Americans have voted for Donald Trump again. Forty-five will become forty-seven come January and Donald Trump will again have the most powerful job on the planet. It’s a sobering, heartbreaking, but undeniable fact. The billionaires who enabled and engineered his campaign are celebrating.

 

Maybe it’s time for some introspection by the rest of us. Some analysis is called for in addition to preparing to resist the abuse of power to come. White supremacy, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, and Christian nationalism have won the battle, but we must not allow them to win the war. To some, the MAGA victory seems inexplicable, but is this really the case?

 

Today, many working-class Americans of all different ethnic and racial backgrounds have been captured by right-wing populist rhetoric, and those who espouse such rhetoric falsely claim to represent the interests of those same working-class Americans.

 

History informs us that demagogues, authoritarians, and fascists can win when a people come to feel unseen and unheard. Perhaps this sense of alienation began with some policies first conceived by Republicans, but later actualized by Democrats.

 

There was only muted opposition when the Democratic Clinton administration enacted the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trade agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico that aimed to eliminate trade barriers and create a free-trade zone, and other free trade deals. These policies had a profound effect on working-class Americans. In our industrial heartland, manufacturing plants closed, and the good jobs lost were never recovered.

 

In our urban areas, and across the country, those who worked in the care economy, in child or elder care, for example, earned poverty-level wages too. Did American workers abandon the Democratic Party or did the Party abandon them? The deterioration of the social fabric is a story told in small towns and large cities. The country saw increased substance use, homelessness, violence, and mental illness. There appears to be little acknowledgement that certain economic policies gave rise to these conditions.

 

Americans struggling to get by day-to-day or paycheck-to-paycheck have real concerns. Among these are housing, healthcare, education, and even basic safety. Republicans offered no real solutions, but skillfully deflected and redirected the rage by calling out “woke” policies.
Suddenly, attention was turned to book bans in our schools and libraries. A perceived threat stemming from the presence of transgender people in bathrooms became a focus of their campaign. No one was really addressing economic issues, but the incumbent Party took the blame for high prices and stubborn inflation.

 

I would have liked to see Democrats talk about raising the minimum wage. It would have been great to hear some solid plans for more affordable housing. How about a robust plan for expanding Obamacare to a real national health plan? Sadly, for the first time in many decades, the popular vote has gone to the Republicans.

 

Democrats need to organize, fight back, and articulate a different and fuller vision, but we will need to work hard. Trump sold his deeply cynical world view in a particular way. The MAGA movement is essentially a fascist movement. Fascists gain traction by scapegoating marginalized groups. Trump’s repeated attacks on immigrants, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and non-binary people, and women were largely successful. Many Americans bought into the idea of a zero-sum game. White grievance has grown.

 

It now appears that many Americans are ready and willing to accept all manner of atrocities for a chance at a ride on Trump’s elusive golden escalator. They will, of course, be deeply disappointed, but by that time, the oppression and destruction unleashed by a second Trump administration may not be so easily overcome. We have a lot of work to do- and the hour is getting late.

 

 

Silvia Blumenfeld is a Bronx resident and a founding member of the Northwest Bronx Indivisible chapter.