We Cannot Blame Trump Anymore

It is difficult to know what entices Donald Trump most about the prospect of again being elected to the presidency—an end to his legal troubles, the ability to rake in vast sums of shady money conned from people he claims to adore, the opportunity to gain revenge on an army of enemies both real and imagined, or the right to command the attention of hundreds of millions of Americans while he plays out fantasies more common to eight-year-olds.

While the first three must hold appeal, it seems clear from a lifetime of slobbering for the spotlight that he will derive the greatest pleasure from the last.  He has certainly been practicing enough. 

Anyone who thought Trump could not go lower than 2016 or 2020 must now admit that he has outdone himself in 2024.  Not a day goes by that his barrage of crude, racist, misogynistic insults and head-shaking lies does not dominate the media.  So base has he become, that every so often Republican House members and Senators have been forced to (sort of) distance themselves, muttering such powerful phrases as, “I’m not aware of that.”

But the rest of us cannot help but be aware of not only Trump’s accusations of, say, immigrants poisoning the blood of America, but similar analyses from some of his most ardent supporters, such as Stephen Miller, who, although Jewish, has an eerie resemblance to Adolph Eichmann.

As such, it is hard to imagine any American who pays even minimal attention to the presidential election being unaware of who Donald Trump is, what he stands for, and what he intends to do if he is again allowed to sit in the Oval Office.  In addition, his many surrogates have enthusiastically reinforced his most disgusting diatribes, providing ample proof that those who serve in a second Trump term will not attempt to tamp down his racism and xenophobia.

And so, who is to blame if Trump wins? 

Not Trump.

There is no duplicity here.  If he wins it is because, vile as is his rhetoric and as loathsome a person as he may be, he is giving his voters precisely what they crave—an America where education is an affectation, science is a fraud, government cannot intrude in their lives, dark-skinned residents can be arrested without cause, herded into camps, or kicked out of the country, gender nonconforming children and adults get the beatings they deserve, every pregnancy results in a delivery, dead or alive, and, most importantly, white Christians reign supreme.

Of course, there are those Trump supporters, such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, for whom these sentiments are irrelevant, as they are for many members of the business community who are a few net worth zeroes short of them.   They are only in it for the money.  Trump will reduce their taxes and eliminate the regulations that require them to conduct their businesses fairly and without endangering the health and well-being of the population at large.  Wall Street traders are fairly salivating.

But what about the MAGA-hat, stars-and-stripes-shirt, Trump-flag-on-the-pickup-truck crowd, those who fill his rallies, laughing at his invective, cheering ever louder as his mockery gets more vicious?  What will a second Trump term mean for them? 

They think it will be paradise.

It might not work out that way.

The major irony here is that these voters almost always cover misogyny and racism by claiming they are voting for Trump because they trust him with the economy.  In fact, Trump’s economy will make their lives much, much worse. 

If, for example, he keeps his word and implements huge, punitive tariffs, those costs will hit most profoundly on consumer goods, which Trump voters have been promised will cost less to buy.  They won’t.  Almost every economist has predicted Trump’s economic agenda will be far more inflationary than Harris’s.  In addition, if Trump follows through on mass deportations, the cheap migrant labor that keeps home and food prices and associated services low will give way to higher producer costs that will hit rural, blue-collar Trump voters hardest.

The Affordable Care Act will either be repealed or limited by executive order, as will Medicaid, both of which disproportionately benefit those of lower and middle incomes.  A freeze on immigration will stunt the stream of non-citizen physicians who are often the sole providers of medical care in rural communities and hospitals.  This does not even include potential limitations on Medicare and Social Security, neither of which the Musks and Thiels of the world care about one whit.

Predatory lending will become common, with evictions and repossessions ballooning, once again with the middle class bearing the brunt.  Consumer protection will be non-existent but bringing class action lawsuits to hold companies accountable for marketing mis-labeled or unsafe products will be difficult if not impossible. 

The Department of Education will be either shrunk or abolished, taking school lunch programs and dollar grants to poorer school districts along with it.  FEMA will lose funding, making the sort of federal help that went to western North Carolina far more limited.  The EPA will be gutted, allowing the air and water to be poisoned, which, coupled with harder to get medical care, will increase the rates of disease and death in rural America.  The DEA might lose appropriations as well, which will do nothing to stem the opioid epidemic that hits Trump’s base the hardest.

There are more examples, but these alone might cause MAGA warriors to rethink their blind devotion…if only they had been warned.

But wait—they have been.  Repeatedly.

Kamala Harris and her fellow Democrats have been emphasizing both the risks of a Trump presidency and their vision of a more equitable America as cornerstones of her campaign.  It doesn’t seem to have made a difference.  Rural and blue collar MAGA voters prefer to laugh along with Trump, the perpetual salesman, as he gleefully lays out the blueprint for their own destruction.

It will take a good deal of work and commitment to prevent them from taking the rest of us down with them.