Trump voters got what they wanted

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Democrats and liberal pundits are already trying to figure out how the Trump campaign not only defeated Kamala Harris in the blue wall states of the Midwest and Rust Belt, but also passed her in areas that should have been safe for a Democrat won. Almost everywhere, Donald Trump expanded his coalition, and this time, unlike in 2016, he didn't have to thread the Electoral College needle to win: He can claim the legitimacy of winning the popular vote.

Trump's opponents are now grumbling about the election of Tim Walz, the influence of the Russians, the role of the right-wing media and whether President Joe Biden should have resigned in favor of Harris. Even the old adage about “economic anxiety” is making a comeback.

These explanations all have merit, but most of the time they miss the point. Yes, some voters still stubbornly believe that presidents magically control the prices of basic goods. Others have real concerns about immigration and gave in to Trump's booming calls for fascism and nativism. And some of them would simply never vote for a woman, let alone a black woman.

But in the end, a majority of American voters chose Trump because they wanted what he was selling: a nonstop reality show full of anger and resentment. Some Democrats, still gripped by the lure of madness, continue to puzzle over which policy proposals might have brought more votes, but this has always been a joke. Trump voters never cared about politics, and he rarely gave them any. (Choosing to be eaten by a shark rather than electrocuted may be a personal preference, but it isn't policy.) His rallies included long rants about the way he was treated, like a huge therapy session or a big family gathering around a yelling, impaired grandpa.

In 2021, I wrote a book about the rise of “illiberal populism,” the self-destructive tendency in some countries that leads people to participate in democratic institutions such as voting while being hostile to democracy itself and primarily theirs Voting to punish other people and curtail everyone's rights – even their own. These movements are sometimes led by impossibly wealthy fake populists who deceive gullible voters by promising to solve a litany of problems that always seem to revolve around money, immigrants, and minorities. The appeals of these charlatans resonate most not with the poorest but with a bored, relatively wealthy middle class, usually those who are deeply uncomfortable with the racial and demographic changes in their own countries.

And so it happened: last night a crowd of millionaires and billionaires grinned and applauded for Trump. They were part of an alliance with the very people who would be hurt by another Trump term – the young people, minorities and working families among them.

As he has shown repeatedly over the years, none of these groups care about Trump. He ran for office to gain control of the government apparatus and avoid judicial responsibility for his past actions as president. Once he is safe, he will embark on the other project that seems to really matter to him: destroying the rule of law and all other obstacles to the expansion of his power.

Americans seeking to stop Trump in this attack on the American constitutional order should therefore be aware that this election could have been won if only a better candidate had made a better bid to a few thousand people in Pennsylvania. Biden, too old and tired to mount a real campaign, would probably have lost worse than Harris; More specifically, there was nothing that was even a more empowered Biden or a less, you know. female Alternative could have been offered. Racist grievances, dissatisfaction with the hardships of life (including drug addiction and lack of education), and resentment toward the rogue elites in faraway cities cannot be appeased by housing policies or interest rate cuts.

No candidate can debate facts and policy with voters who have no real interest in such things. They like the promises of social revenge that come from Trump, the tough guy rhetoric, the simplistic “I’ll get it done” solutions. And that's him interesting for them because he supports and encourages their conspiratorial beliefs. (I knew Harris was in trouble when I was in Pennsylvania for an event last week, and a fairly wealthy business owner who was an ardent Trump supporter told me that Michelle Obama had conspired with the Canadians to overturn the vote count of the state to change 2020. And that wasn't even the strangest part of the conversation.)

As Jonathan Last, editor of The bulwarksummed it up in a social media post last night: The election went the way it did “because America wanted Trump.” That’s it. People who try to construct alibis for the public because they don't want to deal with it are whistling past the cemetery.” Final concerns that we may now be in a transition to authoritarianism like Russia went through in the 1990s has, but I visited Russia many times at the time, and much of Russia's democratic implosion was driven by truly brutal economic conditions and the rapid collapse of the country's basic public services. Americans did this to themselves during a time of peace, prosperity and astonishingly high standards of living. An affluent society that believes it is living in a hellscape is ripe for duping by dictators who are willing to play along with such delusions.

The silver lining in all of this is that Trump and his clique must govern now. Last time, Trump was surrounded by a small group of moderately competent people, and those adults put baby bumpers and pool noodles on virtually all of the government's sharp edges. This time, Trump will rule with greater power but fewer excuses, and he – and his voters – must take responsibility for the chaos and atrocities he is already trying to wreak.

These voters expect Trump to hurt others, not themselves. You'll likely be unpleasantly surprised, much like Trump's first term. (He was voted out for a reason, after all.) For now, some of them have hung up on that experience and acted as if his vicious attacks on other Americans were just hot air.

Unfortunately, Trump means most of what he says. In this election, he unleashed the unfocused anger and unfounded resentment of millions of voters. We'll soon find out whether he can still trigger her decency – if any can be found at all.

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