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The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States for a second time this past week came as a surprise to many who supported the liberal policies of Kamala Harris. Many argued that Trump, with his multiple impeachments and racist, divisive and exclusionary politics, would not be able to secure the seat. It seems as if no lessons were learned from the 2016 election, when his win was met with great shock and surprise the world over. And yet, with this third attempt at the presidency, Trump was able to secure an even greater win, leaving a gap of over five million votes between himself and Harris.
A deeper look at the election itself provides great insight on how and why the Trump win was inevitable. From the Democratic-leaning who fail to understand why a racist man who promises to rid the country of illegal migrants and put America first would win, the hypocrisy is loud and clear. It should be obvious that, in the same way that they were able to overlook the fact that the Democratic Party is actively arming and funding a genocide, with no plans of stopping any time soon, those that supported Trump were able to overlook his past crimes and what would be termed as his bad policies.
Indeed, the Palestine question cannot at all be ignored, and was raised several times whenever Harris made speaking appearances. Her choice to deflect from the question, or to completely shut it down on occasion, spoke volumes to the more Left-leaning voter. Dr Jill Stein, who has run for President on a third party ticket over the years, and whose policies are more Left-leaning than those of Harris and Trump, was perhaps the biggest winner from Harris’s choice to dismiss the Palestine question.
As well, the focus on what would work for whom directly granted Trump the lead. The Republican Party was able to highlight the needs of the working poor and make promises that sought to benefit as many people as possible.
The concerns of the majority the world over are on securing employment, food and security and safety for their families. Harris ran on a ticket that primarily focused on securing the reproductive rights of women in the country, with little time being taken to highlight any other major policies that she would be focusing on during her four-year tenure.
For all his faults, it cannot be ignored that Trump has the uncanny ability to command not only the attention but also the reverence of millions. A self-fashioned man who does not live by the rules; a billionaire in a country where so many are living from paycheck to paycheck; a model for a carefree, hedonistic lifestyle in a world where so many men are lacking older men to emulate. These factors worked perfectly to not only grant him his guaranteed conservative base, but also opened him up to new bases, particularly in the form of young male voters.
Gen Z is experiencing what experts have called a political gender gap, with young men leaning more conservative than their female counterparts. For the first time in history, more young men are attending church than young women, and the values and ideologies that young men present, compared to young women, centre on traditional family and life values. This cohort, being new voters this year, would have never supported a woman running for President, much less a woman whose focus was on securing the abortion rights that had been lost through the overturning of Roe v Wade by the American Supreme Court.
All in all, for those of us in the third world, not much changes whether Trump or Harris is in power. As Julius Nyerere famously said, “The United States is…a one-party State but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them”.
Foreign policy will still prioritise the utilisation of Bretton Woods and army bases to control our allegiance to the United States. Our struggles as victims of empire remain the same, whether America is led by its first woman president ever, or by a TV billionaire with a stunning comeback story.
Ms Gitahi is an international lawyer
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