By Kenneth Tiven
Donald Trump’s authoritarian language is increasingly becoming more vulgar and strident as the presidential campaign wounds toward its conclusion. In response, Kamala Harris was direct when asked at a CNN Town Hall programme if she thought Trump met the definition of a fascist. “Yes, I do,” she said without hesitation, repeating, “Yes, I do”. She added that “Americans care about our democracy and not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.”
This came a few days after retired Marine Corps General John Kelly described Trump as a fascist for claiming the “Enemy is within the USA”. Kelly was Trump’s longest-serving White House Chief of Staff. He told an anecdote about when Trump regretted not having generals who swore loyalty to him as did military commanders who served Hitler in Nazi Germany. Kelly said he explained that they weren’t all loyal, with several failing attempts to assassinate Hitler. Trump disagreed and walked off, according to Kelly.
A day earlier, in careful remarks, Harris said: “Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions. Those who once tried to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there to rein him in.”
Harris is an experienced lawyer, prosecutor, and politician. Her toughness reflects her mother, a medical researcher who emigrated from Tamil Nadu, married in California, and raised two daughters. Her language is elegant and careful compared to Trump’s undisciplined rants. She has been Joe Biden’s vice-president and campaigned non-stop for more than 100 days to win and replace him in the Oval Office when a new government is sworn into office on January 20, 2025.
Trump has already told America that only Democrats cheating with a rigged vote count can deny him a second term. The same denial of losing that failed in 2020 will be re-run, promising a period of legal, political, and psychological manoeuvres threatening the peaceful transfer of power. Millions of Americans are already voting with mail-in ballots or the early voting options in several states. National voting at the polls is on November 5, and late that evening, the vote count is likely to be unfinished because Republican officials in several states hint at a slowdown. Nearly 150 million votes—maybe more—will be cast. They must be counted in 50 separate states across five time zones and then certified by each state’s officials, leaving plenty of room for confusion. Trump has considered himself a president-in-exile rather than the loser in 2020, and despite having encouraged a coup in 2021, he has characterized President Biden and all Democrats as “enemies of the state”.
Trumps’ campaigning has been more erratic, with fewer rallies and less enthusiasm than in the past. He has used profane expressions regarding his opponent. At a recent event, he lost his train of thought, standing mute while swaying to music for over half an hour. Perhaps it is age or a sign of dementia, but campaign spokesman Stephen Cheung laughed it off as Donald being Donald. Or, possibly he expects to overturn any adverse election results in court, so the campaign doesn’t matter. His language has been consistent. A year ago, he said: “This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the communists, we will throw off the sick political class that hates us, we will rout the fake news media and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.”
Beginning in 2015 when he first ran and won, Trump has articulated an unchanged view that the US is in decline with systemic problems in every aspect of life. Yet today, with three and a half years of Democratic leadership, unemployment is low, wages are increasing, illegal immigration has declined significantly and the stock market is at an all-time high, with corporate profits exceeding expectations in significant industries. Inflation, especially in food and fuel prices, has declined, but not fast enough for many people who base their entire understanding of economics on food prices.
Harris is pushing the measures she will take to bring economic fairness to wages and costs, and she stresses her position on family planning and women’s rights. Democrats are counting on the issue of individual rights, which the Republican majority in the US Supreme Court revoked at the urging of Trump and his white Christian evangelical supporters. Women lost control of their medical decisions as 50 states were then able to set 50 different rules on abortion and family planning issues.
This has interfered with medical decisions, with women dying as a result. These are so personal and contentious that polling answers may not accurately indicate how people will vote.
A Republican senatorial candidate in Ohio expressed amazement that any woman over 50 cared about abortion, obviously ignoring that many have daughters and daughters-in-law and may simply think outside their own needs. Simple-minded politicians are not in short supply in America. Non-stop, short-form television and social media advertising plays a role in voters’ lack of sophistication on many issues.
The two campaigns and related political action committees (PACS) are estimated to have spent at least two billion dollars supporting candidates. Among them is Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla cars and the owner of Twitter, named X, and now a major supporter of right-wing rhetoric on behalf of Trump. Among the richest men in the world, he is also apparently one of the strangest. Musk is using his vast resources and taking aggressive measures for Trump in Pennsylvania and other key battleground states. His direct use of social network influencer X as a backer of Trump and right-wing conspiracy theorists has been obvious for months.
A recent move raises legal and ethical concerns. Musk says he will randomly award one $1 million to a swing state voter daily through Election Day. It is ostensibly about signing a petition from Musk’s pro-Trump political action committee to avoid regulations prohibiting paying people to vote. Musk has already personally contributed $75 million on Trump’s behalf.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said: “Musk obviously has a right to express his views. I don’t deny him that right. But when you start flowing this kind of money into politics, I think it raises serious questions that folks may want to take a look at.” He added: “I think it’s something that law enforcement could take a look at.”
The Democratic Party’s strength is in urban areas, while rural dwellers tend to be more Republican. The nation’s election laws have been adjusted over two centuries, but the power of the less populated states has been preserved. It stems from a compromise written into the US Constitution in the 18th century that converted the popular vote to a state-by-state total number called the Electoral College. In that period, enslaved people did not vote; only white males voted. Women didn’t get the vote until 1920. So, about seven states whose voting majority swings back and forth are the focus of this election. There are a total of 538 electors with each state getting an elector for each representative they have in Congress—both senators and House members. The concept was to convince small states that their votes were equally valued compared to states with much larger populations.
America’s role in world affairs will vary enormously depending on who is elected. Trump’s admiration for dictators such as Vladamir Putin and other oligarchs has been crystal clear for some time. Trump himself has said he wants to be a dictator on Day One, implying a one-shot deal. A dictator, by definition, wants total control, as Trump himself made clear, saying: “Domestic threats are more dangerous than China, Russia… the bigger problem is the enemy from within. We have some very bad people, we have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the big—and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by the National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”
These are not the words of the leader of a pluralistic democracy that is involved in social, political, and defense relationships on a global basis.
—The writer has worked in senior positions at The Washington Post, NBC, ABC and CNN and also consults for several Indian channels