A Trump win forces Democrats to look inward, as the profound disconnect between the two sides of America has once again been made evident by Trump’s reascension into power. To dismiss the Trump Republicans as uneducated, uninformed, and opted out of a shared reality is no longer a viable option for those on the left. Trump's victory is not the victory of a heretofore obscure, marginalized population of voters. His supporters are not the pariahs of civilized society, not comprised solely of backcountry farmers and possibly racist grandparents. Unlike in Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton, he has a sizable margin over Kamala Harris in the popular vote total.
As I write this on Wednesday morning, many states are still finalizing their vote tally. Nonetheless, Trump has already garnered almost 9 million more votes than in the 2016 election. This cannot be called a “silent majority” any longer. Instead, it is, no matter how much one squints their eyes or bends their head sideways, the choice of the American people. The hope of the Democrats and centrists like myself that the Trump experiment had failed, that the remainder of his supporters were simply the rabble and those who didn’t know any better, is gone.
So where in the world did we go wrong?
The question can no longer be why would people ever support this man, but rather, why do they feel their beliefs are incompatible with those of the Democratic Party? While this election is yet another American error in rational decision-making, it must also be viewed as an error in the Democratic platform, and the two-party system in general. Why do people feel so disillusioned by the Democratic Party that they are willing to let a proto-fascist bull into our hallowed American China Shop?
On Tuesday, seventy-two million people showed themselves willing to let a man who lies without compunction, who empowers the racist and sexist members of American society, who has a manifest inability to see beyond himself, and who, most importantly, has demonstrated a complete disregard for American Democratic values, get a second chance at governing the most powerful country in the world.
My first response to this is that this election proved something that history has empirically proven time and time again; fear works. The machine that is the Republican party feeds on and perpetuates a cycle of fear. Whether it is fear of immigrants, trans people, Muslims, the Deep State, or otherwise, the party of Trump functions by capitalizing on existing fear and inculcating additional fear. They then promote themselves as the wearied and thinning line of protection, the final bastion protecting the American people from the things Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Alex Jones have taught them to fear. But boiling down this whole issue to demagoguery would be an oversimplification. As mentioned earlier, more integral to understanding the ethos of Trump voters is to know why they feel alienated by the Democratic platform.
Running on issues such as abortion while Trump ran on tax cuts to the Middle class is not a winning strategy. Leaning into the culture wars that pervade American politics is not a winning strategy. It doesn't matter if Trump won't be able to deliver on the former and the Dems have the moral high ground in the latter. If Democrats truly want to gain the upper hand against a Republican Party whose platform is buttressed solely by the still inexplicable Cult of Personality surrounding their demagogue leader, they must be the party of actual change that Americans want.
For a party with the reputation of being the more progressive of the two, the Democrats accomplished very little while in office. This cannot be fully blamed on a lack of bipartisanship or the meddling from Trump in the border bill. This is due to the existence of a system political scientist Francis Fukuyama coined, a “vetocracy.” We have a system that is designed to inhibit fast change. While this is oftentimes a necessary guardrail against people like Trump, it is also exacerbated by special interests that dominate political decision-making. Corporate lobbying, political machines, and other special interest groups prevent Democrats from implementing the meaningful change that would allow them to live up to their title as “progressive.”
The Democrats represent the popular conception of the political establishment that promises everything and delivers nothing. Trump offers protection from the waves of change that make people uncomfortable. In him, the dispossessed find a champion. Until the Democrats can break the cycle of inaction that stagnates any chance at meaningful progress, they will continue to lose to the fear-mongering and mendacious rhetoric of the Trump Republicans.
Today is a sad day for American politics, but maybe it is the wake-up call liberals need to adapt and overcome. It remains to be seen who will fill the gaping hole of rationality and courage our country so badly needs.
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