Michael Clifford: The size of Trump's vote shows the extent of the divisions in American society
Michael Clifford: "The result suggests that if the pandemic had not happened, Trump would have romped home." Picture: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Just after 7am yesterday, Donald Trump slipped out the side door of the Free World, trailing America after him. In a statement that was one part victory, two parts grievance, he declared the election result a fraud.
At the time of his declaration, the election was still a long way from a result and there was absolutely no evidence of any kind of fraud.
Mr Trump said he had won in some states – including Georgia, where he hadn’t at that point – and was on the cusp of winning others.
“And all of a sudden, everything just stopped. This is a fraud on the American people.”
His pitch is one that might be expected from a tinpot dictator preparing to send in the army to straighten out an election result. It’s the language of demagoguery, alien to the Free World as we know it.
Nobody was surprised as he had long signalled that he would go down this road. Despite that, it was shocking to actually hear him utter those words in, of all places, the shadow of the White House.
What was equally shocking was that he knew he could get away with it.
Neither men in white coats nor soldiers in riot gear would be coming to take him away. Far from it; he was merely illustrating that his contempt for the norms of liberal democracy is now shared by a large minority of the American people.
The election was a referendum on his presidency and even if he does not retain the office, he has still won. More Americans voted for him in 2020 than in 2016. What happened four years ago was not an aberration.
The reality of the volume of votes tumbling from ballot boxes is that Mr Trump represents the new normality. America, as it was in the eyes of the rest of the Free World, is no more. Instead of acting as a beacon, it is now obsessed with itself, with internal division, with bearing grievance against the other side.
Trump, also self obsessed and permanently aggrieved, is both personification and symptom of the disease stalking America.
After four years of lies, deceit, chaos, countless examples of contempt for women, minorities, the law, institutions of state and multilateralism, large tracts of the electorate still like the cut of his jib.
On the day the results flowed in, the USA officially left the Paris Climate Change Accord, as if fate was nodding at Trump, accepting that his foray into global politics has had a massive impact.
His legions of supporters love him for sticking it to the rest of the world. They credit him with the creation of what was a healthy economy prior to the onslaught of the pandemic. By extension, they believe that he was and is successful and knows how to get things done.
Look at the exit polls. The most important issue to voters was the economy, more than those who identified the coronavirus reaction or racial inequality as key.
The result suggests that if the pandemic had not happened, Trump would have romped home. Apart from the health of the economy, his abiding appeal for many appears to be that he repudiates everything the other side stands for and he does so aggressively without restraint.
This is where America is now at. Two sides who can’t stand each other. Both claim to be oppressed in attempting to live life as they see fit. Neither wants to consider compromise. Such division, with the potential to lurch into chaos, is the ideal playground for the con-artist, the TV showman.
As of late Wednesday it looks as if he hasn’t retained office but he won’t be going anywhere. Watch as he continues to exploit and widen the division because that is where he sees his own interests.
Joe Biden now looks like he will be president. He is a decent man who will ensure that USA stays within the fold of the Free World. He will, in all likelihood, make some effort to heal the division. How far he will go, how far he is capable of going in the current environment, remains to be seen.
His party had four years to find somebody of substance to go up against Trump. They needed a candidate capable of alighting passions and opening minds. They settled on Joe, a man beyond his best, a throwback, in some ways, to a bygone age. Joe Biden was the best “Not Trump” they could find. That doesn’t bode well for a bright new shining era of healing in the throes of pandemic. But maybe he will surprise everybody and roll back the years.
America’s allies and those within the country who still believe in the shining city on the hill can only hope so.
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