With just a few days remaining before Election Day 2016, The Washington Post’s Kathleen Parker wrote a notorious column. “Calm down,” the headline read. “We’ll be fine no matter who wins.”
Parker’s argument at the time was that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump offered competing visions, but Americans who were concerned about the nation’s future had no reason to feel too much anxiety about the outcome of the competitive race.
As Trump’s presidency unfolded, Parker’s misplaced optimism became infamous. The lesson for political observers seemed obvious: Don’t underestimate the amount of damage one radical and transgressive president can do in short order.
It’s a lesson Democratic Rep. Jared Golden apparently did not learn. In fact, in an op-ed for the Bangor Daily News, the three-term Maine congressman not only predicts a Trump victory, he argues that there’s no reason to be overly concerned about the damage the Republican might do.
Democrats’ post-debate hand-wringing is based on the idea that a Trump victory is not just a political loss, but a unique threat to our democracy. I reject the premise. … This Independence Day marks our nation’s 248th birthday. In that time, American democracy has withstood civil war, world wars, acts of terrorism and technological and societal changes that would make the Founders’ head spin. Pearl-clutching about a Trump victory ignores the strength of our democracy.
The best-case scenario is that Golden knows better, but he wrote a strange op-ed in order to distance himself from his national party and align himself with his more conservative, rural constituents.
The worst-case scenario is that Golden actually believes what he wrote.
The Maine Democrat’s op-ed is worth reading in its entirety, if for no other reason than to marvel at the oddity of his claims. Amanda Carpenter did a fine job highlighting some of the congressman’s more glaring errors of judgment, and her online thread is definitely worth checking out.
But I’m also curious what more Trump would have to do in order to cause Golden to feel some anxiety.
For all intents and purposes, the presumptive Republican nominee isn’t just running against President Joe Biden, Trump is also running against democracy itself. We’re talking about a radical, twice-impeached felon who has repeatedly raised the prospect of creating a temporary American “dictatorship,” and who has talked about “terminating” parts of the U.S. Constitution that stand in the way of his ambitions. He’s running on a platform of rejecting election results he doesn’t like, militarized camps, pardons for politically aligned criminals, friendships with foreign authoritarians he holds in high regard, and mass firings for federal bureaucrats who are deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump’s ideological ambitions. Just as importantly, Republicans on the Supreme Court this week effectively told Trump that if he were to return to the Oval Office, he could take comfort in knowing that he’s above the law, leading a lawless presidency. To hear Golden tell it, the United States has endured before, so we should simply assume that the United States will continue to endure in the future. The problem with such misplaced optimism is that sometimes, countries face new and unique threats that are different and more serious than earlier challenges, and the result is unprecedented peril. For the Maine Democrat to simply shrug his shoulders with indifference is to wonder whether he’s paid close enough attention to current events and world history.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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