Morons and the Inner Soul of the American People

In December of 1783, George Washington resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief and returned to his beloved Mount Vernon. He was one of the wealthiest men in America. He could have been king; loved and revered national hero, who would have denied him? But he had devoted eight years of his life leading the War of Independence and was committed to an American Republic.

In 1787 he was called back to Philadelphia to lead the Constitutional Convention and then unanimously elected the first U.S. President, taking office in 1789. He possessed a clear vision for the new nation, was a decisive leader, a strategic thinker, and a master of practical problem-solving. After serving two terms he resigned and again returned to Mount Vernon. His wisdom, character, sense of patriotism and duty to a cause are remarkable.

And now, after 250 years, Washington’s Republic is led by a man of comparable wealth but absent his never-told-a-lie character and lacking his wisdom and dedication to America’s ideals and traditions. He is Washington’s opposite. Unable to accept defeat in the 2020 election, he lied about the outcome and, to stay in office, he incited the J6 insurrection. Yet, he was re-elected four years later.

In 1920 the writer H.L. Mencke penned these prophetic words,

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Is Trump a reflection of the inner soul of the American people? Have we become a nation of morons?

Rex Tillerson, former head of Exxon, who served as Secretary of State during Trump’s first term, said he was a “moron.” The word moron is a dated IQ classification for a dimwitted person, one step above imbecile. That seems harsh for a president who says he passes cognitive tests with “flying colors,” but his recent Greenland fantasy supports Tillerson observation.

It is irrational to think that taking over Greenland would offer better protection from Chinese or Russian aggression, for that would destroy the 75-year NATO alliance. America is unquestionably safer with allies than it is in isolation. Washington understood the importance of alliances. Trump cannot. And his recent note to Jonas Store in which he said he should take Greenland from Denmark because Norway “decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize” removes any doubt about his mental insufficiency.

Loss of Hope and Optimism

We expect less from a president because we expect less for ourselves. My generation elected John Kennedy and struggled with racial integration and women’s liberation, yet it was more optimistic and hopeful than today’s.

While America remains a wealthy nation, our wealth is not distributed as fairly as it was 60 years ago. Then, the top 0.1% controlled only 8% of the nation’s wealth. Today they control 22%. Good paying jobs moved offshore, and wages have not kept pace with inflation. Consider that in 1960 the tuition at Columbia University was less than one third of the annual income of an average American. Today it is 15 percent greater. And the cost of a home was twice the average annual income. Today it is more than five times. Leading a financially secure and comfortable life is no longer an expectation for the average American.

Sixty years of steady relative decline explains the loss of optimism and hope. And there is more. People are isolated. Our children spend less time playing with friends and more time playing surreal video games that focus on competition and combat. With less personal interaction and less unstructured outdoor play, social skills are underdeveloped and kids feel a deeper sense of loneliness. Despite being digitally connected they lack meaningful relationships that build strong social and emotional ties, which sets the stage for school shootings and other mass murders that have become commonplace in American society. In 1960 mass shootings rarely occurred.

The internet, especially social media, has increased this sense of isolation and loneliness for adults as well. We spend more time reading about people than talking to people. This social isolation and loneliness are linked to increasing anxiety. Humans need social connection for emotional well-being; a lack of it increases stress, fear, and anger.

Republican Party Exploits the Loss

John McCain, tortured prisoner during the war in Vietnam, and US Senator, was a member of my generation. He asked people to dedicate themselves to a cause greater than themselves. His cause was America. In his farewell speech he urged Americans to always believe in our nation’s promise and said, “We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world.”

McCain was a Republican. Who in today’s Republican Party embraces his faith in America and advances these ideals?

Instead, the current administration plays into this feeling of hopeless isolation. Trump’s rallies and rhetoric offer a sense of “belonging through exclusion” whereby people develop a sense of community through the shared experience of feeling marginalized or rejected by mainstream society, and they define themselves against imagined enemy groups.

Trump built his MAGA coalition by providing an outlet for this pent-up group anxiety and anger by scapegoating and casting blame; blaming immigrants for illegal drugs and loss of jobs; blaming government for inefficiency and wasteful spending; blaming friendly nations for our trade imbalance; blaming political opponents, calling them thugs for weaponizing government, and scapegoating people he dislikes as stupid terrorists who should be imprisoned.

This moronic rhetoric of anger and hate permeates the Trump Administration and is exemplified by the Gestapo-like tactics of ICE in Minneapolis and Chicago, which create more problems than they solve.

Was Mencken, right? We will soon find out. Americans can reassert their true identity in the next election. We are not a nation of morons. Most Americans remember the better world of not so long ago, a world in which we shared the same values and knew our nation as the champion of liberal democracy and leader of the free world. That world was built our founding principles – freedom, equality, and democracy, not on Trump fascism.

Dedication to those principles seems lost in this time of MAGA extremism but lies dormant. It awakened after the 9-11 attack on our World Trade Center and will again. Mencken was only half right.

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