Welcome to the Age of Trump

You know the theory of contrary sentiment. It tells us that when investors become too optimistic the stock market will decline. And vice versa.

One recalls that soothsayer Paul Krugman greeted the announcement of the Trump victory by saying that the stock market was declining and would never recover. It took a matter of hours to prove this most confident of polemicists to be wrong. If that does not flood your mind with Schadenfreude consider that George Soros lost a billion dollars betting against Trump.

Now, Donald Trump takes over the American presidency at noon today with a very low approval rating. At least, compared with his predecessors. One must say that his own antics have contributed to it. And yet, whatever you think of Trump, he is not the Antichrist incarnate. When people go to war against Trump they are showing that Barack Obama has produced a nation at war with itself. No one should be bragging about this.

As I have often noted, the challenge of analyzing the Obama years is understanding the disconnect between a man who seems to be so decorous and a nation that is divided into warring factions. At least, it suggests that the decorous and virtuous veneer has been hiding something more sinister.

If Democrats and their cohorts become too disruptive, the first time something goes wrong they will be taxed with responsibility. Moreover, the belligerent attitude, the wish to engage in constant struggle and fighting must be intended to cover over the fact that the Obama administration spent eight years projecting weakness around the world. It’s nice enough for Samantha Powers to declare that we ought to be going to war against Russia, but where has she been these many years. Within the bosom of the Obama administration. That’s where. Bending over and submitting to Vladimir Putin, that’s also where.

And yet, Trump’s low approval ratings—lower than previous presidents—offer an opportunity. Given how much Trump has been demonized he can only disappoint in one direction—to the upside.

So suggests the Wall Street Journal this morning in its lead editorial:

Democratic leaders are calling his election illegitimate, and most of the media wants Mr. Trump to implode—for reasons of partisanship, ideology or simply to vindicate their view during the campaign that he couldn’t and shouldn’t win. No President since Nixon will face a more hostile resistance in the press and permanent bureaucracy.

Yet rather than rage against this hostility, Mr. Trump should view it as an opportunity. So many elites expect him to fail that even small early successes will confound them. So many on the left are predicting the rise of fascism that he can make them look foolish by working well with Congress. So many in the media will portray him as the leader of a gang of billionaires that he can turn the tables with an up-from-poverty and education choice campaign.

Let’s say that the demonization is an opportunity and that constructive proposals from the incoming Trump administration, coupled with civil behavior and good work with Congress will make the president’s detractors look slightly unhinged.

One does not believe that the drumbeat of media and Democratic hostility will let up. But, if Trump does not turn out to be as horrifying as they expect, they will look like they are not in touch with reality.

Among the reasons that people hate Trump we count this one. They hate Trump because their agenda is to glorify the Obama years. They despise the notion that the American people have repudiated him and especially his agenda. They despise the people who voted for Trump. Expect them to fill the media and the history books with tales of the return of Camelot. All the horror stories about Trump are laying the groundwork for the beatification of Obama.

[Addendum. About the old and surely correct idea that great minds think alike, I just fell upon Rich Lowry's analysis of the Obama/JFK meme. I offer a link for your delectation.]