In Media Res: Trump wins! Maybe not the presidential election. Biden just won that. But Trump has won in other and perhaps equally consequential ways. Even in electoral defeat, Trump has brought to the surface two root weaknesses in the American regime that promise to continue to play consequential roles.
Interviewed amid Biden celebrations on the streets of Philadelphia, an upset but resolute Trump supporter told the reporter he couldn’t believe how Americans would reject the President, after all he had done for the country. It had to be fraud. Asked how he could endorse a person who said so many bad things about other people and flagrantly lie, he responded: “Because he simply tells you what he thinks. He’s not a politician who bla-bla-blas and you never know what he’s really thinking. He’s more real. He tells you what he’s really thinking, doesn’t hold back.”
Deeply ingrained in the American character is a disdain for “European” social conventions as effeminate, a belief in just speaking your mind, in defiance of all customs, manners, or even respect for the truth: The cowboy walking into the hotel with his muddy boots on daring you to criticize him, Buffalo Bill’s wild west show parading White guys dressed up as Indians, actors performing in Blackface, the tourist talking louder to a French waiter to make him understand. The dark side of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” is a narcissistic over confidence in oneself. No president so blatantly flaunted this feature of the American psyche or been so wildly prized for it.
But although this character trait may have had a competitive advantage on the frontier or in predatory capitalism, it runs the danger of self-destruction in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. Things truly are more subtle, and we need to take time to grasp what is going on. When, in the emotional heat of a marital moment you suddenly feel an urge to throttle your spouse, to say so openly can permanently destroy the relationship. A later apology, no matter how sincere, will not repair the break. So it is with the fulminations, accusations, and threats that the Trump age have inserted into the American body politic.
It is this same dark side of self-reliance that is repeatedly exhibited in American rejections of scientific expertise on everything from biological evolution and climate change to the covid-19 pandemic — not to mention the history of slavery and its deforming influence on the constitution of the republic.
A second fundamental weakness is precisely this, the deformation of the American electoral system. Twice in the last six presidential elections the person who won the popular vote failed to be elected. It came close to happening again this time. And the Congress, especially the Senate, continues distribute power out of all proportion to the population. Small populations in rural states retain outsized power in Congress and the electoral college.
The root cause of this electoral system that gives states rather than people representation in Congress and the power to elect a President was as an effort in 1787 accommodation to slavery: an attempt to paper over the simple fact that the United States were, in this most fundament respect, not genuinely united. (Note that the same power imbalance does not occur within the states, except where minorities are disenfranchised.)
The Faustian bargain that sought to unite the 13 colonies become states as result of the revolution—some of which were fundamentally wedded to slavery, some of which were not—was the creation of a republic in which slave states were given the power to protect themselves from being deprived of their slaves. This required the rejection of a parliamentary system (where the executive and the legislature are at least nominally united) in favor of a structure that protected slavery by playing off the rights of citizens to those of states. This also created the seeds of a deeply dysfunctional government. Even when slavery was legally abolished this root dysfunction remained—and has only gotten worse.
The game President Trump has played is a profoundly American game that can only be rectified by a rewritten (or greatly amended) constitution. But the Constitution that exists, by giving veto power to the ~45 % of the illusorily self-reliant population that remains Trump loyal, makes this impossible. Europe and indeed the rest of the world is going to have to learn to get along without a rational or reliable United States.
Mitcham makes valid points about elements of American social culture and political structure that work to the advantage of the dysfunctional politics that I will call Trumpism, but which lie deeper than Trump himself. However, his exaggerations and oversimplifications, in my view, undermine his rather drastic and negative conclusions.
It is true that there is an element of strong independence and individualism, as well as suspicion of authority, especially governmental authority, in America. Observers as far back as de Tocqueville pointed it out. I felt that there is a whiff of European intellectual condescension in his description of it, however. While it does tend to erode social and political cohesion in the US, it also stimulates self-sufficiency, inventiveness and creativity. If you distrust the box, you will think outside of the box. Mitcham is also ignoring an equally strong streak of social idealism in our culture, which dates back to the Founders and to the period of religious revival and utopian experiments of the first half of the 19th Century. The same strong streak has been powerful in our politics from the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt through Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Barack Obama. We are not only wild west cowboys; we are also progressives.
The second oversimplification deals with the federal structure of the US Constitution, specifically the Electoral College. These elements were incorporated not only to protect slave-holding states. If so, they would have been discarded 150 years ago when slavery was abolished. The traditional conservative defense of our system is that it was designed to prevent „the tyranny of a majority“, i.e. to protect the interests of minorities, especially smaller, rural states from total domination by large urban states. Requiring what amounts to a super majority demands especially persuasive reasons for new laws. Rapid social and political swings are dampened, slowed to allow for careful consideration. Also, the substantial political autonomy granted to states allows for variety and experimentation. A recent example has been the nation’s stepwise evaluation of the legalization of marijuana. Postwar Germany is also a federal system, so a German observer should appreciate its advantages.
I will admit that the Electoral College is an anachronism that frustrates the will of the people in choosing the President. I would advocate abandoning it in favor of direct popular election. There is a practical approach under way to doing that which does not require amending the Constitution: individual states agree to choose their Electors on the basis of the nationwide popular vote; when enough states agree to this method, the outcome is determined.
I feel that the threat to our body politic that could not have been anticipated by the Founders is the extraordinary influence of modern communications: social media and extremist propaganda TV networks, such as Fox News. These media have magnified the impact of a shrewd, utterly unprincipled demagogue. Free speech is guaranteed by our Constitution, as it should be, so the impact of these outlets will continue after Trump himself fades from the scene.
And fade he will. He was, after all, defeated in the recent election. When he is finally dragged out of the White House, he will gradually lose influence as he is involved in various prosecutions and scandals and the deterioration of his megalomania becomes more obvious. Ambitious Republican politicians will abandon him as his influence declines; a slow leak will become a flood.
In the meantime, a period of calm and competent leadership under Biden will emerge. The nation will slowly recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, and the US will restore normal international relationships. Our politics will continue to be rancorous, but the pendulum will swing toward center. Please, European friends, do not despair.