American culture changes with astonishing speed. Nearly every decade, there are shifts in values, fashions and norms — in the whole atmosphere of national life. Sometimes when you’re watching a presidential campaign, it is best to ask: What year is it? What values and moods are dominant in America right now? Which candidate just seems right for this moment, and which candidate is simply out of step with the zeitgeist?
Right now, I’d say, Kamala Harris is benefiting from the beginning of a cultural shift and is beginning to have the cultural winds at her back. Donald Trump is beginning to be slapped in the face by those winds.
Trump emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. It was the tail end of the culture of narcissism, or what Tom Wolfe called the Me Decade. It was the era of the unchained self — self-esteem, self-expression, self-promotion. In the ’80s, especially in Manhattan, there was an unabashed fascination with wealth, self-display, ego, the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
Trump was the cartoon epitome of all that decade’s extravagances. The Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue opened to the public on Feb. 14, 1983, with all its gild and glitz. His book “The Art of the Deal” came out in 1987, with its braying and panting over money, money, money. In that cultural moment, gold-plated narcissism made Trump a celebrity.
Then came the 1990s, the end-of-history decade — the end of the Cold War, the end of apartheid. In this decade of big events and low conflict, Trump was out of step. He was there, but in the background.
Then came the 2000s and the war on terror. Trump’s show “The Apprentice” went on the air in 2004. It was popular but didn’t drive the conversation. There was a real war going on, and the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan represented a kind of heroism that put the casino owner’s tinsel machismo in the shade.
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