Seek shelter, America! Bring the horses into the barn and lock yourselves in the root cellar. Donald Trump is president.
I don’t know what to expect the next four years. Trump’s not quite a Republican. He once said in an interview, “I probably identify more as a Democrat.”
What I like about Trump is that he is a force of nature. We used to have characters like him in American politics until that unique specialness was bleached out of every member of the political class so they all look and act the same. When John Silber ran for governor of Massachusetts in 1990, he had a word to describe modern politicians: “plastic.”
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Only a person of strong personality, full of energy and unstoppable, can deliver on the change Trump has promised.
So on the occasion of Trump’s swearing-in as the 45th president of the United States, I come not to bury Caesar but to praise him. This is after all an inauguration, a ceremony marking the beginning of something. Assuming the worst before things have even got started seems uncharitable. Let us at least toast the opening of the play and the introduction of an unfamiliar set of actors to the stage.
Which raises an interesting question: if Trump is the main character in this new unfolding drama, who is the antagonist?
There’s a video on the Internet of protesters staging a “cough-in” at the upscale Jean Georges restaurant inside Trump Tower to oppose Obamacare repeal. It started with one protester hacking away, then another, until so many people joined in the spreading of germs that a fancy dining spot was transformed into an infectious disease clinic. Is this what the anti-Trump opposition looks like? Coughing on people? Voltaire once said, “Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.” In Trump’s case, God granted it.
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Eric Fehrnstrom is a Republican political analyst and media strategist, and was a senior adviser to Governor Mitt Romney.