The ransacking of the United States Capitol on January 6th by pro-Trump rioters was a disgrace. Especially disturbing is the fact the rioters proclaim themselves “Patriots”. If they were “Patriots” the word has no meaning with which I am familiar. Attacking and vandalizing the most recognizable symbol of our system of government are the actions of idiotic morons, not patriotic citizens. They are no better, nor worse, than the violent mobs we witnessed this past summer burn communities and take over parts of cities.

The optimist in me tries to reassure my distressed spirit by telling me that in spite of this insanity, the center ultimately held. The bulwarks designed by the Framers were triggered and there were still enough people committed to defending the integrity of our institutions to prevent any permanent damage to their structure. The pessimist in me wonders: for how long?

“Character is destiny.”

HERACLITUS

The events of last week were in no small part the result of the defective character of our current President. For anyone willing to see it, this was how it was destined to end for Donald Trump’s administration. Yet his character flaws were not only overlooked by his supporters, in the eyes of his most dedicated fans (fan is short for fanatic I’ll remind you) they were actually celebrated. Petty, vindictive, boorish was transmuted in their minds into “HE FIGHTS FOR US!”.

The Founders were not naive. They understood the office of the Presidency was a political office and would not always be occupied by virtuous men such as George Washington. That is why they designed the government the way they did. As I have noted in previous posts, the Constitution contains many safeguards designed to prevent any one person or branch of government from being able to exercise complete power. Despite the drama of the past week, the system worked, effectively checking the self absorbed whims of the current occupant of the White House.

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

John Adams

But what of our character…and ultimately, our destiny…as a nation? That a person of such spectacularly poor character as Donald Trump was, if not outright championed by so many, deemed at least the lesser of two evils in 2016, is a sad and troublesome commentary on our society at large. I am not the first to identify Trump as merely a symptom. Many have recognized this fact. The nature of the disease is harder to pinpoint.

THE SELFIE SOCIETY

We love to nickname our generations: The Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers, and Millennials. We also label certain historical eras in an attempt to convey the mood of the time: The Gilded Age, The Jazz Age, The Me Decade. I can think of no better moniker for our current moment than “The Selfie Society”. Its defining characteristic is an all encompassing self-absorption. Is there a more telling cultural artifact than “The Selfie”? Taken on our “I” phones (of course), it captures the outside world as meaningful only in relation to ourselves. Social Media platforms dovetail perfectly with this mindset, simultaneously reinforcing and expanding our subjective existence until there is barely an objective reality to speak of. The saying used to be you are entitled to your own opinions but not to your own facts. Now we are each entitled to our own facts. What is good is what I agree with. What is bad is what I disagree with. What is true is what I want to be true. Is it any wonder we struggle to find any “common ground” these days? Our governing system is designed for persuasion and compromise. The psychological mindset of the Selfie Society creates ever increasing alienation and division.

The Selfie Society is not only destroying our interpersonal relationships, it is infecting our institutions as well. We are all wheels and no cogs. The survival of our institutions depends upon individuals subverting their personal needs and goals for the betterment and ultimate flourishing of the institution. Where will we find the people willing to make this kind of sacrifice in the Selfie Society? Institutions and organizations are not to be served but to serve us…as platforms for our personal brand. We see it more and more in the sports world and the business world. The operative question has become, what’s in it for me? The idea of being a team player or a good company man is unimaginable in the Selfie Society. And now our institutions of public service have been infected by the same mindset. Increasingly we are seeing people get into public service because the “public” part of the phrase “public service” provides an excellent platform for their personal brand. The “service” part is conveniently forgotten.

Donald Trump is only the most prominent example. Oh, you say, politicians have always been egomaniacs craving attention! Of course they have. To a point. I submit to you that the Selfie Era politician is of a different breed–a breed whose continued propagation will deal a fatal blow to this republic. Think about this: Richard Nixon, whose personal ambition and thirst for political power were unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries, did two things in his career that would be inconceivable to Donald Trump. After the 1960 presidential election, in which Nixon ran against John F. Kennedy and lost by a razor thin margin, it was widely accepted among those in the political classes that widespread voter fraud in the Democrat controlled city of Chicago had tipped the balance in Kennedy’s favor. By all accounts, Nixon could have mounted a very strong (stronger by a magnitude of a thousand than the claims Trump has been touting) challenge to the final result. But he chose not to. There probably were many self serving reasons why Nixon chose to not challenge the result, but at least one of his reasons was that he felt it was better for the country to not put it through that drama. Fourteen years later, facing impeachment and certain conviction after the exposure of the Watergate break in and cover up…at his arguably personal and definitely his political nadir…he chose to resign rather than put the country through the turmoil of impeachment.

Fast forward to 2020 and the Selfie Society. After losing an election-mostly due to his own lack of discipline–Donald Trump refused to concede. Instead, he has continued to push the lie(over Twitter, of course–the perfect medium for the prototypical Selfie Society politician) that the election was stolen. He has repeatedly peddled bogus conspiracy theories and riled up his equally self deluded followers. He even threw his loyal Vice President under the bus by insanely insisting Mike Pence had the power to overturn the election results. After Trump egged on a riot at the Capitol on January 6th, he now also faces Impeachment and ever increasing chances of conviction. Yet, he argues that those pursuing the impeachment are provoking more riots and chaos and that he needs to continue to fight.

The saddest part is that his die hard supporters continue to believe he really fights for them. If he thought of anyone but himself, he would resign and spare the country the turmoil he claims to believe would result from his impeachment. The fact is he has never fought for anything outside of his own self interest. There is nothing bigger to Donald Trump than Donald Trump. Just ask Mike Pence. Trump is the Selfie President.

“At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us, it must spring up among us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln understood what the Founders understood. The survival of this form of government and this nation depends upon us. Hopefully the tragic events of the last week will force us to lift up our eyes from our backlit screens, venture out of our Selfie induced nightmare, and rediscover the ‘better angels of our nature’.