Trump’s populist appeal is a wake-up call for Democrats
The Republican’s success across diverse demographics — from Latino and black voters to disillusioned Democrats — should force his critics to rethink their worst assumptions
It's Trump's Donald Trump’s America. Deal with it.
In an age of blurry political uncertainty, of endless unstable equipoise between two hostile tribes, Donald Trump’s sweeping return to power is a moment of sudden and unexpected clarity.
It is a potentially transformative political event, a breakthrough that should cement a fundamental realignment of US politics with implications far beyond America’s shores.
A man who loves superlatives can bask in them today.
With votes still being counted, it looks almost certain that Trump will sweep all the seven swing states that decide the outcome of the presidential election, giving him a margin of victory in the electoral college larger than any Republican since George H W Bush in 1988.
Again, pending final returns in the next few days, he is likely to have become the first Republican since George W Bush in 2004 to win the largest share — or indeed probably a majority — of the popular vote.
Instead of constantly seeking to portray him as the next Hitler, Democrats and the media need to ask themselves why he manages to appeal to such a wide and diverse audience of regular Americans — many of whom used to vote Democrat.
Trump has managed to attract a multi-ethnic working-class constituency to the Republican party as its populist economic message begins to resonate. The 2024 election offers emphatic evidence for that appeal.
Democrats need to change dramatically by getting rid of the elitism and not talking down to people.
