What do we do with a win?
Say what you like about the year 2023, one thing about it is certain. It has comprised a succession of weeks (and occasionally days) each one of which was worse for Donald Trump than the week (or day) before it. There is a discernible downward trajectory about the year that now seems inevitable for Trump. It points to some time in the future when Trump will meet his final, irrevocable doom.
I don’t know when or in what form that doom will come, but it feels close. Whether it’s this year or next year or even the year after that, it feels like a certainty that transcends wishful thinking. I don’t think there’s a man or woman alive who would want to be in Donald Trump’s shoes right now, with the only possible exceptions being men or women who are facing worse criminal peril than he.
I also think that America has had enough of Trump and Trumpism. Of course I know there are still plenty of MAGA-heads out there. But most Americans love the idea of a Trump-free world. You can discern it in the mood of the nation. You can read it in the overwhelmingly negative responses to Don Jr’s hateful tweets, or the boos Trump Sr and his people attract, or the contempt our allies have for the man. We’ve got too much to worry about right now without our having to mollycoddle that whiny little MAGA bitch.
But what’s next? What do we do with a win? Do we gloat, do we lord it over the losers? No. I think that would be a mistake. I think history agrees with me, too.
Not so long ago, immediately after World War II, when my father was a young man, Germany and Japan were our bitterest enemies. It was then that President Harry Truman instituted the Marshall Plan, created in order to fasttrack the rehabilitation and revitalisation of Europe. Between 1945 and 1952 the US occupying forces, led by General Douglas MacArthur, enacted widespread military, political, economic and social reforms in Japan. Today Germany and Japan are economic powerhouses and staunch allies of the United States.
Yet it was a different story after World War I. President Wilson and the victorious allies burdened Germany with economic sanctions and reparations so profound as to bankrupt the nation and pauperise its population. So utterly did they humiliate Germany as to virtually guarantee the growth of endemic bitterness among the defeated German people. The rise of the Third Reich is traceable to popular resentment of that self same harsh treatment and severe judgement.
The lesson of history is clear. When we are gracious to our former enemies they become our friends and our allies. When we are harsh their hatred deepens. It is incumbent upon us all to be gracious in victory, to approach our erstwhile enemies — in the words of the original Republican Abraham Lincoln — “with malice toward none, with charity for all.” Anything less could guarantee the perpetuation of the current toxic climate.
It should be clear to everyone by now that the current climate of division and hate is unsustainable. Never since the American Civil War have opposing factions in the United States hated one another with such murderous animosity. If we don’t take a step toward rapprochement then who will?
I know it doesn’t sound like fun and will undoubtedly take years and possibly decades to achieve, but Americans must begin once victory is secured. I live in a country where the divide between conservatives and liberals is marginally discernible but not remotely so virulent. It’s liveable here, in America it is not. As the more mature of the two parties, it’s really up to us to act. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.