Countdown to Trumpocalypse
The ugly reality of where America may be headed
The author David Frum published a book in January 2018 titled Trumpocalypse about the 45th president, his administration, and how America might move beyond it once he was defeated. At the time I remember finding the title clever (and a challenge to pronounce) but also overwrought. I understand the commercial incentive to employ hyperbole in headlines and book titles. (Screaming rhetoric has a greater chance of getting noticed in the marketplace than elegance, subtly, or irony.) But I’m also a critic of the practice, so I didn’t much like Frum’s formulation.
Yet here I am stealing the title for a Substack post. In addition to announcing the final destruction of the world, the word “apocalypse” can (merely) mean an event involving damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale. When it comes to American liberal democracy, a second Trump victory eleven months from now would be exactly that. I didn’t use such language four or even two years ago. I’m using it now because the danger is real and increasing with every passing week.
The Coming Storm
I’m hardly the first pundit to say so. Last Thursday, Robert Kagan published a lengthy essay in the Washington Post titled “A Trump Dictatorship Is Increasingly Inevitable. We Should Stop Pretending.” The following day, Jonathan Last published a post at The Bulwark, based partially on Kagan’s essay, under the title, “There’s a Storm Coming. We All Know It. And Yet Americans Are Pretending That Everything Is Normal.” Last’s subtitle added: “We are going to be confronted with an existential crisis eleven months from now. And the majority of Americans don’t care.”
That sounds exactly right to me.
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