We wrote “displeasure.” We meant “disgust.”
The imprecise choice of words is to be found in an editorial we posted online early Wednesday morning after Donald Trump claimed victory in the race for president.
Writing on a tight deadline, we noted that we had expressed displeasure with Trump many times in the past, but that softened the truth. We had made clear our disgust, not simply our displeasure, and we should have said so bluntly.
This is no small matter. Now that candidate Trump soon will be President Trump, we in the news media have an obligation more than ever to hold him to account, fairly and accurately, never pulling our punches. We expect a reckless presidency. Let’s tell it like it is.
EDITORIAL
At the same time, we have an equal obligation — one in which we obviously have fallen short — to listen to and better understand the tens of millions of Americans who were drawn to Trump’s message and voted for him.
The news media, ourselves included, failed to comprehend the depth of feeling behind those hand-painted Trump signs and homemade Trump t-shirts that began popping up months ago. We failed to sufficiently appreciate Trump supporters’ worries and frustrations.
When 60 million Americans vote for one candidate, even one as objectionable as Trump, they are begging to be heard. Half the voters in the United States cannot all be dismissed as ignoramuses on the alt-right fringe.
Former Klan leader David Duke is celebrating Trump’s victory today, sure, but so is the out-of-work carpenter who hasn’t collected a decent paycheck since the Great Recession, and the church-going woman who finds her opposition to abortion ridiculed, and the elderly man who just can’t understand why kids today can’t pull up their pants. They are convinced that neither major political party, nor the media or arbiters of pop culture, understands them or has their interests at heart.
To put it another way: The vast majority of Trump supporters are not deplorables, though most deplorables probably voted for Trump. Even a former Democratic stronghold like Wisconsin, which went for Barack Obama in two presidential elections, turned to Trump this time.
The inconvenient truth remains, however, that Trump is a lousy champion of disaffected Americans. He exploits base impulses. He promises what he can’t deliver. He lies. He lashes out at the mildest criticism. He has the temperament of a spoiled child. And he is never, ever going to change.
A second inconvenient truth, looking at the next four years, is that Trump likely will be aided and abetted by a spineless Republican-led Congress. Few GOP leaders stood up to candidate Trump, and there is even less likelihood they will stand up to President Trump. Between those two branches of government — the executive and the legislative — we fear a collusion to also politicize the third branch, the judiciary, with miserable appointments.
An unprecedented test of the strength of American institutions has begun. More than ever in our lifetime, it will be the responsibility of non-governmental institutions, beginning with a fair but aggressive media, to call out an American president for his worst behavior and hold him to the highest standards.
The traditional British and American press — newspapers — was once frequently called the Fourth Estate, meaning it was like an unofficial fourth branch of government, serving as a healthy check on the worst actions of the other three. The importance of that time-honored role can’t be overestimated in the next four years.
When Trump lies — and you know he will — he must be called out. When he demonizes one group of Americans for cheap political gain, he must be called out. When he makes impossible claims, he must be called out.
And when President Trump does something right — as he most certainly will, right? — he will deserve strong and broad public support, regardless of party affiliation. Obama never saw a bit of that.
Trump skated through this election, speaking off the cuff, refusing to bone up on the issues and serving up policy proposals of no substance. We must demand more of our next president. And we must demand basic decency.
For Trump, Congress, the news media and all Americans, the hardest work now begins.
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