by Massimo Gaggi
The reasons why the former president, whom many see as a threat to democracy, can count on such a broad consensus
Rupert Murdoch, an ultra-conservative 90-year-old publisher, while refraining from stating them publicly, often makes disparaging judgments of Donald Trump. But his Fox News, the right-wing information battleship, continues to back the former president ahead of the 2024 election, even as it has begun to give space to possible alternate candidates. His son James, the heir-designate of the Murdoch Group and its de facto CEO for years, has not concealed his outrage at how Fox has backed Trump himself in his openly undemocratic moves.
Brother Lachlan, who succeeded him at the helm of the faction, made public speeches about his sympathies for the more radical right, and did not defend Fox leaders when they argued that the attack on Congress was a leftist maneuver against Trump respectively, have advocated the Great Replacement conspiracy theory: a conspiracy against the whites of America destined to become an oppressed minority. For several months, however, Lachlan has privately argued that Trump is bad for America. But then he adds (CNN story) that Fox will not stop supporting him because otherwise it would lose a large part of its audience: despite all the damage it has done to America, violating democratic rules and the illegal ones Acts that now go beyond any reasonable doubt, Trump remains hugely popular with the American right. Why?
How is it possible that a character who first angered the entire conservative establishment then broke up with almost every character who called to work with him at the White House (fired or left, slammed the door, then published glowing memoirs) and who appears to have lost the support of many of his financiers and is tempted to support younger and more reliable politicians, is he still an almost unbeatable candidate on the conservative front?
Before the November 2020 defeat, dozens of essays were published on The Donald’s diabolical communication skills and also on his political intuition. All forgotten in the months of his quiet retreat in Mar-a-Lago following the attack on Congress and an unsuccessful attempt to undermine the presidential election result. As the papers filled with analysis of the end of his political career, Trump played golf and worked to construct the second act of his White House race, driven by an obsession: not just a desire for revenge, but determination. not acknowledging the defeat of 2020.
His intention, once he’s president again, is to demand broader powers from an increasingly Trumpian parliament: to run public affairs in a personal way, without too much debate and democratic guarantees that lengthen times and force you to seek compromise solutions. And also with the hope of undermining a court order which, although composed predominantly of conservative magistrates, has so far confirmed the correctness of Joe Biden’s election.
Trump’s strength is based primarily on three factors. First and foremost, his ability to compact over time the hard core – a minority, but very determined – of his supporters (the people of the forgotten men, the white people allergic to the multi-ethnic society, and more), which in him much see more than a political leader. . : the man who can calm her down, embody her desire for social revenge, ease her frustrations. Not bad if things haven’t gotten better for them in the four years of Trump’s presidency: the forgotten men have no great illusions, they don’t believe in the virtues of business. They content themselves with consoling phrases, slogans, libertarian proclamations, rebellions against the rules imposed by socialist governments.
The second factor is Trump’s ability to tune in to his people, to entertain them by putting on a show rather than talking about politics, constructing salacious slogans, and even using the negative information being disseminated about him to his advantage. In 2016 he prevailed against the competition from the other Republican candidates and was then able to assert himself against Hillary Clinton. So are the four strands of the ongoing investigation into Trump — the attack on Congress a year and a half ago in an attempt to block ratification of Biden’s election, the stolen presidential documents, the alleged financial and tax irregularities of his companies, and an attempt to do the Changing election results in Georgia – now allow The Donald to present himself to voters as a leader who can only be brought down by the courts because he is politically unstoppable.
Except that stopping him in court won’t be easy: indicting a former president would be an unprecedented act in American history. If it goes that far, Trump will fight (and put on a show) all the way to the Supreme Court. Where there is an ultra-conservative majority, he has helped shape it himself with the three judges he appointed during his tenure.
The third factor, and also the most thorny, has to do with Trump’s devastating ability to exploit the processes of political radicalization already underway in the United States to modify the democratic sensibilities of much of the conservative front enough to make an impact Minority right-wingers who still believe in the constitution and in the mechanisms of a democracy that can only work if the loser acknowledges defeat and does not try to delegitimize the winner.
Many, not only on the moderate right but also on the more fundamentalist, now understand that Trump poses a threat to US democracy: they would like to replace him with a conservative who is just as radical but respects the constitution. A prohibitive undertaking, since given the results of the primary elections, the next Congress will be even more favorable for Trump, while the army of supporters of the former President, intoxicated by an even reassuring authoritarianism, prepares a very warlike attack election campaign.
August 11, 2022 (change August 11, 2022 | 21:48)
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