Power Vacuum

On January 20^th Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45^th President of the United States. How can we, as a nation, mentally prepare? One interesting trend since November 9^th has been the constant drum beat of the “moderating” voice—you know, the person who’ll have Trump’s ear and make sure he’s not that insane. There have been a few iterations of this same story beginning with his very first Cabinet-level appointees. You can read in this Times piece from November 13th the almost palpable relief that Steve Bannon was not chosen. The fact that Reince Priebus is awful in his own right, well, at least he’s not Steve Bannon? Right guys?

It got worse though (of course it did). After the awfulness of Jeff Sessions, the media fawned over the idea that Mitt Romney would be Secretary of State. Great! Then Trump appointed Rex Tillerson an old-timey company man who, ah fuck it he deserves his own post. Save him for later. The most galling, awful example of the moderating savoir though is the ongoing saga of Ivanka Trump.

Ivanka Trump—who is female—and who her father allegedly respects, though not enough to not make overtly sexual comments about, believes in climate change! She even got a DVD from Leonardo DiCaprio.

Here is the thing that everyone has to accept, especially now with only two weeks before our long national nightmare officially begins: Donald Trump makes the decisions. Mercurial, idiotic, bigoted, awful Donald Trump gets to make all the decisions.

This will be, as most are, an unread and unloved post. A first post in the grand tradition. The nature of Power Vacuum will be informed opinion. Research-based arguments or commentary. It is easy enough to watch CNN and fire off a response. What I want to do is take the topics that interest me: American and Middle Eastern politics and write about them within a larger historical context. What do Donald Trump and Ashraf Rifi have in common? What about Donald Trump and William Jennings Bryant? Probably nothing. Maybe a lot. I don’t know yet.

This is a difficult time for people like me. I’ve lived outside the United States for years. I grew up and worked amongst “the costal elite.” I am, in many ways, the embodiment of all that was repudiated on November 8th. But there is, of course, more to it. I spent the last year of my life working with the most conservative people imaginable: farmers in the far North of Lebanon. On the surface we have nothing in common. But the surface isn’t everything. And to write conservative Sunnis off is just as arrogant and distasteful as to write off the millions of people who voted for Donald Trump.

I’m not going to change my opinions. I’m not going to find the rhetoric and, at least thus far in the the transition, the abhorrent people that Donald Trump has appointed any less awful once they get in power. Still. I refuse to write off so many people who I believe voted out of a base fear of the future.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow will be all politics, no sentiment. Safe in the knowledge that this post will never, ever be read by anyone.