Trumpism is old news

In the current political climate, it’s too soon to think our democracy is no longer under threat, but after this year’s midterm results, we can celebrate that predictions of its demise were premature. There were plenty of reasons to think it would die, particularly in a midterm election year after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol inspired by the former president’s refusal to concede a free and fair election he lost and his amplification of the “big lie” that has falsely convinced millions of Americans, mostly Republicans, that our election system is rigged. That led hundreds of election deniers to run for offices across the country in 2022. Some questioned whether the American people would be motivated enough by the intangible, largely esoteric concept of defending democracy to overcome the political headwinds of the economy, inflation and an unpopular president. Conventional political wisdom says midterms are usually referendums on the person in power in the White House and the party controlling Congress. But in 2022, American democracy became an issue outside the political norm for voters’ consideration. Some questioned whether the American people would be motivated enough by the intangible, largely esoteric concept of defending democracy to overcome the political headwinds of the economy, inflation and an unpopular president to stop what should have been a wave election for Republicans. Clearly, they were. States like Georgia and Michigan set turnout records, and for the third election cycle in a row, we saw increased Gen Z and millennial voter engagement affect races across the country, mostly in favor of Democrats. Add the exponential increase in female voter participation post-Dobbs, and you can see how democracy emerged as the big winner of 2022. But it wasn’t just the outcome of the election that signaled that our democracy was still holding on in 2022. It was the fact that the outcomes of races went largely unchallenged. That’s no small feat, considering that over 300 candidates baselessly denied the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Many threatened not to accept election results if they lost. Thankfully, the majority of them did, with the exception of professional election deniers like Kari Lake, who lost the Arizona governor’s race to Katie Hobbs. She has vowed to continue to fight the results. Bless her heart.