The Most Influential American (Alas)

      This pains me to say it, but I believe it’s true: Donald Trump is the most influential president of our lifetime. Maybe the most influential person.

      The influence hasn’t been good, of course; it’s been terrible. But I think there’s no denying that Trump has had more influence on government, on politics, on economics, on racial ideas, on American culture than any of his predecessors over the last 75 years or so.

      I was born during the presidency of Harry Truman, who gave the order to use the atomic bomb, beginning a new global era, and who also started the desegregation of the armed forces, which ultimately began the desegregation of at least part of American society.

      I grew up during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, who brought to fruition the interstate highway system, which fundamentally changed how and where Americans lived.

      John F. Kennedy, who was president when I was a young teenager, brought energy and hope, particularly to our generation that had felt constrained by the stultifying conformity of the 1950s. His death, however, was probably more impactful than his life, birthing a cynicism that remains with us today.

      I reached maturity during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, who helped engineer more significant legislation—Medicare, Medicare, the Civil Rights Act, the War on Poverty—than any president since Franklin Roosevelt. But whose pursuit of American victory in Vietnam poisoned a generation.

      Richard Nixon’s presidency shattered what remained of the faith Americans had in their government and goaded parts of our generation into activism.  

      Gerald Ford’s presidency was a blip.

      Jimmy Carter meant more as a former president than he did as an actual one.

      The presidency of Ronald Reagan was indeed in several ways transformative, rolling back some of the advances begun by FDR. He made right-wing ideas part of the mainstream and exacerbated racial division. But in most ways, his was a traditional presidency, our national leader as reassuring father figure.  

      What do we remember about the presidency of George H.W. Bush? Anything?

      And does anyone remember now much about the presidency of Bill Clinton other than a stain on a blue dress? Clinton’s presidency, and the scandal forever attached to it, did however continue to break down the austere image of the American president.

      W’s reaction to the attack on the World Trade Center buildings surely has had long-lasting effects, transforming America into much more of a security state and transforming the world by his proxy wars.  

      Barack Obama’s elevation to the presidency was a monumental moment in American history, a seeming rejection of hundreds of years of bias, both explicit and implicit. But his presidency itself—with the exception of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, a deeply flawed step forward—was not overwhelmingly distinguished.

      They all had impact clearly of varying degrees. But then here comes Trump, and the impact is enormous, on American life and culture.

      Without a shred of political or governing experience and a generally dishonorable backstory, he ratified the cliché that anyone can grow up to become president. Even before his first election, he had fundamentally changed how politics is performed, talked about and consumed. He elevated social-media-driven politics and direct-to-voter communication. In Steve Bannon’s words, he knew how to “flood the zone with shit,” obtaining constant media saturation—and it all worked and is mostly still working.

      In a purely political sense, over his one term plus now, he has realigned the Republican party, making it working-class–oriented and pushing it toward fascism. He changed the Supreme Court for a generation, producing a court that overturned Roe v. Wade and has rewritten rules on guns, religion and executive power.

      Meanwhile, he has shaken up the world, ending decades of American collaborative efforts and putative hegemony, what had been longstanding bipartisan consensus. He has put America on the side of revanchist authoritarians and upended years of essential economic cooperation.

      More significantly, his vituperative attacks and transactional dealings have decimated public trust in institutions, including the electoral system, the justice system, the press and the FBI.

      He has made blatant racism and white supremacy palatable to a large swath of the population. And perhaps most significantly, he has redrawn the boundaries of presidential behavior—and maybe American behavior over all. Scandal-ridden, brazenly corrupt, vulgar, boastful, indiscreet and, most appallingly, a liar without cease or remorse, he has given rise to the era of “alternative facts.” It’s the era of no shared sense of truth. And it all mostly has worked, at least so far.

      In so many ways, he has coarsened American life, made us angrier and more uncouth and bad-mannered and less tolerant. By elevating nastiness and a winner-take-all mentality, he has turned us against each other.  

      Trump won’t be around forever, or so we can hope. But it will take a long time to rid ourselves of his pernicious influence.