Last week, the man Vice President Kamala Harris labeled a “threat to democracy” won the presidential election – and the popular vote too. In spite of bullets, biased media, and blatantly corrupt prosecutions, Donald Trump’s once improbable political success will go on for four more years.
In the coming days, the votes will be certified and the formal transition will begin. Political pundits will continue to pontificate ad nauseam about the tragedy that is Donald Trump wielding the levers of political power.
However, the real story of this election is that, in spite of whatever flaws and foibles people find in him, Donald Trump is a living embodiment of political heroism.
One does not have to like President Trump to admit that he is a living image of a quintessentially American kind of courage. The photo of President Trump raising his fist to the air as blood streamed down his face will live on as an image that encapsulates manly political courage. Only a great man can have the wherewithal to be hit by a bullet a few millimeters from his brain and immediately stand up, definitely pumping his fist in the air.
Few men – if any – in American history have united such a politically diverse group of people. The MAGA movement includes everyone from the staunchest religious conservatives in the rust belt to silicon valley giants like Elon Musk.
What other American figure could unite those two factions of the American electorate under one banner?
No other American president has been so viciously attacked by his opponents’ employment of weaponized institutions. It is impossible to say that President Trump had an easy path to political victory. A literal mugshot of the real estate mogul turned politician took the internet by storm in the midst of his campaign, and somehow it didn’t seem to hurt him.
At every turn the mainstream media, academia, and big-tech companies have attacked, smeared, and lied about him, and yet the President kept fighting back with his classic old-man dance moves, fiery quips, and the powerful message that America can in fact be a great nation once again.
Trump is a resilient man, who operates with a great deal of charm.
This is heroic behavior. It is heroic to stand with courage in the midst of enemy fire – literal and figurative. It is heroic to unite a fractured nation in the way that he has. It is heroic to resiliently face one’s enemies with fortitude and resilience.
Above his policy agenda, tax cuts, and global strategy, Donald Trump is a hero figure to his base. In a 2019 speech at the Values Voters Summit, President Trump repeated one sentence several times. “They don’t like you.” Those words resonated in the hearts of a long overlooked and overtaxed demographic. He spoke directly to rightfully disgruntled flyover country voters and in clear language, he drew a bright line between “your values” and “their values”.
Through impeachments, assassination attempts, and media hoaxes, he has represented those Americans who have suffered much under the reigning liberal establishment.
Donald Trump himself is living proof of his message that America – and Americans – can still attain greatness.
