What follows may come as a shock to none of you, but my view of Trump just underwent a major realignment after Tuesday.
No, I am not saying he is any less horrible than we know him to be. Like you, I am shellshocked and grieving. Like you, I am afraid of what is to come.
However, the worst person running the worst campaign just won the election handily. This forces me to ask “why?”
2016 — I believed Trump won 2016 because he ran as an outsider in a country sick of politicians and the way our government operates. He beat a very qualified, but utterly establishment candidate with low approval ratings.
2020 — After four years of bigotry, chaos and incompetence, it was clear who Trump was and what he would do as President, so I believed that Biden won in 2020 as a rejection of Trumpism. The election was uncomfortably close, and also a total outlier due to the ongoing Covid pandemic, but continued the trend set by Dem wins in 2018
2024 — I believed Harris would win in 2024 because she was qualified, had good favorability polls, and the 2018 > 2020 > 2022 trend of Democrat overperformance.
All of that was wrong.
Trump won in 2016 because Americans like who he is and what he says.
Trump barely lost in 2020 despite an economy in freefall and a mismanaged pandemic because Americans like who he is, what he says and what he does.
Trump won in 2024 because a clear majority of Americans choose Trumpism for our country. For them, authoritarianism, bigotry and regressive policies are a feature, not a bug.
This view may feel facile, but I encourage you to re-examine your previous analyses of 2016 & 2020 and view them in context with 2024. For me, it explains everything. Had I been clearer-eyed, I would have seen was was written on the wall prior to Tuesday.
This is a “what” revelation, not a “why” revelation. I have been repulsed by Trump & Trumpism all along and will likely never understand why people would so willingly destroy the country, economy and society they grew up in.
All I know for certain is that this is who we are, and while I have not left this country, this country has left me
