This isn’t the West Wing

Chicago, Illinois ​

​ “She agrees he’s a slime-ball-creep, but her stock portfolio has never done better,” she tells me off her Trump supporting friend, “and she was more of an Obama supporter than me!” Another is an immigrant doctor who told her, “at least he hasn’t murdered anyone like the Clintons.” There is a deep confusion in the opinions of these friends, “Why is he different? Why is he Teflon? Of all the people who have fallen in #metoo,” she asks in frustration. The older woman shakes her head in disgust as she breaks to dip her croissant in a plastic cup of grape jelly. She can place her life on a timeline demarcated by the political events of the day; Bobby Kennedy was assassinated when she was walking into her final college Exam; President Johnson vacationed at the same spot in Mexico as her months before he died; a boy from the neighborhood became the first Black President.

As a lifelong Chicagoan, she has seen the slice of Hyde Park we sit in right now evolve into the gentrified shopping district it is today. “Oh, Hyde Park is a hotbed of political activity,” she says, “on both sides!” I am on a pilgrimage of sorts to walk the same streets that a young community organizer first registered voters on and went on his first date at the Baskin Robins before eventually becoming President of the United States. The Obama Presidential center has become a point of contention in this community that fostered the young activist. As this woman describes it, “he’s a community organizer but won’t work with the community.” The center is slated to take up a portion of Jackson Park, the site of the infamous 1893 world’s fair, and it is this placement that the community finds so frustrating. “The supporters of the park here are very powerful,” she tells me as if she is describing a group of mobsters that protect Chicago’s green spaces. The neighborhood is up in arms, “of course we want to have his library but why Jackson park,” she laments. I now realize that the colorful Obama Center placards in the storefront windows are not advertisements, but a show of support in a campaign for public support.

“I never thought we’d have this phenomenon,” she says about what has led to Trump, “Just from an amateur phycologist standpoint, anyone who behaves as he does—bullying people—I mean Canada? Come on. It always denigrates to personal attacks,” she says. “I think the man lies pathologically.” It is something she sees in the treatment of people like Jeff Sessions, “To appoint people and then publicly berate them—it’s beyond the pale.” This sort of insanity has made people want to disengage, “I know a lot of people who don’t even know who their Mayor or Governor are,” she laughs in disbelief. Her idea of a solution? Get rid of the 2-year cycle for congressional seats, “this has to stop.” The constant campaigning that results isn’t good for anyone involved. She also notes “the two-party system is antiquated and ineffective. They don’t know who or what they’re representing anymore.” We need to do everything we can to get more people involved, in her estimation “more voices at the table—that would be great.” ​

​ I met up for drinks with my old friend, Chris, who is now living in Chicago and working in the clean energy field. He begins, “I don’t believe that America is operating like a democracy. In a lot of ways, I don’t think it was ever designed to be a democracy.” He notes that the primary interest of our system has always been powerful, wealthy white men and the design of the country enshrined that interest. “I have no reverence for the founding fathers or the constitution. From the start, this country has been protecting the white, wealthy man,” Chris says with outrage. Though he doesn’t look to the nation’s inception for inspiration, he is “encouraged a lot by the parts of history that do represent a true democracy, pointing to the Teamsters' strikes, the Puerto Rican nationalist movement, as well as the labor movement. In these instances, everyday people showed America’s true colors. “A functioning democracy is one that is capable of addressing resistance.” It is something that he doesn’t see enough of right now, on both the resisting side and the addressing side. “I honestly think I’m living in a fascist country right now,” and as a result, the pushback from the left is not extreme enough. He highlighted positive acts of resistance coming from leaders in the Democratic Socialists of American group in recent acts against the separation of children at our southern border. In Portland they occupied an ICE office to the point that it had to be shut down, in DC they organized quickly and protested the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security at a Mexican restaurant. These instances of direct action are “the only type of thing that’s going to effect change,” in Chris’ opinion, “the DSA is going to lead the way here, I have no faith in the Democratic Party to lead here.” To Chris, Trump’s election highlights a fundamental issue of the democratic system, “any county that allows that to happen is fundamentally flawed.” He won by the rules of the game and thus the game must be broken, and he does not hold those who supported him in contempt. His voters “were looking for something different, so was I. Hillary and Obama don’t represent my interests.” He holds to blame in this system not just the far-right bigots but the ‘west wing liberals’ who play politics like a game. At least, by Chris’ calculation, the low-income Trump voters understand that politics affects their lives and have a visceral reaction to the policies and rhetoric, where liberal tend to be too calculated and risk adverse in their politics. “They think they understand politics more than anyone, but they don’t,” he says, “and deep down its classist.”

This gamesmanship is on full display in DC where the attempts at bipartisanship become performative, “If I were a congressional Democrat, I wouldn’t talk to anyone on the other side that was trying to rip health care away from people,” he articulates, “it’s just a game for these people.” Chris notes, “I wish we had more people like the Republicans who don’t give a fuck about politics but know effects their life.” Chris believes we need to be acting in the real world rather than in the made-up game that perpetuates consultants and pundits alike, “This isn’t the West Wing, the good guys don’t always win. They’re not winning right now!”