In the wake of the events at the US Capitol this week, what sprang to mind for me is a conversation I had nearly four years ago in a New York theatre of all places. We were in New York in late April of 2017 and in the evening at the last minute decided to attend a Broadway musical. It was a production of Bandstand at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. We had about four empty seats beside us but just before the production began a well dressed business person with a briefcase and his partner and their teenage children arrived and took up the seats. We exchanged brief greetings and then the performance began.
When the intermission began, we got up and stretched our legs a bit. As is the case with being in America, Americans are the most friendly, gregarious and open of people and always love to start up a conversation and this gentlemen beside me was no exception. He was apparently a lawyer and when he found out I was an economist asked if I knew Arthur Laffer sparking further conversation. This fellow was apparently on a board in New York with Arthur Laffer - as well as other interesting people it turns out - and he was on several boards and quite active on a number of fronts.
He then discovered I was from Canada and as this was late April and President Trump had just announced trade tariffs on Canadian steel, in characteristic American fashion he came right out and asked what I thought of President Trump. I of course responded with a rather vague circuitous answer somewhat out of the Sir Humphrey Appleby playbook that essentially amounted to "well he is your president and we must respect the people's choice and I'm sure things will work out in the fullness of time..."
He smiled and then basically said that well you know this was not supposed to happen. It turns out this friendly, pleasant and articulate gentleman was also a member of the Republican party in New York and on the committee that was supposed to be vetting candidates. He essentially revealed that when Donald Trump announced he was running for President the establishment did not really take him seriously and he was never properly vetted as other candidates were. While this is something that is pretty much common knowledge now, it was a surprise to me at the time.
Still, the rest is now history. Mr. Trump was a force of nature - the kind that creates natural disasters of course - and his environmental impact continues. His presidency has been capped by the wildest lame duck period in American history and there are still almost two weeks to go. America's role in the world has been much diminished by the Trump presidency and we are all going to pay the price. Still, despite the damage, one cannot but hope that the resiliency of the United States will ultimately prevail and that this sad chapter will eventually be a sad footnote in American exceptionalism.
There are two lessons I draw from this story. First, it is very important for all political parties wherever they may be to never take things for granted and always properly vet all their candidates. Second, New York is still the neatest place in the world because you just never know who you are going to meet at the theater or on the streets. When all of this COVID business is over, it will be nice to go back.
