To Dissolve the People

Bret Stephens is fed up with Trumpism and he’s not gonna take it anymore. As his column in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal makes clear, Stephens is appalled that people aren’t appalled by the appalling Donald Trump. 

The tone of his column suggests that Bret Stephens may be losing his confidence in the ability of the American people to deserve his journalistic leadership. At the very least he’s reserving judgment.

Which reminded me of a poem by Bertolt Brecht, the German poet and playwright who cast his lot with communist East Germany after World War II. Entitled “The Solution,” he composed it after a construction workers strike in East Berlin spread into a brief general uprising in the DDR on June 17, 1953. 

After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee 
Stating that the people 
Had forfeited the confidence of the government 
And could win it back only 
By redoubled efforts. 
Would it not be easier 
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people 
And elect another?

R. R. Reno is editor of First Things. He is the general editor of the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible and author of the volume on Genesis. His previous articles can be found here.