My "Agreeable Fancy" Did Not Materialize... Now I Need to Face a Disagreeable Fact: Trump Won
The White House and Senate are now Republican. What happens in the House races now determines the future of our country, of the Middle East, of the Ukraine, and what will be read in schools and online
One of my favorite quotes is from Adlai Stevenson: “You will find that the truth is often unpopular and the contest between agreeable fancy and disagreeable fact is unequal. For, in the vernacular, we Americans are suckers for good news.” which I have also seen quoted as “given the choice between an agreeable fantasy and a disagreeable truth, Americans will always choose the fantasy.” I usually use this quote when it comes to the question of raising taxes… because no one wants to see their taxes raised and everyone seems to have the sense that if ANYONE’s taxes are raised (i.e. rich people’s taxes or corporate taxes) then THEIR taxes will be vulnerable as well. This thinking, combined with the notion that Big Government is the problem with the economy, makes voters vulnerable to the Republican assertion that all taxes are confiscatory and bad and all regulations are an obstacle…. and the GOP has done an excellent job of branding the Democrats as the tax-and-spend party that wants to impose politically correct regulations on everything. In my way of thinking, that is what got Trump back in office despite the fact that a majority of people who voted for him think he’s too extreme and not an exemplary leader.
Before going into full panic mode, I am waiting to see how the House races end up. My preliminary thinking is that if Trump has both the Senate AND the House we could be in for some especially calamitous times. I don’t think he’d push back on either a Christian Nationalist agenda promoted by Mike Johnson or any effort to criminalize “anti-MAGA” writings, homelessness, addiction, or “illegal immigration”, all of which he promised in his stump speeches. My advice should all of these be criminalized is to buy stock in corporations that operate privatized prisons.
When it comes to ending war, it is clear that Trump will provide whatever weapons Netanyahu wants to “fight terrorists” and cede whatever territories Putin wants to “get a treaty” in Ukraine. While he wouldn’t characterize bombing Mexico to fight criminal drug gangs as a war, I sense that in this term he might not be stopped if he wished to do so.
When it comes to “draining the swamp”, his protests notwithstanding Trump will implement the Project 2025 plan and replace all the regulators with his sycophants and nominees advanced by corporations. He might also listen to Musk and Ramaswamy and fire 75% of the civil servants.
My agreeable fantasy that the electorate was tired of and disgusted with Trump is untrue. I hope that the disagreeable fact ISN’T that the public will support every action he intends to take in the coming years.