- Credits:
- Photo, ShutterStock. Helen's Place LLC observes that In the Trump 2.0 Era, there’s no time left for petty grievances; only time for ingenuity to finally address America’s problems.
Helen’s Place LLC, Update January 1, 2025
There’s a trap of mental inflexibility that people fall into when they dig in over a personal or political view – regardless of political party. Humans can go down this road easily – especially when encouraged by others with self-righteous reinforcing habits.
James Carville warned before the 2024 presidential election that Progressives were being “too judgmental.” This assessment proved to be a factor that contributed to losing the election on November 5, 2024.
Another way of stating this is that one of the failures of the Democratic Party is being “principled to a fault.” It’s a level that goes beyond political correctness – to a behavior standard of expecting perfection instead of being realistic.
Minding your P’s and Q’s can have damaging effects when taken to extremes.
In the past, for example, Kirsten Gillibrand famously went after Al Franken to get him to resign from the Senate in 2018, because of his improper, stupid and unfunny sexual gesture toward a woman sleeping on an airplane. Did he behave improperly – yes. Did he deserve to be shunned and forced to resign from the senate – no.
Another example is Rashida Tlaib and the voters from the Arab-American“ Uncommitted Movement.” Many people in this voting block did not vote for Kamala Harris for President “on principal.”
They didn’t approve of the Biden Administration’s handling of the Israel Hamas War, and felt that Biden/Harris hadn’t condemned the atrocities against civilians in Gaza strongly enough.
Because they were “principled to a fault,” this group contributed to Harris losing the election in November 2024, as well as possibly contributing to a worse outcome for the Gazan people under the Trump Administration in 2025 and beyond.
And finally, Joe Biden himself was principled to a fault when he made unrealistic statements to the press – that he would never grant a pardon to his son Hunter because he believed in the rule of law and letting justice prevail in every circumstance.
It wasn’t smart for Biden to make a blanket statement like this.
So when he dropped his principles to use his pardon power to show justice and mercy toward his son, saying one thing and doing another hurt his reputation and legacy because he was seen as a hypocrite.
This could have been avoided if only Biden had said that he’d have to see how justice played out for his son before saying whether or not he’d issue a pardon.
Other than this, it was clear that the punishments sought by the prosecution against Hunter were not proportionate to his crimes, including: failure to disclose a drug addiction on a form to buy a gun; and tax fraud with a possibly 17 year prison sentence – even after fines were already assessed and paid to the IRS.
One would hope that some American’s learned the lesson, even if Biden didn’t, that it’s not a good idea to be principled to a fault.
The Trump 2.0 Backlash
The Opposite of being principled to a fault is raw indulgence – as exemplified by Trump 2.0.
It makes sense that Trump supporters would cheer him on – making jokes out of his picking the worst and most extreme people possible for his cabinet. Some may never get tired of watching the shit show – metaphorically like wild, careless drinking and puking on the Federal Government.
At this point before his Inauguration on January 20, 2025, it would be completely out of character to predict Trump doing anything differently from his first term as President.
For example, it would be unthinkable that he would decide NOT to perpetuate sham investigations against people speaking out against him, or learn that being self-absorbed, cruel and vindictive doesn’t pay. These things are just not in Trump’s DNA.
Instead, there are 3 likely scenarios of what will happen in Trump 2.0:
- The grift and disinformation will continue.
- Tech bro’s will take over control of America’s government.
- Trump will be engaged in an ongoing revenge tour.
The Democrat Response
Here’s hoping that the principled-to-a-fault Democrats don’t do “I told you so” gloating, when things go wrong for Trump, because this would just exacerbate the backlash.
Saying, for example, that anyone who doesn’t take care of themselves (anti-vaxxers) “deserves to die,” is an example of what not to do, because death is not proportionate to the mistake. Neither is gloating over people not voting at all, or voting for Trump when food, housing and gas prices rise due to tariffs.
The idea that the punishment must fit the crime, is worthy to remember in counteracting the trap of being principled to a fault.
Test questions in one’s mind should be, “is my thinking against this person fair? How would I react if I were in their shoes and had a steady diet of misinformation?”
Additionally, there’s no more time for handwringing over the outcome of the 2024 election, and Democrats and independents must accept obnoxious rhetoric and lies for what they are.
Instead, the time is now to get prepared to fight against what the Maga/Tech-Bro Regime may do to destroy America.
Small Victories of Proportionality
In the Maga era, swinging to the extreme right against “uppity, woke, democrats,” will likely include trashing good and decent people.
We will have to look for small victories of proportionality – where the punishment fits the crime and actions are just.
A case in point is Judge Merchan’s ruling on December 17, 2024 that he would NOT drop the conviction of Trump in the NY Hush Money case, because doing so didn’t meet the Supreme Court’s criteria for immunity. Fairly, he ruled that the sentencing in this case could possibly remain on hold until after Trump is out of office in 2029.
This is a small victory for the rule of law.
Matt Gaetz dropping out for consideration as DOJ Attorney General is another example – where he stated he did it because he didn’t want to be a distraction to the Trump Transition Team.
Since the Congressional Ethics Committee report showed him to be ineligible for the job, his action was proportionate to the allegations of misconduct against him. Doing the right thing was a small victory, regardless of Gaetz’s motive.
The most important example of proportionality may be the resistance against Trumpism and Tech-bro authoritarianism.
It could happen that Americans finally get organized, with the help of Congress, to put up a good fight to preserve our democratic institutions in 2025 and beyond.
Finally, principled-to-a-fault Republicans – whom supported Trump no matter what he did in the past – may start missing Democrats being in charge of government when they watch Trump in action as the President for a second time.
Through it all, perhaps a few more people learn the hard way that truth telling and upholding ethical standards are good – without being so judgmental about it.
Related audio/video recording:
Nicole Wallace and Steve Schmidt reflect on the legacy of Jimmy Carter and the importance of Carter’s “Malaise” speech and warnings to the American people:
YouTube, MSNBC, “Reconsidering Jimmy Carter’s ‘Malaise Speech’ in 2024,” December 31, 2024
Additional Transcript:
One of the most prescient speeches of our time:
American Rhetoric, Jimmy Carter, “A Crisis of Confidence,” July 15, 1979.
Other related article you may be interested in:
Washington Post article discusses what happens when media companies don’t stand up to Trump – setting a precedence for lawsuits and the Trump Administration getting a green light for more frivolous lawsuits:
Washington Post, Sarah Ellison, Jeremy Barr, “Trump signals plans to use all levers of power against the media,” December 22, 2024
Helen’s Place LLC article warning that if the federal government didn’t make good on its promises to address the nation’s festering wounds we could expect the American people to rise up, and choose differently in the next election. Unfortunately, this is what happened on the November 5, 2024:
Helen’s Place LLC, “Call to Government-Do More for American Workers and Education,” March 25, 2021
Helen’s Place LLC is an information and educational materials company celebrating English Language Arts, Cognitive Science and the love of birds.
It’s the maker of printed instructional, educational, and teaching materials for children and adults in the field of English Language Arts and Cognitive Science.
Your comments are greatly appreciated. Send them to Helen’s Place LLC via email to info@helensplacenet.com. We’re always interested in learning more about you and the issues that are important to you.
