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This coming Thursday will mark the one year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Adding to the date’s significance, January 20th will also mark one full year from the official end of what was arguably the most disastrous presidency in American history.
When Donald Trump vacated the White House almost exactly one year ago from today, the hope and belief among many Americans was that his chaotic reign over the nation’s politics had finally come to an abrupt end. Any chance of Trump maintaining control over the Republican party had likely diminished due to the Capitol insurrection that he had incited only two-weeks prior to leaving office.
With Trump gone, American politics could finally return to some semblance of civility and normalcy. The Republican party no longer needed to bend to Trump’s every will and could finally end its sycophantic relationship with the former President. At least that’s how it seemed, right? As the following months would demonstrate, this belief could not have been further from the truth.
While Donald Trump was no longer President, the lasting effects and influence of his shocking rise to power were still very much pertinent in the world of politics. His brash, ruthless, and combative brand of politics had become a template in which the vast majority of the Republican party frantically reshaped itself to fit within. Through both the 2016 and 2020 elections, Trump proved that there was still a large portion of the country whose vote could be won over with far-right ideologies and hateful rhetoric targeted at varying ethnic, religious, and racial groups.
In exchange for breathing life back into the fear-mongering political tactics that had previously been perceived as a relic of our country’s troubled past, Donald Trump was all but anointed as the unofficial king of conservatism in the United States. The Republican party was no longer the party of Lincoln. In fact, it wasn’t even the party of Bush, McCain, or Romney any longer. The Republican party belonged- and continues to belong- to Donald Trump.
As previously referred to, this much became abundantly clear in the months that followed Trump’s departure from office. As the former President dissented further and further into conspiracy and rage, the vast majority of Republicans followed his every move. Republicans throughout the party began to downplay the horrific nature of the January 6th Capitol insurrection. Furthermore, the party shamelessly began to assist Trump in peddling his baseless and dangerous claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
Further displaying the complete control over the GOP that Trump has continued to enjoy following his Presidency; any member within the Republican party who has dared to speak out against Trump’s disgraceful claims or actions has seen their career in politics be entirely derailed.
The process typically goes as follows:
- A GOP member(s) speaks in opposition of something Trump has either said or done.
- Trump responds by lashing out with a series of viciously scathing personal attacks against said GOP member(s).
- The rest of the Republican party races to prove their undying loyalty to the former President by further attacking and ostracizing the GOP member(s) in question.
- The GOP member(s) who spoke against Trump are disowned by the party and almost always either pressured to resign OR await an overwhelming defeat in re-election.
In addition to controlling those already representing the Republican party, Trump has opened the door for a new generation of politicians to enter the fold- all of which are molded directly in his image. As a direct result of Trump’s influence on incoming GOP members, we have seen far-right conspiracy theorists and Trump sycophants such as Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, and Congressman Matt Gaetz plague the integrity of our nation’s governing institutions.
Even with the shocking level of control that Trump has continued to exercise over the Republican party in the year following his presidency; it appears that the former President is still seeking more power. Almost immediately following his departure from office, Trump has been constantly (and very publicly) flirting with the idea of running for a second term in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. As if the actions of the GOP over the last year have not been enough to enable Trump into a second run at the oval office; a series of recent polls have shown that he is far and away the most desired candidate upon Republican voters for the 2024 election.
Whether or not Donald Trump becomes President again is not really the point. While another Trump presidency could very well deal the final blow to our nation’s treasured democracy, I fear that such an outcome has already been made inevitable as a result of Trump’s first go-around. During his four years in power, Trump fundamentally altered the trajectory of our nation in ways that appear to be irreversible.
After leaving office as the only President to have ever been impeached twice; Trump left our nation’s democracy on the brink of total collapse. Of the countless failures and catastrophic mistakes made throughout his presidency, Trump’s most detrimental impact to our country has been the normalization of domestic terrorism, authoritarian politics, and the seemingly altered reality of “alternative facts” in which he lives.
Yet, as we currently stand one year later- despite all the evidence that would suggest his presidency was a disaster of unparalleled proportions- Donald Trump is practically worshipped by roughly half of the country.
It appears as though Trump’s rise to power was not the short-lived wound to American democracy that I and many others once hoped it to be. Instead, the impact of Donald Trump upon our nation’s democracy seems to be far more comparable to that of a seeping gash that only worsens with time.
Reach Chase Hontz at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @HontzCollegian