A way back from Trumpism
It has been only 13 months since Donald Trump was elected to the U.S. presidency, just11since he took possession of the White House.
For many (perhaps most) Americans, and certainly for the rest of the world, it has been a horrifying journey. Decency was tossed aside. Recklessness became the norm. Crass self-interest ruled. The United States flirted with authoritarianism and bigotry of all kinds.
Suddenly, from the most unlikely state in the union, comes a message that it need not be like this. That the trends unleashed by Trumpism are not unstoppable. That a fundamentally decent country may be able, in the end, to find its way back from the shame of the past year. And that one day, perhaps not too far off, Americans and others will be able to look back on the current era and shake their heads in wonder that it ever got that bad.
Alabama voters’ narrow rejection of the appalling Roy Moore as a candidate for the U.S. Senate feels, for the moment at least, like a genuine turning point. If not the beginning of the end for Trumpism, then just perhaps the end of the beginning.
Before Tuesday’s vote, it seemed that for Trump’s fabled “base” there was no limit to what sort of behaviour they would abide or what lies they would swallow. Reason or even conventional notions of morality had little impact on the president’s hold over his core supporters. And his opponents appeared confused and disheartened, unable to rally effectively against him.
In Alabama, though, enough of Trump’s supporters refused to follow his plea to send Moore to Washington despite the credible accusations of child molestation dogging the candidate and his decades-long track record of unabashed bigotry against Black people, Muslims, gay people . . . almost anyone different and vulnerable.
Just as important, opponents of Trumpism rallied strongly against Moore. Black voters, in particular, turned out in record numbers. Enough decent white voters joined them to deny him a ticket to the Senate — a previously unthinkable outcome for a Republican running state-wide in deepest-red Alabama.
Among other things, this was a stinging defeat for the particular brand of politics practised by Trump’s former adviser and sometime political whisperer, Steve Bannon.
Bannon is out to burn down the political establishment — the Republican party as well as the Democrats — in the name of populism and American nationalism, and Moore was his man. Alabama voters exposed the severe limitations of Bannonism, to the great benefit of U.S. political life. Republicans will not so quickly run in fear before him.
This is an awful lot to put on one narrowly decided election in one state. In the short run it will shift the balance in the U.S. Senate by a single vote, leaving Republicans with just a one-vote majority. It will be harder for them to get controversial measures like their tax reform package passed. But it also means they will not have to deal with the embarrassment of having an accused child molester in their ranks.
So the vote cuts both ways for Republicans, and political strategists will parse the outcome for weeks to come.
But the outcome in Alabama breaks the spell of Trump and the Republicans who have excused, condoned and encouraged his excesses. They have been handed a clear defeat and their opponents can now see a potential path toward a post-Trump future.
The Alabama vote showed that with tenacious grass-roots organization, an extremist can be beaten on his home turf. And it follows defeats for Republicans last month in New Jersey and Virginia, where suburban voters turned against the party as it surrendered its soul to Trump.
There will now be much speculation about next year’s congressional elections, with Democrats hoping to break the Republicans’ grip on Congress.
Much of this will be wishful thinking, but it will be built on an important truth. If Trump-style politics can be halted in Alabama, of all places, there is real hope for all of America. Redemption, it turns out, is possible after all.
Alabama voters’ narrow rejection of the appalling Roy Moore as a candidate for the U.S. Senate feels like a genuine turning point