If Donald Trump does end up joining the club of one-term presidents – though he seems determined to squat in the White House by fair means or foul – he has left a huge, indelible mark on American political life. Whatever you might think of him, he managed to persuade more than 65 million Americans to endorse his record and attempt to give him four more years. This time, there hasn’t been too much talk of Russian or Chinese interference.
Trump voters came out and backed their man this week, not as some inchoate protest at being neglected by the Washington “swamp”, but as an incumbent with a mixed record, to say the least. Even after the inflammatory, racially charged rhetoric, the childish tweets, the catastrophic response to Covid-19, global isolation, an economic policy geared to the rich, and the latest invitation to civil unrest by his supporters – even after all of that – the “base” remained mostly loyal. Mr Trump was far from humiliated, and had the election taken place in the spring he might well have won.
Mr Trump did not create the “left behind” as a politically homeless constituency searching for an authoritarian nationalist leader; but he was more than happy to exploit their discontent and pitch them against their fellow citizens.
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