Bracing for another four years of Trump

Let’s wind our memory back to 2016 and run it till 2020. A period that was marred by so much drama that we all felt like participants in the Real Housewives of White House. The new channels were going crazy, the were protests and counter protests each day and the White House staff were treated like a contestants of a badly run episode of Apprentice. The situation got out of control as families split over political support like never before in the history of the US. Clinical psychologists were kept busy as anxiety, depression and rage ripped through the heart of the country. Even as someone in Australia, I wasn’t immune to drama. So, here are my four key tips to myself to brace for potentially another four years of Trump presidency.

Democracy isn’t dying

Between Trump’s blatant support for dictators, attacks on democratic institutions, and media’s frenzy about him wanting absolute power, it is natural for people to feel anxious about the death of democracy. The truth however is that the institutions of the US are too powerful enough for Trump to achieve any of those. He successfully triggers people to react and gets amused in the process. One has to remember that between close to 500 million guns in the hands of people, powerful state governments and the congress, the POTUS has very low chance of declaring oneself as an all powerful dictator. If we look at countries that have a dictator or one where people have taken over as a dictator, they all the structural balance of the United States.

It isn’t bright as the right or gloomy as the left

The glory days of the past weren’t as glorious as the right wants us to believe. There were enough problems both in terms of abuse of power and unrest in every decade of the last 150 years. Let’s consider John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, the two poster children of left and right respectively. Their tenure and policies would be far from acceptable by their bases today. Both EPA and Montreal Protocol were signed by republican presidents. On the other hand, it was Bill Clinton who got Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act replacing the famous Glass–Steagall legislation. Trump may bring down some acts and may replace them with others. The resultant changes will be no different from any other president of the past.

Get news from low percentile sources

It is critical to stay away from both mainstream news outlets and new age media (including social media). The frenzy created by both of them only adds to the mayhem. Whether it was Glenn Beck and Alex Jones on the right or Sam Adler and Cenk Uygur on the left, the key is to stay away from the extreme noise. I would like to get political news from the legislations being passed. I would get the national news from headlines that aren’t opinions. It is key not to get affected by the noise of the extremes.

Relationships go beyond politics

Family and friendships go way beyond political affiliation. To sever one’s relationship for mere support of another candidate in the democratic process is the worst possible reason to loose a relationship. As a person who has lost a lot of relationships in life mostly because of my intolerance, I have to admit the pain of severed friendships is one of the worst. I don’t think either Trump or Biden is worth that. We are fighting criminals but friends and family.

Most of these are easier said than done. We are surrounded by information more than we were in 2016. There are more twitter/X users now than ever before. More data flows through WhatsApp now than ever before. Whether it is correlation or causation, more people are having anti-depressants now than ever before.