Is America Outgrowing Donald Trump?

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Right about now, something remarkable’s happening in America. It appears to be outgrowing Donald Trump. Appears, because these are early days yet. And yet there’s no mistaking the sudden sense of momentum changing, and the feeling that Trump’s campaign is on the ropes. Will he drop out, people ask? No, others reply, the Supreme Court will just fix it for him. There’s a growing sense, in all these sentiments, that his chances are imploding.

Why is that? This is what happens societies grow. America’s having a growth spurt right now. Of course, much of it’s thanks to the joy and acceptance of the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz campaign, which, as we’ve discussed, is making Americans feel loved for the first time, perhaps. And yet people themselves, it seems, might be beginning to change.

Let me try to explain all that a little bit.

How Societies Outgrow Their Mistakes

Do societies outgrow their mistakes? By “growth,” I don’t mean economic growth. Not at all. I mean advancement, evolution, maturity, of attitudes, sentiments, values, preferences. Towards more sophisticated ways of being. Even that’s a mouthful, so, hold on, here’s an example.

Over the last week, something a little bit jaw-dropping happened. The Democrats surged ahead of the Republicans when it comes to the economy. That’s quite amazing for reasons that go way beyond superficial. It’s the Number One Issue, and always is, in America. But more deeply than that, Republicans have been ahead on the economy more or less since polling began.

In other words, Americans have never trusted Democrats on the economy more. Perhaps the last time was in FDR’s days. Since then, though? Nope. And that in itself is troubling, because…it’s out of touch with reality.

Conservative economics don’t work. All the theories and ideas are ideologies, which have failed in the real world, time and again. The wealth didn’t trickle down. Letting the rich go from super to mega to ultra rich didn’t benefit anyone else. No, unfettered predatory hyper capitalism isn’t a magic bullet that creates a prosperous and fair and stable society for all—it implodes, ultimately, into fascism, by way of despair, loneliness, and rage.

That’s not my opinion, those are just facts that we can observe in the real world, which are backed up by everything from economic research to the visible success of Canada and Europe compared to America for the average person.

But Americans haven’t learned this lesson yet. The reason for that, too, is straightforward. Who’s teaching it to them? Nowhere do Americans encounter the lessons I’ve told you above, not in mainstream media, not on CNN, not in the NYT, etc. Joe Stiglitz is America’s best economist, and to point out that predatory capitalism implodes into fascism he has to give interviews to European, Australian, and Canadian media. Americans, meanwhile, are bombarded by a sort of ideological machine, made of thinktanks, crackpots, pundits, and propagandists. This process of not learning the lesson has gone on for decades too long by now.

Yet now, finally, things appear to be changing. Like I said, Americans now—finally—trust the Democrats more on the economy. That should give Republicans nightmares, because it’s the biggest sea change in attitudes we’ve seen in America in modern history. And yet it’s so far just nascent. Will it endure? Prevail? Will Americans learn the lesson of reality, in this arena?

That’s what it means for a society to grow. Here, Americans are challenged to discern the truth in a more realistic way. To sort out facts from Big Lies. To mature as people, and not just fall prey to silly ideologies, which have obviously failed, to the point the rest of the world wonders: why don’t Americans have thing like healthcare, so their athletes, for examples, aren’t staggered that at the Olympic Village, there’s plenty for all?

When Do Societies Grow?

All that should indicate to you that social growth is hard. It doesn’t come easy. Societies, meaning people, must reckon with their follies, errors of judgments, mistakes, and they must do so collectively. At the same time, leaders must appear, who are willing to be courageous enough to guide and teach them—which is where Harris and Walz are coming in. When all that comes together, at last, the impossible finally becomes possible.

This is where America is right now. It appears to be outgrowing Trump. 

I’ve given you one example: economically. Let’s continue the thread. How else can a society grow? In terms of social attitudes and preferences, emotions, morals and values, and ultimately, ways of being. Too abstract—let’s make it concrete

When Americans reject Republicans on economics, what else are they really beginning to understand? Trump’s theory of economics is essentially fascism—it goes like this. The reason your lives, the “real Americans,” are stuck, is that those bad people took everything from you, your jobs, your opportunities, your wives, your kids, your soil. If you cleanse society of them, then you will have lebensraum—prosperity, essentially—again. 

But this idea is now old in the tooth. Americans haven’t just heard it for years—they’ve tried it already. And while some think that life was better under Trump, by and large, people seem to be beginning to understand: this theory doesn’t hold water. Just by cleansing societies of hated scapegoats…prosperity doesn’t magically appear. And along the way, damage, possibly terminal damage, is done, to democratic values, institutions, and ideals. 

So more and more Americans are beginning to say: it’s not worth it. Not only did it not bear fruit the first time around, the social theory of scapegoating, but it did way more damage than we thought it would. And as they begin to have that thought process, to wrestle with this complex set of causes and consequences, more and more of them are arriving at the conclusion that democracy and prosperity go hand in hand.

And so alongside people trusting Democrats more on the economy, Americans are growing more “socially liberal,” too. That’s a bad way to put it, the way American pundits do, and it only masks the truth: they’re becoming more accepting, and less tolerant of bigotry, hate, injustice, spite, violence, and hate. 

Americans are beginning to demand more than just Trumpism. Trump. His endless stream of Big Lies, his unhinged rants, his vitriol. They are starting to sense it doesn’t go anywhere, lead to anything, that it’s just a dead end for them, in the soul, and for their society. This is why Trump’s schtick now feels old. Isn’t even met with outrage anymore, just laughter. Why his rallies are emptier by the day. And why he rages, more violently, trying to weave his spell again.

But isn’t it breaking now?

The Demagogue’s Spell, and How it Breaks

So many remarkable things are happening in—to—America right now. America’s growing, because people are maturing. They are outgrowing the simplistic fairy-tale fantasies of demagogic movements. They are becoming more demanding, sophisticated citizens again, worthy of a democracy. At the same time, leaders like Harris and Walz have emerged, who are teaching people that through goodness and joy and love, a society can be repaired, and led to higher heights still. That there’s a place to go that’s not just the abyss.

And all of this is breaking the demagogue’s spell, which is the most remarkable thing of all. Think of how much power Trump once wielded. I don’t mean formal power, which comes with the office. I mean more like unconscious power over society, reaching into people’s minds, almost supernaturally altering norms, beckoning true believers to shocking acts of violence, the power to teach people history doesn’t exist, lies are real, others aren’t human, and only hatred matters.

That kind of dark, seductive power.

Increasingly, Trump doesn’t have it. Sure, his most ardent believers still give him that license over them. But they’re dwindling. And even some of them are beginning to question. More and more Americans are beginning to realize the emperor has no clothes. This sort of near-supernatural power to alter reality, history, peace, truth—this is the demagogue’s spell. And it’s made of deep, dark stuff—people really believing, in their despair and rage, that there’s no other way out, and so they give the demagogue a kind of control over the minds almost exactly like a cult.

Now one gets the sense all that’s coming to an end. Trump is increasingly a laughingstock. It’s not that his unhinged tirades have gotten that much more unhinged—which is like saying the surface of the sun got a little bit hotter—in fact, the very opposite is true. People are coming back to their senses. And as they do, Trump looks like a bitter, angry, foolish, and mentally decrepit old man—not a Fuhrer, not an Omnipotent Father, not a mythical savior.

Watching America, Outgrowing Trump

That, in the end, is probably the best way to think about what it really means for a society to grow. When it can act in more mature and adult ways, instead of lashing out in infantile rage, or narcissistic grandiosity. When it can come together, reckon with its mistakes, and choose to understand how and why it came to make them, and how to correct them. All of that is hard stuff for a person, so imagine how much harder still it is for a society. A society can only do this together, in the presence of special leaders, and in special moments, when its true capacities are tested to its limits.

This is why the remarkable appears to be happening: America’s outgrowing Trump. There he is, raging against it. But now he’s fighting something much, much bigger than before. History. When a society finally wakes up from the spell it's been under, my friends, watch out. Those are the moments in which societies grow.

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