Why should we continue to talk about former President Donald J. Trump and Trumplicanism? Because Trump is not gone and Trumplicanism is not going away. As much as we had hoped, Donald Trump is not in our rearview mirror.
We ignore Trump and his devotees at the risk of our own political and national peril. Donald Trump is more than a sore loser. Trump and Trumplicanism constitute an ongoing danger to American democracy. Here’s why.
First, Donald J. Trump and the Trumplicans are a continuing danger to American democracy because of the influenceability and aggressive propensities of a significant segment of the movement. It is a documented reality that the core of Trumplicanism is generally less educated. Further, this Trumplican core is consequentially susceptible to Trump’s lies and media influence and groupthink. Trumplicans repeatedly expose themselves to the one-trick pony conservative celebrities of media. If an opposing opinion is presented in these media circles, it is only for the purposes of appearances and ridicule, rather than any sincere rational consideration of the counter opinion.
Trumplicanism is vulnerable to outlandish conspiracy theories. The intensity of its devotion to these theories borders on the delusional. In other words, critical objective thinking is not part of the Trumplican strong suit. Combine these attributes with a propensity toward acts of desperation. When it comes to Trumplicanism, it is more than a colloquialism that “desperate people will do desperate things.” It’s a political methodology. As confirmation, one needs only to reflect upon the events of insurrectionist assault on the capital building on January 6. Therein lies the ongoing danger of Trump and Trumplicanism.
Second, Donald J. Trump and the Trumplicans are a continuing danger to American democracy because the movement represents the last defense of a population desperate to maintain the status quo of the past and against the social change occurring in the culture. Trumplicanism is driven by a longing to maintain the way we were and resist what we are becoming. Race, gender and economics are at the core of their unrest. In short, everyone needs to stay in their place. Again, even a cursory glance at the videos of January 6 evidences that Trumplicanism is generally an angry white male phenomenon. Trumplicanism represents a cultural lag.
On the one hand, Trumplicans are a population that hasn’t caught up with, nor do they desire to catch up with, the nation’s social evolution. On the other hand, Trump and Trumplicanism represent a cultural backlash that will stop at nothing to resist the inevitable changes already occurring in our culture. Again, therein lies the ongoing danger of Trump and Trumplicanism.
Third, Donald J. Trump and the Trumplicans are a continuing danger to American democracy because of the general ignorance of and disregard for the foundational document of American democracy – the Constitution. This is the movement of a former president who pronounced while in office that the Constitution allows him to do whatever he “wants” as President.
He instigated, at worst, an attempted coup against the expressed will of the electorate. He disregarded the balance of powers mechanism of the Constitution by repeatedly ignoring congressional authority and by an aggressive assertion of the power of the presidency, which was at heart really more intended to expand Trump’s power rather than the office of the presidency itself. He has a great admiration of and penchant for the power-mongering brutality of dictators, fascists than our politico-philosophical ideological allies of the past. Again, therein lies the ongoing danger of Trump and Trumplicanism.
Fourth, Trump and Trumplicans are a continuing danger to American democracy because, despite the fact that they appear strategically chaotic on the surface, there is actually a method to the Trumplican madness. The Trump minions are seizing the souls of state Republican politicians, souls which are all-to readily up for sale, who see the Trump Train as a means to further their own political futures.
Eddy F. Carder, Ph.D., J.D.
State Republican politicians are busy legislatively burdening and tirelessly subverting the right to vote for already burdened people groups in an effort to shore up a Trumplican political victory. At the federal level, Congressional Republicans continue their unrelenting allegiance to Trump by functioning as obstructionists to any federal effort to enhance the right to vote. All of this occurs in the hope of securing a formal restoration of the Trumplican vision in the midterm elections of 2022 and securing a victory in the 2024 presidential election. Again, there is a method to the Trumplican madness and therein lies the danger. Yes, Donald Trump and Trumplicanism constitute an ongoing threat to American democracy.
One could argue that Trump is not a danger inasmuch. He is simply one more actor in the comings and goings of national personalities on the stage of the American political theater. But in the rather blunt words of my Criminal Law Professor in response to a student’s proposed argument on a particular issue under consideration that particular class day, “Yes, one could argue such, but it would be a rather stupid argument.”
Eddy F. Carder, Ph.D., J.D., teaches constitutional law and philosophy in Prairie View A&M University’s Marvin D. and June Samuel Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences.