George Washington Weighs in on Trumpenfreude

Comedian Paula Poundstone imagined Attorney General Barr's summary of Dickens's massive Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times." Though the President says that Barr's summary of the Mueller report completely exonerates him, Barr's four - page memo falls short of that. Still, Mueller's two - year investigation would seem not to have turned up kindling to light impeachment fires under this administration.


The news wasn't bad enough to be good enough for Democrats in Congress, who've armed themselves with subpoenas to comb the full report for damaging tidbits.  They are clearly animated by the unseemly and damaging emotion I call Trumpenfreude.


Like its cousin schaudenfreude (literally "harm - joy"), Trumpenfreude is the ghoulish pleasure his opponents take from the frustration of the President's will, from mockery of him in media, and from anything he says embarrassing enough to make opponents think, "Ah - HA! This time he's gone too far!"

But what's bad for Trump is not good for the United States. That was Mitch McConnell's attitude after the 2010 mid-term election when he said, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." We expect our legislators to achieve more for America than scoring points for their parties. Does anyone want investigations of political opponents and recourse to impeachment to become the norms? If the President believes his personal attacks on our allies and his personal friendships with the world's worst dictators are getting good results, should anyone hope for bad results? If the President wants to take credit for economic growth that began soon after his predecessor took office, should anyone hope for signs of recession?

Trumpenfreude is a manifestation of the "party spirit" that our first President warned about in his farewell address:

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. (from Our Documents.gov)

That last bit is what Mueller found "not enough" evidence of. Washington was prescient.

When Trumpenfreude rises up in your chest like acid reflux, repeat what my church says every Sunday, from the Episcopal Prayer Book:

We pray for Donald our President, the Congress of the United States, the Supreme Court, and all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world,
that there might be justice and peace on the earth.

Amen.