My husband knows a lot more about American politics than I do, so imagine how much he would enjoy spending the better part of the last two years with me telling him “Trump will win,” simply because I felt that way in my gut. However, earlier this year, he started agreeing with me, which I had to admit meant a lot because it was based on actual information, and he had the first idea what he was talking about. Looking back at my text messages to him, I read things like: “Excuse me, Harris is selling joy???? Please tell me which elections have been won anywhere in history because of joy because I love hearing about them. (Side note: I can see By reviewing the data I found I overemphasized the cheeky question mark this year.)
However, there is a lot more to this context. “I don’t believe all these polls, I just think it’s all massive adaptation?” However, when I was asked on Election Day afternoon who I thought would win, I immediately said “Kamala Harris?” Later that night, over the phone, my husband mildly wondered why I had given up on the idea of submitting to months-long kitchen hijinks and annoying text messages. I replied: “I don’t know.” “I guess I just…forgot?”
Forgetting is very tempting. But often irrational behavior is as well. I can only say that I wanted to reverse the thing that I forgot to be true.
Right now, the Democratic Party should look back at the past few months and wonder how they missed so many things. Imagine their trip down memory lane. “We should definitely run a woman from the coastal elite against Trump and call his supporters outsiders. I forgot how things are for us. We should definitely be very focused on culture war matters. I forgot how things are for us. We must certainly present the choice as between darkness/fear/hate and moral superiority. I forgot how things are for us. We certainly should not pose a choice between his economic plan and our clear and better plan. “I forgot how it worked for us.”
Anyway, you get the general idea. And look – honestly, I’m sure they wanted all of this stuff to be true. At the same time, she notes, many disgruntled liberals already consider the election result to have immediately triggered a mental health pandemic. (I’ve forgotten what it was like for them.) They also make fun of some people for “voting against their economic interests,” rather than considering that valuing certain things more than money isn’t actually sad or stupid, even if I think those specific things are They are the wrong things. Personally, I vote against my economic interests almost every time, but apparently in an acceptable way.
Yes, then: much forgetfulness is retrieved in the moment of defeat. However, we should not have all the mementos about this, but there can be a great deal of forgetfulness in the moment of triumph as well. Maybe more.
Right now, there are Trump Republicans vying for a role in the new administration, forgetting that, in the words of my new friend Anthony Scaramucci, “they all end up in the wood chipper.” Anthony has been a wood chipper himself, but I have to say he seems incredibly good at the job. At this point, many of Trump’s top Republicans forget how the journey has gone so many times before. They may have a nice layover at the White House, but their final destination? Sawmill, baby.
Of course, there are very pure people and critics who will tell you that they never forget the important things about a person, and always keep them in flawless perspective. In this case, they have more in common than they think with Trump, who never admits to wrongdoing, and never forgets.
As for the more common people, high-level advocates contend that adults are surrounding Trump, and they are the ones who will keep things on track. This seems very forgetful to them, since exactly the same thing was said the last time. Unfortunately, the wood chipper, which they forgot existed, requires a constant supply of adults.
More importantly, in my view, senior Republicans and Trump supporters are forgetting the events of January 6th. They forget what led to them, what they embodied, and how it flowed intentionally and directly from Trump himself. They forget that these were objectively very bad events, or at least, as objectively as any events could be in a culture in which the idea of a common reality has been lost. And back on January 6, 2021, these bigwigs were beating themselves up to publicly disavow Trump. They forgot about it, and spent most of this year re-endorsing it. This is a time when optimism turns into an illusion, a reminder that betting against Trump’s unique essential nature is so forgotten that it is almost a form of insanity. Their self-interest is strong – but nowhere near as strong as his.
On that basis, let me make another prediction: Trump’s dysfunctional relationship with power will once again lead to events that are objectively very bad, perhaps much sooner than last time. At that point, a large number of VIPs will wonder how they ended up forgetting that they were here before. So big companies must feel alarmingly vulnerable even now, in the moment of victory. Fool me once, shame on you; They fooled me twice… I would say they know how things work, but they seem to have made the fatal mistake of forgetting.
Marina Hyde is a columnist for The Guardian
General at Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar. On Tuesday 3 December, join Crace, Hyde and Crerar as they look back on a political year like no other, live at the Barbican Hotel in London and broadcast live globally. Book tickets here or on guardian.live
