The Great Acquiescence

The Democrats did their best at Trump’s Second Inauguration. They didn’t look happy, exactly, but they pretended that everything was normal out of respect for the office of the presidency—as well as for our tradition of peacefully transferring power, which only occasionally includes patriots in “Camp Auschwitz” t-shirts invading the Capitol and smearing shit on the walls.

Given the much-remarked “vibe shift” in America, it is hard to know how to discuss Trump’s Restoration—including all the obvious lying and malevolence—without seeming like someone who doesn’t know how to have a good time. (Why the long face? Are you rooting for America to fail?) Noticing the rumbling sounds of theocracy just seems paranoid. All that triumphal talk about God at the Inauguration couldn’t mean anything, because everyone knows Trump believes only in mammon. To be cynical, selfish, dishonest—and, above all, unserious—is what passes for “optimism” in our new moment.