Flipping through the channels on election night, I was reminded of the Dallas Cowboys winning their second straight Super Bowl in 1994. A friend of mine who truly loathed the Cowboys (the Oilers were his team) acknowledged that he too got caught up in the excitement as he watched Emmitt Smith’s post-game interview.
Some readers will reject this memory outright, but the coverage of Trump’s rising chances didn’t feel critical. That was the feeling I got watching CNN, MSNBC, and even reading the New York Times app as the election returns came in. More than the hosts and journalists would or will ever admit, there was something oddly exhilarating about how quickly Trump’s victory became inevitable. While Fox News didn’t call the election until 2 am Wednesday, and the New York Times didn’t call it until 5:30 am, it was obvious by 9:30 pm on Tuesday that Trump was going to win. The Times’ probability meter made that clear.
The main thing is that the coverage didn’t appear as slanted. It was as though Trump’s media critics, while still disliking the man and his rhetoric, had come to terms with how remarkable Trump’s political turnaround was, and its remarkable nature had taken the edge off. It’s a speculation. Nothing more.
Considering Trump’s win, love or despise him his genius has to be acknowledged. This was true even before Tuesday night. Think about it. New York is dense with inherited wealth, but few heirs can lay claim to having built a global brand such that their name is on buildings around the world. And having done the latter, Trump pivoted to television only to master that medium. Then he decided to run for president in 2015, and on a tiny budget managed to beat the old, heavily funded hands of politics (Republican and Democrat) such that he was occupying the White House by 2017. Amazing, and I say this as someone who badly wanted him to lose in 2016.
Trump’s career trajectory on its own confirms his mocked assertion about being a “stable genius.” Most definitely he was before Tuesday night. After Tuesday night, and regardless of your view of the man, his policies, and politics, his brilliance is really and truly elite. How else to explain losing in 2020, exiting the White House in disgrace a few months later, then winning the popular vote and the White House in 2024?
Which is the problem. The past is a lousy predictor of the future. Trump is arguably higher now than he’s ever been. Which is dangerous. As Bill Gates once put it, success is a lousy teacher.
Having succeeded against the odds, Trump now has a Senate majority and perhaps one in the House. This is so dangerous, and it is because government is an ass. And it’s an ass because policymaking is invariably a government intervention in the natural doings of people. Meaning it’s government substituting its extraordinarily limited knowledge for that of the knowledge-pregnant marketplace.
Trump himself suffered and foisted upon us the obnoxious conceit of government in March of 2020. Panicked about the virus, Trump handed power over to experts like Anthony Fauci, and took it away from people who were locked into their houses. With predictable, liberty, economy, health, and life-crushing results. When Trump most needed to be Trump, he handed over dictatorial powers to the so-called Swamp. That’s why he’s president-elect today instead of completing his second term.
Which is why the ideal scenario is that the House flips to the Democrats not out of admiration for their policies, but out of disdain for policymaking in general. Who knows, maybe the Democrats will try to impeach Trump once again, or maybe twice. Anything that limits lawmaking boosts freedom, and as history tells us over and over again, the biggest driver of prosperity (and nothing else comes close) is free people pursuing their individual bliss free of government. Say it over and over again, the courage to do nothing is the stuff of successful presidencies.
