The election is over. Anyone who has read anything I have written for the last eight years knows that I am appalled by the result. But the people have spoken and a majority of Americans have willingly returned Donald Trump to the presidency.
If we go by the book, we’re all supposed to acknowledge the election results and cheerfully commit to fighting the good fight for the next four years while looking forward to better times in 2028. I’m not sure I can do that.
It’s tempting to try to what-if this result. For example, what if a ticket featuring Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania might have done better? But let’s give credit where credit is due.
Donald Trump is a wolf in wolf’s clothing. His voters knew about his disdain for the rule of law and democracy. They knew about his dark impulses and his lust for retribution. (How could they not? “I am your retribution” was one of his slogans.) They knew about his conspiracy theories and his lies. They heard the warnings from his own advisers that Trump wanted to rule as a dictator and was “fascist to the core.” And they were okay with all this. Many of them relished it.
Kamala Harris could not have been more different. She reached out to centrist voters and ran a good campaign with a clear message about defending American democracy. Having someone deliver that message with a slightly more folksy accent wouldn’t have made any difference. People wanted to buy what Trump was selling.
In 2016, we could all pretend that Trump was an aberration. Not this time. People knew exactly what they were voting for. Democracy just isn’t that high on the list of priorities.
Democrats are going to look at these results and conclude that demagoguery is the future — if that's what people want, why not give it to them? And the future Democratic demagogue is probably already in elected office right now. Don't imagine that Democratic politicians who stood up to Trump couldn't possibly become Trump. Political ambition helped demagoguery take over the Republican Party in just a few years. There's no reason it can't do the same thing to Democrats.
This goes double, since the likely chaos of the last two years of Trump’s upcoming term may become fertile ground for a populist demagogue. A billionaire who flouts the laws that apply to everyone else and hands out pardons and special deals to his cronies while ordinary people suffer is a tempting foil if you want to whip up popular anger.
For 250 years we have had this quaint notion that democracy was an end in itself. But all good autocrats know that democracy is just a tool to be discarded when it’s no longer useful. I’m afraid we may have reached that point in America.
Trump is very open about his belief that the only fair election is an election he wins; his running-mate, JD Vance, has said much the same thing. Assuming Trump does not run for a third term — an idea he has floated in the past — Vance is likely to be the Republican nominee in 2028. Given the amount of power Trump plans on accumulating as president, it’s hard to imagine Trump and the people around him shrugging their shoulders and walking away from the presidency simply because they lose an election.
In the meantime, every presidential outrage, every abuse of power, every special favor will be lovingly chronicled by Democrats and engraved in their political hearts. When their turn at power comes — as it inevitably will someday — this will all be license to extract their own retribution. And they will. Why should Democrats be the only mugs to play by the rules?
The cycle of abuse and outrage will go on and on, because neither side will trust the other not to exact their own revenge in turn. Once democratic trust in your fellow citizens is lost, it isn’t easily regained.
Perhaps I am being too cynical. Perhaps I, too, have been infected by Trump’s apocalyptic vision of America. But even if it does not come to pass, the future I envision is possible, even probable. And that alone is indictment enough.
The election was fair and free, and I will honor the results because I can do no other. But I do not think we will be able to say the same thing four years from now. The center cannot hold.
Chris Truax is an appellate attorney who served as Southern California chair for John McCain’s primary campaign in 2008.
