Much has been made of the Trump presidency and of illiberal
democracies around the world resurrecting the menace of far right political
views. Under this theory, voters in this
country and abroad have been converted to the ideology of the far right,
including the rebirth of political institutions from the 1930s that favor
authoritarian leaders and permit them to undermine the press and the
courts. Some liberals are even espousing
the age-old default position that the masses asserting populism are “up to no
good” and can no longer be trusted to deliver equality, liberty and justice for
all.
I believe this position is overblown and misses the point of
how Trump and others have won elections.
First, it is important to remember that no right wing populist has come
to power anywhere in Western Europe or North America without the full
cooperation of traditional conservative elites.
In our country, Republican voters did what they always do and voted for
the representative of their party. For Republicans and many Independents,
Hillary Clinton was unelectable. What took place was predictable and
normal. It was the candidate who was not
normal, not the electorate.
Second, the election of Donald Trump was not the
enthusiastic endorsement of a Ronald Reagan or an LBJ. Those who voted for him
were compelled to overlook character flaws in favor of their anti-abortion or
other conservative policy positions. Many of Trump’s illiberal attacks against
the media and the courts did not appear until after the election. There is no evidence that many of those who
voted for him support these authoritarian right wing views.
Third, the mid-term elections demonstrated a strong moderate
and left of moderate current in the American electorate. The trend in American political history has
always been that following any period of extremism the pendulum swings back
toward the middle. It is my view that the 2020 election will follow this
inclination and elect a moderate Democrat to the presidency.
Fourth, In America, the appearance of acts of right wing
violence and rhetoric since Trump’s election are representative of the
perspective of a small minority, unlike troubling reports from parts of Germany
and Eastern Europe. The incidents in
America, fueled by domestic and foreign social media and by the President’s own
conduct, have encouraged America’s fringe right wing to take action. There has not been a significant shift in
public opinion in support of right wing views.
Lastly, the American democratic experience of a
constitutional republic balanced by three branches of government, runs deep and
strong. There is no appetite to permit Trump, his family and wealthy political
supporters to gain economic advantage through the presidency, or to label non-Trump
supporters as “enemies of the people”, or to permit the executive branch to
brazenly act in unaccountable ways.
Progressives would do well to stop trying to analyze what
caused Trump and to plan for the future, post Trump. Moreover, the average
voter is not interested in hearing about revisionist history and how our
founding fathers got our institutions all wrong because of racism and sexism. While there may be some historical truth to
these claims, it is counterproductive.
We need to stress what the founders got right and why it is worth
preserving for the next generation of Americans.
Trump alone is responsible for breaking the office of the
presidency into an unrecognizable institution.
Much of the damage can be traced to his self-promotion and to
self-preservation, not a grand plan of right wing authoritarian takeover, as
was the case in Russia, Hungary and Turkey.
The American electorate will soon make things right.
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