The bubble that was the Democratic Party and now Trump’s

The next bubble to burst was one that no one saw coming: the Democratic Party and its progressive agenda.

The 2008 financial crisis was in part the result of predatory lending and subprime mortgages that ushered thousands of people into homes that they couldn’t afford. When they couldn’t make the payments, the housing bubble burst leading to a steep decline in global markets that were invested heavily in mortgage derivatives.

{mosads}Since then experts have been vigilantly on the lookout for the next bubble to pop. Would it be professional sports and the enormous salaries that athletes receive? NFL ratings are down this season.

What about rapidly increasingly college tuition costs? Prices can’t go up at this rate forever. Maybe gold? Interest rates are about to go up which may lead to a drop in the price of this popular safe haven.

But there was another bubble that no one saw coming: the implosion of the Democratic Party and its progressive agenda.

The failure of the media and big data polling over the last 18 months to adequately capture the mood of the electorate led to an overestimation among democrats, and many republicans, of Hillary Clinton’s chances of being elected the next president.

But she and the entire Democratic Party woke up on Wednesday, November 9 shattered both literally and figuratively. Not only was the loss a devastating emotional blow, it also left Democrats broken at every level of federal and state government: they lost the presidency, remain the minority party in the House and Senate, maintain only 17 governorships, and control just 18 state legislatures.

Looking back, we should have seen Trump’s victory and the power of his coattails to pull other republicans into office a mile away. But the markers in this unusual campaign were themselves quite unorthodox. Yes there were the copious number of Trump signs in suburbia and rural areas. But the more telling indicators of Mr. Trump’s pending win were in the less customary ways that people expressed their fascination and allegiance.

Liberal activist Michael Moore predicted a Trump victory last summer after he discovered that the campaign was spending more money on hats than anything else. Moore, a Michigan native, knew that if that many people were buying hats it spelled doom for Mrs. Clinton with working class voters like those in his hometown. Your hat, whether emblazoned with a sports logo or a campaign slogan, is who you are; a part of your identity. That’s how his people roll.

Similar markers were likewise present in my town: the numerous Trump painted pumpkins (there was only one HRC) for sale at my daughter’s elementary school fall festival, my aunt who rushed home after church one Sunday because she couldn’t wait to see what Trump had said, and my neighbor who exuberantly dressed up as Trump for Halloween. What I dismissed as a passing fancy was actually a four year contract offer from the American people. We want more.

In an era where our news is our entertainment and our president our entertainer, the power of Trump’s celebrity ruptured what seemed to be the inevitable extension of the progressive agenda.

Between electing the first black president, legalizing gay marriage, and the increased demographic and religious diversity in America, the elevation of a woman to the highest office in the land seemed a fait accompli.

Then, pop.

Progress doesn’t move in straight lines. And sometimes breaking barriers is paradoxically what leads people to want to roll things back. It happened in 1968 when Richard Nixon ran as the law-and-order candidate amidst race riots and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Social changes and unrest left the country on edge and it wanted a candidate who it felt could slow down and control the forces pushing it forward.

In the same election, independent candidate George Wallace a proponent of racial segregation garnered 46 electoral votes (13.5% of the popular vote). Many Americans wanted the country to try and stay the same even though it was already changing.

The same thing happened this year. There are many reasons that Trump won the election: a natural desire for change, poor economic growth in some areas of the country, his power to entertain and keep America waiting for his next move, and running against a very flawed opponent in Hillary Clinton.

But another aspect of his rise is Trump’s ability to harness the desire of some Americans to roll back changes resulting from globalization and the country’s increased racial and religious diversity.

He successfully fought his way into politics on the back of the birther movement. And no matter what you think of him, one thing is clear: he read the mood of the country better than anyone. He recognized that there was an appetite to revive old divisions that America thought it had overcome. He knew that America wanted to try and stay the same again even though it’s already changed.

But you won’t see any Trumps jauntily walking your street next year on Halloween. He is not just a curiosity anymore. He’s the leader of the free world. And he can no longer be enjoyed by his supporters as an innocuous showman because he’s now responsible for the well being of millions of people. It was funny when he was a long shot.

But not anymore.

How long can Trump’s appeal last? Recently appointed strategist and former CEO of Breitbart News Steve Bannon believes that Trump’s pending administration will ring in a new era of economic nationalism that will last 50 years.

But because President-elect Trump’s rise is so dependent on his outsized personality, it’s hard to imagine that his ideas and the divisions that he has sown will transcend his own political lifetime.

At 70 years old, for how long can Trump carry his message forward after a four or eight presidency? The Trump children look the part, but they don’t have the same flair for the spotlight as their father.

All celebrities and politicians can fall as fast as they rise. When will America tire of Trump’s antics? Maybe after four years. Definitely after eight. Or will some intervening event force him out somewhere in between now and 2024?

It all depends on our appetite for entertainment versus our desire for real change and whether he can deliver on his promises to the working class people that have pegged their hopes to his message.

We’ll just never know.

Until, pop.

McGowan hold a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University. He is an Adjunct Professor at William Paterson University and stay-at-home dad living in Wyckoff, NJ. Follow him on Twitter @josephcmcgowan

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