A Farcical End to a Farcical Presidency

 A Farcical Presidency

Last week’s insurrection was a farce. It was a deadly farce but a farce nevertheless, and as such, it was a fitting end to a farcical presidency. Farce and fakery have been the hallmarks of this presidency. It has been entirely consumed by the president’s image.  His farce has served as a curtain behind which the Republican Party has carried on business as usual, which has included tax cuts for the very rich and elimination of environmental regulations.

When Mr. Trump was elected, he claimed to represent the voiceless “forgotten people” in our society. He claimed that he would return the people’s government to them, but he never pursued or even defined policies to benefit the “forgotten people.” The signature policy achievements of his administration have been passing a big tax cut for the very rich, building a small piece of a wall on the Mexican border and moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. None of these provide any benefit for our “forgotten people.” They serve only to bring votes and money to the Republican Party.

Trump’s Farcical Use of the Media

We can see Mr. Trump’s fakery and his successful use of farce in his treatment of the media. He repeatedly claimed that the mainstream media published only “fake news,” and he claimed that people who wanted to know the truth should listen to him.  His effort to discredit the media was quite successful, and millions of people believe what he says to this day.

He might have used the power that the success of his campaign to discredit the media gave him to shape public opinion on serious issues. If he had not been a complete fake, he would have used his power to propose a program of legislation to benefit the people who put their trust in him. In fact, he did no such thing. He never proposed anything to benefit the “forgotten people."

He used his enormous media presence only to flatter his ego and attack his enemies. His populism was entirely fake and he conducted a political farce to the applause of his supporters and of the mainstream media who found themselves utterly captivated by his performance. He acted like a small boy who makes a lot of noise not because he expects to achieve anything useful by it but only to get people to pay attention to him.

Discrediting the Election

During 2020, Mr. Trump continually and loudly worked to discredit the election. He claimed that it would be and was a fraud. He brought dozens of legal cases to overturn the results of the election, but he did so in a way that was almost guaranteed to fail because he had no evidence to present. He tried to pack the courts in the hope that they would support him, but he forgot that prominent, conservative judges often have a strong commitment to upholding the Constitution. Again, the whole thing was never really designed to succeed. It was Mr. Trump’s standard political farce, which kept the national attention focused on him.

Unfortunately, there were millions of people who took the farce seriously. They believed what he said, and as a result, they believe today that our next president was not legitimately elected. Thus, serious damage has been done to our democracy and to our country, and the Republican Party, which also treated Trump’s farce serious bears considerable responsibility for the damage that has been done.

A Fitting End

The events of January 6 were a fitting coda to Trump’s four-year farce. He gave a speech to stimulate an insurrection with the ostensible purpose of preventing the certification of the electoral results by Congress, but there was never any chance that the insurrection would succeed.  The military did not support it; representatives of our ruling class immediately distanced themselves from it; the judges who might have legitimized the insurrection had already shown that they were not inclined to do so. The poor saps who were the foot soldiers of the farcical insurrection are now being rounded up and arrested. They will end up paying the price for it, while Mr. Trump and his Republican enablers will go free.  The insurrection itself was a typical Trump event: it was noisy; it was dirty; it was crowded; thousands of people cheered wildly; but nothing of substance was achieved. The farcical presidency came to a farcical end.