Trump, who so bitterly divided us, was awful enough to unite us. At least temporarily
The Dodgers lost four straight playoff games to the Milwaukee Brewers in a humiliating end to their season.
But this was worse.
Steve Hilton lost to Xavier Becerra in the race for governor before “Jeopardy” aired.
But this was worse.
President Trump lost early, late and often Tuesday night in the midterm elections.
In contests across the country — for governor, for Senate, for the House — he had told people to vote as if he was on the ballot.
They did, and Democrats ran the table, taking the House and then the Senate.
Trump lost big, inspected the wreckage, and claimed the problem was lousy candidates.
Has he lost a step? I would have expected him to say the election was stolen. All of the elections.
But maybe he realized that for all intents and purposes, his political career is over. Trump was trounced, the country triumphed, and the long national nightmare is over, but for the rest of his lame duck presidency.
I don’t think we were witnessing a national love affair with Democrats, nor do I think Tuesday night’s winning political party has all the answers on any of the day’s pressing matters. The Dems have their own problems, including an identity crisis and a shortage of bankable presidential prospects.
But the country’s voters signaled loud and clear that they’re tired of:
The lies.
The insults and name-calling.
The hatred.
The chaos.
The self-dealing.
The lack of civility.
The absence of humility.
Last week I turned on the news and saw Trump making fun of the name of newly elected Michigan Sen. Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim.
An awful thing to see a president do, but here’s what’s worse:
I wasn’t surprised.
Then I saw him say at a political rally that he had looked at a man’s rear end, “and I’ve never done that before…Off the record, women, yes, men no, OK?”
Again, no surprise.
He once mocked the physical appearance of a female presidential primary foe, as well as the wife of a male foe, and insisted for years that the first Black president was secretly from Africa.
Trump had always been able to get away with this sort of numbskullery. His true believers were willing to put up with it as long as he seemed true to his promise of working on their behalf. Until they could no longer deny that he was only working on his own behalf.
The cryptocurrency profiteering. The bloody ballroom. The gold-plating of the White House.
All of it while working people, including staunch supporters, struggled to understand the goofball tariffs and wondered when the promise of lower grocery prices would be delivered.
Trump and the Republicans might have prevailed Tuesday night if not for the war in Iran, which everyone is still paying for at the gas pump. The president who promised we’d stay out of international conflicts went all in, for no good reason, then said it was over, we won, except that it’s not over, and we didn’t win.
And there’s no exit plan.
But so what?
It’s not like Trump is paying for gas. His golf cart is probably electric.
In the beginning, as a Republican populist who tapped into justifiable voter disapproval of Democratic leadership, Trump was onto something when he first ran for president. The scapegoating of immigrants was odious even then, but in 2016, at a Trump campaign rally in Arizona, I caught a glimpse of his appeal to adoring fans who cheered the presidential candidate’s vow to build a border wall, strengthen the military and make America great again. A struggling low-wage worker told me Trump was the best hope for a new day.
“We’re going to come back and rebuild our country,” Trump told the approving crowd that day in Arizona. “You will never be disappointed with me. … You are going to be so proud of your president.”
The act worked for way longer than I would have predicted. But 10 years later, and halfway through a second presidency, the gig is up. Voters said yes, they are disappointed, and no, they’re not so proud.
We thought we were having a mid-term election.
It turned out to be a political wake.
But also an awakening.
Red states voted for blue candidates in a nearly total Trump rebuke.
As I watched the returns Tuesday night, I thought about my daughter–an earth science grad student–and her generation. She’s 23, which means that for almost half her life, Trump has been a political force. Imagine being that young and living in a country that twice elected one of the most divisive and scabrous figures in history.
A man who attacked judges, invaded American cities, insisted ad nauseum that a lost election was stolen, pardoned the Jan. 6 barbarians, exonerated political donors and allies, called climate change a con job, gutted environmental protections and upended America’s global in scientific research.
It’s easy to understand why younger generations have lost faith in elections, both primary parties and the political/corporate establishment.
But on Tuesday, voters of all ages turned out and said enough already, in states red and blue.
The man who so bitterly divided us might ultimately have united us, at least for an evening.
That doesn’t mean that there is consensus on much of anything. Surely calamity awaits, just beyond the shadows, and new species of political trolls are being spawned as we live and breathe. But there was hope, on election night, in the collective declaration that we deserve and demand better.
Trump once said he was so popular and powerful, he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York, shoot somebody, and not lose any voters.
It might have been true once.
But he’s lost them now.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
