President Trump, Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Authoritarianism

So, why did Donald Trump win? Or to put it another way, why did the American people decide to elect as their president one of the most despicable and dangerous human beings ever to dance (or perhaps trample would be a better word) through the pages of American political history? It isn’t as though we didn’t know what we were getting with Donald Trump. During his previous four years in the White House, he engaged in self-dealing, advocated violence, and embraced extremist groups including neo-Nazis, a group who, in his view, includes some “very fine people.”

When faced with a deadly pandemic, he deliberately understated the danger for political advantage, suppressed scientific data, delayed testing, discouraged mask wearing, and advocated fake cures and other nonscientific nonsense. According to studies in peer-reviewed journals, thousands of Americans may have died unnecessarily because of these actions.

Trump has also never been shy about sharing his plans to use federal law enforcement officers, taxing agencies, and prosecutors to act as his personal avengers. These are public servants he intends to morph into an army of thugs paid for by the taxpayers and available at his whim. He has also been remarkably forthcoming in describing his lust for dictatorial powers.

The vast majority of Trump voters almost certainly understood clearly what he stood for. How could they have missed it?

And knowing all these things, a plurality of American voters voted him back into office, effectively saying, “He supports neo-Nazis, political violence, use of federal law enforcement and the military to crush opponents, overthrowing democratic principles, and regularly acting with gratuitous cruelty... WOW, THAT’S THE GUY FOR ME!”

Meanwhile Democrats are busy doing what Democrats do—casting blame on each other. Progressives and moderates exchange punches. Some people insist that Trump won because Vice President Kamala Harris ran a poor campaign. Others argue it’s President Joe Biden’s fault for waiting too long to drop out of the race.

In other words, Democrats are engaged in their usual post-defeat squabbles.

But squabble as they will, these intramural fights ignore an important truth. Donald Trump almost certainly didn’t win because the Democrats ran a bad campaign. And he almost certainly didn’t win because Harris didn’t have enough time to campaign. In many ways, Harris ran a strong if brief campaign. And as for needing more time, thanks to extraordinarily successful fundraising Harris had money to burn. She saturated the swing states with ads and visited them repeatedly. And while she was at it, she kicked Trump’s butt in the debate.

No, Trump didn’t win because he ran a better or longer campaign.

Trump won because a plurality of the people who voted in this election bought what he was selling. He campaigned on hate and darkness. And that clearly is what most of his voters wanted or at least were happy to accept. And why would we be surprised? Although the exact numbers vary, polls have consistently shown a large minority of Americans are favorably inclined to authoritarian government.

It may make us feel better to play make-believe—to pretend that most Trump voters were unaware of the darkness that surrounds him. Or perhaps they thought he didn’t really mean what he was saying. But to say that would be lying to ourselves. The vast majority of Trump voters almost certainly understood clearly what he stood for. How could they have missed it?

You can’t sit for hours outside in a hurricane and then credibly claim not to know whether there was wind. Donald Trump’s threats against democracy and the rule of law were a political hurricane in the weeks leading up to the election.

Even the most disinterested of observers will pick up some information as they walk through life. Trump’s dark nature and authoritarian tendencies were among the most talked about topics for months. It was all over the media and not just in news sources. Anyone who paid the slightest attention to the world around them had to know at least in general the darkness Trump stands for. There are some people, of course, who tune out all political matters. Some of Trump’s voters no doubt fell into that category. In fact, these “low information” voters, as they are called, tended to be Trump voters. They may well have gone to the polls with only a casual understanding of Donald Trump’s viciousness and authoritarian instincts.

But they knew enough to know who and what they were voting for. They had to.

You can’t cure a cancer by pretending it’s the common cold. And we won’t defeat Trumpism by pretending his 2024 victory was caused by ordinary campaign mistakes that can be fixed by a nip here and a tuck there. We have a bigger problem. There is a pathogen in the body politic of the United States that constitutes a mortal threat to our democracy. As noted, a large minority of Americans have told us that they are willing to accept an authoritarian leader. And it is that, not poor campaign strategies, we have to confront.

Accepting the ugly truth underlying Donald Trump’s electoral success is painful, but it can also be empowering. It can help us see what needs to be done to overcome the darkness.

Authoritarian movements have been on the march in America at other times in our history. In all such cases, however, the troubled waters eventually calmed. But things are different this time. For the first time in American history, the leader of an organized authoritarian movement has been elected president. Yes, Trump was elected president once before, and, yes, he had authoritarian qualities then. What he didn’t have then, however, was an organized and prepared movement with authoritarian goals behind him. He has one today. To say that we are in uncharted waters is the understatement of the century.

Can the darkness be overcome? The answer, of course, is we can’t know. But we sure as hell have to try.