Despite the defeat in the US elections: Trumpism is still alive

ORRegardless of the outcome of the electoral battle for the White House, one thing was already clear Tuesday night: Trumpism is alive. It will continue to shape Washington in the future. Either way.

It is true that never before has a presidential candidate obtained as many votes as Joe Biden: at least 74.5 million. The previous record was held by Barack Obama, who received 69.5 million votes in 2008. But that cannot hide the fact that more than 70 million Americans voted for Donald Trump.

That means two things: First, more people voted for the Republican than Hillary Clinton in 2016 – the Democrat was known to lead the absolute votes with nearly 66 million voters. Second, he improved his own score by at least six million votes thereafter. After four noisy years in the White House in the midst of a pandemic that was never under control in America and in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the president has thus broadened his base, numerically and sociologically.

Votes won with minorities

Election investigators have not yet analyzed in detail November 3. But there are already signs that Trump has made the predominantly white Republican Party at least a little more colorful: In Florida his clear election victory, measured by “Sunshine State” standards, was also due to the fact that he was in Miami Dade poached in Democratic territory and had great success with Latinos. Especially among young people of Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan origin, he managed to win votes. This is where his populist warning about the “radical left Democrats” who controlled Biden and wanted to turn America into a laboratory for their socialist experiments got caught.

There are also indications that Trump was comparatively successful among young black people. Despite “Black Lives Matter”? Why “Black Lives Matter”? In Ohio, Iowa and Texas, Trump’s coalition of white industrial workers, rural populations, and evangelical conservatives remained. In Texas, this apparently was also due to growth among Latinos.

Pollsters had predicted robberies for Republicans. There were none. The expected “bloodbath” in the Senate did not materialize either. In the House of Representatives, in which the Democrats hoped to expand their comfortable majority, the “Old Great Party” even won a few more seats. But there were expected losses in the suburban women’s voting group with a college group. With this exception, Trump’s mobilization worked. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, said: Trump increased participation in his field by going to the people, talking to them and listening.