Deepa Majumdar
The 2020 United States presidential elections took place under the sepulchral conditions of a worldwide pandemic. It was moving to see American democracy groan its way back to life, despite the dreariness of so many unnecessary Covid deaths, caused, at least, in part, by negligence at the federal level. It was touching to see volunteers at polling booths, risking their lives, inspired by genuine patriotism. Unlike frontline workers, who have no choice but to risk their lives to earn a living, these volunteers were risking their lives, without being compelled to and without financial remuneration. It was also moving to know of the historically unprecedented voter turnout. Finally, it was magical to see the results, after the tense few days following Election Day, November 3rd– and following four years of frustration, since Mr. Trump was elected by the Electoral College in 2016.
This election has brought many firsts in the form of Kamala Harris – the first woman, first African- American, and first Asian-American vice-president elect of the United States. But Mr. Trump also represents many firsts. He is the closest any American president has come to being a dictator. He is the first cultish president to have made a mockery of the American democracy. Without conscious intent, he has proved that what make democracy valuable, are not its structural aspects, but the moral quality of its people – especially their elected leader. Mr. Trump is also the first president to have broken all bounds of shame – unabashed in his myriad prejudices, out of touch with reality,a frozen snarl always adorninghis face. Manifesting his character on a daily basis, his perpetual anger, and gigantic (hence fragile) ego, became the standard trademarks of a president one newspaper called a “foolish child.” Finally Trump is the first president to be divider-in-chief, stoking the flames of every possible feud, just to get his own way. Not even the most violent of all prior presidents has been quite as unabashed in expressing shocking prejudices and a coarseness unfitting for this highest office. In his dark binary world of winners and losers, Trump has always feared being a “loser” more than anything else. This triumphant post-election moment therefore comes with poetic justice in the form of anti-Trump protestors lampooning the president bycovering the White House fence with “loser” signs. Trump’s Washington hotel had two signs posted in front of it, saying “Don’t be a sore loser” and “Face Reality.”But his fear of being prosecuted perhaps outweighs his fear of losing, thus strengthening his refusal to concede electoral defeat.Mr. Trump may be prosecuted for prior misdeeds, in which case, he may abscond, by fleeing to his iconic golf hotel in Scotland.
While most of the world may heave a sigh of relief that Biden-Harris appear to have beaten Trump-Pencein the popular vote, Americans cannot afford to rest on the laurels of the 2020 election. First, Mr. Trump may not vanish altogether. In four years’ time, he may return for another bid for election. Or, his kith and kin may run for office. Given his large cult-like following among rural white uneducated Americans, who identify with his crudeness and prejudices, in a venalcelebration of coarseness – he and his family members may win national elections in the future. Let us not forget that if Biden won more than 74 million votes, then Trump won nearly 70 million. All these voters may return full blast to support Trump, or a member of his family, in the 2024 presidential elections. But second, even if Donald Trump fades from the horizon of History, his followers, who represent his legacy of Trumpism, will not. If nothing else, Mr. Trump has brought to the surface, aspects of the ugly American that were always there. Like all nations, but perhaps more vividlyso (because it is a superpower), America has an ugly aspect stemming from its original sins of racism and materialism.
Who is the ugly American? Who is Trump’s follower and disciple? Lustful, and therefore deeply gendered, he belongs mainly to the mostly white aspect of the American plebeian that thirsts to express its white supremacy, by disdaining formal education, and rejecting science. Confusing freedom with licentiousness, and confidence with rampant egotism, he celebrates moral-intellectual bankruptcy – fancying himself superior to the rest of world (including Europeans), because he suffers a tremendous inferiority complex. Despite his robust realism, he has a deluded mind – especially since the great sin of America’s 2003 pre-emptive attack on Iraq, which boomeranged back upon its citizens who failed to protest this war, beclouding their minds with delusion.
Although Trump’s legacy of Trumpism appears new, it is something ingrained in the American psyche and its ethos. It was always there – a wistful longing for the days of slavery and unabashed white supremacy. But, what Trump has brought about as new is the unabashed, emboldened visibility of this sickness of racial prejudice. Never before in recent history has white supremacy been as bold as in the last four years of Mr. Trump’s presidency. Like a cult leader, Trump understood and manipulated the longings and fears of his followers, who, in exchange, overlooked his crudeness, lies, and other flaws. By certain praiseworthy gestures, like donating some of his sizeable presidential income, and by giving a show of respect to those otherwise disrespected by the intellectual Left, Trump convinced his followers that he “loved” them. Yes! His whole bid at presidency was always deeply personal and egotistic – never for the greater good of the nation. Couching every human relationship in binary terms – either you support me or you do not – Trump degraded democracy by converting his base to a fan club. Like every narcissist, he forged his base as a mirror, into which, he could peer whenever he wanted to. But the converse is true as well. Trump himself also served as a mirror for his base to look into. Through him they saw what they themselves might achieve – money, power, prestige, without the slightest toil of moral labor. Always a temptation, Mr. Trump served as a perfect nemesis of the political correctness that silenced his adoring fans.
What were the mirroring qualities Trump shared with his base? More than anything else, a coarse love for money, a disdain for knowledge (especially science), a gigantic ego, and a paranoid mind given to conspiracy theories. When they look at the starry heavens Trumpists see resources to be mined and sold – not heavenly bodies trembling with life. Given all this, what else can one expect from Trump’s base, but poor judgment of character, or a poor sense of what eastern religions call the power of “discrimination” (which the west calls critical thinking)? What else can one expect from such a base, except the blind loyalty that a narcissist like Mr. Trump interprets as “love” for him – when in fact, it is a projection of their own desires, or the narcissism of his followers? In this mutual self-projection, all the narcissist strokes is his own ego.
A living testament to the truth that one does not necessarily grow wise with age, Trump, the Temptation, proves that even at age seventy-four, one can be a foolish rogue, wholly bereft of wisdom. Yet, it is important to put things into perspective and remember that Mr. Trump is not as bad as the Left makes him out to be. Neither a Hitler, nor a Pol Pot, he is merely a lewd narcissist. In his first term, which hopefully will be his last, he has not yet waged war, nor taken as many lives, as have his presidential predecessors (including Mr. Obama). While his motives may be suspect, he has donated a portion of his presidential salary, in keeping with the generosity so characteristic of Americans. The question every American asks is not whether to donate, but how much and to whom.
What will Mr. Trump leave behind as his legacy? Not his unjust policies fashioned over four years of tense turmoil, nor his crude nationalism – but the Pandora’s Box he has unlocked – a box containing America’s original sins of greed and racial hatred. What do I mean by Trumpism? Unconcealed coarseness, the delusion that one can bend reality to one’s own will, andthe impudence to parade braggadocio as confidence. Mr. Trump has always been accused of lying. I do not think he ever willfully lied, but rather, lost sight of truth. The massive hypocrisy in his soul made him delusional enough to lose sight of the basics of veracity. A liar must first know the truth in order to willfully distort it. But Trump, I think, is out of touch with reality and truth.
Despite the likely Biden-Harris triumph over Trump-Pence, the beast that Trump nurtured, emboldened, and unleashed, continues to growl in the background – pointing unmistakably to the last days of America as superpower – a civilization in a downward spiral since its unrepentant 2003 preemptive attack on Iraq.
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