Trumpocalypse now

Author David Frum speaks about his latest book

The word apocalypse has a root meaning of revelation, and also a meaning of great disaster. Author David Frum says he chose the title of his new book, Trumpocalypse, with the former meaning in mind, but certainly there are those who believe the latter meaning is also apt. Last Thursday, the Prince Edward County Library hosted a conversation between Frum and Tom Harrison, as a follow- up to their sold-out conversation at the Regent Theatre in 2018 when the topic of discussion was Frum’s book, Trumpocracy. With restrictions imposed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the conversation was broadcast via Zoom, as well as live-streamed on the library’s Facebook page. Over 80 people checked in via Zoom, with about 230 people viewing on Facebook. Frum has a family home in the County and is a senior editor and contributor to the Atlantic, and is past president of the Policy Exchange think-tank. He was a speech writer and special assistant to President George W. Bush, and now has written 10 books. Harrison has a PhD in Law from Queen’s University, and is a farmer, educator and writer who makes his home in Cherry Valley. Devon Jones, Chair of the Prince Edward County Library and Archives, introduced the conversationalists and succinctly described Trumpocalypse as “A look at the potential destruction of democracy in the United States we’re all observing with horror and dismay on a daily basis.”

While the book was written well before the pandemic took hold, Frum said that the pandemic highlighted the personal problems with President Trump as well as the deep problems with the government he has headed. After the initial upheaval caused by the pandemic, most democratic governments responded to find ways to keep their economies going and to bring down the rates of infection. “There are three standouts,” said Frum. “The United States, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Each failed in different ways, but the American failure has been by far the biggest, and that’s a personal failure of Donald Trump. But it also indicts in some ways how the American system goes wrong, and that’s the subject of Trumpocalypse. Over the past four years I have thought and spoken and written about Donald Trump more than I can bear. You probably feel the same fatigue. We are all exhausted with this worthless man. We want a government that operates competently and honestly, headed by a president who behaves with dignity and integrity.”

Author David Frum speaks during a conversation about his book Trumpocalypse with Tom Harrison on the Zoom platform.

Frum then went on to discuss the concept of American exceptionalism, which when introduced in the 19th century was not meant as a compliment, but to indicate the US was on a different path from the other industrialized nations. “There was a kind of creativity and dynamism to American life that I think everybody admires. There’s a kind of creative rule-breaking,” said Frum. “In the bad context, it led to a lot of financial fraud, but in the good context it leads to innovation and creation. One of the things the different path has meant is that the United States government is a very conservative government in that it doesn’t adapt as well to the new world.” Frum likens it to 19th century behaviour in a 21st century world. He added that the US doesn’t have a Civil Service in the way that Canada or Britain has. “The deputy minister, assistant deputy minister positions are political appointees chosen for their loyalty to the president.” That leads to very little retained knowledge when the administration changes, and Frum said that has turned out to be a tremendous liability in this crisis. “To recreate the knowledge-base of government requires a real effort by every president, and if you have a president who is not making any effort, that knowledge-base tends to deteriorate. Donald Trump actively attacked the knowledge-base, but it was bound to deteriorate even if he hadn’t.”

Frum also discussed the subject of gerrymandering in the US, noting that unlike anywhere else in the world, the electoral district boundaries are drawn by politicians. He said that the advantage the Republicans gained in their electoral wins in 2010 allowed them to gerrymander on an enormous scale. He is cautiously predicting sweeping Democrat wins this year, which will allow them to give the Republicans a bitter taste of their own medicine, especially as this is also a census year. “The politics of the 2020s will look very different from the politics of the 2010s, but that doesn’t change the inherent evil of letting politicians draw their own districts.”

One of the enduring legacies of the Trump presidency is the erosion of America’s standing in the world, claims Frum. The democratic countries’ share of the world economy has been steadily declining, while China’s share has surged. “The balance of power around the world has changed. America’s ability to put together alliances and coalitions matters more than ever, and that is what Donald Trump has done so much damage to.” Frum points to Trump’s capricious nature in his recent flare-up with the TikTok, noting that the president has failed to build any alliances in this fight. “It looks like this TikTok thing is going to be a fiasco, and we’re probably going to end up six months from now with TikTok still being owned by the Chinese, and people still using it unwisely and still having their data stolen.”

It is not all doom and gloom though. Frum points to the response to COVID as a triumph of the capacities of democratic governments to function even with an economy that’s almost completely shut down.

“There’s some reason to feel hopeful and optimistic at what has happened, and when you look at America’s standing in the world, maybe at the end of this people will say that despite everything, they’ve blundered their way to a successful outcome.” Frum also provides some prescriptions for a way forward, proposing such things as ending the filibuster, removing political influence from law enforcement, giving statehood to Washington, D.C. as a way to provide a more equitable balance between rural and urban in the Senate, and providing an enhanced Voting Rights Act. “The US has very large social and economic problems, and it has small political problems that you have to solve first in order to get to the others.” Frum said that most people are not really politically engaged, and that most of the 63 million people who voted for Donald Trump in the last election simply thought that things might work out, and are now dealing with disappointment. He ended the conversation with a quote from Abraham Lincoln: “Let us try to look back on what we just lived through, none of this as wrongs to be avenged, but all of it as a philosophy to learn from in the future.”

Trumpocalypse is available at the library, and several signed copies—the only signed copies anywhere— are available at Books & Company.