Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s (D) book, Go And Do Likewise, begins and ends with President Trump.
Arguing that Americans should look past political differences and treat one another as neighbors, the governor, a rumored 2028 presidential candidate, makes frequent contrasts with Trump’s ideology, which he says hinges on an “us versus them” mentality. Trump openly embraces this sort of rhetoric. His most famous ad during the 2024 presidential race asserted that his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, “is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
Past presidential candidates have tried to appeal to Americans’ better nature. After winning the 2020 election, former President Biden said “we must restore the soul of America,” framing national conflict as a “constant battle between our better angels and our darkest impulses.”
Trump, in Beshear’s telling, marked a return to the nation’s darkest impulses. He has made “the extremes the norm,” resulting “in actions all but his most loyal followers find questionable at best and abhorrent at worst.” Trump’s brand of politics has been a known quantity for a decade, but his return to office two years ago swept away arguments his first election was a fluke.
Beshear writes that “people like Donald Trump think that when disaster strikes, everyone looks out for number one, anyone else be damned,” when recounting Kentucky’s response to the debilitating floods in 2022.
The tides once again might be shifting. More than half of Americans, 52%, said in a May Pew Research survey the Trump administration is doing too much to deport undocumented immigrants. As in his last term, Trump’s approval ratings have steadily declined. Democrats like Beshear argue voters want to put an adult in the room, but on multiple occasions, they’ve voted otherwise.
—Erika Filter
