As scary as the ‘new normal’ of a Trump Presidency is, I think it is wise for the resistance to remember that election result wasn’t the inevitable result of a changing world, but rather it reflects a chance coming together of several factors.
First — and it is easy to diminish this, but the result reflects a genuine protest vote and organic movement for change, however manipulated these sentiments may be. There is something in the charisma and personality of Trump himself that is a vital part of his appeal especially against the prospect of four more grey years of politics-as-usual.
The second factor we saw was the support for the snowballing Trump phenomena from major news networks, especially cable, providing more coverage of his campaign than for other candidates — not despite, but because of his extreme views, which are inherently newsworthy. This really helped to ‘normalize’ them, networks all still going along for the ride even when he ventured into completely uncharted territory of alleged crimes and vulgarity.
Thirdly, there was the Russian support and interference through fake news, and troll armies, which fits into a geopolitical long game that Putin is playing to weaken the West, with a bit of added personal desire to embarrass Hillary Clinton, his long time nemesis. The leaks from Julian Assange are connected to the Russian effort, as it also suits him to undermine and embarrass Washington.
Finally there was the well-known effect of republican gerrymandering, vote suppression and other cheats which seek to undermine an honest election process in subtle ways, difficult though these are to quantify.
Given the closeness of the vote in the end, all of these factors I think can be considered necessary to bringing about the election result, but I’d argue that only the first two fit within what should be the normal paradigm of a well-functioning democracy.
The other factors reflect the self-interested influences of power, which are attempting to tip the odds of the game in their favor.
Those with political power who change the rules of who can vote, and how that vote counts, in ways that benefits themselves are striking at the spirit of democracy itself. This is a direct assault on the founding principles of the USA, it is simply incompatible with democracy
Those with financial power, who are paying for armies of trolls to generate fake public opinion, and paying for “news” that pushes their personal interests — this distortion of media and opinion also strikes at the principle that everyone should have an equal voice in a democracy.
Money is not new — there has been money influencing the white house forever, undermining the sort of decision making that should occur there, and the way elections are fought. The question is whether it has got worse, due to the enormous amount of money in fewer and fewer hands in recent years.
Only the Russian influence seems to be quite new to this election, an interference which reflects Russian ingenuity which has shown how with a bit of money the news can be created or leaked, and then shaped and spread on the internet to influence ‘real’ opinions. The role of strange AI controlled twitter bot armies regurgitating fake news is a hard to measure part of this.
The wild card of course was Trump himself, and without his personality I don’t think all the other factors could have combined so effectively to bring about the stunning victory. But just like the anomalous superbowl which closely followed it, his election doesn’t necessarily mean that the rules of the game have fundamentally changed forever, although they could be creaking.
