I doubt there are many Democrats who would want to entertain the thought of Donald Trump winning on November 8th. That’s traditional, long-time registered Democrat voters rather than the more recent, brash, Sanders insurgency supporting youth who so nearly upset the convention. And yet there may be a case – which some hard-core Sandersites have long endorsed – for suggesting that a Trump win would be the better option for the long-term future of liberalism in America.
If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency then her very tenure will reinvigorate the Republicans in Congress, united in their bid to frustrate her at every turn. It will likely give Paul Ryan, the House Speaker, an even higher profile and a leading role in not only refurbishing the Republican image – something he is desperate to do – but also in running for the presidency in four years time. A Clinton presidency will also leave the substantial army of Trump supporters wholly unsatisfied, and ready to back either Trump or similarly iconoclastic right-wingers next time round, when they can point to four more years of “Democrat misrule” and establishment alienation.
A Clinton presidency might even engender a constitutional crisis. While Trump said he would support Clinton as president if she won the election on November 8th., he has made enough noises previously to suggest that he and his supporters consider the whole electoral system rigged against them, and would use that as justification to dispute another Democratic victory. Edward Foley on Politico has shown how such a challenge might work given the partisan nature of America’s state operated electoral decision machines.
Should Trump actually win, a whole new scenario emerges (I know, I know….a contender for statements of the blinding obvious). Given Trump’s maverick approach to politics, and the division he has already inflicted on the Republican party, the Democrats can look forward to four years of ever increasing Republican turmoil as House and Senate Republicans try and deal with an unpredictable, and essentially non-party, president. Four years of President Trump also provides even his hardest core supporters with the irrefutable evidence of not just how damaging such a presidency might be, but more importantly show them just how little he is able to change. When no wall goes up – or at best a small symbolic one – and immigration doesn’t cease; when terrorist attacks continue; when Trump’s pally approach with a politically superior Vladimir Putin fails to bring gains to America and merely makes her look like an international patsy; when Trump’s economic decision making fails to match the promise he has given of work for all those disenchanted, unemployed voters; when race relations hit a nadir and riots envelop the cities on a scale not seen since the 60s; when the economy tanks under the weight of an illiterate economic stategy; when all this and more happens do we really think the Trump brand will retain its potency in the re-election battle of 2020?
In such circumstances, the Democrats could nominate a new, fresh face, reinvigorate their liberal appeal, shore up their popular support across a variety of groups – the young, the black, the female, the Hispanic – and storm to victory not just in the race for the White House but also in the House and the Senate, probably for a generation at least.
The only question is – would four years of Trump be an acceptable price to pay for such future largesse?
