Let’s be honest: When everyone is talking about the same thing, it feels like there’s nothing else to say about it. If you’re unfamiliar with the lies that have come out of the mouth of popular vote loser Donald Trump in the past week, you probably haven’t been on this site much—in which case, thanks for reading this post! The headline mentioned a silver lining, and we’ll get to that in a minute.
Generally, I’m a ‘glass half-full’ kind of guy (for example, I actually assumed the FBI director would, you know, follow the government’s policies and guidelines about not commenting on investigations close to Election Day), so feel free to take my silver lining talk in that light.
The lies our 45th president has told were so easily demonstrated to be false that a good portion of the mainstream media—with some exceptions—actually called them what they are. Many of us have long lamented the stenography that too often passes for journalism (“Republicans say earth is flat. Democrats disagree.”) The New York Times this week used the word “lie” when talking about Trump in a front page headline. Consider that progress.
Perhaps some in the media had been thinking that Trump would change when he actually took the oath of office. As Sen. Dick Durbin expressed: “I sincerely hope that the office makes the man.” It’s a safe bet, however, that Durbin isn’t all that optimistic. I was wrong about Trump’s chances at every stage of this campaign, but the one accurate thing I said from the start until now was that after 70 years on this earth, the man is who he is, and that nothing would change him. Whether operating as birther-in-chief or commander-in-chief, Trump will always lie if doing so suits him.
If the media actually absorbs this truth, then here’s the silver lining—it will be that much harder for Trump to do what George W. Bush did: lie us into a war.
His administration told so many lies: Saddam was connected to 9/11 and al Qaeda, Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Colin Powell’s whole speech to the UN was one long string of lies, including the false or doctored information he presented as evidence to back up his lies.
At that time, the media saw the Bush people as thoughtful, sober leaders. They wouldn’t lie, not about a matter as serious as war. The media bought their story and sold it to a scared public. Now, it took less than a week for Trump to make crystal clear that even as president there is nothing he won’t lie about. Not even the integrity of our electoral process. Durbin said he hopes the presidency leads Trump to rise to the occasion. Hopefully, the Trump presidency leads the media to rise to the occasion. If they do, there’s your silver lining.
There’s another potential silver lining beyond the media: regular people are listening to Trump’s lies. His hard-core supporters may not care one iota, but they alone are not enough to re-elect him or his fellow Republicans. There are a lot of people—and yes, it’s hard to resist wanting to scream at them right now—who voted for him, or for a third-party candidate even though they thought he was awful. Those are gettable voters for Democrats, and at least some of them will resent being told easily disprovable lies, lies that demonstrate contempt on the part of the liar. You can imagine people saying to themselves, “Does he think we’re stupid? We can see the difference in the crowd photos. What a dick.”
Through his policies, his lack of judgment, and his disregard for truth, this president will seek to inflict tremendous harm on this country over the next four years. But in four years we will have a chance to make it right. 2020 will be the first time in two decades that a presidential election—remember that the Democratic candidate has won the popular vote in six of the last seven, so we’ll certainly have a fighting chance—coincides with a redistricting year.
At the federal level, the only way to not only undo what Trump does but also push through new, strong, progressive policies is to retake the House and Senate, and have enough success at the state level to redraw congressional and state district lines so that the composition of our legislative bodies going forward actually reflects the will of the voters.
If we can do that, there’s your real silver lining.
Ian Reifowitz is the author of Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity (Potomac Books).