Is It Just A Majority Or Is It A Mob?

Is It Just A Majority Or Is It A Mob?

By

Leonard Zwelling

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/24/opinion/cabaret-trump-joel-grey.html

In this fabulous op-ed from The New York Times on November 25, the great Joel Grey once again reviews the themes that the Broadway hit Cabaret depicted back in 1966 when he starred as the Emcee. To summarize, the message of the show is that while a country is having a grand old time in the Cabaret, civilization is collapsing around it as the Nazis take over in 1930’s Germany. This piece is really worth a read.

I share the concerns that he expresses. Is the Trump victory simply what a majority of the American people want or is it something else? Will we have a peaceful transition to something better, or will the mob dominate our government and overwhelm it finishing the job that was started on January 6, 2021 and which was an example of what concerned our Founding Fathers?

There was a sense of a combination love-in and mob scene at any Trump campaign rally. Okay. That’s over. Now we have to see whether or not the team Trump has assembled can deliver for those who voted for him (who he seems to think he uniquely leads) and for those who did not (who Trump ignores). It is that latter group that is in fear for the integrity of the country and must be won over by the Trump Administration so that the union can prosper and progress.

As I have written, I am more than willing to give the victors a chance even as many of the appointments seem ill-suited to the agencies they are taking over. Can they turn the Titanic of a ship of state or will the various icebergs they must face sink them?

What am I worried about most?

First, a crisis, foreign (Russia, China, Iran or North Korea) or domestic (another pandemic, a loss in Wall Street confidence, continuing climate disasters).

Will our adversaries test the president early or is his peripatetic lack of attention and unpredictability enough to hold the enemy at bay fearing what he might do?

And will Trump bring his special touch to the Middle East and strike a deal with Israel and Saudi Arabia that might lead to peace, improved relations between Israel and the Gulf States, and plow a pathway to something for the Palestinians?

Domestically, I am hoping that the wide margin of Trump’s victory in the popular vote will enable his team to indeed streamline government and create some efficiency. As a nine-year government employee, I can assure anyone that the bureaucracy is bloated and there is a significant amount of dead wood. However, there are also very skilled and brilliant people whose politics may not align with the MAGA crowd and without whom the government will work less well. I hope these people do not get caught up in an Elon Musk-driven purge of the Deep State.

Finally, I am very worried if the Trump Administration fails to deliver for its voters or at least the voters’ perception of what the administration should do. Prices at the grocery store and gas pump will not drop quickly if they drop at all. Any interruption in Iranian oil flow will raise gas prices and Trump’s proposed tariffs may do the same to grocery store prices. The tariffs could easily reignite inflation. Will MAGA nation have patience?

These are my worries with what the majority has brought us.

As a former scientist, I have always been impressed that some of the best discoveries came from those outside the accepted wisdom of what the majority thought. The majority is not always right and many times in my career have I encountered an opinion outside the main stream that turned out to be correct.

As an intern, I had a patient with a large palpable protrusion under his right rib cage. Everyone, including my very experienced attending physician said it was a big liver. I was not so sure. I ordered a liver scan (no CTs then) because, as an intern, I was in control of the patient’s management. The scan was normal. The mass turned out to be a kidney tumor.

It was a good lesson. Sometimes you need to ignore the experts and go with your gut. But that could be the motto of the Trump team.

If they truly use their best instincts and great advice, this could be a new dawning for America. But if they fail for whatever reason, the majority could become the mob in an instant.

That, I fear.