Trumpism is here to stay regardless of election result
US President Donald Trump will, at some point, have to concede and allow for a peaceful transition into President-elect Joe Biden’s administration. He is currently disputing the Nov. 3 election results and a majority of his die-hard followers are insisting that victory was stolen from him by the Democrats. It will be sometime between now and inauguration day on Jan. 20 that Republican leaders will finally admit defeat.
Trump has lost, but Trumpism — a radical form of populism — has not. It will continue to survive among Trump’s followers. He may consider running again in 2024 or he may hand-pick a surrogate, possibly one of his children, thus affirming his firm grip over the Republican Party.
More than 73 million Americans voted for Trump this month and, even though he lost the popular vote by a wide margin, that figure alone tells a story. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has killed more than 250,000 Americans thus far, with cases surpassing the 11 million mark, did little to dent his popularity among his followers. The virus-related shrinking economy, historic unemployment rate, and mass evictions and bankruptcies failed to keep his supporters at home on polling day.
The Trump phenomenon remains the most compelling political uprising in American history. In 2015-16, he stormed on to the political stage and shredded his conventional Republican rivals to pieces. His unconventional rhetoric and unabashed attacks on those who stood in his way endeared him to many voters, who were fed up with a stagnant political scene in Washington. Both dominant parties had played it safe for too long, preserving the political establishment that had been entrenched for decades. Trump offered a stark alternative, putting “America First” on almost every issue: Globalization, trade deals, tariffs, NATO, climate change and the environment,
Israel, race relations, and immigration, among others.
And so millions of Americans embraced Trumpism. It became a mainstream doctrine championed by the likes of Fox News and other conservative media outlets.
This was not the first time that people, on both the left and the right, wanted to reform
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American politics. The Tea Party, a fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party, tried it in 2009, attempting to restore true conservative ideals with a tint of libertarian values. In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street leftist movement was born in
New York, with mainly young Americans protesting economic inequality, corruption, and corporate influence on politics. It echoed across the country, and beyond, for some time.
But Trumpism is different. It had existed for a while even before Trump’s political rise, but it was a fringe movement that was shunned by the Republicans. Under Trump, it became a bona fide political movement. For decades, the two dominant parties had ignored the dire effects of globalization on Middle America. Millions of blue-collar jobs had been lost to China. Cities and towns saw factories close and businesses go bankrupt. Trade deals with Canada and Mexico resulted in American auto companies moving across the US’ northern and southern borders.
The trade deficit with China was in the hundreds of billions of dollars. America was still the biggest contributor to the budgets of the UN and NATO and had spent billions on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Trump had simple answers to all of these complex issues: Isolationism and an end to multilateralism, signaling a slow withdrawal from the world stage.
Biden may be able to reverse some of Trump’s more controversial decisions, such as by rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal. But, if the Republicans retain control of the Senate, his agenda will be stymied. Trump’s policies will remain in the corridors of Congress for many years.
America is deeply and dangerously polarized. Biden’s promise to heal the nation may not be achieved. His administration will be absorbed by the fight against COVID-19 — a task that seems almost impossible at this stage. Biden’s approach is likely to be business as usual, meaning going back to the pre-Trump era. But that is not what is needed. Millions of Americans no longer believe in the political process and they will bide their time until the next election. Regardless of whether Trump runs in
2024 or not, his legacy will influence that election’s outcome. It is way too early to write off Trumpism.