Originally published at crisis magazine
The election of Donald Trump has brought relief to many who feared another four years of Democratic Party rule. For some, his reelection represents the triumph of a nationalist conservatism after four years (or more, if you think of Joe Biden’s presidency as a third term for Barack Obama) of progressive mania. Doubtless for some his reelection represents a repudiation of the excesses of contemporary liberalism and its embrace of “wokeness” as further evidence that liberalism has failed in some sense and is about to go the way of the dodo.
In actuality, the opposite is true. Trump’s election is a reaffirmation of the basically liberal character of United States. Despite Democrats’ shrieking assertions that Trump and his followers are radical, right-wing “fascists,” it was moderate liberals forced right by the progressive/leftist wing of the Democratic Party that carried him to his (relatively) decisive win. All one has to do is look at members of his transition team: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk, even Trump himself, are all former Democrats.
Today, much of what passes for “right-wing” (opposition to open borders, transgender mania, foreign wars) only seems so because the country as a whole has become more
