Trust Issues
The Case for Hopefulness In Trump’s America
The acclaimed philosopher Martha Nussbaum on trust, what goes on inside the White House, and her pick for President in 2020
After President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, scholars across the globe grabbed their quills and began inking their theories explaining his win. Some credited economic forces. Some said it boiled down to deep race and gender divides in the U.S. Others blamed the media. The philosopher Martha Nussbaum, on the other hand, was interested in emotion.
In her many books—including Political Emotions and Anger and Forgiveness, among others—Nussbaum has argued that the political is always emotional. And that was especially true in 2016. In her new book, The Monarchy of Fear, she writes of the fear she felt after the election. “I was aware that my fear was not balanced or fair-minded,” she writes, “so I was a part of the problem I was worried about.”
Nussbaum spoke with Medium about the need for hope, what it’s like in Trump’s White House, and her pick for 2020. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
