The 72 million people who voted for Donald Trump presumably saw him for who he is but weren’t deterred from voting for him. All of America will have to live with their decision.
Donald Trump won the presidential race, and his win may very well be America’s loss.
The president-elect and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke on Wednesday and agreed on the need to “unify the country.” Let’s hope that’s the case, though Trump’s track record on this front is an invitation to skepticism.
Now the U.S. has an incoming leader who is a convicted felon; incited an insurrection, was impeached for it and has said he will pardon those convicted in hundreds of Jan. 6-related criminal cases; has repeatedly promoted the lie that he won the 2020 election; fed his supporters a steady diet of anti-immigrant rhetoric and division; has promised retribution, once back in office, to his political opponents; openly praises dictators; has a plan to gut the federal civil service and replace career government workers with political loyalists; and will likely further jeopardize reproductive freedom.
Our democracy, as well as policies favored by many Americans, now face a major test of endurance. Trump will have much looser guardrails, if any at all, from a Republican-controlled Senate and possibly a Republican-controlled House. He will be free to implement the goals of the right-wing America First Policy Institute, such as increasing oil production and removing America from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
America was warned about Trump by people who surely know him best: former officials in his administration, including military leaders; staunch conservatives like former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger and former Wyoming Rep.
