What Donald Trump’s return means for authoritarian politics
It’s not hyperbole to suggest this election could transform both America and the post-war liberal international order.
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In the most expensive election in American history, Republicans flipped the Senate, likely tightened their grip on the House of Representatives and returned Donald Trump to the White House.
The so-called “red wave” predicted for the 2022 mid-term elections rolled in two years later, and the MAGA movement is now the dominant force in American politics.
Trump has an unprecedented mandate to reshape American life and politics, and is the first Republican to win the popular vote since 2004. He intends to be an activist and transformative president. Now Americans and the rest of the world must brace for the global fallout in Ukraine, Russia, China, Israel and Iran.
According to the latest tabulations, more than 71 million of Trump’s followers stayed loyal to the MAGA movement despite his criminal convictions and indictments, hate speech and fire hose of lies.
Trump won the presidency with the help of blue-collar, middle-class voters in the vital centre of the political spectrum, and in open defiance of the political establishment and most political power brokers.
Weak centre
What does Trump’s comeback mean for his unique brand of nationalist authoritarianism?
Trump’s victory shows just how weak and lacklustre the centre has become in comparison to surging extremism. The silent majority that once rallied to support Ronald Reagan’s popular agenda, for example, is now a seemingly amoral majority...
