Donald Trump Won, No Matter What Happens Next

8 min readNov 8, 2020

As I write this, 60 million people have voted for a man who spent the last four years playing golf and tweeting. This is the same man who calls one of our smartest scientists an idiot.

In the aftermath, it’s obvious why so many people voted for Trump. You don’t need a political science degree. You just need to live in the deep south. We get it. We were trying to be optimistic, but part of us always knew a Trump victory could happen, both in 2016 and now. When people vote they do it for their own selfish, completely illogical reasons.

They vote over abortion. They think they’re going to be rich one day, probably by winning the lottery. They don’t want to pay higher taxes when that happens, if it ever does. They vote to “own the libs.”

Watching millennials cry puts a smile on their faces. For people like that, nothing else matters.

All of these are terrible reasons. Trump voters know this. They don’t care. They don’t pay attention to policy platforms. If they don’t vote out of greed, they do it out of spite.

Trump Manipulates American Selfishness.

We have definitive proof now.

Half of Americans are just like Trump. They want what’s best for themselves, at everyone else’s expense. They grow up thinking they can be anything. They believe they can do anything. They insist that they deserve everything, right now. They’ll go to great lengths to preserve this illusion.

If they don’t get what they want, they demand to speak to the manager. It goes downhill pretty fast after that.

They hate waiting.

This is why they put up with companies like Amazon. They empathize with Jeff Bezos, not his workers.

It’s why they tolerate toxic politicians. Cruel leaders help create a world where the privileged can have whatever they want, as long as what they want is a bunch of cheap plastic stuff. They feel a little guilty sometimes, but not enough to change their behavior.

Trump Taps into Positive Thinking.

Donald Trump somehow manages to hurl abuse at people while also tapping into the magic of positive thinking. That’s because he understands how positive thinking works in America.

It’s not about being a good person.

It’s about believing in your own brilliance to the point that you overpower reality. It’s about curing mental illness with happy thoughts. It’s about beating cancer with meditation and juice cleanses, even if that didn’t work for the guy who invented the iPhone.

The trick is getting everyone else to buy into positive thinking. When you do that, they’ll support your delusion.

That’s how Trump keeps winning. People vote for him because if he can win without doing any real work, it means they can also achieve whatever their heart desires without doing anything to earn it.

That’s the real American dream.

Trump Works Magic with Privilege.

It’s debatable whether or not Trump is a political genius. One thing’s for sure, he’s managed to gain more for himself while doing less work than any elected official in history. It’s almost brilliant.

Deep down, Trump understands how privilege works. He knows that despite millions of Americans who want fairness to rule, there’s an arguably greater number who just want to hold on to the advantages they have. They don’t want to have to work any harder.

They won’t admit that. They probably aren’t even self-aware enough to know that’s what they really think.

It’s the ugly truth.

Trump Excuses Americans from Responsibility.

For a lot of us, it’s a bad thing when Trump and Pence stand in front of crowds and declare that racism doesn’t exist.

It sounds almost insane.

Now we see, for a second time, that a giant swath of Americans breathe a sigh of relief. They’re happy to play along.

A lot of Americans are simply afraid to admit that bias and prejudice make life harder for large groups of the population. They’re scared that if they acknowledge the existence of systemic injustice, that it might diminish their own accomplishments. They’re worried they’ll have to give a little something back, or make space for someone else.

That’s too hard for them.

They’re not willing to concede that privilege might’ve played a role in getting them where they are. It’s easier to pretend that life is fair to everyone. So they talk about grit and resilience. They go on about how all life requires is hard work and stoic confidence. That’s a more convenient narrative to live by than anti-racism. It makes life simpler.

Trump Lets Americans Ignore Reality.

It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about true economic reform, healthcare, race, or climate change. All of these problems require tough choices and hard sacrifices now, for a better future down the road.

Most Americans don’t like thinking this way.

They want immediate gains and instant gratification, even if part of them knows it’s smoke and mirrors. They want just enough comfort and false hope to hide in for a few more years.

Say what you want about family values. Most Americans are happy to let their children and grandchildren deal with the bleak reality of climate change. It doesn’t matter how red the sky gets in San Francisco, as long as they don’t see it when they look up at their own. Above all, Americans want permission to believe everything’s going to be just fine.