The Donald Trump’s victory and the resurgence of triumphant populism

“After every revolution marking a progressive phase in the class struggle, the purely repressive character of the state power stands out in bolder and bolder relief”, Karl Marx  The class struggle is fought in the United States not in the streets of New York or the back alleys of Detroit or Seattle, but in the […]

“After every revolution marking a progressive phase in the class struggle, the purely repressive character of the state power stands out in bolder and bolder relief”, Karl Marx 

The class struggle is fought in the United States not in the streets of New York or the back alleys of Detroit or Seattle, but in the stock exchanges, the electoral colleges and the chatrooms of big media houses. The opposing gladiators are not workers and capitalists up in arms against each other, but people transiting from corporate boardrooms to political offices seeking to seize power through the ballot. Between them, and on the basis of their preferential alignments and corresponding economic interests, these gladiatorial classes slug it out in deadly earnest for offices and votes supported by a cohort of lawyers, bodyguards, media spokespersons, social media influencers, entertainers, pundits, clairvoyants, astrologers, and assorted elements that form the baggage train of an American campaign effort.

 It is all too familiar and too glaring to be taken seriously. It is about banners, buntings, flags, patriotic slogans and cheerleaders. It is about appearances and not the substance of the issues. Elections in America are ritualised treatment of the population periodically to let their emotions proceed before them and allow them to vent their self-importance as the arbiters in the class struggle unfolding in their midst. They can only perceive this struggle as an act of their own making while in reality, it happens in a predetermined set-piece that is above their ability to control. 

The American voters may vote for a candidate to become the president, but their reach ends there because afterwards, their influence on him is no longer of any significance. After all is said and done, the class elements take over and the forces of capital, industry and “special interests” will dictate the tone and the pace of events in the intervening period of four years until the next round of elections.

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The year 2024 will not be dramatically different to the year 2016 as far as the Donald Trump presidency is concerned. It is all going to be a rehash of his first term in office and the churning out of cliches and slogans about American greatness and keeping the rest of the world at bay. He will rant against immigrants, Blacks, Hispanics and the odd Chinese that may be caught in the cross hairs of his telescopic gunsight. There are no miracles to be performed in politics, only perhaps the shuffling of the deck by a card sharp adept at his game of tricks and illusion. This is how and where in democracies, the people are sold down the drain and populism becomes a stock in trade of the accomplished adventurer or the political salesman. In politics the dice is always loaded against the people and the cards are marked against the unsuspecting credulous citizens. Head or tail, the politicians always win and the people always lose.

The class struggle within the American bourgeoisie took place and the outcome is now history. Mr Donald J. Trump, the reluctantly adopted candidate of the Republican Party, bulldozed his way into the arena and won the race. Despite a clipped ear and a dented reputation, Donald Trump today straddles the American political landscape like the Colossus of Rhodes. He has crushed opponents in the Republican Party while belittling the chances of the Democratic Party to be an effective opposition in the Congress and in the country’s popular perception.

Today, Mr. Trump stands peerless in American politics, having proved to himself and to both his loyalists and opponents alike, that a maverick could come in from the cold and the wilderness and seize political power in America against all the odds, by riding on the crest of popular discontent and antipathy towards tradition and the establishment.

He achieved this singular, unique, unprecedented and historic feat in the simplest, the most extravagant, most audacious and most unsophisticated way ever, by appealing to sentiments and exploiting the fears of Americans about the situation in their country. Thus, an appeal to populism rather than any secret tactics or strategies explain Donald Trump’s victory. 

The Washington Post, that trusted mouthpiece of the White American establishment, captioned its lead article on the outcome of the US presidential election as follows: “Trump Triumphs”! It went on to write – “Donald Trump wins presidential election, defeating Harris to retake White House. Trump achieved an electoral college majority by maintaining his majorities with men and White voters without college degrees, while also overperforming with historic Democratic constituencies such as Latinos and young voters, according to preliminary exit polls”. 

The votes of the male population and Whites (with no college degrees) proved crucial to Trump’s victory. He was also able to appeal to a largely confused, skeptical and brow beaten Latino constituency of voters who were torn between dismay and uncertainty about his immigration policy and the security of the sources of their income in fluctuating inflationary situation in America.

 There were also the working classes represented by the union members and the rural farm workers who have been marginalised and to some extent, pauperised by the economic downturn in the country. Widely spread in industrial cities like Pittsburgh, Detroit, Michigan and New York, they rebelled against the Democratic Party which used to be their platform for political action.

The unions have largely lost their relevance and traction in national politics thereby rendering the votes of the workers liable to being delivered to a candidate who promises them bread and jobs. The Blacks or African-Americans did not fare any better or differently from the Latinos although the majority of the voters from this constituency stayed with the Democratic Party not necessarily because its candidate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, was half-Black and half-Indian. 

The race factor played little in her favour but her gender definitely worked against her just as it did against Hillary Clinton in 2016. She simply proved too much of a lightweight against the hefty personality of her seasoned opponent.

Donald Trump’s return is nothing short of spectacular. He was virtually written off as a political factor after his ouster from power in 2020 and the many trails and tribulations that he went through including criminal indictment, impeachable offences and a string of court cases all aimed at making him unable to stand for election again. Despite those obstacles, he successfully turned the table on his establishment opponents, wrung the nomination for the Republican Party ticket by bluff and bluster, and emerged the undisputed winner of the presidential election. This triumph places him nearly at par with another populist politician in Germany in the 1930s, Adolf Hitler, who also rose against all obstacles to become Chancellor and leader of Germany in 1933. History often repeats itself in particular situations without the conscious or voluntary making of the individuals involved.

Both Hitler and Trump have a populist bent that differentiated them from other bourgeois politicians of their times. They are both radical agitators who stoked up the fears of the people against real and imagined enemies. They both railed against big corporations and capitalists while closely ensconced with them.

They both preached patriotism and promised to rejuvenate and make their countries great again. They appealed to racial sentiments and made pledges to restore the dignity of their racial co-equals. Although they came to power through the democratic process in their countries, both are seen as the embodiments on anti-democratic politics. They are both populist politicians.

Donald Trump is arguably the most powerful politician alive in the United States today. His unprecedented victory at the just concluded presidential polls and the massive votes that he gathered testify to his ability to both beguile and mesmerise American voters and sway them to his side, just as Hitler did in Germany. His popular appeal and tendency to court controversy made him an enigmatic figure from whom there cannot be an escape but whose figure must loom larger than life in the popular perception of Americans. He is the kind of “guy” Americans love with a passion and alternately love to hate. He is White, rich and self-made man who strode the public space with gusto and confidence, rumbling through spaces like the popular wrestling arenas, reality television shows, popular magazines, radio talk shows, even garbage collection lorries, and of course, through media manipulation and appeal to base sentiments.

His attractiveness to the American bourgeoisie is self-evident. Forbes, that mainstay of the rich and powerful, reported on August 14, 2024 that 26 American billionaires with a combined wealth of $143 billion, helped to fund his campaign by contributing a hefty $162 million at that time. As a sign of the times and the growing illusion being created about the “popular” side of Donald Trump, his running mate and Vice-President-to-be, Senator J. D. Vance, declared, “We need a leader who’s not in the pocket of big business, but answers to the working man. A leader who won’t sell out to multinational corporations, but will stand up for American companies and American industry.” This shuffling of the cards, this rolling of the loaded dice, is all too familiar in the context of the class struggle in America.

While the rich get richer under every dispensation whether democrat or republican, the majority of the people are left to fend for themselves and meet their daily needs, such as paying for mortgage on their homes, repaying bank loans taken to buy cars, or students saddled for life with loans taken to pay for their university education. In the meantime, the rich get away with tax rebates and holidays, special incentives to corporations, additional waivers to stimulate industries during downturns and climate change support to clean up the debris of their unbridled exploitation of natural resources and depleting of the Ozone layer thereby contributing to the planet’s crisis.

 For those wishing to be entertained, they should just sit back and relax, and watch the drama around the game of cards and loaded dice that will be played out in the coming four years, and recall the saying “one good turn deserves another” although there will be none of that for sure!

Sarki wrote from Abuja