Anna Alexis Michel, a French and Belgian author living in Florida, does not hide the fact that she is quite happy with Trump’s victory. But she wants to remain objective and to explain to others the perspectives that please him in this victory. She does so in a new essay (1). “ My premise is that Donald J. Trump’s victory is not a victory for the Republicans over the Democrats. It is the victory of an idea, which appeals to common sense and the return of the American dream. The announced death of extinctionism in favor of a new expansionism. This is the biggest upheaval in American society in a very long time. As proof, I cite the fact that all the rebel Democrats left the Democratic Party to help Trump win: Elon Musk, first, but also Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Nicole Shanahan, Tulsi Gabbard…
This upheaval corresponds to a new era. The movement that gave birth to it starts from the base: the American citizen was tired of being made to feel guilty about living, of being restricted. That thanks to idiotic rules, language policing, absurdities of all kinds, he can no longer breathe. And wokism was the straw that broke the camel’s back – the first factor among undecided swing states, even if it is more politically correct to talk about the price of eggs. Looking for excuses in alleged systemic racism, vengeful patriarchy or Russian influences is to miss the essence of the movement at hand.
So we had on one side an old veteran, resilient and pugnacious, and on the other a very nondescript candidate. He emerged strengthened from four years of legal proceedings, assassination attempts and clownish stagings, such as his appearance at McDonald’s or his ride in a garbage truck. She wasn’t Joe Biden, but she was still: she read speeches written for Joe Biden in Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit with Obama accents. Yes, a great lack of authenticity and those, very many, who voted for her are die-hard Democrats or visceral anti-Trump people. She counted on minorities, she didn’t get them, except black women. He, on the contrary, cast a wide net, especially among young men, notably by doing all the podcasts… and it worked.
He took up the subjects that interested people: immigration, the economy, wokism. She structured her speech on: abortion is good, Trump is bad and we should not talk about angry subjects. Remaining surprisingly vague on social issues and very imprecise on its economic program.
But Trump’s genius lay, from the middle of the campaign, in exploiting two veins. And that’s truly marketing genius. The first, he presented himself as the party of good sense, that of common sense. On the other hand, he presented himself as a unifier. And there it wasn’t easy either, since he was pointed out everywhere as the one who divides America. But by welcoming into a very large coalition those whom the Democrats had snubbed, the few percent who made the difference were added. And he kept his word by giving them key wallets.
Of course, Elon Musk played a major role, and behind him, all of tech and finance, but if we look more closely the Democrats spent three or four times more money than the Republicans for a very disappointing result .
So it’s not about left versus right. But, even if we find at the head of the movement a merry bunch of billionaires, they have only seized the spirit of the times and taken advantage of it, the movement comes from the base: it is about the people against an administration sprawling and opaque governmental (all three-letter government agencies, SEC, CIA, FBI, IRS, etc.) and Orwellian supra-governmental (WHO, NATO, IMF, etc.), “the machine,” which demands control. It’s about whether this administration works for the people or the people work for them.
All the great dogmas of the left, global warming, the scarcity of resources, overpopulation, military interventionism under the pretext of human rights, wokism are for the citizen so many cults to which he no longer wants to follow. believe and which he identifies as instruments of control.
The American who voted for Trump wants lots of children and not to be looked at askance because he has a large family. And then, he wants to raise his children as he wants, without thought policing, in the school of his choice or at home; that their daughters play sports without being afraid in the locker rooms, without cheaters who claim to be women in competitions, that they study without suffering the privileges granted to others under the pretext of appearance or membership. He wants a government so small that this government cannot come and interfere in what is happening at home, I am thinking of the episode of P’nut the squirrel confiscated and euthanized. He doesn’t want his kids to go and die fighting useless wars in countries that he can’t locate on the map, but he would like to see them exploring new worlds, and the conquest of space makes him dream again. The Startrek universe, made of technological innovation and exploration, seems within reach.
This campaign will have proven: that show business celebrities no longer have the power to influence the masses; that the best press campaign can fail; that with the exception of the ultra-specialized press (of course let’s think of the local press like the Courier or financial or sports newspapers for example which will survive very well because they correspond to specific needs) – the mainstream media are on the way of extinction in favor of platforms and podcasts. »
278 pages – December 23, 2024
Available in French on MEETING OF FRANCOPHONE AUTHORS:
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