Jon Reisman

President Trump’s second term is consequently impacting our culture, politics, and policy. I’m personally pleased with “the Donald’s” deals promoting peace, prosperity, capitalism, climate/energy sanity, and American excellence and exceptionalism, while delivering death blows to DEI, racial preferences, and the Marxist lens of critical theory/oppression. President Trump is demonstrating Alexander Hamilton’s wisdom in Federalist No. 70, promoting energy in the executive as critical to the successful administration of the law and for accountability. 

The absence of such energy, success, and accountability was notable under President Biden, and Trump 2.0 has much better clarity of purpose and direction than the first-term version. But while a plurality or even an emerging majority of Americans support Trump’s policies and direction, a significant leftist minority is appalled, repelled, angry, and potentially, perhaps strategically, violent. The country is very divided, consuming vastly different content and narratives in largely segregated media silos. And while I am cheering the end of having my tax dollars fund leftist public broadcasting, many of my leftist acquaintances are certain that Trump is an existential authoritarian/Hitlerian threat to their identities and freedoms (including the freedoms to preach, screech, and scold).

Trump’s brash New York showman persona is undoubtedly a reason for his success (we love the drama). It is also a cause and source of division. The Donald can’t help but poke hornet’s nests.... It's part of his Gotham real estate developer DNA. Driving Democrats into frothing mania is entertaining, but the political and cultural consequences of division may make eventual unity and consensus unlikely or impossible, particularly in the near term. Although not noted for our patience, we could wait. Unfortunately, in the long run, at least according to economist John Maynard Keynes, we are all dead.

So, we are in for some forty months of significant tumult, drama, and division. Energy in the executive is a boon when you agree with the president and a bane when you do not. A lack of energy in the executive is a prescription for ennui and disaster (like the Afghanistan withdrawal and the auto-pen pardons).

The ‘26 midterms look like an inflection point. If the Republicans retain control of the House and Senate, Trump will continue to succeed, and the left will grow increasingly unhinged. If the Democrats take the House, Trump will be impeached, and we may well descend into internecine quasi-civil war. A little levity may be what saves us.

Trump's summit with Putin in Anchorage demonstrates the tumult, drama, and division. I couldn’t help but remember and rework the opening stanza of the 1960 ballad “North to Alaska:”

Way up north to Alaska, way up north to Alaska

North to Alaska, go north, the rush is on

North to Alaska, go north, the rush is on

Trump's going to Alaska, way up north to Alaska

Trump's in Alaska, gone north, the Russian's there

Trump's in Alaska, gone north, the Russian's there

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO6IU9RpjS8

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Selectman and a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at [email protected].