Trump victory: Nothing succeeds like excess

“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess,” said Oscar Wilde. Donald J Trump, the 47th President-elect of the United States, seems to have taken to heart Oscar Wilde’s epigram, brushing aside the Buddha’s dictum of moderation in all things. He stumped all the poll pundits and astrologers who had predicted a knife edge election in the race to the White House by trouncing Kamala Harris with a resounding victory. 

He was painted as one who loved and lived the life of excess: excess of vileness, venality, vanity, vulgarity, vengeance, meanness, misogyny, machismo, profligacy, greed, racist hatred, lies, fraud, and sexual indulgence. He worshipped mammon and subscribed to the philosophy of pleasure. He was twice impeached by the US Congress and convicted of felony during the run-up to the elections. The more he failed, the more he succeeded. 

He confounded his critics and his allies alike. When his advisers asked him to do one thing, he did the other. When they counselled him not to denigrate women, he abused them more. When he was cautioned not to alienate Hispanics whose votes were critical as the elections were heading to a cliffhanger, he said the vilest and most bizarre things about them: that they ate the pets of the whites; when they warned him to desist personal attacks on Kamala Harris as he might alienate women voters, he called her nasty things. Yet, perplexingly, more Latinos, blacks, and women voted for him in 2024 than in his earlier presidential election in 2020. 

His opponents and former associates with formidable reputations who served under him called him a fascist, a brazen bounder, an unhinged autocrat who will destroy democracy. Nothing unfazed the electorate. “So long as men worship Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable... They do not have to be coerced because they love their servitude,“ said Aldous Huxley presciently. The power of communication backed by capitalists like Elon Musk, now a full-blooded surrogate of Trump, who control and manipulate social media to influence public opinion, is a testament to the fears of writers like Huxley and George Orwell. 

If Trump has now won through both the electoral and popular mandate in spite of all the warnings from the intellectuals and prominent Democrats like former President Barack Obama about Trump’s character and bulldozing authoritarian ways, it’s likely because the people who voted for him saw themselves in Trump.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson speaking of the hold Emperor Napoleon had on his people said, “...Every organ is made up of homogeneous particles; or as it is sometimes expressed, every whole is made of similars; that is, the lungs are composed of infinitely small lungs; the kidney, of little kidneys, etc. Following this analogy, if any man is found to carry with him the power and affections of vast numbers, if Napoleon is France, if Napoleon is Europe, it is because the people whom he sways are little Napoleons.” 

It is also an intriguing irony that authoritarian leaders all over the world rise to the top, climbing the ladders of democracy, and soon after occupying the throne, deride the inefficiencies and ills of democracy. 

Trump surrounded himself with a phalanx of economic advisers, speech writers, right-wing media honchos, battle-hardened lawyers, and an army of sycophants that included Republican senators and congressmen. He was asked to restrain himself in the courtroom during the criminal proceedings against him and show respect to the judges and avoid accusing them of partisanship or smearing their character; many urged him to focus on issues during his speeches and stick to the prepared script instead of rambling and ranting; many billionaires became his donors and cheerleaders and cozied up to him, but in the end he said what he liked; he tore up the scripts and went wild and did things his own way, falling back on his own instincts. The crowd loved his method in madness. 

He courted porn stars and grabbed women with sexual predatory instincts and intent; many of them were paid to be silent to prevent publishing ‘a tell-all book’. He excelled in the art of ‘catch and kill’. Many others sued him in courts, and he was asked to pay damages, but in the end, people always forgave him. He came out not only unscathed but stronger
and more popular. They said he is candid, unlike other politicians who were cads and hypocrites. 

Trump is like the proverbial cat. He fell often but always landed on his feet. He turned every setback to his advantage. When the bullet of an assassin during an election rally glazed past his cheek, slicing off a thin edge of his ear flap, killing one person right behind him and injuring another, he dove down with the bodyguards who rushed to shield him, rose up, and with blood streaming down his cheek, had the cool to pump his fist defiantly at the adoring crowds. He was astute and attributed it to divine intervention and said God must have had a reason to save him.

The American presidential race is probably the toughest in the world. It starts two years before the final day of voting, beginning with party primaries, which span over 12 months, where one candidate from the party is elected, followed by another year of campaigning against the main opposition party candidate—largely a twin-party race between the conservative Republican and liberal Democratic parties. It is a gruelling, bruising battle across a large country three times the size of India, comprising 50 states, which is not for the faint-hearted. It exhausts and wears out the most intrepid and resilient and swallows mountains of cash. 

Donald Trump, on top of the above blistering campaigning schedules and fund-raising commitments throughout the two years, had multiple cases, both criminal and civil, filed against him by many State and non-State actors both in local and federal courts. In certain cases, he was mandated by the judge to be personally present to be fingerprinted and photographed for a mug shot and had to hear salacious charges in vivid details from those women who accused him under searing publicity. He was constantly criss-crossing the country, juggling the dates on the run, but displayed indefatigable vitality and vigour, which would have sapped the energy of people half his age. One cannot help but admire the incredible and perennial verve and optimism of the man who was besieged from all sides and was within a whisker of going behind bars but never gave up. 

There are fears amongst the liberal democracies around the world that many right-wing politicians with an authoritarian streak in them, emboldened by the rise of Trump, will be tempted to emulate Trump`s diabolical methods of whipping up hatred for minorities and immigrants feeding on fake propaganda that polarises society along racist and communal lines, appealing to the baser impulses among us and eclipsing the ideals of truthfulness, equanimity, and controlling lust and avarice preached to us in the Bible, Bhagavad Gita, and other scriptures, while heaping scorn on the virtues of democracy, dialogue, and values of dissent. 

When genuine democracy fails people, they will be disillusioned and will embrace autocracy.

Benjamin Franklin, a polyglot and statesman, was asked as he emerged out of the Constitution Convention by a bystander, “Well, Doctor Franklin, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” He replied, “A republic if you can keep it.” 

The American elections will be a lesson to liberal and leftist parties in India as well to reflect and act on their shortcomings. Democracy is best served by more than one party as a counterpoint to the ruling party. 

(The writer is a soldier, farmer, and entrepreneur)