New Yorker's David Remnick on his fears over Trump's presidency - BBC Newsnight

let's talk about that extraordinary piece that you wrote on the night of the election it went around the world I think within hours you you you talked about it'd be a tragedy for the American public a tragedy for the Constitution a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy and I'm sure some people saw it as somebody who didn't get it well I can't who can't who can't reconcile himself to a new president you should give him a chance that's that's there that's the well that or that maybe it was just a little hyperventilating I think people even some people on the Left thought through actually was this written in this sort of emotion and I don't deny that of the immediate hours I don't deny it but I also I don't rescind it in one iota I wish I could I would be delighted if the evidence since election night told me you know what it's gonna be okay sometimes conservatives when the liberal loses you do talk about that's tumbling we haven't seen that theory it tumbled and then it the reverse happened will say look I know it's at a volume of alarm that I don't normally sound maybe I should sound it more often God knows we've had historical chapters that deserved it but I've seen nothing between November 8th and now or you know a goodly month later that makes me feel ah don't get so hot and bothered we had Nixon and we've had we'll take your pick of presidents you don't approve of it's not that it's something much more alarming a friend of mine here at the office said you know it's like like you've been tossed out of an airplane and you feel the sense of alarm fear you feel the freezing wind around you but you haven't gone splat yet and on the other hand no parachute is opened no sense of awe this is a normal event in the turn between the back-and-forth between the liberal and the conservative and the Democrat Republican there's not that sense at least not in me but there is that impulse to make it such and I see it all around me I see it on television I see it he won't against them your piece to you what I would call normalization and has that happened yes it also be turned into just another sort of turn of the Deaf in many ways yes in may and I understand the impulse it's a very human impulse always to normalize the situation so that you're not you're not in a state of constant alarm or fear or sadness or agitation I hope all the bad things that I predicted I really do I hope to be completely and utterly wrong but let's look at what's happened we have a president who seems to think that the normal business of conflicts of interest do not apply to him his children are going to run a gigantic business and yet also participate in the decision-making of the White House he has investments all over the world that depend on the favor of heads of state just seem to care about this one iota his temperament which is a very important thing in a president it's completely opposite of what the temperament you'd like to see in your grown children it traffic's in hatred in petulance in resentment it's ruled by tweet I look in here's the thing I want I love my country i I understand completely and utterly that this is a divided country ideologically and in many other ways I know that people of my political ilk are not going to win every election to not reconcile yourself that to that is to be a child but this is something different this is something different this is not Mitt Romney winning in 2012 or John McCain in 2008 but set against the and and I want to say one other thing and it's part of a larger current in the world that I find equally troubling which is an illiberal current it has justifiable beefs with the results of globalization deindustrialization there are all kinds of people in the north of England and South and Rust Belt of the United States and throughout Europe who are made uneasy by and have suffered by all these currents I get that I do I just don't think that the results the political results of people in office that we're seeing in many of these countries is the healthiest thing in the world I think just the opposite they were it worries me deeply and in in that piece that you read on the night of the election you said we're not heading for fascism because this country won't allow it but the conditions are there ank you said that this this this may be how this starts did well I think a lot of countries have had the circumstance of believing it could never happen here and it happened slowly slowly and then all at once and I just part of my alarmism if you want to call it that was to in my own small way to be part of the sounding of an alarm it's a self-awareness that we're not going to repeat history I don't think anybody thinks that a funny man is gonna come out with a little tune you know kind of little mustache in a in an armband with people marching in an odd way no we have a reality television billionaire but who's adopted certain ideological and characterological things that are not for the better of this country in my view and taken to its logical conclusion yeah I think a form of American authoritarianism is at stake I'm being I think that's an alarm worth sounding I hope to hell I am wrong I want to be wrong that's what's that's what resisting it is all about is to make sure that the alarm is not realized as a reality I think it's an absolute Civic and journalistic necessity

Channel: BBC Newsnight

Views: 56,878

Rating: 4.4896402 out of 5

Keywords: bbc, newsnight, news, interview, remnick, david remnick, new yorker, trump, donald trump, an american tragedy, editorial, president trump

Id: CK0-Rqeb7Mo

Length: 6min 20sec (380 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 21 2016

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