2020 race: Trump has trashed the conservative brand, but blind supporters just want to win
Yes Donald Trump won the 2016 election. While he secured three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton nationally, the electoral system is (for good reason) built around electoral college votes, and Trump won that contest in the states that matter.
But winning an election doesn’t absolve Trump of responsibility for the words he’s uttered both before and after that moment in time. His comments, for example, directed at women and people of colour. Nor does it abrogate blame which is rightly directed his way for failures during his presidency, such as the mishandling of COVID-19 in the United States. Or indeed for the way he has pitted Americans against one another time and time again. Not to mention the hostility he has stoked against the media during his presidency, with constant references to “fake news”.
Simply put, Trump is divisive and dangerous, yet the ideological quotient of the commentariat that is meant to be most adroit at calling out such a threat is in Trump’s pocket. Even now as he appears to be staggering towards defeat, desperate to help him launch a late recovery.
The irony that a President who so frequently ignores facts and just makes things up attacks the media for not getting its facts right shouldn’t be lost on anyone. No wonder Joe Biden has a record amount of support among high profile Republicans heading into this Presidential showdown. Republicans aghast at their party’s populism and capitulation to Trump and his antics.
Blinded by winning
Trump has trashed the conservative brand, yet conservatives who defend him appear blinded by their desire to win in 2020 for the sake of winning. Perhaps to somehow justify their defence of Trump since his 2016 victory. Undercutting the Fourth Estate matters in a democracy. Institutions matter, which is why a President from the conservative side of the major party divide suggesting he won’t accept the result if it goes against him is so damaging. That so many conservative commentators either can’t see that or don’t care enough to turn on Trump tells us how reactionary they have become.
The cowardice of Republican representatives when it comes to Trump has also been staggering. They don’t want to attack him for legitimate failures because he always fires back with personal abuse and threats. They worry about his ability to mobilise the so-called “base” against them, both now and into the future. That constituency is crucial to Republicans winning primary contests, but it isn’t always enough to win general elections.
While most Trump spruikers like to criticise the Democrats for selecting Biden as their Presidential candidate, the fact is Biden’s selection enhanced the chances of Democrats taking the White House. The three alternative candidates in the mix to win the nomination included Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.
All three would have played neatly into Trump’s attack dog hands, targeted as radical, inexperienced or both. Used to pit sections of American society against one another. Vilified for their looks, sexual orientation or gender by a President lacking any moral compass. That was the approach Trump successfully took in 2016, helped along by the Democrats choosing the always polarising figure of Hillary Clinton in the first place.
Why Biden works
Biden is a centrist, so the constant attempts by Trump to lampoon him as a radical miss their mark. The ridiculousness of the attacks made all the more absurd when the number of respected Republicans backing his run for President are looked at: Richard Armitage, Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel just for starters. Hardly bleeding hearts one and all. Such names wouldn’t back Biden if he represented the threat Trump and his followers suggest Biden to be. Not in a million years.
The tag of being too inexperienced for the job can’t be levelled at Biden. His years of public service in the Senate coupled with his eight years as Vice President are the counter-weight to the “sleepy Joe” attacks he cops. Trump, three years his junior in age, talks about Biden like he’s a generation apart. The idea that Trump is some sort of powerful “deal maker” and “doer” as President is also wrong. Leaving aside the many question marks over Trump’s own business dealings and his tax affairs, Trump has been close to the least effective President in US history when it comes to getting his agenda through the Congress. That’s because he’s just not interested in doing so. Equally, his international “deals” are nothing short of a joke. Brokering “peace agreements” between countries that haven’t been to war isn’t artful. Israel and the United Arab Emirates, for example, already had military co-operation arrangements before Trump jumped into the fray to try and claim a win on the international diplomacy front.
Where Trump’s international dealings are extraordinary are the ways in which he has lavished praise on authoritarian opponents of democracy. Figures like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un have been singled out for praise. Yet so-called conservative commentators continue to defend this President. Utterly extraordinary. Just imagine what they would say about Biden if he was reckless enough to utter similar words about such vile figures of contemporary history?
Peter van Onselen is a professor of politics and public policy at the University of Western Australia and Griffith University.
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