Trumpism is a dangerous alternate reality!

Trumpism is an American tragedy!

Echo opinion letter published in Michigan's the Holland Sentinel

As commentators and wise men have been saying over the past 20 hours, this is not an occasion for celebration or joy, rather Mr. Trump’s indictment is a sad and solemn moment, an “American tragedy” as the New Yorker put it, a time to mourn an American president’s fall and … oh, heck. An American tragedy?

The American tragedy isn’t Trump’s indictment, it’s his existence. His indictment is the first glimmer of American redemption since his defeat in 2020. Not in our lifetime has a single American so heedlessly made so many tens of millions of people so miserable for the sake of his own pathetic self-enhancement — so the hell this isn’t an occasion for celebration.

As for those complaining about a witch hunt (notice no one actually claims Trump is innocent), they might want to brace themselves, because this isn’t the end, this is only the beginning of the end. 

At least two other indictments are coming, for his attempt to commit election fraud in Georgia (which could happen soon) and obstruction of justice on the federal level (by summer). Will “Teflon Don” go to jail? Not if he dies or flees the country first, which I’ve been predicting for four years, especially should he get so much as a whiff of an indictment for, say, incitement, for which he might well not be released on his own recognizance.

However slow and deliberate in the coming years, life for Trump and his family holds for them nothing but decline and ruin. 

Americans will witness his fortune dwindling. His freedom will grow more precarious. His political base will become incrementally smaller and manifestly crazier. As the mists clear, his reputation as the presidency’s greatest loser will appear. Eighteen months from now he won’t even own Mar-a-Lago, let alone his fate.

Steve Erikson in Pullman, Michigan