Update, January 19, 2025: I wrote this in 2017, the day before Trump’s first inauguration. While he defeated a different candidate this time (even worse than Hillary Clinton, and whose loss I predicted the day after her “nomination“), the urge to forget history remains as fierce as ever. Trump, we are told, again, is a stunning break in American history–when he is in fact a continuation of it. The way ahead is to take a long, hard look at the massive failure of our imagination, and our refusal to create sustainable alternatives to Trump. The left is mired in its belief that, somehow, “identity politics” gave rise to Trump, but the truth is that it failed to provide a clear and sustainable alternative to him. Blaming people who are not white, cis, heterosexual men gets us nowhere. I’ll have more on that in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, stay safe.
