Excursion to the bizarre world of Trump: Swing that pendulum back or else!

Arguably, the US has been generally improving since its founding. Slavery ended. Women got the vote. Native Americans got citizenship. Social Security and other advances under FDR and then LBJ created a social safety net. Black people earned their civil rights. LGBTQ people accrued rights. People with disabilities finally got protections and accommodations.

Boy, did that make white men angrier and angrier.

While America generally seemed to be on track toward a stronger safety net for the most vulnerable, civil rights for more classes of people, and other progressive trends, Trump happened along just as more of the world hopped on the pendulum swinging back against that, toward toxic nationalism and repression of The Other. In Hungary, the Netherlands, France, the UK, Poland, and elsewhere, reactionary politics are gaining purchase and Trump was already there, with quicker insults, harsher language, and his claim to be the only one capable of exacting the retribution that would be so cathartic to resentful whites. It was timely, and the simplistic “'Make America Great Again,' with thinly veiled racism against the browning of America" (Fitz-Gibbon, 2025, p. 171), made Trump's bizarre behavior look exactly like he meant it, retributive, a Dirty Harry for the white race unafraid to destroy whatever might elicit that desire for vengeance.

References

Fitz-Gibbon, Andrew (2025). Nonviolent perspectives: A transformative philosophy for practical peacemaking. New York, NY: Anthem Press.