Donald Trump transcends the typical role a politician would play in a standard American election. Not only does he encapsulate the heavily polarized political landscape we live in today—you either love him or hate him—but also, his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) philosophy sets the comparative bar for conservatives and liberals alike.
His radical right wing MAGA base is made up of 30-35% of all Americans, meaning that 30-35% of Americans both preach and believe every word that comes out of his mouth. The crucial thing we all need to remember is that Trump is a pathological liar and manipulator. For him, lying and making up “facts” comes as naturally as breathing—and he does it just like he breathes, which is constantly. To any open-minded observer, it is obvious that Trump lies—endlessly—as he makes things up whenever his mouth is moving and speaking.
The most worrisome and hurtful lie will forever be his belief that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. After losing to opponent Joe Biden, Trump not only refused to concede, but kept insisting (loudly) that the election was riddled with massive fraud; thus “stolen,” and that he is actually the “true” president. “Stop the Steal!” became a fervent right-wing rallying cry by his supporters. Then, over the next couple of years, endless court cases, recounts, reports, and investigations ALL concluded that there was no significant fraud, and in fact found that the 2020 election was one of the most secure and transparent in the nation’s history.
And how did Trump react? By telling his supporters to storm the Capitol building and attempt to quite literally OVERTHROW the United States government until he was in charge. On January 6, 2021, more than 2,000 rioters entered the building, with many vandalizing and looting, including the offices of then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Congress members. MAGA supporters also assaulted Capitol Police officers, as well as attempted to capture and harm lawmakers.
Their fearless leader who commanded them into this ‘battle for democracy?’ Nowhere to be found.
But how did we get to this point? How did Donald Trump build a cult from the ground up? What were his tactics and what did he promise?
By 2008, the political differences between Democrats and Republicans had reached a tipping point. If the right catalyst came along, polarization could turn into full-blown political gridlock, comparable to what happened when Barack Obama became president. Republican congressional leaders immediately plotted to block anything he might propose in order to make him a one-term president. Then, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, he launched the most aggressive economic stimulus since the Great Depression, pumping nearly a trillion dollars into the economy—mostly to help Corporate America and Wall Street rather than Main Street. He also signed the Dodd-Frank Act, a major increase in government regulation of the financial services industry. On top of groundbreaking financial regulation, Obama also pushed health care reform—Obamacare—through Congress. All of these were massive government interventions that ran against the neoliberal grain, consequently infuriating lots of Americans and giving rise to the conservative Tea Party Movement. Once the Tea Party’s Freedom Caucus emerged in the House of Representatives, any significant policymaking ground to a virtual halt. Things were not much better in the Senate. By the middle of the Obama presidency, between 60% and 70% of important legislative proposals stalled in Congress. Administrative and judicial appointments were blocked and, as a result, the number of vacancies in the administration and judiciary soared during Obama’s presidency, especially during his second term. Members on both sides of the aisle agreed that they had never seen things this bad, largely because the confirmation process had become extremely contentious. In his final year in office, the Senate confirmed only 30% of Obama’s nominees to the federal bench, much fewer than it did for the previous two-term presidents Reagan (66%), Clinton (50%), and Bush (68%), all of whom, like Obama, had to contend with Senate confirmation hearings controlled by the opposition party. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to meet with let alone convene confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, epitomized gridlock.
The use of the filibuster—a legislative tactic to block congressional policymaking—became more common too. Historically, it was used to kill legislative proposals that didn’t have strong bipartisan support, but McConnell used it to slow down or torpedo things that did have bipartisan support. The use of the filibuster skyrocketed during Obama’s first year in office, and the tactic became a weapon used by Republicans to obstruct even legislative matters that used to be routine and widely supported. This was unprecedented in the Senate’s history. The Madisonian Model failed the Obama administration. An ineffective American government at its finest.
It’s no surprise, then, that people became fed up with Washington politics. Public trust and satisfaction with the government declined significantly after 2001, and the public’s approval rating of Congress plummeted during that time from about 50% agreeing that it was doing a good job to just 17% by 2016. Obama’s approval rating (48%) was lower on average than any president in over 30 years. And when Trump, a somewhat charismatic man of the people, barreled into American politics? The American people were overjoyed to see someone other than the typical D.C. folk running for office. Though conservatives traditionally appeal to those who distrust the government—and thus prefer a hands-off approach—Trump was able to utilize this distrust and climb his way to the top. As most cults are, MAGA is built off of the exploitation of insecurity. The same way that a Sephora ad promises teenage girls beauty, Trump promised the white American working class financial stability.
Exit polling by CNN shows that Trump’s campaign promises resonated with the fears and anxieties of the American public. His campaign represented the tip of an iceberg that had been developing for decades. Roughly two-thirds of people who worried that the economy was in poor shape, and two-thirds who believed that international trade takes away American jobs voted for Trump. So did about two-thirds of those who felt that life for the next generation would be worse than today. At the end of the day, Americans are the most worried about the issues that affect them the most immediately. And what is an American citizen without a 9 to 5?