They spat on Trump's bald head

Until now, in a very generalized way, Donald Trump's presidency was analyzed as if it were to last forever. As if it were the symptom of something ineluctable both on a global and local level. Here, Trump has been very useful for sustaining the usual catastrophic discourses of those who believe—or want others to believe—that drawing an apocalyptic future will, by reaction, favor them politically. It is also what is done by those who right now see fascists everywhere, as if that were to favor the vote for those who say they are fighting it, that is, themselves.

But the results of the midterm elections in the United States of America have just shown that Trump and Trumpism have their days numbered. And it pains me to say it, but a year and a half ago, when his second term was just beginning, I published the article Trump, the rogue who will fail (February 6, 2025). I wrote it because I was convinced of this failure of today. North America, with all its limitations, is a culturally and institutionally solid democracy. That in a country historically built on the American Dream a serious crisis of social expectations would make the populist and anti-system vote emerge should not surprise us. It is exactly what is happening here. But once it was seen that Trumpism, with its bully style, was not only not a good solution because it did not fulfill any of the promises made, it was to be expected that the vote would return more towards rationality rather than remain installed in resentment.

It is also pertinent to observe that the great victory of the Democratic Party in these elections has to do with the ability to present new candidates who have made possible a renewal of profiles and discourses. Whether the Democratic Party will know how to translate this into the next presidential elections is an unknown. But we must hope that it knows how to read the victory well. Because, and it must also be remembered, the second victory of an increasingly histrionic Trump had a lot to do with the poor management of the end of President Joe Biden and his last-minute replacement by the candidate Kamala Harris. By the way, a decision that squandered someone who could have been a good asset for the future.

And although it is boring to have to repeat it, James Carville, the advisor to Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, was right when he said that “It’s the economy, stupid”. It is understandable that from here we pay all our attention to Trump's deplorable foreign policy. But the American vote is usually cast, as everywhere else, in internal, that is to say, economic terms. And for Trump, who presented himself as an expert businessman –and who has been seen to be nothing but a ruthless, successful speculator–, the country's economy has turned against him, in large part due to the erratic foreign policy that has ranged from applying capricious tariffs to starting an absurd war that has harmed everyone.

In this sense, the Democratic Party's expectations of electoral victory for the next 2028 will depend, as has been seen, on the renewal of leadership. But also on refocusing on the economy and addressing the unrest of the average citizen, which is where the greatest consensus will be found. And, at the same time, it should place so-called cultural issues in the background, which is where the country is most divided. Or, if you like, that it should show cultural options –ethnic, religious, sexual identity...– through the diversity of the candidates rather than bringing them into an ideological debate that exasperates the deep differences in a country of such radically contrasted origins and profiles.

However, here we still fall into the pit of populist reaction, resentful of the failure of the promises of progressive ideas made by both liberals and illiberals on the right and left. We are always a little bit behind... And, therefore, in some countries like ours, but also in neighboring France, we have not yet hit bottom. But a good understanding of the current world demands a political perspective thought out for the medium and long term, not for the immediate. We may still spend half a dozen politically very unpleasant years, yes, but in no case do they justify the announcement of irreparable democratic hecatombs. Now in the United States they will finish experiencing the decline of Trump and his antics, and the decline of the rest of the Mileis of the world will arrive. And, sooner than we think, we too will overcome these grim times and return to face the great challenges of our time.

I do not know if we live in the time of A Thousand Cretins (Quim Monzó), but I have no doubt that, as in the United States of America, we will also end up heeding the watchword of Joan Salvat-Papasseit: “Spit on the bald head of the cretins”.