Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing: All lessons from Trump 2.0 will be immediately forgotten | Marina Hyde

MYour husband knows a lot more about US politics than I do. So imagine how much he enjoyed me spending most of the last two years telling him, “Trump will win,” simply because I felt it in my mood. However, at the beginning of the year he began to agree with me, which meant a lot to me because he was based on actual information and had some idea of ​​what he was talking about. When I scroll back through my text messages to him, I read things like: “Sorry, Harris ‘sells joy’???? Please tell me about the election somewhere in history that was happily won, because I would LOVE to hear about it.” (Side note: Looking through the data, I can see that I’m really relying too much on the cheeky question mark this year have.)

In any case, there is much more in this sense. “I don’t believe all these polls, I just think this is a huge fight?” But when I was asked on the afternoon of Election Day who I thought would win, I promptly replied, “Kamala Harris?” Later That evening, on the phone, my husband wondered slightly why I had given up on condemning months of kitchen rants and annoyingly interrupted text messages. “I don’t know,” I replied. “I guess I just…forgot?”

Forgetting is a very tempting thing. But irrational behavior is so often the case. All I can say is that I wanted the opposite of what I had forgotten to be true.

Right now, the Democratic Party should look back at the last few months and ask themselves how many things they missed. Imagine your journey into the past. “We should definitely let a coastal elite woman run against Trump and call his supporters weird.” I forget how it is here. We should definitely look closely at the culture war stuff. I forget what it’s like here. We should definitely frame the choice as a choice between darkness/fear/hatred and moral superiority. I forget what it’s like here. We should definitely do that not Imagine the choice between his economic plan and our clearer and better plan. I forget what it’s like for us.”

Anyway, you get the general idea. And look – to be fair, they certainly wanted all of this to be true. In the meantime, I note that various howling liberals are already assuming that the election result has immediately triggered a mental health pandemic. (I don’t remember how that applies to them.) And they also make fun of some people for “voting against their economic interests” instead of believing that it isn’t really sad and stupid to value some things higher value as money even if you don’t I think these certain things are the wrong things. Personally, I vote against my economic interests almost every time, but seemingly in an approved manner.

So yes: in the moment of defeat, a lot is forgotten again. And yet, not to get all the memento mori, there can also be a whole lot of forgetting in the moment of triumph. Maybe more.

Right now, Trump Republicans are fighting for a role in the new administration, forgetting that, as my new friend Anthony Scaramucci puts it, “they all end up in the wood chipper.” Anthony has been in the wood chipper himself but would like to say he looks incredibly good in it. In this moment, many senior Trump Republicans are forgetting how the journey has been so many times before. They may get a nice stop at the White House, but their final destination? Wood chipper, baby.

Of course, there are terribly pure people and experts who will tell you that they never forget the important things about someone and always keep them in flawless perspective. In this case, they have more in common than they think with Trump, who also never admits to making a mistake and never forgets.

As for the more common forgetters, senior advocates take the line that the adults surround Trump and they are the ones who will keep things on the right track. This feels very forgettable considering the exact same thing was said last time. Unfortunately, the wood chipper, whose existence they have forgotten, requires a constant supply of adults.

Most significantly, in my opinion, senior Trump Republicans and supporters are forgetting the events of January 6th. They forget what led to them, what they embodied, and how they emanate intentionally and directly from Trump himself. And they forget that these were objectively terribly bad events, or at least as objective as events can be in a culture where the idea of ​​a shared reality has been lost. On January 6, 2021, these high-ranking people fell over themselves to publicly disavow Trump. They forgot this and spent much of the year recommitting to him. This is when optimism turns to madness, and a reminder that betting against Trump’s unique essential nature is so forgettable that it almost amounts to a form of madness. Her self-interest is powerful – but not nearly as strong as his.

On this basis, allow me to make another prediction: Trump’s disturbed relationship with power will once again lead to objectively terribly bad events, probably much sooner than last time. And at this point, many senior figures will be wondering how on earth they forgot they were here before. Therefore, even now, at the moment of victory, the greatest should feel themselves at worrying risk. Make a fool of me once, shame on you; You fool me twice… I’d say they know how to do this, but they seem to have made the fatal mistake of forgetting.

• Marina Hyde is a columnist for the Guardian

• A year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar. Join Crace, Hyde and Crerar on Tuesday December 3rd, live at the Barbican in London and via livestream worldwide for a political year like no other. Book tickets here or on Guardian.live