Our Alternate History

One of the sub-genres of fiction is called alternate history. Novels in which the South wins the Civil War, or JFK survives the attack in Dallas, Nazi Germany wins WWII, the British defeat the rebel colonialists in America, or Al Gore beats George W Bush.

I was laying in bed thinking about such novels when for a moment, in my half-sleep state, I wondered if anyone had ever written an alternate history novel in which Donald Trump wins the presidency. Then, I thought, wait, I am actually living in that alternate history. If you’re reading this, then you too no doubt are also caught in the alternate world.

Rick Wilson, a conservative who worked for George H. Bush’s administration, is one of us trapped here and he’s pissed off about it. I’ll let him describe the general situation.

“Who could have imagined that a man of Donald Trump’s spectacular vulgarity, vanity, and gimcrack gold-leaf aesthetic would turn out to be a president without a shred of dignity. Who would have thought a man with a grasp of history derived solely from movies and television would be unable to channel the wonder and power of this nation in times of crisis?

“Who could imagine that a serial adulterer with a desperate need to have his manhood validated and who engaged in a string of risible, sleazy affairs would become an international laughingstock?

“Who could have foreseen that the faux billionaire up to his ample ass in debt to God knows who would look at the White House as a way to nickel-and-dime the taxpayers and the GOP into bumping up his revenue stream at his hotels and golf courses?”

I would add that…Who could have foreseen a president, previously known as a huckster, would regularly tell more lies before lunch than normal people would tell in a decade. All of that, and that’s not even going into the fact that he admires dictators and strongmen more than leaders of democracies, and believes an adversary named Putin over the FBI and his own intelligence agencies.

Thank you, Rick. His comments come from his book, Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real about the Worst President Ever. 

Many of us are surprised to find ourselves in this alternate reality, one in which anywhere from 30-40+% of the population actually look favorably on what they’re seeing to continue supporting Trump. Trump himself says he could shoot a random person on 5th Avenue in New York and his base would stick with him. Some even boast that he’ss the best president ever.

That’s how strange this alternate history we’re living has become. Then there’s another alternate reality coming in 2020, one in which Trump wins a second term. I hope that somehow I can figure out a way of leaping off that alternate history and landing into the version where someone else who is running for president – almost anyone else, except for Mike Pence in the event that he somehow gets into the race – is our president.