Absurdly and inexcusably, votes are still being counted even though polls closed more than a month ago, on Nov. 5. You’d think a developed country such as ours, which sees itself as a beacon of democracy, could get Election Day right. But, no, we make a hash of it every time. We’ve escaped chaos now only because the result was so decisive as to be indisputable.
Democrat-run states, where incompetence is the leitmotif of government, count more slowly than others, which means Donald Trump’s popular vote margin has gradually been whittled down over the past four weeks to just below 50%. But he still won 2.5 million more votes than did his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
It is difficult to overstate the impact that Trump’s popular vote win has had on the national psyche. It is as though a weight has been lifted, a shadow has passed, and a calamity has recognizably been avoided. Eye contact between strangers and a general lifting of spirits contains an apparent shared but unspoken thought: Thank God we’ve been spared four more years of feeble, failing, clumsy, woke, and bossy Democratic leadership.
A recent CBS poll found 59% public approval for Trump’s handling of his transition. This is unlikely to show mere public satisfaction with incoming Cabinet nominees, who are a mixed bunch, to put it mildly. Probably it reveals a more nebulous approval. What we are seeing is something financial markets call a “relief rally,” a surge sparked as it becomes clear disaster has been avoided.
People are suddenly willing to own their true opinions because they see, contrary to the hectoring they faced from opinion formers in news and entertainment media, that their views are shared by more people than reject them. Those who recently hoped somewhat fearfully to conceal their politics are coming out into the open, even expressing their release from self-censorship by mimicking the dance Trump made famous during the election campaign.
Subterranean support for Trump has finally broken cover above ground, but it was always there to see for those who looked disinterestedly and unblinkered at the political landscape. Most Americans love their country as they always have, and they didn’t want it wrecked by people who clearly do not share their patriotism. But, instead of sitting back and accepting their fate meekly, they decided to reclaim their patrimony. They chose to fight.
A massive shift has been taking place in America. But prejudice and self-interest blinded most pundits to what was happening. They missed the biggest political story of their lifetimes because they were so focused on a false narrative that Trump is a racist, a fascist, an authoritarian.
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Because they could see only his many apparent flaws, they were incapable of acknowledging his genuine political talent, his wide and growing appeal. Their ludicrous analysis of his 2016 victory was that it was an aberration produced with the nefarious help of an overseas tyrant and puppet master. Trump’s subsequent rejection in 2020 was the restoration of normalcy.
But 2024 has reversed that. Trump’s reelection and the four years of failure and dismay that preceded it reveal President Joe Biden’s win as the aberration. What we are seeing now is that the new normal has resumed.