No Tyrants
Donald Trump is the enemy. Americans are friends and allies.
Today in the United States, millions of Americans will stand up and oppose the Trump administration by marching in “No Kings” rallies.
I’m Canadian, so no marching for me, but I can’t clap hard enough for my American friends and neighbours. (For the record, we loyal subjects of His Majesty King Charles III, King of Canada, prefer “no tyrants,” because a constitutional monarch without real political power works just fine in a free country. But we get what you mean. We don’t like 18th-century monarchs either.)
But this short note isn’t for Americans. It’s for my fellow Canadians.
This week, I gave a talk in Dallas. As usual, I met lots of Americans. As usual, I liked them. A lot. I’ve done plenty of travelling and talking over the years and, while recognizing the hazards of generalization, I will always say Americans are, on the whole, remarkably friendly and generous and decent. That hasn’t changed. They remain our friends and neighbours. I tweeted words to that effect on Notes, along with the advice: “Don’t let that orange asshole mislead you.”
I think it’s urgent that we bear in mind that simple, modest fact for a couple of reasons.
We all know how the madness of King Donald manifested itself around the world over the last year and a bit. I won’t rehash all that. I’ll only note that it was a mere few months ago that Trump threatened war with Denmark, a small country that had been a fiercely pro-American NATO ally for 80 years. When that bout of madness passed, it was quickly forgotten. But not because the threat wasn’t real. The Danes thought it was so real they actually had their soldiers in Greenland under orders to fight. No, it was forgotten because lunacy pours out of the White House daily. It’s all become something of a blur.
As a result, the reputation of the government of the United States is in free-fall. Consider the following Gallup poll taken last year, and note that this survey was conducted before the threatened invasion of Greenland, before the ICE killings in Minneapolis, and before Trump’s war of choice in the Middle East. We can be sure the numbers are much worse now.
But notice the two key terms at work here: “Americans” and “the Trump administration.”
They are not synonymous. It is quite possible for the the Trump administration to be odious and contemptible — it is both, and more — while Americans, on the whole, remain the good people I’ve always thought them to be.
Why is it important to carefully distinguish the two? The reaction to my tweet gives one reason.
Lots of Canadians said, in effect, Trump was elected so Trump reflects America and Americans. His madness is theirs. And a pox on all of them.
That’s a very human response. But it’s deeply misguided.
For one thing, it’s wrong.
Trump was re-elected with the votes of 31.7% of eligible American voters. Kamala Harris got 30.8%. The single largest bloc of voters in that election — 35.7% — was “did not vote.” If you don’t know this, I don’t blame you. For some inexplicable reason, media reports of vote totals always omit the did-not-votes.
Now, we can fault the Americans who did not vote, but we cannot call them Trump supporters. So Trump was chosen by less than a third of eligible voters. Does he reflect Americans in that sense? A substantial chunk of Americans, yes. But most or all Americans? Absolutely not.
And please note this assumes that a vote for Trump is a vote for all that Trump says and does. That’s wrong, too. In any election, when you dissect the support a candidate receives, you never find such a clarity and uniformity among voters. Instead, there is a huge array of reasons why people vote the way they do. This is particularly true among the low-information voters that have been key to Trump’s success. It is simply wrong to treat “voted for Trump” as “approves of all Trump says and does.”
And political scientists would offer another caveat: Voters do not choose their preferred candidate; voters choose from what the parties put on the menu. That makes a huge difference. We know from extensive surveys, for example, that a significant number of long-time Republicans really don’t like Donald Trump but they voted for him because he was what their party chose — and they dislike Democrats more. Again, you can reasonably fault them for that decision. You can reasonably say they must bear some responsibility for the awful consequences of a Trump presidency. But you cannot say they are perfectly aligned with Trump.
On top of all that, there is Trump’s approval rating as president: It is dreadfully low. It always has been. Trump is the most unpopular president in the history of modern polling. Even immediately after taking office, when candidates always get a honeymoon with voters, his approval rating never got to 50% or above in aggregate polling or in gold-standard polls.
The story is similar on approval of policies: A Pew poll at the end of January found only 27% of Americans support “all or most” of Trump’s policies. Given how polarized American politics is, that’s rock bottom. And when you look issue by issue, you find that Trump is supported by only a minority of Americans, and that support is declining rapidly. Even among Republicans.
The “MAGA” label is probably the best way to express full alignment with Trump. About three-quarters of Republicans self-identify as MAGA — note that means one in four reject the label — while only 15% to 20% of the whole US population identify as MAGA.
Equating “Trump” with “Americans” is simply wrong.
But there’s a second reason why we should avoid that mistake.
People are naturally inclined to see Us and Them, the in-group and the out, our people and theirs. So what happens if all sorts of Canadians and other foreigners start equating “Trump” with “American”? What happens when they vent their justifiable anger toward Trump and his odious administration on “America” and “Americans”? What happens when they let themselves slide into the worst forms of tribalism and start booing the American anthem and hissing at the Stars and Stripes and insulting any American who wanders by?
Americans are only human. If foreigners revile them individually and attack their collective identity, many will retreat into their own tribe. “They hate us? Well, I hate them.”
And how would we respond to their growing tribal animosity? “A-ha! You see? They are the bastards we always thought they were. I hate them all the more.”
This is the spiral of tribalism. It is poison to open-minded, open-hearted, decent people. But it is manna from heaven for authoritarian thugs like Donald Trump whose whole worldview is built on hate and division.
So watch the news today, my fellow Canadians. This is the third No Kings rally. Something like a combined 13 million Americans marched in the first two, making them among the biggest protests in American history. This one is expected to be bigger.
Those people are our friends and neighbours. They are good people, as they have always been.
They are also our allies in a fight that is existential for all of us. More power to them. And us.
Thanks for your kindness. We have an educational guff. In 1981 the amount of young illiterate students in TN graduating was an epidemic. We have a society where people can not read on a highschool level. Bring in the lack of understanding civics. I credit my folks who made damn sure if nothing else curiosity, travel, music and hundreds of books were available for me. When kids understand basics the tyranny will not catch fire as it is in this moment. Social media killed books.
After 30 years of cohabitation, living between the US and Canada and performing executive roles in both countries. I certainly agree that most Americans I have known would find it very difficult to support policies that have unfolded during this administration. I also have experienced many individuals in the US and have found most to be of generous spirit and kind hearted on a social level. Within their own communities. Most are quite distrustful of others, especially outside of their own community. I believe this fear of other is engrained and exaggerated by the propaganda machine that the American media is. l believe it’s the source of the term “American exceptionalism” a theme which most Americans of my acquaintance would defend vehemently.
The Tump regime represents a societal fault line that all Americans must acknowledge and work to correct . Not being a MAGA acolyte is not enough.if America is to be saved it will require a general acceptance that American greed and the self serving power dynamic is a weakness that undermines the very fabric of America.
America can be that beacon of light but not without significant evolution.