'Toxic Optimism': How Americans Ended Up With Trump Term 2
It's time to do more than just wait for everything to work out.
Just last month, actor and Democrat George Clooney mused, “[E]ventally we’ll find our better angels. We have every other time.” In Clooney’s mind, getting control of the House back in a year will “be a check and balance on power.”
For many people wanting to hear the bright side of things, this kind of message will undoubtedly resonate as the opposite of a call to action. It mirrors the same refrain that has permeated moderate-to-left-leaning politics since Donald Trump’s first term: It’s not that bad. Don’t listen to the hysteria. If you sit back and be patient, it will all work out in the end.
No, it will not.
Americans’ tendency towards toxic optimism is partly why we find ourselves where we are in the first place.
On the one hand, numerous public figures are rightly warning that unless some sort of radical intervention happens soon, America’s constitutional order could be over – possibly for good. On the other hand, a handful of influential pundits are assuaging Americans that “Trump is losing” the war on democracy, and that once his poll numbers drop a bit more, the Project 2025 experiment will unravel as quickly as it unfolded. Although well-meaning, the latter spin seems short-sighted and potentially dangerous.
The reason has to do with the Constitution’s system of separated powers, which erects two primary checks on the presidency: Congress and the courts.