Hillary Clinton is likely to continue to face the criticisms, accusations and even threats of violence that became familiar during the campaign. It was a negative campaign, intentionally on the part of Donald Trump, and it worked for him. Trumpism will not vanish with Election Day. Clinton’s victory will be questioned and its legitimacy challenges, in line with the campaign that got her into office. The next four years are not likely to be pleasant.
To succeed, Clinton needs:
The result of Obama’s insensitivity to party politics has been, from the Congress to state legislatures and governorships, and even local bodies such as school committees, to concede the field to Koch Republicans and their allies. As one marking point, Republican/Tea party majorities now control all southern state legislatures (up from one-third when he took office). The Republican success in below-presidential-level election has been stunning, with consequences to last for years. The Democratic party will have to be rebuilt from the ground up, in itself a daunting task.
There is much to do and it will not be easy.
As for a Trump win, who knows. He acts on impulse and instinct; he listens to no one; he is ignorant of policy issues and government; he had no consistent political affiliation before running for president; he is not concerned with issues per se, as a look at his policy proposals makes clear; he likes to attack; and he is dismissive of government and has a predilection for one-man rule, an approach that has served him well. He makes no effort to modify his language or his accusatory behavior to appeal to centrists and moderate Republicans. He has gone as far as refusing to agree to accept the voters’ decision on Election Day (“wait and see’), with one qualification (if he wins). Meanwhile he has called the election “rigged” and has done his best to undermine confidence in government. He is an authoritarian and a demagogue and therefore is seen as a threat to the future of America’s democratic state. Given all of this, what can be said about his presidency?
Actually, quite a bit:
It will be a one-man rule. On economic issues, he is a committed advocate of Reaganism and a neoliberal agenda. He would cut the taxes of the wealthy and he says those at lower income levels also. He would increase the movement of the nation’s wealth upwards, to the tiny minority of billionaire, of which he claims to be one. On the environment, he says climate change is a fraud, perpetrated by the Chinese. He is against gun control He promises more Antonin Scalia-ideological appointments to the Supreme Court and has released a list of Far Right potential names he will choose from. On foreign policy issues, he likes Putin, his one-man rule and his boldness in aggressively pushing Russian interests. He would destroy ISIS, created he says by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He would reinstate stop-and-search police tactics to fight crime, highly discriminatory against blacks and other minorities and previously declared unconstitutional. In health care, he would repeal “Obamacare” and substitute block grants for the states to manage as they choose. He would greatly expand all branches of the military and increase the development of nuclear weaponry. (A side note: a Clinton issue in the campaign was to attack Trump as not having the “temperament” to be in charge of nuclear weapons.)
Yes, Trump is impulsive, as well as coming across as a misogynist and racist as some have charged. Yet in terms of the predictability of his agenda, it is quite clear even though not developed in the campaign. It is the exercise of the power of the office of president, his “suitability” in these terms, which raises questions.
William J Crotty is the Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. Chair in Public Life and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University, Boston. He is the author of Winning the Presidency 2016 (Routledge, forthcoming in 2017).
Image: Srikanta H. U
