Two nights before the second inauguration of Donald Trump, my wife, parents, and uncle celebrated my grandmother’s birthday at an Italian restaurant. At some point between my first and second vodka tonic, my MAGA-adherent uncle leaned close to my ear to ask, “If in two years, inflation is down, the economy is strong, and crime is down, will you admit you were wrong about Trump?”
My initial response was to explain that inflation, for most items, is way down, crime rates have declined for three years, and by all indicators, the economy is strong. Ignoring my cursory review of Joe Biden’s record, my uncle asked, “Yeah, but if all that happens, and the border is secure, would you admit that he is a good president?”
We got off the topic without any invective. My grandmother’s birthday dinner remained pleasant. But the conversation with my uncle, like most familial debates over politics these days, was unproductive. It felt pedantic to note that economic and crime rates do not necessarily reflect presidential performance. It also felt like a waste because my uncle and I spoke different political and philosophical languages. We could not have a meaningful exchange, like two monolingual men attempting a simultaneous conversation in Mandarin and Spanish—a MAGA horror film. My uncle tried to pin me on specific numerical metrics of presidential success. He was apparently unwilling to consider that my contempt for Trump has little to do with the efficacy of his policy agenda. There is nothing the man could do other than abdicate, which would lead me to respect him.
It helps family bonhomie that I believe my uncle supports Trump because he believes that populist nationalism is beneficial to American institutions. I think Trump’s leadership will fail, as it did during his first term. Even if it triumphs, according to my uncle’s metrics, the Trump presidency demands a thorough undressing, shorn of policy debates over birthright citizenship or Pete Hegseth. What remains when the orange-skinned emperor is naked? It is a question of values.
To applaud Trump and MAGA, one must reject, or at least ignore, values that have regulated American politics and dictated ethical behavior. They are the values of democracy, especially the peaceful transfer of power, the rule of law, acknowledgment of ideological adversaries as legitimate, fidelity to the truth, and the unwavering disapproval of violence as a tool of politics.
Some principles supersede executive orders and policy directives. If we reduce leadership to clinical criteria of economic performance or border expansion, we conclude that Vladimir Putin is a great president of Russia. He delivered on his promise to enlarge the Russian middle class and expand Russian borders and influence. Of course, we would then have all our work in political science, cultural studies, and ethical inquiry ahead of us.
Any exploration of ethics must include virtue. Even the mechanistic consequentialism of John Stuart Mill—a most beneficial to most people—forbids conflating two or three metrics with presidential success. Trump’s assault on democratic institutions, public health, and environmental safeguards will include the suffering, and in some cases, deaths, of many people.
Immanuel Kant, operating out of a different school of thought than Mill, said, “Live your life as though your every act were to become universal law.” The Bible asks, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” Ernest Hemingway said, “Tell the truth and to hell with everyone.”
Hemingway advised F. Scott Fitzgerald against “making silly compromises.” There are compromises that I consider not only silly but dangerous. Even if the price of the proverbial eggs drops to 1 cent per carton, and Trump throws them into audiences like he hurled paper towels at Hurricane Maria victims in Puerto Rico, I will hold steadfast to the other principles
As John Adams famously wrote, “We are a nation of laws, not men.” Trump’s followers treat him as a king and allow him legal and moral exceptions to what the rest of us live by. Congressman Andy Ogles has proposed a Constitutional amendment to allow Trump, but not Obama, to run for a third term. Polls show that most Trump supporters believe he should have the power to govern without constitutional restraint. Trump has said he favors “suspending” the country’s foundational legal document. After just a week in office, he signed an executive order attempting to nullify the 14th Amendment, which grants birthright citizenship. A judge has ruled it a violation of the Constitution, as will others. Trump has also pledged to ignore the TikTok ban he once favored despite it receiving congressional passage and Supreme Court approval.
The United States, in its best moments, has offered haven and hospitality to those escaping poverty and persecution. No matter how one feels about border security or the ideal number of immigrants, their humanity is not subject to debate. They have rights mandated by international and U.S. law. Separating families, rounding up immigrants, and placing them in camps and detention centers, while comparing them to snakes and monsters and alleging that they are murderers and rapists who eat family pets is not in keeping with our laws, let alone our traditions.
Similarly, transgender men and women are human beings worthy of the legal protections, economic opportunities, and social acceptance that cisgender people take for granted. Trump had vowed to be a vocal supporter of the LGBTQ community in his 2016 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. He’s jettisoned the “T” and joined the bathroom obsessives. During that first presidential campaign, he said Caitlyn Jenner could choose which bathroom to use at Trump Tower. Now, Jenner doesn’t exist as a woman in Trump’s America
Transgender Americans are routinely the target of hate crimes. Trump, by pardoning the January 6th insurrectionists, even those who beat and maimed police officers, has encouraged political violence. This dangerous act coincides with his removal of security details from former aides turned political foes, such as Anthony Fauci and John Bolton. It is his promotion of political violence after many previous iterations, from dismissing the plot to murder Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as “maybe not a problem” to instructing the Proud Boys, a thuggish hate group known to assault liberal protestors, to “stand by” that adds serious weight to the charge of fascism.
Regardless of the cost of the items in my shopping cart, I can’t accept the endangerment of immigrants, transgender people, and anyone he chooses to put in harm’s way. I also cannot approve of the abandonment of Ukraine and the weakening of international alliances that have helped the world avoid global conflict for 80 years. Appointing an unqualified television host with a history of alcohol abuse and credible accusations of sexual harassment to run the Department of Defense only makes matters worse.
Another disqualifying appointment is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Health and Human Services. Gasoline can run out of the local pumps with the ease and cost of water, and I’ll remain outraged that an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, who appears to use steroids and claims that a worm ate part of his brain, will dictate public health protocol for the next four years. Kennedy has also faced accusations of sexual assault. The Trump administration’s indifference toward the mistreatment of women, coupled with the Republican Party’s eradication of women’s reproductive rights, signals a brutality citizens should reject.
Trump’s violations constitute an attack on the United States. In nine years, Donald Trump has managed to coarsen our culture, making cruelty and belittlement of everyone, from women to people with disabilities, a perverse form of entertainment for his followers. He has also marketed deranged conspiracy theories, helping to undermine faith and trust in public service and institutions, all while placing liberal democracy in the crosshairs. Some of the moguls who surround him—Elon Musk, Marc Andreeson, and Peter Thiel—seem to favor a techno-monarchy, arguing that democracy is too messy and inefficient for the modern world.
Liberal democracy and international alliances not only enabled the U.S. and the West to enjoy unprecedented success and stability for 80 years from Harry S. Truman to Ronald Reagan, even through Trump’s first term despite his chafing to dissolve NATO. It allowed our society to rally around freedom, equality, and peaceful conflict resolution. It even enabled oppressed and neglected groups of people to organize to correct its most vicious failures. The Civil Rights movement, the labor movement, the feminist movement, and the gay rights movement are among the most inspiring examples of how liberal democracy succeeds while bolstering values essential to establishing and maintaining a healthy and happy civilization.
In 2020, Biden narrowly prevailed over Trump by building a message around an appeal for the “soul of the nation.” Due to inflation and due to the biases that many voters hold against a woman of color and Biden’s age, the 2024 election ended in a victory for Trump and Republicans. However, the outcome of a close election doesn’t repeal values or rewrite the truth.
A concerted effort is afoot to dismantle any discussion of values. “Virtue signaling” and “woke” are juvenile insults that reactionaries levy against anyone who attempts to articulate a principle of empathy, compassion, or anything beyond coldhearted self-interest and might-makes-right calculations. This is true even despite woke excesses like “defund the police” or pronoun litigation.
The day after Trump’s inauguration last week, Bishop Marian Edgar Budde put the larger question of values in perspective during her sermon at the Washington National Cathedral. With the president and vice president in the front row, she asked that they show mercy for gay and transgender children and immigrants and their sons and daughters. Trump and Vance showed signs of disgust, while their supporters denounced Budde as, of course, evidently, “woke.” Representative Mike Collins of Georgia said Budde should be “added to the deportation list.”
If a commander in chief is too fragile, too much of a snowflake to absorb an uncomfortable moment in a public forum, if a minister requesting kindness to children is cause for discomfort, even contempt, then what we have is a values crisis that transcends policy. The ensuing fight will go far beyond the price of eggs.
Now, I’d like another vodka tonic.
