If you need evidence that Donald Trump was a huge disruption to American politics, look no further than the newscasts that took place right after the 2016 election. Much of the media was sold on the idea that Hillary Clinton had the presidency in the bag – but they were in for a surprise on election night. By their words, actions and opinions, you could tell how shocked in general the mainstream media was.
Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump broke just about every norm in American politics. The conventional wisdom that culminated behind the walls of political science classrooms in universities across America was largely put to waste. The media was exposed for being totally out-of-touch when they failed to realize what a large geographic portion of the country was thinking about the election.
In so many ways, American politics were due for a major overhaul. People have been shunning party affiliation, condemning elitism and money in politics and generally agreeing that our nation’s political “leaders” are not leaders at all more and more over the past decade. Corruption and politics were nearly synonymous by the time we made it to 2016.
With this in mind, it’s no longer so surprising that we ended up with a figure like Donald Trump as the president. No matter your views on the president, most agree that this is a fascinating time in American history. Politics are being turned upside-down everywhere we go – so let’s take a look at how the commander-in-chief is a reflection of that.
A Reminder That Politics-As-Usual Is Over?
More than anything, Donald Trump was a statement that the American people were done with the way our politicians were conducting themselves. Trump wasn’t just a rejection of Democrats – he was a rejection of Republicans too.
Do you remember how Republicans squirmed and fumbled while debating with Trump during the GOP debates? Here was a guy that was breaking every political rule. He was brash, he was rude, his sentences were choppy and hard to follow, and yet he led in the polls throughout the Republican primary. Here was a guy who could hardly be called a religious man, and yet the evangelical voter block was flocking to him.
But do you remember the kinds of things he said on stage? He told the American people that George W. Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction. He told the American people that the Iraq war was a huge mistake. He told the American people what they already knew – that everyone on stage with him was a puppet, purchased by someone as rich as himself, and he promised he wouldn’t be bought in the same way. He told the American people what they already knew, but what their politicians wouldn’t say.
It wasn’t just on the Republican side – the success of Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary suggested that Democrats were also fed up with their own party. Sanders talked about the corruption of money in politics, the corruption of the media, and he called for nothing less than a political revolution.
At the end of the day, he didn’t win the nomination, and instead, rump ran against Hillary Clinton. Clinton was a reflection of the status quo of American politics – and she was rejected by the geographic majority of the nation. Trump’s rise likely speaks less to his own political acumen, but instead to the fact that he was the disrupter at a time when Americans were ready to shake their political process up.
Weird Twilight Zone Cross-Party Statements
Donald Trump has disrupted politics in more ways than one – and one of those ways is by unravelling party norms and laying bare the fact that political allegiance is often more important to people than fundamental values.
I’ll offer you three big examples:
- When Donald Trump called out American foreign policy
Remember when Donald Trump was being questioned about Russia’s apparent tendency to kill journalists and political opponents? His response? American is “not so innocent”.
Woah. Progressives everywhere must have stopped to scratch their head and wonder how to respond. For years, leftists have been the ones to call out American foreign policy as being imperialist, brutal and in need of serious reform. No politician, especially not a Republican president, would have dared to question the moral authority of the United States.
And yet…here we are. Donald Trump pointed out the obvious – America is a pretty brutal world power itself, and we’ve gone out and murdered people for absolutely no good reason.
- When liberals began fear mongering against Russia
So, Republicans are supposed to be the war hawks, right? Maybe not so much in the age of Trump. Liberals everywhere are capitalizing on what looks like some serious conflicts of interest between Russia and Trump by villainizing Vladimir Putin and playing into Cold War fears.
Since when are liberals the one escalating the conflict and bringing us closer and closer to war? If it helps them with their argument against a president that they absolutely can’t stand, I guess since now.
- When the Republican president became the threat to the constitution
Remember when Republicans were constantly chastising Barack Obama for threatening the constitution? Yeah – now that’s flipped all around. Donald Trump is being attacked by the left for threatening things like freedom of the press, governmental checks-and-balances and other central elements of the constitution.
We didn’t hear much from liberals about the constitution during Barack Obama’s presidency – in fact, we heard some people talk about how outdated it was. But now, liberals are holding the constitution to their heart and hoping it will ultimately get Trump impeached.
Was Donald Trump The Wrong Answer To A Very Real Problem?
All of this goes to show that Donald Trump is not only a disrupter in Washington, he is a disrupter of the way that people are thinking about politics all over the country. And it makes sense – people were so fed up with Congress and the government in general that something had to come undone.
Quite legitimately, a lot of tension existed in politics due to the fact that the average person’s voice was not being heard or represented in Washington, no matter which side they were on. It’s a very real problem in American politics.
Donald Trump looked to be the only candidate that had any chance of making a change – at least from the outside. In all likelihood, he was the wrong answer to the issue, however. Sure, Donald Trump had enough money that it was reasonable to think he “couldn’t be bought”. But he has lined his cabinet with the same billionaires that have been the politicians’ puppet masters for years.
Will Donald Trump “drain the swamp” as he promised, giving the government back to the American people? Almost certainly not. But will he be the disruption that America needs to kick themselves in order and begin pushing for a new political order, one that represents the people better than ever? Only time will tell.
