If you told me ten years ago, assuming that I wasn’t an innocent, clueless child but rather the politically educated activist I am now, that a man idolizing those who invade sovereign nations and make ultra-racist claims of preserving “racial purity” has an iron grip of the party representing half of all Americans, I would give you a serious side-eye. Nevertheless, here we are - a little less than eight months away from an election whose outcome may very well become the death of all constitutional ideals.
I cannot understand, but certainly respect, those voters who circled Trump as their candidate in 2016 and maybe even 2020 due to the “Republicaness” of his candidacy (basically, he was the Republican nominee). He didn’t expose himself as the grave threat he is to democracy in any evident manner, and although I myself would consider a man accused by multiple women of sexual assault an immediate no, I suppose the hardcore conservative beliefs of some Republicans overcame any disgust for Trump’s past actions. They voted for him because he was a Republican, the same way most voted for Clinton because she was a Democrat. However, when the party known for its strict loyalty to the past, and especially to the Constitution, becomes the party of man proudly stating that he will be a dictator “on day one”, I can no longer feel the same respect for the decision to vote for Trump.
I don’t like to praise Trump for anything. Fact is, he isn’t a self-made businessman. He is the man who was born into his supposed antagonist, “the swamp”, and has never once made an actual attempt to “drain it” for the people he proclaims to fight for. Rather, he has failed multiple businesses, including an attempt to scam people into going to his university, and has had to illegally inflate his net worth in order to deceive banks and insurers.
However, one must give him some credit for successfully manipulating even left-wing media agencies and individuals. When talking about the two 2024 presidential candidates, I continuously hear those struggling with the dilemma between “a man who has no respect for democratic institutions” and “a man who’s just too old”. Somewhere in between his autocratic statements and mispronunciations, Trump has managed to convince a large part of the public that the choice between a man who let his followers storm the center of US democracy, and a man four years his senior, is a difficult one.
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