The Spectator

Lessons from America

Donald Trump can, at the very least, claim to have killed off political apathy. Americans this week voted in greater numbers than in any such elections of the past half-century — but it does not follow that this is an encouraging development.

The midterm results were a blow for Trump, but not much of a blow. American politics is developing along the lines with which we are familiar: a cultural war, where voters are enthused not so much by what candidates have to say but because of tribal hatred of the opposition.

President Trump has proved an even more incendiary figure than candidate Trump: he has not stopped campaigning or using Twitter to set the news agenda. His enemies have not stopped rising to his bait. He has an extraordinary fiscal record to boast about: the US economy is booming and polls show that voters believe his reforms are to thank for this. But he has said very little about his economic success. At one stage during the midterm campaign, he tore up a speech on tax cuts saying he found the topic ‘boring’. Instead, he spoke about immigration, thinking this would encourage more outrage.

Trump avoided the suburban and metropolitan districts, which turned against him. He campaigned in rural seats, where turnout rose the most. Tactically, this made sense. Americans might not be very divided on Trump’s tax cuts, but they certainly are divided on treatment of illegal immigrants, which was a major theme of his campaign.

The splits we saw when Trump was elected in 2016, between graduates and school dropouts, the prosperous and the left-behind, have deepened further. This might have made for a foul public discourse, with the Republicans producing adverts that even Fox News refused to air, but these tactics halted what Democrats had hoped would be a ‘blue wave’.

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