Thoughts From the Day After Trump’s Reelection
This election will be analysed for years to come and I look forward to hearing from the sociologists and historians as they break it down for us. These are just some of my thoughts the day after the election and they are not addressing what Harris could have done differently or better, that’s a conversation for another time.
I wish I could say that I was surprised, but I’m not. I’ve been saying for weeks that Trump had won the propaganda battle. He had successfully convinced people to believe lies as if they were the truth. It wasn’t just a slant on the truth, it was a full out assault on truth and he won.
The level of self-deception is frightening. As one Trump supporter wrote to a friend of mine, “[Name] if you stop listening to the narrative you’d see him more honestly and more clearly. I want you to imagine everything you’ve been told about him is a lie and then you’d get closer to the truth.” Imagine that, just don’t believe what you see and hear and then you’ll know what’s true. I wish this Trump supporter was an outlier, but sadly he’s not. Which is partly why we are where we are today.
The propaganda lies were clearly evident in the racist, xenophobic claims about migrants in Springfield that even when confronted he refused to take back and the false narrative that crime rates among the immigrant population of the United States is higher than other groups. The question was asked in the PRRI American Value Survey whether immigrants increase crime rates, the results are disheartening. "Nearly three-quarters of Republicans (73%) agree with this statement, compared with 40% of independents and only 17% of Democrats." And "More than eight in ten Americans who most trust far-right news (84%) and three-quarters who most trust Fox News (76%) agree with this negative perception of immigrants." Yet the statistics don’t bear this out at all, the truth seems irrelevant to most people on the right.
If you have eyes to see and ears to hear the racist rhetoric was clearly evident and often not hidden. However, it was also cleverly cloaked behind religious language as Sam Perry points out how the data suggests, “Religious and racial identities overlap so thoroughly, that you could stoke perceptions of white threat among your predominantly Christian audience just by consistently referencing threats against Christianity.” Trump and his far right supporters have been using this form of racist, fear based rhetoric for years.
I don’t need to go over all that Trump has said and all his supporters have turned a blind eye to, that would take forever. There have always been single issue voters, but how they could ignore or discount January 6th, the hate filled rhetoric towards the freedom of the press, the comments about going after his political enemies, the racism, xenophobia, and all the other fascist tendencies he’s shown in his speech is incomprehensible to me.
I’ve tried many times to make sense of how someone could support Trump and the only conclusion I can come up with is that at the end of the day they largely agree with him. I have seen this born out anecdotally in my interactions with Trump voters.
I agree with David French’s comment that “Political victory is not moral validation. Cruelty and lies are still wrong even when they ‘work’ in electoral politics. In fact, they tend to work so well that we're encountering exactly the scenario (a corrupt demagogue capturing the hearts of the people) that deeply concerned the founders. None of this is surprising, even as it's profoundly disturbing.”
I am grateful for the work of academics like Gerardo Marti, Samuel Perry, Andrew Whitehead, Philip Gorski, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, John Fea, NT Wright, Michael Bird, Mark and Luke Glanville, Kathleen Wellman, Christopher Wright, and others who have helped me navigate my way through the last eight years of this and will be of great assistance in navigating the future.
Most of the world is looking on aghast. Polling in Europe shows that Harris would have won by a landslide. 84% in Ireland which explains why both my conservative and liberal friends there are all opposed to Trump.
What’s next?
I’m not sure, I’m not sure any of us know.
I know I will keep rejecting the fascist rhetoric and continue to speak out against those who seek to diminish the humanity of others.
I know I will continue to read extensively in the social sciences and theology.
I know the church is not dependent on worldly powers.
I know I will keep on following the way of Jesus and with that I’ll note in the words of NT Wright and Michael Bird that “It is our commitment to Jesus that means that we do sometimes have to make a meddlesome nuisance of ourselves.” As they also remind us that “Your faith is your defence against the idols of this world. Your love is your rebellion against the powers of this evil age.”
“Love your neighbour” is a good start, but it has to be hashed out in some very practical ways. It cannot just be a phrase we use, it must reflect the actions we take.
https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/mythical-tie-between-immigration-and-crime
