When I woke up Tuesday morning, I — like a large majority of Americans — thought there was no way Donald Trump could be our next president. Clearly, even more Americans saw things differently.
It is tempting to demonize the group that is Trump and his supporters. Most college educated Americans saw through the lies and bigotry, and there are many who might call his supporters any number of unflattering names.
But clearly that is not the correct response. It is obvious now that Clinton’s strategy of attacking the intelligence of Trump supporters was a massive mistake, and the use of the word “deplorables” to describe the average Trump supporter will go down as one of the great, moronic decisions of any presidential candidacy ever.
With that said, I think it is only fair to give Trump supporters their due. They were right to continue to believe that victory was possible. His ability to work through constant criticism, even from his own party, is admirable.
From the very beginning of his candidacy, Trump was a massive underdog. All of the pundits who said he stood no chance of the presidency were proven wrong.
I hope that for the good of America, he continues to prove people, like me, wrong. Nothing would make me happier than to acknowledge years from now that Trump was clearly the correct choice. Trump has proven critics like me wrong time and time again, and I hope to God he manages to do so one more time.
But will that actually happen? Do Trump supporters, reading this now, truly think the man they have voted into the most sacred office is fit for the most difficult job in the world? Is the man who cannot control himself on Twitter — to the point that his aides lock him out from his own account — capable of judicially handling the massive nuclear arsenal the United States currently holds?
Is the man who brags about his ability to sexually assault women and get away with it the best role model for American children? Is the man best fit to be a leader for the millions of young children of America, the same man who has sexualized his own daughter?
Is the man who has mocked people suffering from disabilities, the man who has mocked a heroic prisoner of war, the man who has actively barred African American tenants from living in apartments he has owned — is he the man who can unite this country in a time of extreme racial and class divide?
I’m guessing that many who have voted for Trump do not care about these answers. Either they have not thought them through, have made peace with them or they think it’s funny.
So my final question to the Donald Trump supporter, is this: Do you truly understand how difficult the job of the presidency is?
In “The Fog of War,” a documentary film released in 2003 about the life of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, he discusses the decisions John F. Kennedy had to make in the days and weeks of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
McNamara discusses how the president and his staff deliberated for hours and days, working through various scenarios and attempting to guess the Soviet Union’s potential moves and countermoves. Such meticulous work required an almost superhuman level of patience, and still the president made decisions that could have potentially led to a third world war.
Does anyone on this planet think that Trump, a man with little self control, a man who reportedly had almost constant turmoil within his own campaign, a man who responded to criticism from those within his own party by whining and lashing out is the man Americans really want making those life or death decisions that may impact the rest of human history? Would he have the patience to listen to his advisers, or to defer to better judgment, or check his ego if it was for the good of the United States?
I congratulate Trump supporters on their victory, and I wish him success on his vague promise to “make America great again”. But just know that he holds a great amount of power, and him failing at his presidency would be disastrous.
If that happens, it’s on everyone who voted in his favor.
Sam Balas can be reached at [email protected]