Impromptus

Trump and our system, &c.

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Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Indiana, Pa., September 23, 2024. (Brian Snyder / Reuters)
On the GOP’s three-time presidential nominee; horror in Cuba, and Nicaragua; fans of Calvin Coolidge; and more

At one of his rallies this week, Donald Trump was talking about Supreme Court justices — actually, about critics of justices. “It should be illegal, what happens,” he said. “These people should be put in jail, the way they talk about our judges and our justices, trying to get them to sway their vote, sway their decision.”

These people should be put in jail. It sounds strange to say about a former president, and the three-time nominee of one of our major political parties: but sometimes it seems that Trump has barely any acquaintance with our system — our democracy, our way of life.

Because Trump is a fire hose of head-spinning statements, no one pauses to consider any one of them. When he says that critics ought to be jailed, it barely makes the news.

But consider: What if the Democratic nominee had made the same statement? What if Kamala Harris had said that critics of judges and justices ought to be jailed? We would talk of nothing else, right? We would say that she was crazy, that she should not be allowed anywhere near power.


More in Donald Trump

With Trump, however — pretty much crickets. He is a very lucky politician, in many ways.

• A headline (which now seems pretty old): “Trump Says That if He Loses, ‘the Jewish People Would Have a Lot to Do’ With It.” (Article here.) Well, that would be a new experience for Jews: being scapegoated. Total novelty.

(Note to my friends, and others: Beware philosemitism that is conditional. It is not really philosemitism, or Jew-friendliness.)

• Trump further said, “I really haven’t been treated very well, but it’s the story of my life.” This is at the root of populism, or much of it: self-pity, grievance, resentment. It has fueled politics — and other things in life — from time immemorial.

Trump was born rich. He was a TV star — lots of broads, lots of dough. He was elected president of the United States. He is the only man ever to be nominated by the Republican Party three times in a row — nominated for president.

And so on and so forth.

If such a person can say, “I really haven’t been treated very well, but it’s the story of my life,” who can’t?

• Trump addressed the women of America, saying,

“I am your protector. I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector. I hope you don’t make too much of it. I hope the fake news doesn’t go, ‘Oh, he wants to be their protector.’”

The candidate went on to say,

“You will no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared. You will no longer be in danger. You’re not going to be in danger any longer. You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today. You will be protected, and I will be your protector.”

More:

“Women will be happy, healthy, confident, and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”

Etc., etc.

The conservatives I knew, way back, would have said, “This is not the way a politician ought to be talking to citizens in our republic. This is strongman stuff.” They were wise, those conservatives who educated me, and I’m grateful for them.

I have a memory. Many years ago, I worked with a conservative — a prominent journalist and television personality — who mocked Walter Mondale for wanting to help the “sad.” This is what Mondale said, in his concession speech (November 7, 1984):

“Tonight, tonight especially, I think of the poor, the unemployed, the elderly, the handicapped, the helpless, and the sad, and they need us more than ever tonight.”

Those few days ago, Donald Trump said, “You will no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared.” That’s a big promise, and maybe a little creepy.

• Berta Soler is one of the most impressive people I know. One of the most lovable, too. She is a Cuban democrat, the leader of the Ladies in White. I talked with her and wrote about her in 2013, here. She is warm, vibrant, and good, with a hearty and heartening laugh. She is also tremendously — tremendously — brave. What she has endured, few would, or could.

Something to know:

An update, from Rosa María (daughter of the great Cuban democrat Oswaldo Payá, martyred by the regime in 2012):

• In Milwaukee last weekend, I met a recent immigrant from Cuba. I said, “What’s the situation back home?” The nutshell response: “No food, no freedom.”

• Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan dictator, is one of Fidel Castro’s many imitators. That regime, in Nicaragua, has crushed civil society and driven churches underground. For the Associated Press, María Teresa Hernández has written an illuminating report: “Their churches no longer feel safe. Now Nicaraguans are taking their worship home.”

• From Latin America, a bit of good news: “Argentina Scrapped Its Rent Controls. Now the Market Is Thriving.” That is the heading over a story in the Wall Street Journal, here. Nicholas Christakis, the Yale sage (an expert in several fields), had an interesting observation: “Further evidence that, in very many circumstances, economics is a real science. This outcome is so predictable.”

• Ales Bialiatski is a human-rights activist and democracy leader in Belarus. Naturally, he is in prison. In 2022, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize (with civil-society groups in Ukraine and Russia). I wrote about that prize here.

Here is a message from Hanna Liubakova, the Belarusian journalist (in exile):

• You may have heard about the capital-punishment case in Missouri. Rather than get into the details, I will link to a news report, here. Suffice it to say (for purposes of my column): Both the victim’s family and the prosecutor opposed the death penalty for the man in question, Marcellus Williams.

I have great respect for the pro–capital punishment position, and great sympathy for it. Always have. Always will. But cases such as the Missouri one make the argument problematic.

• A different story: “Homeless encampments have largely vanished from San Francisco. Is the city at a turning point?” I was impressed by something a businesswoman said. Let me quote the article:

“We’re seeing much cleaner sidewalks,” said Terry Asten Bennett, owner of Cliff’s Variety store in the city’s historically gay Castro neighborhood, adding that she hates to see homeless people shuffled around.

“But also, as a business owner, I need clean, inviting streets to encourage people to come and shop and visit our city,” she said.

Common sense (not common enough).

• There is no single headline that could encapsulate the condition of Indian Country today. But this one comes close: “A bitter fight between two tribes over sacred land where one built a casino.” (Article here.)

• On an island off Alaska, someone smelled a rat. Or spotted one. Possibly. Maybe. And this set off a great commotion. Why? Because rats are fatal to environments such as that island’s. I learned this from an article by Becky Bohrer, here. Something off the beaten trail (at least my trail).

• I have long admired Calvin Coolidge. And Jeff Jacoby (the columnist for the Boston Globe). What I had not known is that Michael Dukakis admires Coolidge — as Jeff has said, in his column, here. Interesting, and cool. (Does anyone use that word, that way? My slang is from the previous century.)

(Earlier this year, I was talking with some college students. I said, “I’m from the previous century, you know.” A young colleague chimed in, “Previous millennium.” Ha, yes.)

• A nice headline, I thought: “America Loves to Mess With Texas Toast.” (Article here.)

• Care for a little language? Or a little more language? So, I was checking in to a hotel. The clerk said, “Please sign here, to register in.”

“To register in” — a fine verb. I like it.

• For reasons I could get into, I was talking with some friends about Miller Barber the other day. (He was a top golfer, who lived from 1931 to 2013.) I like names. And it occurred to me that both of his names — first and last — were trades.

Had enough? (The Republican slogan in the 1946 midterms.) I’ll see you later.

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