Trump is Here to Stay

The rest of the world worries about Trump's bellicosity, ignorance, and patronising arrogance. In the US he presents a clear and present danger to civility and democracy. His xenophobia and racism, his deep resentment of our educated elites and his ignorance of and contempt for much of our history mark his politics. He has found a supportive public, perhaps about 40 per cent of the electorate, in what the experts politely termed 'low information voters'. Many are white working-class citizens who think themselves left behind by the economy (rightly) and suffering disadvantages as compared to allegedly favoured immigrants, Afro-Americans and Latinos. A large charge of anger at the independence of women accompanies this complex. Trump, schooled in the most vulgar aspects of television, keeps attention on his antics whilst a piratical gang of ideologues and political operatives staff his government. They are proceeding with systematic intensity to the destruction of our regulatory state and the eventual destruction of our welfare state. Perhaps the special prosecutor will bring down Trump; perhaps we face a severe constitutional crisis as he defies the juridical system. Trumpism will not disappear with Trump. He has brought to the centre of our politics the entire spectrum of our social pathologies, has seized the Republican party and neutralised a Democratic party which cannot quite escape nostalgia for its better day and is, above all, incapable of presenting solutions to the twenty-first century problems of the nation.