Commentary: Trump Is Not The Problem

I have little tolerance for psychological explanations of Trump and his followers. By providing labels for their pathologies, we are lulled into a false sense of security because we believe that understanding is the first step to overcoming. This is true in only the narrowest sense. Trump and his ilk are not the problem. They are the boils that have come to the surface. Underlying them is a sickness that has spread throughout this country. Eliminating Trump will not eliminate that sickness. The only way to do it is to have the equivalent of the Occupy Movement on an ongoing basis. We need to change the vocabulary of daily discourse. We need to shake up, shake down, rethink, and rebuild the institutions of this country. It took one hundred years of labor struggles to get to the New Deal. It took one hundred years to finally gain the civil rights that were embodied in the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. However, over the past forty years, the Republicans have undone most of that progress.

So while we may take pleasure in posting funny pictures of Trump, we should never forget that Trump is only the most visible symptom of a very serious political and cultural illness. The work of putting this country on the right path does not end with the defeat of Trump. It will take a generation or more to regain what was lost, and you can be sure that the Republicans and their corporate benefactors are not going to simply rollover and play dead. They will fight back, just like they did in the past.

by