After almost a decade of Trump, America is tired. And scared. 

Believe it or not, there was a time when we Americans could go days or even weeks without hearing about Donald Trump. That ended nearly 10 years ago under President Trump. he decided he wanted to be president. Now he is constantly appearing on the evening news and morning papers. He ensures that by creating chaos, threats, and constant controversy.

as Politico said it, he is the “ultimate attention seeker” and has etched his name not only on buildings and golf courses, but also in the national consciousness.And the news media is giving him free interviews and reporting on him with a thin veil. threat of violence, Complaints about abuse, Violation of gag order and power nap In court.Even Mr. Trump 11 car motorcadThe case before the court has received more media attention than anything else that has happened during President Biden’s term.

Some of us look back fondly to a time of relative peace. “No Drama Obama” Presidency. Joe Biden is unusually calm compared to Trump, but that calm doesn’t exactly attract media attention. President Trump’s media operations raise questions about basic fairness in an election year, but they also have alarming implications for the American people.

Outside of the MAGA camp, some Americans say they are. suffering from crisis fatigue. Recent polls have found that voters of both parties are anticipating the November election. mixture of fatigue And the recognition that this is one of the most important elections ever.

Once Mr. Trump entered national politics, it didn’t take long for social anxiety levels to rise. In March 2017, The Oregonian reported“Not only is President Trump dominating every news cycle, he is also activating therapy sessions across the country.” [T]Psychologists say the tumultuous first two months of the Trump administration appear to have caused collective anxiety. ”

3 months later, New England Medical Journal “The majority of U.S. adults feel stressed by the current political environment.” The doctors who wrote the study also said that “two-thirds of adults surveyed said they felt stressed about the future of the United States.”

In 2017, Time said“Details of the new administration are being reported frequently in the news and on social media, and Americans say they are feeling stressed.” By 2019. washington post “Donald Trump is causing stress in America.” In the fall of 2020, Questioner “Four years of the Trump administration have left most Americans feeling stressed,” he said. In 2021, author and Vox correspondent Anna North took her breath away. rhetorical sigh of relief Trump’s term is over. “Despite Trump’s constant threats not to resign, he finally did,” she wrote. But the effects of four years of racist rhetoric, incitement to violence and outright chaos on the American psyche remain. ”

But even after leaving office, Trump never left the spotlight. By 2023, an editorial in The Hill said: four charges and 91 criminal charges, our political institutions are under the greatest stress since the Civil War. …As a result, the American Dream will be lost. ”

guardian commentator margaret sullivan The issue is a lesson Trump should have learned during his 2016 campaign, when he became a “huge nuisance…a shiny new toy that they (the media) couldn’t take their eyes off.” I wonder if the media has forgotten about it. analysts found When the Republican primary was underway in early 2016, Trump received nearly $2 billion in free media attention and reported 63 percent of the campaign news.

The same thing is happening again because of President Trump’s trial. The former president has strengthened the resolve of his supporters by presenting himself as a martyr to the deep state rather than an unrepentant lawbreaker. And with key parts of the justice system so infected by partisanship, it’s unlikely that the rest of the electorate will know in time whether the Republican presidential candidate is a felon. And whatever the outcome of the election, Trump is expected to dominate the news as follows: confusion again If he loses, if he wins he will dismantle democracy.

Voters should ask themselves if this is the future they want and if this is the future the nation can endure. Or he could force Trump to retire from politics and calm America down again by going back to prison or Mar-a-Lago and spending his days out of the spotlight, quietly improving his golf scores. right.

William S. BeckerHe is co-editor and contributor to “.Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People.”and contributors Democracy in a hotter era, selected by Nature magazine as one of the top five science books of 2023. He previously served as a senior official in the Wisconsin Department of Justice. He currently serves as executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a nonpartisan climate policy think tank unaffiliated with the White House.