General
Let’s Not Lose Sight of Who Trump Is
In terms of historical perspective, the 2024 election has the potential to challenge the New Deal realignment of 1932 as the most consequential election of the past 100 years. On Nov. 5, American voters re-empowered Donald Trump, a man who has …
In terms of historical perspective, the 2024 election has the potential to challenge the New Deal realignment of 1932 as the most consequential election of the past 100 years.
On Nov. 5, American voters re-empowered Donald Trump, a man who has explicitly declared he will gut civil service protections for the highest ranked federal employees, prosecute political adversaries and somehow deport 11 million illegal immigrants. On Thursday, he told NBC News that his plans for mass deportation were so precious that there would be “no price tag” on them.
The outcome of the election, it almost goes without saying, puts America on a right-wing populist path, inching ever closer toward a form of national autocratic rule rarely, if ever, seen in the nation’s history.
Douglas Massey, a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton, summed up the situation in an email:
Massey minced no words:
The 2024 election did answer one key question: Does the Trump coalition provide the basis for a fully competitive political party?
Julian E. Zelizer, a professor of history at Princeton, emailed me to say:
Trump, Zelizer argued, will have wide latitude to pursue his agenda:
Trump, Zelizer pointed out, “has been extraordinarily transparent about his hostility toward core democratic principles — the peaceful transition of power, confidence in the election system, limitations on presidential power and more.”
Many of those I contacted stressed the breadth and depth of Trump’s victory, perhaps best demonstrated in this Times graphic, which shows that Trump improved on his 2020 vote margins in 2,367 counties so far compared with Harris improving on Biden’s 2020 margins in 240 counties.
