Column | The troubling triumph of Trump

Seventy-two million Americans voted for Donald Trump, giving him an unexpected but resounding victory. Standing before his supporters in Florida, President-elect Donald Trump declared, "We've made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that we overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible. It's a political victory that our country has never seen before." An unforgettable conclusion to one of the most remarkable and unpredictable presidential elections in American history, a race marked by bizarre events and exceptional twists.

Kamala Harris was denied the opportunity to make history as the first woman to lead the United States. Trump, a politician with questionable democratic credentials, is set to lead the Oval Office – arguably the world’s most powerful position.

Do the 2024 presidential elections mark the erosion of the democratic spirit that has long defined America, or does Donald Trump's victory simply signal a continuation of the male-dominated political landscape?

Rising political violence
Trump’s triumph offers a sense of relief to many Americans who have long feared the specter of post-election violence. The 2020 election, in which Donald Trump lost, was marked by a sitting president refusing to accept the election results. His supporters stormed the Capitol, chanting pro-Trump slogans, causing significant property damage and posing a serious security threat to some of the nation’s top political leaders.

Despite his thrilling second victory, American democracy has yet to overcome the perils it has faced since Donald Trump stormed into politics.

According to research by Reuters, political violence in the US has been on the rise since 2016, with nearly 300 incidents recorded following the Capitol attack in January 2021. This surge marks the most significant level of political violence since the 1970s. The frequent use of violent rhetoric by influential political figures has contributed to the normalization of violence within the political sphere. 

Strangely enough, Donald Trump himself is both the biggest victim and electoral beneficiary of the violent political culture he was instrumental in creating. This year alone, Trump has faced at least three assassination attempts. Two years earlier, the home of Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi was invaded by a far-right conspiracy theorist, seriously injuring her husband.

Research by Princeton University on political mobilization in the US suggests that violent episodes are likely to occur in the aftermath of future presidential elections.

A recent survey indicates that 6 per cent of American adults support the use of force to reinstate Donald Trump as president, while 8 per cent support the use of force to prevent Trump from coming to power again. Combined, these figures represent approximately 35 million people.

"These numbers matter because support for political violence can urge vulnerable individuals, for their own psycho-social reasons, to take action when they are already on the edge of violence. This can happen because support for political violence often shows up in social media posts," said University of Chicago professor Robert Pape, who conducted the survey.

 Debates devolved
Constructive presidential debates, one of the major hallmarks of US democracy, have been steadily declining.

During the presidential debates of 2024, I observed my son, a politically interested young adult who is a US citizen raised in Europe, giving no attention to them. “Debates don’t mean anything anymore. They’re nothing but name-calling and silly arguments. There is no real discussion about policy of any sort. What’s the point of watching it?” he said while changing the TV channel. 

For many following American politics, the recent presidential debates resembled a nursery school tantrum, with candidates hurling childish accusations, spreading false information, and promoting conspiracy theories. Pressing issues that affect the day-to-day lives of average Americans, such as rising inflation, did not receive the attention they deserved in the debates.

During the presidential debate on September 10, Donald Trump said that Kamala Harris is a “Marxist”, claiming that her father, a Stanford economics professor with Leftist leanings, “taught her well”. 

Debates between presidential candidates in American politics are typically distinct events where the public scrutinizes candidates' policies and personas, often with a certain level of restraint.

Surprisingly, despite their subpar quality, presidential debates have still played a decisive role in determining the course of the 2024 election. Joe Biden, who sought a second term, saw his ambitions come to an end due to his disappointing performance in the Biden-Trump debate in June.

The 'latecomer' Kamala Harris, an otherwise lackluster candidate for the presidency, began with a significant disadvantage against a candidate who was riding high in the opinion polls. However, she gained momentum after a convincing 'victory' in the only debate between her and Trump, though it didn’t translate into electoral success.

Democracy's beacon dims
The United States became a model for others to emulate, with its liberal democratic society marked by the world’s longest-surviving written constitution, an independent judiciary, and a free press. 

However, American democracy is on an eroding path, best illustrated by the fact that a large section of Americans expressed indifference toward the judicial rulings against their former president, clearing the way for Trump's candidacy in the 2024 election.

There have been charges against President Trump for misusing his power through the illegal possession of classified documents upon leaving office in 2021. Trump was convicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to an adult film star, with many other trials pending. Interestingly, the rulings apparently had no impact on how most Americans voted, raising serious concerns about the integrity of democratic institutions in contemporary US politics.

Such a scenario is unfathomable in a country where the personal and political stances of a presidential candidate explicitly come under public scrutiny during elections, and any blemishes, let alone a criminal conviction, are heavily frowned upon. The United States is a nation where citizens expect their president to embody the ideal of the American household, even down to owning a pet dog.

Donald Trump's second triumph marks a profound political shift. Many Americans are now willing to accept an 'illiberal' president – one who even promised the 'largest deportation operation' in US history – simply for the sake of having a leader who pledges to prioritize national interests and revive the economy. This represents nothing short of a dramatic setback for the much-heralded US liberal democracy.

Numerous conflicts and military interventions initiated by the United States in this century have been justified under the banner of protecting and promoting democracy. While the economic and strategic interests behind many of these global missions have come to light, Americans have long upheld the credibility of a robust liberal society with thriving democratic institutions. Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election could mark a turning point: the world’s foremost advocate for democracy risks losing its moral authority to uphold democratic values on the global stage.

(Social anthropologist and novelist Thomas Sajan and US-trained neurologist Titto Idicula, based in Norway, write on politics, culture, economy, and medicine.)