Trumpism’s High-Water Mark

By Matthew Durantine

I have been reading recently a rather detailed account of the Battle of Antietam in Sharpsburg, Maryland. It prompted me to think also of the second invasion of federal territory, the Battle of Gettysburg. 

Like the afternoon of July 3, 1863 in Gettysburg, was Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. the high-water mark for Donald Trump and Trumpism? 

Was the violent invasion of the Capitol Building comparable to the assault on the Union Army’s center, where, at the clump of trees on Cemetery Ridge,, Confederate General George Pickett’s famous charge broke? 

Keep in mind the rebels fought on for almost two more years after that turning point in the Civil War. They scored victories and launched other assaults into federal territory. There were many times when the outcome was uncertain and victory for the nation seemed unlikely. 

Trump and Trumpism are winning some battles these days, particularly in the U.S. Supreme Court, where Trump made three appointments to the nine-member bench while he was in office. The court has effectively reversed more than half a century of progress for racial and economic equity and diversity.

But are the Trumpists ultimately losing the war?

President Abraham Lincoln was vilified and lampooned in the press as an ape and a buffoon. As commander of the Union Army, Gen. Ulysses Grant was pilloried as a drunken butcher who bludgeoned his way south without concern for the death toll among his troops.

For a time, Gen. William Sherman, commander of federal troops in the west, disappeared along with his army on his drive to the sea after the Battle of Atlanta. A tremendous amount of uncertainty and doubt persisted among voters in the North still loyal to Lincoln’s vision of a nation once again united but without slavery.

And then, just like that, the war ended.

Union troops launched a siege around Petersburg, Va. in June 1864. Lincoln’s re-election in 1864 was in doubt as a former Union general, George McClellan, ran against him. McClellan enjoyed tremendous popular support, even among some of the troops. His platform was to sue immediately for peace and divide the country in two.

Such thinking is echoed today by Trump, Trumpists in Congress and MAGA voters who oppose President Joe Biden’s support for Ukraine and its fight against Russia’s 16-month unprovoked and unwarranted invasion. Trumpists in Republican-led states like Texas clamor for secession from the nation.  

Lincoln managed to win in November 1864 and the Petersburg siege didn't break until March 25, 1865. But within a few weeks, by April 9, the conflict that began five years earlier – and must have seemed interminable to the country – was over. Just like that.

They say history doesn't actually repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Are we in a similar paradigm today?

I'm finding it easy to become disheartened after eight years of Trump and Trumpism fighting against the rule of law to take and hold power at any cost in order to serve their needs and not the nation’s.

I have found some hope in our justice system, which Trump and congressional Trumpists vow to dismantle if returned to power. Federal indictments against the former president and his lieutenants, and convictions against MAGA insurrectionists, proceed methodically and determinedly.

In the United States, as federal special prosecutor Jack Smith said in his indictment against Trump for violating national security, no one is above the law.

Maybe this is how history always plays out. You never know until you know. Things don't change until they do. Things seem inevitable until they're not. Has Trump and Trumpism reached the high-water mark?

Time will tell. 

Matthew Durantine is a writer from Silver Spring, Md.