Say Goodbye to Toxic Trumpism: An Election Day Lesson

It’s 7:10 a.m. on election day and I wake up thinking politics. The novelty of a Los Angeles rainfall offers symbolic hope that months of poll watching, pundit columns and excessive campaign contributions will finally be washed away. Both the rain and the election are overdue.  

Rain may dampen local turnout. “Low propensity voters,” AKA Democrats, might stay home. But in most of today’s key places such as Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Phoenix and the hills of New Hampshire, the weather looks good. Hard core politico that I am, I checked. Yesterday. 

As a doctor, I see politics through healthcare, with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as my touchstone. I walked precincts and contributed to President Obama’s campaign in hope that reform would improve access. The ACA, or Obamacare, brought health insurance to around 20 million Americans, about as many as enrolled in Medicare when it started. President Trump campaigned to “repeal and replace” it. But when the July 2017 vote arrived, replacement was mysteriously absent. The repeal, defeated by three Republican nay votes, including Senator McCain’s famously decisive “thumbs down,” would have cost an estimated 15 million Americans their health insurance. The minor expense of the healthcare subsidies didn’t harm the economy, nor were they keeping us from being “great again.” The issue seemed not about America’s healthcare, but Trump’s obsession with obliterating the Obama legacy. Then, as now, few Republican legislators would stand up to him.  

2:00 p.m. Not much news. The media reports a $2 billion PowerBall lottery ticket has been sold in LA.  PowerBall may have just picked LA’s future mayor!

4:00 p.m. The first polls on the East Coast close. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) kicks off the early “tease projections,” all known shoo-ins. One of my grade school buddies, feeling pessimistic, texts his intention to drown his sorrows in Knob Hill Small Batch bourbon. It will probably not prove the worst choice of the evening.   

10:00 p.m. Déjà vu of the 2020 election. Florida unleashes a red flood, but it fails to spread beyond the state’s borders. The anticipated national red wave is morphing into a bluish-purple ripple, with the two sides struggling, evenly matched, like punch drunk boxers. The big prizes, control of the Senate and House, may remain unclaimed for days to weeks. 

A hopeful early sign is the defeat of many GOP election deniers. Trump’s refusal to accept his 2020 loss was understandable, given his ego and utter self-absorption. But the “big lie” should have been transparent to everyone. On the eve of the 2020 election the polls all predicted Trump’s defeat. On election eve “538,” Nate Silver’s wonky poll-crunching website, estimated the likelihood of a Trump loss at 89%. Silver missed only one of the 50 states, calling Florida for Biden. Did multiple polling organizations also conspire in the “steal”? Could the Dems really steal tens of thousands of votes in multiple states and leave no trail of evidence? Will Rogers once commented that, “I’m not a member of any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” Republican election deniers ironically seem more impressed than Rogers by Dems’ organizational capabilities.

Recent gerrymandering of legislative districts, voter suppression and the unleashing of a torrent of anonymous special interest money by the Citizens United decision conspire to push the public hand from the levers of power. 

Less hopefully, the American political system drifts farther from popular control. The Electoral College system, an obstacle to popular will, was “baked into the pie” in 1788. But recent gerrymandering of legislative districts, voter suppression and the unleashing of a torrent of anonymous special interest money by the Citizens United decision conspire to push the public hand from the levers of power. 

Saturday 8:00 p.m. Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto’s victory in Nevada secures Democratic control of the Senate. I’m reminded of Joseph Welch’s dramatic dressing down of Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1955 Army McCarthy hearing: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” McCarthy never recovered. American voters’ rejection of election deniers and Trump flunkies may similarly provide the shock needed to redirect the GOP and secure the political soul of the nation. 

Where do we go from here? LA’s election day rainfall won’t end our drought and a blue ripple won’t resuscitate the body politic. Trump lost the popular vote in two presidential elections and orchestrated GOP defeats in two midterms. The GOP leadership should have broken with him after January 6th. Now they should heed the voters, do the right thing and at long last, say goodbye to toxic Trumpism.

Daniel Stone is Regional Medical Director of Cedars-Sinai Valley Network and a practicing internist and geriatrician with Cedars Sinai Medical Group. The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of Cedars-Sinai.