In yesterday’s post I discussed the success of President Donald J. Trump. Success as measured by how effective he has been, notably during the first six months of his second term, at getting done what he has wanted to get done. At shaping what he perceives as the nation’s agenda – and at what everyone agrees is the nation’s conversation.
But in my previous post the phrase “getting it done,” referred to just one way of judging a leader. One way of judging their performance – and them – “good” or “bad.” There is however a second way, one that uses a different measure altogether. The first measure assesses a leader based on their effectiveness. How skilled are they at accomplishing what they set out to accomplish? The second assesses a leader based on their ethics. The first measure then is primarily about means, while the second is primarily about ends.
The cleavages in this country are not about the first. Many Americans who dislike Trump would agree that he has been a “good” leader in that he has been effective. But they would argue, and they do, that Trump is not ethical. Effective, arguably yes; ethical, decidedly no.
As I wrote elsewhere, humans are not widgets. “We are complex being with complex motives and incentives and we behave in complicated ways. What this means among other things is that many of us, perhaps most, are in some ways good and in some other ways not so good.” People who think Trump can do no wrong are resistant to the conception of complexity – of shades of gray as opposed only to black and white – as are people who think Trump can do no right. It is precisely this resistance to complexity that explains why Americans who loathe Trump cannot begin even to imagine anyone admiring him much less being a rabid fan. And vice versa.
There are cures for complexities. Or, at least, ways of making them less daunting. But in an America in which higher education is widely disrespected, extremity is widely rewarded, and nuance widely derided, cures can be considered worse than the disease.
Which raises this question: If Trump is “getting it done” what is the “it”?