When we take too much for granted

Trump's return reflects a changing US society, as Democrats failed to connect with voters and adapt to their needs.

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First the 'we'. These are the status quo practitioners; incumbents who are part of an order and unwilling to change for personal, tribal or familial favour. They would rather let things be as they stand. In the recent US elections, their belief system about the society and its organisation and conception was turned over by a phenomenal Donald Trump. Not by his person alone but by an evolving vision of a society quite different than what had over decades become a default statement on how the US is and will be. The tale of immigrants making the nation whilst true had probably run its course in a country which now is almost two hundred and fifty years old with a society evolved to what it is now.

Politics caters to people's choices and biases. Donald Trump may have been an aberration in 2016 but had turned into a political and societal process since. Democrats, Trump's opposition, had taken much for granted. Trump was a jocular exception whose tenure was marked by gaffes and misstatements, the anti-thesis of convention, yet different, almost always on the verge of a change. He was stalled by a collective politico-bureaucratic conservatism which held on to its turf for common interest. These men and women held forth in the Congress, military, administration and the bureaucracy.

The Supreme Court turned over Roe Vs Wade and that was the extent of what changed. The Democrats weaponised the decision and used it to fuel political opposition against saboteurs like Donald Trump. Democratic victory in the 2022 mid-term elections resulted. When the Democrats repeated the ruse in 2024 the option had already been exhausted. Someone rightly said, 'Kamala failed to read the room.' A basic tenet of being evaluated for job is to shape the narrative to the needs of the audience. The Democratic Party instead was not only antiquated, irrelevant but tied to selling old wares.

There was an increase in the 18-29 years old new voters who could not only be sold ideational progressivism and who reacted to reinforced mantras of gender and ethnic inclusiveness. The Democratic Party could not connect with them or their aspirations and lost them to the cavalier and unconventional Donald Trump who promised a change. Kamala Harris lost her votes to Trump in the order of 10-20 per cent in each of the specialised section of voters when compared to 2020. President Biden may have been at the source of the four-year disappointment but the inability of Harris to write her own tale and a vision faded hopes in her promise. The Party had stopped thinking for itself and now stood fully captured by the 'East Coast intellectual elites'. Democrats had stopped thinking for themselves.

Rather than talk to the people and connect with them Democrats largely depended on traditional geographical strongholds. Yet post-election data analysis indicated that most traditional Democrat counties had moved 'right' leaking votes to the Republicans and Trump. It was as if their very own had stopped believing in them. Credibility was hit the hardest as traditionally Democrat segments of the society did not see actions replacing words. They had seen pain and were hurting and the Party in power did little than make empty promises. Jobs did not grow equitably, and the poorest segments still roiled under the misery of inflation. Subsidies, handouts and stimulants stoked inflation making life harder for all. There are lessons in it. People can be fooled often, more than expected, but not always, especially when they have a tool as strong as democracy to express their will and their judgment. In it there are indeed lessons for all.

Imagine Trump: Felon, convicted, jocular, shorn of clear intent and purpose in articulation, disdained by country's establishment, isolationist, unreliable to most international partners, fickle, unpredictable, awaiting sentence for felony and convictions. Yet, he sweeps the polls. It must rank as the biggest failure of the opposition that it let such a fellow roll all over it. It is for the Democratic Party to discern why it so happened and there is a lot to learn in it but what must stand out for those who pursue and practise democratic systems as politics in their country and as a system of governance, is to realise the strength of people's will. They 'can' choose the alternative against the favoured - and overwhelmingly, beyond expectations of the most. It is equally true that their will is respected. That alone is the kernel that gives credibility to any 'system' if indeed the aim is to let systems and not individuals run an arrangement. If not, it takes little for a Jan 6 insurrection to turn into a full-blown revolution. 'You cannot fool all of the people all of the time'.

Yet it is not about Trump. He still may turn out to be the man he is though expected to govern differently than his last chaotic term with a better team but that is in the future to see. Although, how he does will decide the future of right-wing politics in a society that has chosen to flavour it differently this time. The evangelicals voted for trump. The Ivy League cohorts who agitated against Israeli excesses at their campuses turned against Democrats for being the ruthless accomplices in this Zionist genocide and voted for Trump. The young who saw feminism driving the political agenda reacted to their loss of franchise and voted for him. Trump only made the right noises in each case. Rural college non-Grads belonging to regions left behind as east and west coast America prospered were always the reactionaries against a blueprint of governance which had become a default choice for America over the last century. With careful planning he was able to turn the largely disappointed Democrat voters into a coalition of support as American changed direction.

The American society has changed its preferences and the life it prefers. Trump just happened to be on the ticket when it happened. The Democrat dictated agenda of the American society was shed by the people. A new society will emerge from this amalgam with their respective aspirations. This is the bigger story of the American elections not Trump's return. True, his conduct will determine whether right-wing politics will find sustenance as identity and isolationism looms. A well-entrenched bureaucratic culture will also be challenged and tested. What might emerge on the other side of Trump's four years may be a society which has decidedly chosen to move right. Democrats failed to read the room. People, in the end, became the ultimate arbiters. A mature and credible democratic system only defers. In it there are lessons for all.