Do I Really Want President Trump To Succeed?
May 22, 2017Categories: Uncomfortable Ideas,
The Dr. Bo Show with Bo Bennett, PhD
The Dr. Bo Show is a critical thinking-, reason-, and science-based approach to issues that matter. It is the podcast of social psychologist Bo Bennett. As of 2020, this podcast is a collection of topics related to all of his books.
In the first version of the book, I wrote an article about giving the winner of the presidential election a chance, and supporting him or her no matter who it may be (this was before the election).
Although I was a Clinton supporter, I really did like Trump—I just didn't want him running our country, but I was willing to give him a chance to win my support if he were to win. The article continued to discuss biases and problems with political polarization. However, just weeks into Trump's presidency, I removed the article from the book. I realized that my uncomfortable idea of supporting a president one didn't like did not translate to it being a wise thing that one actually support a president you did not like.
Do we all want our President to succeed? The idea is that if the President succeeds, we succeed as a country. But this idea is simplistic and naive. If the President's idea of success is radically different from ours, then his success could be our country's failure (in our minds). For example, if you are pro-choice, and the president succeeds at banning all forms of abortion, in your mind, the country has not succeeded—it has suffered a major blow. Had Clinton won, the same idea would apply. We shouldn't expect Clinton-haters to fall in line and let her "destroy America" (in their minds).
So the simplistic idea of "if our President succeeds, we all succeed" fails when thought about critically and when put into practice. It feels good to wish someone success, but when their success means others' failures, wishing someone failure might be the rational and consistent thing to do.