Donald Trump’s “big lie” gets support: Republicans radicalize and shake up US politics

The Republican Party primaries, which have been taking place in recent months in the United States, show an increasingly worrying phenomenon: more than 100 victorious candidates support and amplify the so-called “Big Lie”, the false statement propagated by Donald Trump claims that it was him to win the 2020 election, which led to a mob of violent Trump supporters storming Congress on January 6 last year.

Beyond this serious questioning of the democratic system, come many of the candidates and important figures of the largest US opposition party radicalizing his speech on all fronts with anti-abortion, anti-gay and pro-gun positions, against sex education in schools, the teaching of mathematics and the fight at Disneyworld, new election flags.

It is not something anecdotal, but this trend will mark the future: this extreme Republican party has, according to the polls, great chances of winning the legislative elections in November and win a majority in both houses of Congress.

And it will breathe new life into its leader, former President Trump, who is flirting with the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.

Trumpism without Trump?

Regardless of whether the tycoon is in the running or not, there is already talk of a new Republican party dominated by his extreme ideasa Trumpism even without Trump.

Said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and political affairs at Princeton University Clarione that “instead of moving away, the Republican Party is now approaching Trumpism”.

The expert adds that, from what can be seen after the primaries, this movement “will establish favorable conditions for the former president to win the Republican nomination or nominate a candidate similar to Trump’s”.

This was stated by Eduardo Gamarra, professor of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University Clarione that “the Republican party has been radicalizing for several years” and that “most of the polls agree that it has ceased to be the traditional Republican party and is now more than ever Donald Trump’s party”.

A recent survey by Washington Post revealed that in the past Republican primary so far, voters have chosen seven candidates for the United States Senate, 82 candidates for the House of Representatives, five for the governor, four for the state attorney general, and one for the secretary of state who they have publicly denied or directly questioned the result of the 2020 elections. They support and amplify the flag raised by Trump, which all investigations and justice have proven to be absolutely false.

As an example: one of those candidates, Doug Mastriano, Trump’s dolphin for the governor of Pennsylvania, may have the authority to directly appoint the secretary of state, who oversees the election administration and approves or does not approve the election results. .

He was at the Capitol on January 6. That day he organized a fleet of buses for Washington. Videos of the riots show him near police barricades as violent people pulled them down to storm Congress.

Drastic right turn

Over the past year, Republican state lawmakers in 22 states have filed dozens of bills to change election administration rules and deprive election officials of oversight, efforts that Democratic advocates have warned could invite investigations with false fraud or seek to cancel the results altogether, as it suits him.

“In this context, I think it can be concluded that the Republican party today is very different from the party of 6 years ago and it is definitely not just Trump’s party, but the party of Trumpism,” said Gamarra.

Despite being a trend that dates back to the days of the Tea Party and the Barack Obama administration, the economic crisis and post-pandemic anxiety have fostered this even more drastic shift to the right, which includes a mixture of racism, sexism, xenophobia and a resentment of federal government expansion.

Racism and xenophobia

Trump’s populism has managed to fascinate a population who believe that immigrants take jobs away, that African Americans or Latinos “distort” the country’s white and Anglo-Saxon roots, and that the “far left” seeks to impose ideas on their children. in schools about sex and gender that go “against nature” and religious beliefs.

The former president, who escaped impeachment for the assault on Congress because the Republican party supported his leader, said he wanted to run, but it is not known whether he will or not.

Despite being defeated, he has nearly 72 million votes in his pocket which he got in the last elections and another unusual and alarming fact: Polls indicate that 68% of his constituents believe Trump actually won in 2020 and that Biden’s victory was illegitimate.

The extreme republican agenda now includes limiting as much as possible or canceling the right to abortion; curb the entry of immigrants; abrogate initiatives such as same-sex marriage; modify the electoral law to suit its size; resist the offensive against weapons; banning sex education in schools, among other measures that can be approved by the Supreme Court, which has also become a conservative majority since the Trump era.

It is possible that the tycoon, now 76 years old, does not want or cannot for legal reasons run back to the White House in two years, but everything indicates that Trumpism will last, even without Trump, with other faces.

new figures

“A kind of Trumpism is emerging without Trump and figures like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appear in this context,” says Gamarra, a professor in that state.

“He is a conservative with even radical or trumpist positions, but in some ways he is much more attractive to the Trump electorate. The former president is already carrying baggage that is likely to hurt him in the 2024 presidential election. DeSantis appears to be a conservative and radical man, but who has been a good governor from the point of view of much of the Florida electorate and which already has a national following “.

43 years old and governor since 2019, DeSantis has been one of the leaders who opposed the closure of businesses and the use of face masks during the pandemic. It also sparked controversy over its “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which banned classroom teaching by school staff or third parties about sexual orientation or gender identity until third grade.

While Disneyworld has ruled against this law, DeSantis has promoted another initiative that took away from the amusement park – considered an icon of liberalism and diversity – the autonomy it had in Orlando.

Among other controversial measures, he ordered the rejection of 54 school math textbooks for including “critical theory of race” and “socio-emotional learning,” something conservatism rejects. He also designated November 7 as “Communism Victims Day” and ordered public schools in Florida to teach “the dangers” of that ideology that day.

In addition, his bill against illegal immigration has already come to light, which includes a special force to persecute them in Florida, the sanction for companies transporting undocumented people and the persecution of the international trafficking network.

For Gamarra, “DeSantis appears to be establishing itself as the best option within the Republican Trumpist party. The party must move away from Trump while maintaining those positions. Right now, in most polls, the one who has a national position and is taking away space from Trump is DeSantis “.

Washington, correspondent

CB