Opinion | How to explain Trump

By Philip Yeung, university teacher

PKY480@gmail.com

The news is bad. The latest polls say that Trump has flipped Wisconsin, the same state that cost Hillary her 2016 election. Back then, people boldly told themselves: A crackpot who is morally depraved can never win. Nobody should lose sleep over that prospect. And yet, America did it. It elected its first crackpot president.

Now, he is back for an encore. When it happened once, that might be an accident. But if it happens again, it becomes a disturbing pattern. What does it say about America as a country?

To the outside world, America is now a laughingstock. How, they wonder, could Trump pull off such a trick in the world's most-boasted-about democracy.

On the surface, this second election is stacked against Trump, now loaded with extra baggage. This time, he earned the dubious honor of being the only US presidential candidate in history who is a convicted felon with 34 criminal counts. A man with half a brain and no soul, who through his inaction, cost America a million lives during Covid. He doesn't read books. He only blusters. He eats infidelity for breakfast, sexual assault for lunch and tax fraud for dinner. His lips are only for lying. And yet, he is bullet-proof and untouchable. Why?

Before we talk about his untouchability, we must first talk about his opponent, Kamala Harris. She was a former prosecutor, while Trump is a criminal. Nothing is more black-and-white than this stark choice. But Harris has one fatal flaw: she is ill-defined. She doesn't arouse passion in her supporters or among undecided voters. She doesn't project confidence in America's future or how to solve its mounting problems. She never wears a skirt, but she is unable to wear Trump's pants. As a prosecutor, she was not even tough on crime. Trump's clarity overshadows her ambiguity. Even black voters in Georgia won't cast their lot with her. She is a warmed-over Democrat who fails as the un-Biden. She reacts; she doesn't proact. Rural white America prefers moral absolutism, not middle-of-the-road politics. They are angry about illegal immigrants pouring across the borders, pissed off by pampered vocal LGBTQ minority and desperately want somebody to blame for their unhappiness. Trump gives their grievances a voice and a visibility. Trump, the selfish billionaire, has ironically become their unlikely anti-status-quo hero. That is why they don't care if Trump is a criminal, a liar and a two-timer. Trump is now a cult, and with their surrendered rationality, they will follow him blindly like moths to a fire.

Cults are impervious to truth. Trump get increasingly inventive with his lies—from illegal Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs to an early vote for Trump allegedly turning into a vote for Harris. In this, Trump has one huge tactical advantage over Harris. Harris is morally constrained in her utterances, Trump is not. He is free to invent and weaponize his lies, and sprinkle them far and wide with help from Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. One big lie alone netted Trump 34 million clicks. And now Elon Musk is offering a lucky Trump voter one million US dollars a day. Big money is on Trump's side. Trump is now a virus, for which there is no vaccine.

Harris is a grey politician. Voters are lukewarm about her. Somehow, as a raging moderate,  she comes across as "unserious", as "the cackler-in-chief" with her silly laughs. She is trapped in her vice-presidential mode, unable to either defend the status quo or improve it. She is not a fiery crusader who can give Americans their daily bread. Trump, by contrast, has styled himself as a savior with his inevitable "Second Coming". God Himself has spared him from an assassin's bullet. With even God on his side, how can Trump lose?

American democracy is weird. It's the only country where an electoral majority doesn't seal victory. Hillary outscored Donald with seven million more popular votes and still lost the election. Blame it on that monstrosity, the Electoral College. A winner needs to cross the magic threshold of 270 Electoral College votes. This is why it baffled me when Harris didn't pick the popular governor of Pennsylvania as a running mate to help her carry battleground state. Tim Wals, her eventual VP pick, is a yawn and a dud, and has added no sparks to her campaign. Choosing Wals may be Harris' biggest strategic blunder. But it is too late to cry over spilt milk.

Brace yourself. Trump has already said he will never concede defeat. He will accept the electoral verdict only if he is the winner. Otherwise, the election is rigged. This is pure cult logic. November 5 will be America's next apocalyptic moment. Another January 6 is in the works. Only, this time, it would be uglier, deadlier and bloodier. Why not just serve up the victory to Trump with a silver spoon. After all, he was born with one in his mouth, 78 long years ago.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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