Trumpism is not going away
In the end, the explosive Trump presidency finished with a damp squib.
There were no riots in the streets, no efforts by Trump loyalists to reverse election-day results at the state level and no attempts by a Republican-dominated Supreme Court to override the popular will.
Instead, Emily Murphy, a minor bureaucrat few had ever heard of, announced she was authorizing the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden, who is generally regarded as the victor in this month’s presidential election.
As always with things Trumpian, even this was subject to confusion. Trump said that for the good of the country he had ordered Murphy to move on the transition. Murphy said she wasn’t responding to orders from the president, but was acting on her own authority.
But the point was made. Although Trump insisted he was not conceding victory to Biden, in fact he was doing exactly that.
The constitutional crisis — such as it was — was over.
But is Trumpism over? Did it ever exist? These are more difficult questions to answer.
Certainly, the pressures that caused so many Americans to support Trump still exist. The middle and working classes remain hollowed out. The Rust Belt continues to decay.
Americans continue to die in largely pointless wars.
But there is no overarching theory of Trumpism to explain this. Various people, most notably former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, have tried to formulate such a theory.
But Trump himself resists these efforts. To Trump, Trumpism is whatever Donald Trump does. There is no need to externally validate his actions. What gives them legitimacy is the fact that they are his.
Ditto for his followers. They don’t care if Trump’s views are logically consistent. They care only that they are authentic.
There are some in the Republican Party who see Trumpism as a way to build a new conservative coalition that includes not only the old white working classes, but also Latinos and other people of colour
As long as Trump remains a one-man band, this will work out fine. But to create a lasting movement requires more.
I’m not sure that Trump wants anything more than a personal vehicle for his vanity. However, there are others in his Republican Party who do.
They see Trumpism as a way to build a new conservative coalition that includes not only the old white working classes, but also Latinos and other people of colour.
It’s worth noting that media exit polling in the presidential race found that 12 per cent of male Blacks and 32 per cent of Latino voters supported Trump.
What will life be like without Trump in the Oval Office?
It will almost surely be less entertaining.
And for media, it promises to be less remunerative. Papers like the New York Times have done well from their critical coverage of Trump.
But in the long run, the more interesting questions have yet to be answered.
Can the inchoate movement that is Trumpism be mobilized to form something more coherent?
Will Trump himself allow this to happen?
What is the role of Trump in a postTrump world?
Logically, we know what should happen.
Logically, the tenets of Trumpism already exist: the use of protective tariffs to encourage American manufacturing; the movement away from alliances such as NATO and a renewed emphasis on America going it alone.
Both protectionism and isolationism have a venerable history in the U.S. — Trumpism is merely their latest manifestation.
In the end, we may not be able to map out the exact contours of Trumpism. What we do know, however, is that it is not going away. Donald Trump came perilously close to winning a second term in office. That must mean something.