The Trump Ballroom is a Politically Shrewd Move…But Will It Cause Us to Lose Our Soul as a Nation

 

The circles I run in are overwhelmingly Democrat, left-leaning, and anti-Trump. Even so, I have found myself surprised by the intensity of pushback friends of mine have expressed about the President’s plans to build a new ballroom for the White House. 

Recently, I read “Abundance,” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, in which they express that, as liberals, they desire that government get stuff done for the people, and lament that the Democratic party has become the party of process even when that process gets in the way of progress. High-speed rail in California is cited as an example, where political complications and environmental review have yielded multiple budget over-runs with nary an inch of track being built. Meanwhile China laps the field in building out the infrastructure that moves people from city to city at practically light speed. 

The contrast is a telling one, which they admit. California is where well-meaning progressive policies are birthed and often transmitted to the rest of the country. The state leads on matters of racial equity and ecological sustainability and worker rights. China, in contrast, is notoriously undemocratic and no respecter of human rights. Yet one place’s government has accomplished much in the way of transit infrastructure, while another’s languishes in environmental reviews, legal challenges, and committee meetings. 

It reminds me Robert Moses, famously profiled in Robert Caro’s epic book, “The Power Broker.” It’s a biography of Moses but also an account of how power is gained and wielded, and in Moses’ case this meant extraordinary measures to carve the roads that make up modern-day New York City. To some, he is a hero for making the impossible possible. Others hold their nose and try not to think too much of the unseemly “means” as they acknowledge that the “ends” have been net positive. Still others loathe everything about the process and the result. 

Which brings us back to the Trump Ballroom. I suspect that, once it is built, and for many generations to come, the typical American will either be glad for its existence or take it for granted. Very few will fume about processes being trampled on or the symbolism of a president branded as a tyrant acting tyrannical about the most famous piece of public property in the country. Had a Democratic president been behind this, or perhaps any other human being besides Donald J. Trump, it likely would have been celebrated as visionary and long overdue. 

But is this where we are? Seduced by a fancy ballroom to compromise our most cherished democratic principles? Anesthetized by “bread and circuses” while our grand experiment slowly burns to the ground? Depending on where you are on the political spectrum and how you feel about the current occupant of the White House, you will have differing feelings of contentedness or alarm.