in a New York Times column titled Burning Down the House.
I want to examine the column, and also reflect more broadly on where we are, because the column challenges us to do that.
The column is so tightly written that it is hard to excerpt within the bounds of fair use.
His first two sentences:
A wounded bear is a dangerous thing. Detested and defeated, Donald Trump is now in a tear-the-country-down rage.
Those who listened to the rant Trump gave yesterday, just after the magnificent speech of Michelle Obama, probably nods their heads reading those words.
The first sentence of his second paragraph is
He’s made America vile.
and that of his third is
Here’s his lesson for young minds: If you’re rich and boorish enough, you can get away with anything.
In each of those paragraphs he hammers home the point of the opening with multiple examples.
He then writes
You know this by now — all the sordid details. For much of the last year, the Republican presidential nominee has been a freak show, an oh-my-God spectacle. He opens his mouth, our cellphones blow up. But now, in the final days of a horrid campaign, an unshackled Trump is more national threat than punch line. He’s determined to cause lasting damage.
In short, Trump has gone from his narcissism — one side of his sociopathy — to nihilism — the extreme other side.
Yes, we can hear echoes of Mussolini in the repetitions of the “only I can fix it” so much now a part ofr Trump’s bloviation. Those paying attention yesterday would have had their ears burning at the echoes of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other anti-Semitic tropes. I assure you those of us of Jewish heritage understood that in real time as we experienced what Newt Gingrich called “the little Trump.”
Continuing as I began, the next paragraph begins
Trump has made compassion suspect.
and the one following tells us that every “sexual predator” can now look at the top of the Republican ticket and see an ally, a defender, someone who rationalizes horrid behavior — and for those who have any doubts about that, step back from this column and think of words from Trump’s sons and surrogates in the past week, even as an increasing number of women come forward to demonstrate that the words Trump offered in the Access Hollywood tape are matched by his actions over much of his adult life.
Egan repeats the words with which Anderson Cooper challenged Trump in the last debate — with the question that Trump tried to avoid answering until the third time when he inserted a brief but direct denial into the midst of the verbiage attempting to avoid an answer. Egan then writes
What you heard was the lecture the human resources director gives just before saying, “You’re fired.” Trump could not get hired at the drive-through window at a Jack in the Box. Knowing about his history would make any employer liable. It took decades to get the workplace to that point where Trumpian predators are shunned. Given the biggest pulpit in the world, Trump is trying to bring that consensus down.
Remember, those words were NOT spoken in a locker room. It was on a bus that was part of the workplace, admittedly full of men with no women. Those words should have been offensive to every man on that bus with any humanity. They should have been reported as a violation of the rules against a hostile workplace environment. Certainly I, even as a 70 year old white man albeit of lesser privilege than my very slightly younger age contemporary Mr. Trump, find them hostile to what I hold dear. That Trump justifies it on account of his celebrity is precisely the point that Egan challenges when he write
If he can do it, any creep outside of the celebrity bubble should be able to get away with the same thing.
There is more. There is much more in this very pointed column. Egan slams “Christian conservatives” who continue to support Trump, citing the pushback by the admirable students at Liberty University against their vile President Jerry Falwell Jr.
He then pivots to the earlier, more profound, speech and speaker yesterday, writing
It will take many people like those students, and like the first lady, Michelle Obama, a model of decency and class, to repair the awful damage Trump has done.
It is not just what he has done. It is what he continues to do. He turns his supporters against the media — yesterday those at his speech turned and began shouting at the press enclosure, flipping the bird, and more. We had seen that earlier in the campaign, now as Trump is spiraling down rather than accept any accountability for his failure himself he riles people up against anyone he can. He plants the seeds of distrust that will make it increasingly harder for this nation to be governed, for this society to heal. He does not lift up, he tears down.
It is important to note that he could not have done this had the framework not been established by 8 years of Republicans undermining directly the legitimacy of the nation’s first African American President, and/or acquiescing in such actions. The legacy of this damage lies at the feet of major figures in the Republican party.
Egan quotes the First Lady’s remarkable speech in one brief paragraph before he offers this conclusion:
So it has come to this: The core lessons that bind a civilized society are in play in the last days of this election. We long for family dinners where Trump no longer intrudes, for tailgate parties where football is all that matters, for normalcy. Remember those days? They may be gone forever.
That is the challenge we all face.
Hillary Clinton will almost certainly win well more than the requisite 270 electoral votes on November 8, and officially become President-elect when the electoral college meets in mid-December. She may even carry not only the US Senate but just possibly the US House.
That would mean laws necessary for the civil good can be passed and signed.
Vacancies in the judicial branch can be filled, including a positive majority on the nation’s highest court.
But what of American society?
As we go forward in the remaining 26 days of this election, we must constantly remind ourselves and others that this is far more than a political contest. It is a moral challenge, one to which we must give attention and focus as much as we do the strategy and tactics necessary to win.
Egan warns us of the danger we face, as a result of the nihilism of Donald John Trump.
All of us are confronted by the challenge therefrom.
Go read Egan.