Washington, Nov 8: American presidential elections are a moment when the nation holds up a mirror to look at itself. They are a reflection of values and dreams, of grievances and scores to be settled.The results say much about a country’s character, future and core beliefs. On Tuesday, America looked into that mirror and more voters saw former president Donald Trump, delivering him a far-reaching victory in the most contested states.
He won for many reasons. One of them was that a formidable number of Americans, from different angles, said the state of democracy was a prime concern.
The candidate they chose had campaigned through a lens of darkness, calling the country “garbage” and his opponent “stupid,” a “communist” and “the b-word.”
In Trump’s telling, the economy was in shambles, even when almost every measure said otherwise, and the border was an open sore leeching murderous migrants, when the actual number of crossings had dropped precipitously. All this came wrapped in his signature language of catastrophism.
His win, only the second time in US history that a candidate won the presidency in non-consecutive terms, demonstrated Trump’s keen ear for what stirs emotions, especially the sense of millions of voters of being left out — whether because someone else cheated or got special treatment or otherwise fell to the ravages of the enemy within.
That’s whom Americans decisively chose.
The centuries-old democracy delivered power to the presidential candidate who gave voters fair warning he might take core elements of that democracy apart.
After already having tried to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power when he lost to President Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mused that he would be justified if he decided to pursue “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
This, in contrast to the oath of office he took, and will again, to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” as best he can.
One rough and decidedly imperfect measure of whether Trump might mean what he says is how many times he says it. His direct threat to try to end or suspend the Constitution was largely a one-off.
But the 2024 campaign was thick with his vows, rally after rally, interview after interview, that if realised would upend democracy’s basic practices, protections and institutions as Americans have known them.
And now, he says after his win, “I will govern by a simple motto: promises made, promises kept.”
Through the campaign, to lusty cheers, Trump promised to use presidential power over the justice system to go after his personal political adversaries. He then raised the stakes further by threatening to enlist military force against such domestic foes — “the enemy from within.”
Doing so would shatter any semblance of Justice Department independence and turn soldiers against citizens in ways not seen in modern times.
He’s promised to track down and deport immigrants in massive numbers, raising the prospect of using military or military-style assets for that as well.