One month from today I’m flying to France to join a World War II tour, and I suspect that some curious European will ask me to explain or defend you know what. I’ll simply say, “J’ai honte de mons pays,” which means “I am ashamed of my country.”
The reasons are too numerous to mention, but three numbers top the list: 63 million (the voters who flocked to Trump in 2016), 74 million (his tally in 2020, albeit in a losing cause), and 77 million in 2024. Only in America can an evil imbecile fail upwards, propelled by an ascending tally of balloters, despite repeated promises to destroy this nation from within and sabotage its global standing.
Some people – like CNBC’s Jim Cramer (“I feel like a sucker”) – seem to be stunned by Trump’s newly-announced tariffs on all imports. By the inevitably instant stock market plummet and the immediate deleterious impact on our savings, nest eggs, 401(k)s, and rainy-day cookie jars. By the imminent prospect of price hikes on everything from cars to clothes to coffee, courtesy of retaliating countries that once were our allies.
It’s safe to bet that even some MAGA voters will dimly recall Trump vowed during the 2024 race to reduce inflation, not stoke it with wanton abandon.
But here’s my response to anyone who’s inexplicably shocked: What did you expect?
Trump openly campaigned on a promise to destroy our leadership position in the world, both militarily (by weakening NATO) and economically (by launching a global trade war). As far back as 2018, during his first term, he fought with Canada and reportedly told his aides, “I want tariffs! Bring me tariffs!” He road-tested his plan by slapping hefty levies on Canadian steel and aluminum, prompting denunciations from commie organizations like the National Retail Federation and The Wall Street Journal.
He doubled down on his obsession during the 2024 campaign when he said publicly that “to me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff. It’s my favorite word.” At another event he said, “Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented.” He dreamed of implementing tariffs in the range of “100, 200, 2000 percent.” When The Journal and the nonpartisan Peterson Institute of International Economics warned that he was nuts – a Peterson report said that his “package of policies does more damage to the U.S. economy than to any other in the world” – he attacked the people with credentials, claiming that “I’ve always been very good at mathematics.”
J. V. Last, a political analyst at The Bulwark (an anti-Trump outlet founded by Republicans), said only three reasons can explain why a fatal share of American voters elected this guy despite his open vows of economic destruction: (1) “They wanted what he promised,” and/or (2) “They didn’t believe what he promised” and/or (3) “They didn’t understand what he promised.”
I’ll add a fourth possible reason: They didn’t bother to listen to what he promised. His mouth moved, that was good enough.
As Trump himself declared in 2016, “I love the poorly educated.” He bonds with his peeps because he’s one of them. In a column last fall I wondered, “Are there enough poorly-educated voters to once again coronate the sultan of stupid?”
Now we know.
I kinda liked the economy Joe Biden bequeathed us, the one that senior Moody’s analyst Mark Zandi called “rip-roaring…among the best economies in my 35-plus years as an economist.” But hey, that’s just me. I can’t fathom being stupid enough to entrust the economy to a guy who went bankrupt running cash-cow casinos.
The question, going forward, is whether we’re irrevocably doomed. Fortunately, there are some signs of life – green shoots, as it were. The Bernie Sanders-AOC road show is drawing sizable crowds. Chris Murphy, the Connecticut senator, is relentlessly vocal. House Republican toadies are under attack at their own town halls. Furious citizens are in the streets. And this week Cory Booker put his body on the line for 25 hours, hoping to light what he called “thousands of ignition points” for rightly pissed-off Americans.
“How much more will we take of this?” Booker asked.
If there is sufficient will to thwart the authoritarians and restore a semblance of sanity, perhaps the words of Frederick Douglass (as quoted by Booker) can inspire the energized:
“The limits of tyranny are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
Copyright 2025 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes the Subject to Change newsletter. Email him at [email protected]