Eleven years ago today I wrote the following in this space. It was the Nameless One’s debut here. How time trudges! 

                  You may wonder why I haven’t mentioned Donald Trump.

                  It’s been many weeks now since his surprisingly popular candidacy for President has been all the talk. Am I living on the moon? Any sentient American must have an opinion about this perplexing phenomenon. Am I stupid? Or maybe  chicken – in my craving for comity avoiding the least controversy?

                  It is true, I loathe a fight. If I can, I run away. If I can’t, I depend on diplomacy while there’s any hope of preventing blows. Fighting evinces the defeat of reason, language, decency, my sovereign goods. The Geneva Conventions notwithstanding, there is no polite way to kill.

                  War is sometimes necessary. There are monsters in the forest who mock decency, who will slaughter unless subdued. If only killing will contain them, so be it. Hitler was an extreme example of this durable type.

                  I dislike how fighting affects my personality. My nature is almost pathologically competitive. I shy from playing even heads-or-tails, losing makes me so surly. At [my company] Daily Voice, we strive toward, not against. When quizzed about our competitors, I insist No one – that we are competing for the attention and affection of our users and customers. We wish all contenders well, including putative competitors.

                  If obliged to fight, I skip niceties. I agree with General Sherman, that war is hell, and therefore one should eviscerate one’s enemy as fast as possible to restore peace. I play to win. It spooks me how this determination curdles my character.

                  Many will combine to defeat Donald Trump; they do not need me. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize in Trump a mortal threat to our way of life. Democracy is the best form of government provided it works. Hitler, recall, was democratically elected. In hindsight, Germany should have chucked its democracy to forestall Hitler’s ascent. Any tactic that stopped him history would have deemed sensible and conscientious.

                  Trump will be stopped because he’s a would-be dictator and demonstrated thug. Imagine entrusting him with our nuclear might. Self-preservation will transcend politics. If Trump is a plausible candidate nine months hence, I will forsake my ivory tower and enlist against him. To protect what one cherishes one does what one must, however distasteful.

                  Trump, I’m pretty sure, is an evanescent threat. A century hence he will have shriveled into a bizarre footnote, like Father Coughlin or Huey Long. Crazies we will always have with us. To inveigh against them is to waste one’s breath if their power’s illusory.

                  I have ample reasons not to chew your ear about the Donald. But there is a deeper, selfish reluctance. Even the momentary popularity of Trump makes me very sad. Are there actually Americans blind or stupid enough to applaud such grotesque antics? Has America become so irrelevant, such a joke, it doesn’t matter what kind of clown we put in charge? Are our politics so debased we can shrug, “Who cares who’s President?”

                  Trump is not an accident. He is the natural excrescence of a system that’s been forfeiting our respect for decades. Amidst a crowd of mealy-mouthed manipulative liars, he seems to be the only one who’s telling it “like it is.” His reckless and vicious candor feels refreshing after the cautious duplicity of pollsters. At least Trump hasn’t been cowed by all those greedy and secretive bosses who’ve been buying America all these years. Trump is just the kind of gunslinger we need in Washington to stir things up. Go, Donald!

                  Maybe Trump will scare some civility and sense into poor polity. I’m not holding my breath.