To many observers of the upcoming presidential election, especially those abroad, Donald Trump and his Maga-infused Republican Party represent an ominous stress test for American democracy.
Historians have weighed in with the analysis that Trump is now at the head of a movement close to fascism, Trump himself has spoken of “enemies within,” he and his followers held a massive rally of racist rhetoric at a location in New York known for an infamous Nazi rally earlier World War II and its language is peppered with violent images.
Yet in Trump’s world, and in that of his followers and campaign surrogates, it is Democrats who are responsible for the degraded discourse in American politics; their rhetoric is a sign that they are demonizing the other side. It is Kamala Harris who stands far outside the American mainstream. It is Joe Biden who is a Marxist. It is the Democratic Party that is plotting a complete overhaul of the American way of life. They even claim they are trying to take away American burgers.
When millions of American Republicans vote on Tuesday, they will believe that it is they – by voting for Trump – who will save American democracy.
The alternate reality “mirror world” that Trump has built for himself and his followers shows them as victims of their political opponents, despite Trump’s rampant use of insults and heated comments. And he casts himself as the savior from this persecution, reframing his election in the final days as the fact that he alone can fix the country the Democrats destroyed, a renewal of his 2016 slogan: “I alone can fix it.”
The mirror world effect is a hallmark of the 2024 campaign – a place where Trump’s commitments are twisted to become his opponents, a place where he can call people names but it’s a shame when others do, a place where Trump saves despite his attempts to overturn an election.
Perhaps no incident illustrates more clearly how the same word can be twisted differently in this downside America than the way a “garbage” blunder played out this week.
At a rally in Arizona last Thursday, Trump called the US a “dumpster bin” because of its migrants, noting that he had never used the term before to describe the country, but that it was accurate, although he had previously told the people around Harris had said were “scum” and “absolute trash.” Days later, during a rally at Madison Square Garden filled with opening acts hurling insults and tirades at perceived enemies, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash.”
Trump tried to distance himself from the comedian by saying he didn’t know him and claiming Puerto Ricans love him. “Every time I go out, I see someone from Puerto Rico. They give me a hug and a kiss,” he told Fox host Sean Hannity. He has not addressed his own comments that the entire country is rubbish.
President Joe Biden went on to say that Trump supporters were “trash,” but then clarified that he specifically meant Hinchliffe, the comedian, and that a critical apostrophe should be added: that the Trump supporter is trash, and not the fate of them. Kamala Harris also said she disagrees with calling out Trump supporters, but focuses her comments on the former president himself.
Sensing an opportunity for a campaign stunt akin to manning the deep fryer at McDonald’s, Trump donned an orange vest and hopped into a Trump-branded garbage truck for a short ride. He then wore the vest during a speech, joking that the outfit made him look thinner. .
“Joe Biden’s comments were the direct result of Kamala’s decision to portray anyone who doesn’t vote for her as evil and subhuman,” Trump said. “And we know they believe that, because look how they treated you, like trash.”
He has since called Kamala Harris a “low IQ person” and a “sleaze bag” and claims she is “dumb as a rock.” He called Biden a “stupid son of a bitch.” At a later rally, with some supporters on stage behind him in brightly colored construction vests, Trump again brought up the “trash” comment and said his supporters were “much higher quality” than those of Harris or Biden.
Yet at the same time, in Trump’s words, he is “running a campaign of positive solutions” while Harris is “running a campaign of hate.”
In conversation with right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson on Thursday, Trump explicitly explained how one of his political opponents, former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, was a radical war hawk and had to face the consequences of American involvement in conflicts abroad. to see.
‘Let’s put her there with a gun and nine barrels shooting at her. Let’s see what she thinks about it. You know, when the guns are pointed at her face,” he said.
Cheney said the comments were indicative of the way dictators destroy free countries. “They threaten with death those who speak out against them,” Cheney said. “We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vengeful, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
It is precisely the line of attack on Trump that Trump has twisted by saying his opponents use harsh language and call him extreme names.
“For the past nine years, Kamala and her party have called us racists, bigots, fascists, deplorable, irredeemable people, and they call me Hitler… They have taken your money, they have opened our borders to criminals… They have taken our blood and our treasures sent to fight in stupid foreign wars – This Tuesday is your chance to stand up and declare that you are not going to accept it anymore – VOTE! he posted on Truth Social this week.
Trump has also continued to argue that Democrats are a threat to democracy, a strategy he picked up this year as he faced a barrage of criminal charges related to his actions to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election to make. He has said these allegations are the work of the Biden administration to hinder their political opponent during an election year, calling it “election interference.”
This line of thinking is now a hallmark of his speeches, and his allies and supporters now repeat it often – that a vote for Trump is a vote to secure democracy. Despite these statements in his speeches, he is expected to declare victory whether he wins or not, and he and his allies are laying the groundwork to challenge the election results. He has called his political opponents the “enemy within” and threatened to prosecute them or use military force against them for non-specific crimes, even leading some of his former staffers to say he is a fascist. He and his allies have instead said that comments about the existential threat Trump poses have led to assassination attempts against him.
