Why 71 million Americans ‘held their noses’ and voted Trump

Outgoing US President Donald Trump. [File, Standard]

Anand Giridharadas, the author of Winner takes it all: The elite charade of changing the world describes Trump as the worst president in modern American history.

Many people in America and around the world are convinced that this is indeed the case. But if Trump is so odious, why did 71 million Americans hold their noses and vote for him?

More poignant is the fact that by popular vote, Joe Biden did not have a landslide win. He bagged 74 million votes — ‘a razor-thin margin’ win of approximately 2 per cent. I can safely conclude that Trump was more hopeful of winning the 2020 election than Barack Obama was in 2012. His stellar electoral performance held the US and the world on the edge as the votes were counted in the remaining states of Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina and Alaska. Trump was no pushover.

Forget his self-fascination, hubris and chronic boorish behaviour; Trump’s ideals seemingly triumphed over this Trumpism which, according to The New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, is a ‘performance or a series of performances’.

How could Trump garner almost 49 per cent of the popular vote against a progressive Biden and Kamala Harris — who promised a highly divided America unity and decency? Trump should have scored less, especially given his unpopular leadership style.

His overt bigotry, hatred for Africans and third world immigrants, coupled with his dalliance with white supremacy in the guise of ‘making America great again’ is unparalleled. As The Standard columnist Andrew Kipkemboi wrote on November 9 ‘only in the US could Trump have been elected president’.

Trump, after four years of casting himself as lord, Americans, especially the Grand Old Party (Republican) stalwarts, became ‘Trumpier’. The theory of influence and power has it that you cannot have power and influence simultaneously, but Trump shattered this ceiling.

Why did the deep American state, liberal media and cultural institutions have to mount political tankers’ energy to oust Trump? The social media was upbeat about red-flagging his misleading statements about the US elections.

Even so, no other president has ever utilised social media fakery like President Trump. How a baby boomer could have sharp utility for new media than millennials and generation-Z is astounding. For that reason, the social media, by red-flagging his statements, was throwing away its baby.

A video of Paula White-Cain, Senior Pastor of City of Destiny Church in Florida, deeply in prayer for Trump to win showed Trump’s popularity among conservatives. His popularity was not domiciled in America. In Africa,  televangelist Pastor Chris Oyakhilome urged Christians in Nigeria to pray for Trump because he (Trump) and Republicans support Christian values.

While Trump is known to have referred to Africa as ‘shithole’, Christians and pro-life activists in Africa hail him for his party’s stand against abortion, same-sex marriages and pro-family stand. Unrepentantly, civil society groups that subscribe to similar ideals were fervently wishing that he remained president.

Listening to the Republicans after Biden’s win, it’s their wish that the democrat won’t wash away their conservative values as the Obama presidency did during his two terms. That means, if Biden is to be utterly inclusive, he must deal with the fears of the 71 million Americans who preferred to preserve what they hold dear.

Abortion and LGBTQ+

Trump had radically tried to reverse with impunity what Obama had built in favour of liberals. This also explains the GOP stalwarts decision to vote for Trump.

Scarier for the conservatives is the imagination of Kamala as vice president—an overt liberal on matters family, abortion and LGBTQ+. In August this year, Kamala picked black Lesbian Karine Jean-Pierre, the former Obama staffer, as Chief of Staff. That did not please conservatives in and out of America.

It was clear a Biden win would put Republican’s rubric of ‘make liberals cry again’ at stake. Thus, the GOP was out to bring a political apocalypse in America. However, former President Obama campaigned for Biden and Kamala; he did not do that for Hillary Clinton in 2016. That means Biden’s presidency could have Obama footprints—this gave conservatives sleepless nights.

Overall, it is not yet over for the liberals. Even in Africa and other global south countries where progressive cultures are being established, it’s not going to be easy. Christians, Muslims and other religious conservatives are fighting tooth and nail to preserve the values. Biden’s presidency must tame the extremes of liberalism for his regime to find peace with conservatives all over the world.

-Dr Ndonye is a Political Economist of Media and Communication