if you are going to be indifferent, I quit.

Reality is the leading cause of stress for those in touch with it.

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Trump posted a word cloud based on his speeches: the biggest word was “revenge.” Many of his threats reflect Trump’s now familiar tactic of reversing charges against his opponents, conjuring a mirror world in which he claims they are guilty of the very offence of which he is accused.

I am tired of talking about the presidential election, Trump and MAGA governance as if it is representative of the majority. But here we go. Despite all the talk about how the election would come down to a small group of undecideds, it didn’t. It came down to indifference or, maybe worse, disillusionment (the feeling that the system isn’t working for them so they will not do any work for the system). Yeah. Here is what I mean. Given where we are right now (soon after election day) my numbers are going to be close to accurate and will not change significantly. Only 54% of the voting population voted. Let me say it differently. 46% of people who could have voted; didn’t (what this means is that whenever some pundit, or analyst, talks about the election dynamics they need to refer to everything as “of the people who voted”). Harshly, 46% of adults were indifferent. What that means is that while Trump, and MAGA, will shout about majority “spoke” and winning the popular vote; here is their key number – 28%. Given the horrible voter turnout on election day, MAGA governance will be the representation of about 28% of all eligible adult voters. Let’s say that again. 28%. His 70+ million votes is maybe 21% of the population and 28% of adults eligible to vote. As a side note, this is similar to 2016 where the numbers were 18% and 24% respectively. So, we are not a 50/50 divided country; we are simply a country governed by 28%. Yeah. A minority, once again, just chose the most powerful position in the world. As a side note to this, everyone should remember that Trump, and his cohort of MAGA followers, governed as if they were a majority. To be clear. MAGA is a finite cohort. It was 26-28% in 2016. It is 26-28% in 2024. 70 millionish will vote for Trump year n and year out; no more, no less. 2/3rds of US adults will never vote for Trump.

Which leads me to involvement matters.

A majority did nothing to stop this from happening. This is not an ‘anti-establishment movement.’ This is not a ‘reestablishment of conservative values.’ This is nothing more than a large indifference to involvement with a sliver minority voice being motivated enough to push one candidate over the finish line. Look. I work almost exclusively with think tanks discussing the future of business, society, and the patterns in the world. I work with economists, c suite business executives, behavioral scientists, and social philosophers. My role tends to be a reflection of what I imagine is my personal ideology which what most people would suggest is ‘progressive conservatism.’ Almost everything that I suggest and I think about balances pragmatism and possibilities (possibilities have no value if they cannot be achieved). That said. One of the least discussed aspects of discussing the future and progress is people. Because while the future can be viewed through eyes of possibilities and pragmatism and hopes and patterns and risks and opportunities and even technology, the truth is each of those things are dependent upon people. If people do not participate, get involved, to bend the arc of history, progress and possibilities just don’t occur. Pragmatically what that means is if people do not bend the arc, i.e., be actively involved, inertia sets in and status quo, wrapped up in some nostalgic views of what is good, tends to reign. This is a historical truth. I bring that up because if people are indifferent, and are not involved, progress doesn’t occur. I struggle to see how true progress can occur if 46% of the voting population is indifferent.

Which leads me to say I hate the indifferent.

I’ll admit. I hate the indifferent. I have always believed that living means taking sides. Business, as well as Life, demands participation. Elections are exactly the same. Someone may choose to be indifferent, but all that means is that someone else is not only making decisions for you, they are affecting the arc of your life and, consequently, your destiny. To be clear. This is a fact. It may not be a direct correlation, but the point is that even if you work hard, are persistent and have clear objectives, if you are indifferent, all the external factors will increase the gravity of the environment you are doing all of those things within and drag you down. I should note if your own life and destiny matters to you that when you participate in the deadweight of indifference you may actually be facilitating the twisting of society’s fate. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out, again, this is not just true of Life, but business. And while I do believe this discussion gets warped in some incredibly unhealthy ways, business should not ignore the discussion and being indifferent really isn’t an option. Once again, this is true for each individual. All that said let me circle back to disillusionment. One of Trump’s, and his cabal of kooks, superpowers has been the ability to increase a general malaise of disillusionment. I have often referred to it as his narrative that ‘America is in a shithole,’ but the grander issue is he amplifies a sense of disillusionment almost to a point where a lot of people just throw up their hands and say (a) there is no sense in being involved or (b) burn the whole thing down. Anyway. Indifference or disillusionment only 54% of the voting population participated; 46% were indifferent. Ponder that for a bit.

“I hate the indifferent. I believe that living means taking sides. Those who really live cannot help being a citizen and a partisan. Indifference and apathy are parasitism, perversion, not life. That is why I hate the indifferent. The indifference is the deadweight of history. The indifference operates with great power on history. The indifference operates passively, but it operates. It is fate, that which cannot be counted on. It twists programs and ruins the best-conceived plans. It is the raw material that ruins intelligence. That what happens, the evil that weighs upon all, happens because the human mass abdicates to their will; allows laws to be promulgated that only the revolt could nullify, and leaves men that only a mutiny will be able to overthrow to achieve the power. The mass ignores because it is careless and then it seems like it is the product of fate that runs over everything and everyone: the one who consents as well as the one who dissents; the one who knew as well as the one who didn’t know; the active as well as the indifferent. Some whimper piously, others curse obscenely, but nobody, or very few ask themselves: If I had tried to impose my will, would this have happened? I also hate the indifferent because of that: because their whimpering of eternally innocent ones annoys me. I make each one liable: how they have tackled with the task that life has given and gives them every day, what have they done, and especially, what they have not done. And I feel I have the right to be inexorable and not squander my compassion, of not sharing my tears with them. I am a partisan, I am alive, I feel the pulse of the activity of the future city that those on my side are building is alive in their conscience. And in it, the social chain does not rest on a few; nothing of what happens in it is a matter of luck, nor the product of fate, but the intelligent work of the citizens. Nobody in it is looking from the window of the sacrifice and the drain of a few. Alive, I am a partisan. That is why I hate the ones that don’t take sides, I hate the indifferent.”

Antonio Gramsci

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In today’s current political environment, which bleeds into society as some fairly absurd niche arguments about what is right or wrong and important or unimportant, the people become more and more distant to traditional parties or governing institutions writ large and, further, involvement in things like voting. This impacts society, and communities, whether you like it; or not or want it or not. Being indifferent to elections, acting like you are detached from politics simply means an already ‘delicate and dangerous’ complexity of economy and society becomes even more fraught with peril.

At least I am consistent on this issue. I have argued for years a business cannot detach itself from society, responsibility to societal issues and much of the larger narratives and discussions taking place. Detaching yourself from it under the guise of “my job is ensuring my business makes a profit and offers people employment” is not a sustainable stance nor strategy. I would argue exactly the same thing for people around election day. I hate indifference. Inevitably everyone needs to pick a side and do something. To be clear. That sometimes simply means taking a stand on what you are not versus saying what you are. If you don’t believe it is your job to carry the flag ON an issue, that’s okay. But you do have to make it your job to say “but I will not stand by THAT flag.”

Which leads me to corrosiveness.

Until Trump came along, I was a benignly active political involved person. I always felt like presidents tended to focus on tactics, rarely strategy, and shared a common vision. And then Trump came along. He toppled that apple cart and, well, I stopped being slightly indifferent. I became involved. For 9 years I went anywhere, at any time, to discuss why I believed Trump was corrosive to the economy, corrosive to the country and corrosive to society. To be clear. The conversation was, and remains, challenging. Trumpism has always dwelled on the superficial and the surface transactions of life (and the metrics associated with them). The mechanics upon which those outcomes were produced were unimportant in his transactional view and difficult to explain to people. Therein lies the challenge of discussing why Trump is generally a corrosive actor. Trump distorts things to shape an alternative to reality. It exaggerates good, diminishes bad, is made up of a unique formula of uncertainties and lack of clarity, offers alternatives <facts & universes> and serves to only create challenges in exactly describing what is, and isn’t, actually happening.  Throughout it all Trump careens between appalling and appealing within a deeply flawed, thin skinned, selfish, vain, bullying character, but he remains one thing on a consistent basis – the antithesis of the highly polished ineffective politician who carefully calculates their words. So, while he may be authentically incompetently horrible; he remains authentic – what you see is what you get. He is not a fine-tuned machine nor was his administration a fine-tuned machine, but he had 28% of the population believing everything he said was brilliant and believing everything he did was ‘brilliant.’

A 56 percent majority of Trump voters say that if a national media outlet reported that Trump said something untrue, they would be more inclined to believe him than the news outlet.

Look. Over those 9 years I wasn’t delusional enough to believe any pragmatic discussion would sway the 28%, but it left 72% available for healthy, robust, discussions. And while I faced clown memes in my feed, labeled with Trump derangement syndrome and called a retard, I plowed my way through discussion after discussion with facts, pragmatism and reality. Time and time again I was reminded of how complex reality is and how difficult complexity is to discuss and grasp. Time and time again I found, even beyond MAGA peoples, there were tinges of alternative realities residing in the peoples of the 72%.  And time and time again I was reminded we mostly live in a short-term vision world.

Which leads me to “I quit.”

Here is my warning to the indifferent. The 28% mainly live in an alternative reality where America is a shithole and it needs to be fixed and World War 3 is always right around the corner (or any disaster always awaits). It feeds on impending doom; not fosters hope and progress. This despite the fact we have an economy the envy of the world (in results as well as depth of manufacturing and productivity). This despite the fact the majority of so-called illegal immigrants are in the system and waiting to seek a pathway to citizenship. This despite the fact crime is down and, factually, a 25-year-old white American male is more likely to commit a crime than a 25 year old male El Salvadoran/Guatemalan/Latin American. This despite the fact USA is currently positioned as a powerful counterbalance in a complex weave of international power where USA benefits in the global system. Look. Its quite possible your indifference in this year’s election was driven by the fact life in the good ole USA is pretty good right now and even a bit better than anything MAGA world is convinced happened during the Trump years. When things are going well it’s pretty easy to overlook any future, possible, problems. It’s just difficult to see future possible costs when in the present the only costs you are facing is 15 cents more for your favorite cereal.

Here is where it gets personal. Your indifference has come at a cost. Your disillusionment comes at a cost. Not just getting a Trump administration. This one is most likely a cost you will never feel nor even care about. I quit. I have had enough. Its time for a younger generation to take over the pragmatism and possibilities discussions. I am tired of fighting for the indifferent. In business I was willing to fight for anyone who was willing to step up and be involved. But the indifferent? I quit.  That is what I am doing now. You got a Trump administration and it will be up to you to fix it when it all inevitably goes wrong. I did my best and, admittedly, it wasn’t good enough. So, I quit and someone else can take the pragmatism and possibilities banner.

“At a certain point in their historical lives, social classes become detached from their traditional parties. In other words, the traditional parties in that particular organisational form, with the particular men who constitute, represent and lead them, are no longer recognised by their class (or fraction of a class) as its expression. When such crises occur, the immediate situation becomes delicate and dangerous, because the field is open for violent solutions, for the activities of unknown forces, represented by charismatic “men of destiny”.” Antonio Gramsci

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