How much damage can one man do in four years?

Commentary

And, is is possible that one man, Donald J. Trump, can and will do even more?

In these fraught and dangerous times, I often think back to the 2012 presidential election. You remember Barack Obama running for a second term was challenged by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Make no mistake, I had fun in those days commenting on Romney’s campaign and the missteps he made. If you don’t believe me, take a look at excerpts of some from my Around the Block stories from that year:

Mitt’s Bad Day 

I learned today that yesterday was a particularly bad day for Mitt Romney. He was booed at the NAACP convention, provocatively using the pejorative “Obamacare”, which he said he would repeal. This to a group who, according to most polls, strongly supports the Affordable Healthcare Act. Guess we can’t accuse Romney of pandering to all the people all the time.

Mitt Romney’s Character

I learned today that Mitt Romney’s explanation of his situation with Bain, when he left and what he controlled, is driven not by the facts but by what is politically advantageous to him. Romney actively invested in a Chinese company whose main reason for being was to take U.S. manufacturing jobs, fabricated his resume to provide a cover story to show he wasn’t responsible for that investment, used the fabricated resume to explain that he wasn’t involved in a company that eliminated hundreds of jobs, and off-shored his money to the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Swiss banks but won’t release his tax returns to show the details of that off-shoring. Is there more?

Mitt and Big Bird

I learned today that one of Mitt Romney’s deficit cutting plans is to eliminate Federal funding from Sesame Street. Here’s what he said on Radio Iowa yesterday:

“There are programs that I like, like PBS—I mean, my grandkids watch PBS, they like to watch Sesame Street. You know, I just don’t think we can afford to borrow money from China to pay for things we absolutely don’t have to do. So in the case of PBS, I’d tell them to get advertisers or more contributors, but the government is not going to pick up the bill by borrowing money.”

Advertisements? So, one of the greatest TV programs ever created for children, in which education and entertainment converge in the best possible way will, in Romney’s world, be supported by advertising. With all that good stuff we want our kids to have – Lucky Charms, Froot Loops (no “Fruit” in those “Loops”), McDonalds and all the other usual suspects. What will be next, product placement (oops, shows how old I am — I mean “embedded marketing”)? Will Burt and Ernie do their thing while eating Big Macs? Will Cookie Monster move from generic cookies to Oreos?

Teresa Didn’t, Why Should I?

I learned today that Mitt Romney’s latest defense of not releasing more tax returns is that Teresa Heinz Kerry didn’t in 2004 saying on Fox and Friends, “[Heinz Kerry] has hundreds of millions of dollars, [but] she never released her tax returns. Somehow, that wasn’t an issue.” Really? Did anyone tell Mr. Romney that John Kerry, not Teresa, was running for president?

Mitt, Jet-lag and the Energizer Bunny

I learned today that among the walk-backs, rationalizations and defenses of Mitt Romney’s astonishingly bad London visit, the best was this one from a campaign adviser who said Romney had misspoken because he was tired and jet-lagged. “Even the Energizer Bunny needs new batteries once in a while.” Tired and jet-lagged? If he becomes president, what happens when that infamous 3 AM call comes in? “Call back at 8; I need my 9 hours sleep.” Did he invoke the “dog ate my homework” excuse when he failed to hand in assignments at prep school? I guess “too busy bullying gay classmates” wouldn’t fly.

There were more, but you get the point. 

In the end, Obama defeated Romney by almost five million popular votes and won the Electoral College, 332-206.

But despite all this, I did go on record saying, “You know, while I don’t agree with any of his policies or positions, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he won. I mean how much damage could one man do in four years?”

Could I have been that naive? Or is it that I, like almost everyone, did not anticipate that there was one man. And his name is Donald Trump,.

I could go on and on about the damage that this one man has foisted on the country, on the world. But rather than listen to me, I thought it better if you listened to journalist Mike Barnicle on MSNBC this morning. 

If you don’t want to listen to the entire commentary, look at this transcription of one piece of Barnicle’s discussion.

Barnicle: (after commenting on Giuliani’s loss in the Georgia defamation lawsuit) “…the other thing is not so healthy, and it is the continued indictments and onslaught of stories about Donald Trump’s 91 indictments. It’s going to be with us every day for the next year, maybe a year and a half. And of all the damage that this man did to the country while he was in office, the damage that he’s done since he left office and on January 6th, and everything that we’ve encountered as a culture, as a society, as a political system since that time is going to be with us for decades, all because of one man’s arrogance, his selfishness, and his devotion only to himself, Donald J. Trump”

At times like this I think about Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 dystopian political novel (and subsequent play), “It Can’t Happen Here,” set in a fictionalized version of the 1930s United States which follows an American politician who quickly rises to power to become the country’s first outright dictator. 

Can it happen here, in this non-fictionalized version of the 2020s United States? Folks, it already has happened here. And with Trump in a virtual dead heat with Biden in the 2024 polls, there’s an even chance the damage will not abate.

We already know how much damage one man can do in four years (actually more that seven years), I guess the question should change to “how much damage can one man do in another four years?” And will that damage be irreparable? 

Chilling!