Trump is a louder, cruder version of America
The idea that the defeated president is a shocking anomaly in US national politics is a liberal delusion
Everything that has happened in the presidential election was predicted. The basic problem was that America had never voted by mail before on this scale. Back in June, the Democrats war-gamed how it might play out and concluded that if the election were close, Donald Trump would probably question the ballots and call it a fraud. The Republicans also knew it would be tight and assumed the Democrats would “harvest votes” to win. These accusations go back over a century: Democrats always say Republicans want to suppress the vote; Republicans accuse Democrats of inflating it.
Take Pennsylvania. The Democrats wanted to start counting mail ballots early; the Republicans agreed, but they attached a number of conditions including the right to cross county lines to watch it being done. No compromise could be reached; negotiations broke down. That’s why counting took so ridiculously long and why it’s easy to cast aspersions on the outcome. It’s also why the election isn’t over in the minds of many conservatives and perhaps never will be – and in their defence, the media calling Joe Biden the winner wasn’t the last word: elections are settled by the candidates, the courts, perhaps by Congress, not by CNN. Many Republicans will be saying this one was stolen even as Biden is inaugurated.
The Democrats did exactly the same four years ago. They claimed 2016 was fixed by Russia, and the absence of proof isn’t nearly as important as the belief that your opponent is so self-evidently awful that the only way he could win was to cheat. This, again, is ancient history; from 1876, when the result had to be decided by Congress, to 2000, when George W Bush had to eke out a victory in the courts. When the Clintons left the White House, by the way, they walked out with several items of furniture that they later had to return and the staff committed numerous acts of vandalism. They smeared glue on desk drawers, left obscene voicemail messages and around $5,000 (£3,800) had to be spent replacing computer keyboards. They had torn out the “W”s.
The United States is perennially divided because what it means to be an American isn’t a settled question. The price of a presidential landslide is often a depression or a war (hot or cold), and even when Richard Nixon coasted to victory in 1972 with 61 per cent of the vote, he still distrusted his opponents enough to try to cheat. Were he alive today, Nixon would know exactly what to do about this election: steal it back.
So at the risk of going against the spirit of jubilation, I felt a touch of cynicism when CNN declared Trump’s defeat and liberals cried with relief. They seem to have an impression that pre-trump America was fundamentally decent, but he was no alien invader who conquered the system – merely a louder, cruder version of all we ever knew.
Trump was not the least racist president ever (his words), but nor was he the most racist. That title might go to Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves, or Teddy Roosevelt, who said “nine out of 10” Native Americans were better off dead, or Woodrow Wilson, who imposed segregation on the federal government. Wilson was a Democrat, a party that was for slavery before it was against it, against civil rights before it was for them – just as Biden backed an anti-crime bill in 1994 that, its critics say, led to the mass incarceration of African-americans for minor offences. Now he is the candidate most aligned with Black Lives Matter, although the Democratic Party’s halo is slipping. Trump gained votes among many ethnic minorities, including Muslims.
I’m not indulging in whataboutery, just making the case that Biden is not the salvation of his country nor Trump its ultimate corruption. In fact, had Trump shown some grace, he could have left the White House with a record conservatives could be proud of. He delivered record low unemployment (before Covid), rebalanced the Supreme Court, fought the good fight against abortion and kept America at peace.
Liberals might miss him, too. After all, they made a lot of money from hating him. CNN will have had its best ratings in years. And right now, Trump won’t be thinking about the location of his presidential library – the first of its kind to have slot machines – but the launch of an anti-biden media empire, because the economics of opposition are actually far better than the economics of incumbency.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s legal expert, released a video disputing the counting process that could only be made in America. The Democrats are stealing the election, he shouted, working himself into a rage: “Tell me they’re not corrupt!” Then he announced: “This is a good time to take a break.” Rudy lit a cigar, took a deep puff and said: “If you want a good cigar, go to a good cigar shop. If you want the best, go to Famous Smoke Shop. Let Famous Smoke deliver your favourite cigars right to your doorstep at America’s lowest prices.”
In the middle of a constitutional crisis, Rudy took time out to advertise cigars – because that’s America, baby! There is always an angle.