some of them. Yes, and we love them, many of them.
