We almost escaped the orbit of Planet Trump, but Democrats just couldn't resist

Bob Woodward, among the greatest journalists of a generation, is in a singular position to understand the risk to American democracy presented by Donald Trump. Unlike Watergate though, no dogged digging was required — the two talked by phone so often that Woodward kept recorders scattered around his home because he never knew when the president would call.

“Trump became the primary focus of my life for nine months,” he wrote, in an explanation of why he is taking the unprecedented step of releasing voice recordings of his numerous interviews.

He is doing so, he said, because “Trump is an unparalleled danger. When you listen to him on the range of issues from foreign policy to the virus to racial injustice, it’s clear he did not know what to do. Trump was overwhelmed by the job. He was largely disconnected from the needs and leadership expectations of the public and his absolute self-focus became the presidency.”

Except this isn’t really news. Nor, despite the daily screaming headlines, does anyone need to tell us that Trump is corrupt, that he wants to subvert democracy or that he loves himself more than he does his country.

But an obvious contradiction rests in Woodward’s own words: Did not know what to do. Overwhelmed. Disconnected.

This is the guy who is supposed to be capable of outfoxing Madison, Hamilton and Jay?

Count me among those who believe that the aggressive but bumbling fool was never as close to toppling our government as we are being told. I would suggest that a goodly swath of Americans intuitively know this, and that’s why they have trouble working up a lather over impeachments, court proceedings and the Jan. 6 commission.

More room at the jail:Growing numbers of women, juveniles help drive need for space

It is hard to take seriously a morning talk show that hyperventilates over tyranny at our doorstep and then segues into celebrity pumpkin carving.

Many have wondered why Republicans can’t move on from Trump, and the truthful answer may be this: because Democrats won’t let them. He’s too valuable to the liberal outrage machine, which profits from clicks, views, posts and books. A co-dependency has developed, keeping alive a weed that should have shriveled long ago.

For a time in 2021, we had a textbook example of how to get rid of Donald Trump. We were fixated on the flawed withdrawal from Afghanistan, COVID-19 resurgence and the drama playing out among Democrats over Build Back Better. Trump’s Twitter account had been pulled, and his communiques were reduced to a goofy “From the Desk of Donald Trump” blog that no one read.

For a few months there, we were oh-so-close to escaping the orbit of Planet Trump, and if Democrats could have just left it alone at that point, we might be in a far different place today. But that would have required discipline on the part of Democrats, and you know how that goes.

Politicians, pundits and reporters kept up a steady drumbeat of “gotcha” takes that they foolishly believed might drive a stake through the heart of Trumpism. Democratic prosecutors went after Trump’s businesses and a ceaseless string of investigations into Jan. 6 et al. brought the Trump specter back to life.

You can understand people who insist that such a flagrant assault on Democracy cannot go unpunished. But if the health of our democracy is the primary goal, the obsession with Trump’s behavior seems only to have made the situation worse.

Maybe we were just an eyelash away from the crumbling of our democracy, but I don’t buy it. Trump, a gang of sad-sack groupies and a motley group of lonely hearts who never outgrew playing Army in elementary school weren’t ever going to win. Come on, you’re scared of Roger Stone? Really? Might as well be scared of Yosemite Sam.

Western Maryland Hospital Center:Hagerstown health facility sees concerns rise again over its future

It is useful to remember the 1990s view of Donald Trump — an entrepreneurial gadfly, a fringe player best known for going bankrupt all the time and calling into the Howard Stern Show. A bit of a buffoon, but a marginally amusing buffoon. A big talker who might occasionally deliver the goods, but usually not.

Maybe it’s possible for a person of this stripe to change into an evil political genius overnight, but I don’t think so.

Marjorie Taylor Greene might be a threat to the English language, but not to the Constitution.

Kevin McCarthy will retreat to relative normalcy as soon as it’s politically expedient. Ron DeSantis may play the hardest of political hardballs, but I don’t believe he wants to destroy American democracy. And the Supreme Court is never going to surrender its own power to an authoritarian.

Donald Trump will always have his followers. Fine, so does Three Dog Night. But our parents may have said it best. Bullies are more likely to go away when they’re ignored.

Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Woodward tapes reveal Trump could never have outsmarted the founders