"He Made America Feel Great Again"-Ross Douthat, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/opinion/he-made-america-feel-great-again.html?_r=0

This column by Mr. Douthat is written from the future:

While I cannot verify its provenance, the following appears to be my Sunday column from Nov. 8, 2020, which slipped through a small rift in the space-time continuum while I was writing a panicked, “It’s the Trump Apocalypse!” column this week.

Douthat paints a bright word picture of America 2.0, after four years of President Trump, who has also just won reelection over the Democratic ticket of Elizabeth Warren and Corey Booker.

I am insulted. Disgusted. Which America did Trump make "feel" great again?! Not the plurality who voted against him in 2016! Not the women in that plurality, not the minorities; not some old white guys either! Not more of the people, that is, than he made feel great again. Less. As of this writing 630,877 less. Whose America?! Not his colleague Charles Blow's! 

Does Ross Douthat have any idea the pain and fear that Donald Trump has caused? 

It is a very callous thing to write. 

I am also shocked. Ross Douthat spent a lot of the past year writing ideas how to stop Trump. 

Finally, it is very cynical. The Idea of America 2.0 in Ross Douthat's formulation is more money for everybody and a realpolitik foreign policy. Both devoid of values, of common morality. More money and detente with Russia and China will restore Charles Blow's faith in America, will bring back the romance between Paul Krugman and America, will make Khizr Khan "feel" he has a place in America. Money will make them all "feel" better. Which is to say pain and fear have a cash value and can be bought, which is to say that feelings and values and morals are not really independent things, they are just commodities pegged to the dollar, they can be exchanged for joy and confidence with a slight discount, which is to say feelings and values and morality don't really count, that nobody took our pain and fear and hate seriously, which is what the Trump signs and t-shirts, "Fuck Your Feelings," say.

My God, how cynical. Turn the Statue of Liberty around. Have her face New York Harbor, instead of the world. Put America First! Put Lady Liberty's arm down, let her have both her arms outstretched gathering white Americans to her breast. Turn the Torch of Liberty into a policeman's Kel-Light searching for the huddled masses of illegal immigrants. 

This is Ross Douthat's Idea of America 2.0. Not to be great but to feel great.

I refuse to accept that Idea of America. That is not the country I was born into, not the country I have lived in for 61 years; not the country I will bequeath my children; it is not my country, will never be my country, and Donald Trump is #NotMyPresident and never will be.

I and the plurality rather this way instead:

I get it, of course we want to be successful, we're all going to say that. Everybody wants to be successful, it's our country, we don't want it to go down the drain. But...it does not take away the fact that he used that fear mongering, and all of the comments, from day one, the race baiting...

The fact that people can just gloss that over, start talking about the transition...and we're all going to...try to make the country good without talking about any of those things.

And now we see that he's already backing off of immigration and Obamacare and other things, so was it a big fake, which makes you feel it's even more disgusting and cynical that somebody would use that to get the base that fired up, To get elected. 

And what gets lost in the process are African Americans, and Hispanics, and women, and the gay population, not to mention the eighth grade developmental stage exhibited by him when he made fun of the handicapped person...He is in charge of our country. That's disgusting.