Another presidential election is less than a year away, but for reasons which will be made clear, the results are already clear: Donald Trump will be re-elected President of the United States on November 3, 2020. 

The reason for the confidence in this decision can be explained by our current political moment and the shifts that our political parties are currently undergoing. Much has been said about the tribalization of American politics, and whether or not Donald Trump deserves the majority of the blame for today’s tribalism. I do not want to repeat these arguments, but rather throw out some ideas outside of the everyday outrage. 

Our politics today can be explained by differing characteristics of two different people. The first is the cosmopolitan elitist, who spends his days in the city in upper-echelons of society with the highest paying job and who believes himself to be an aristocrat worthy of adoration. He faces no consequences for his actions, as he is part of an elitist culture that can use their money to get out of trouble and he looks his nose down at those outside his bubble as of lesser importance. 

He has never had to face struggles in his life, and he believes that those who struggle do so because they are not worthy or good enough to live his lifestyle. That makes him both pity his lessers, but also be angry at them He wants to do something about it so he spends his time criticizing his fellow Americans, telling them that they are sexist, racists, homophobic, and transphobic if they disagree. He will use the backing of his elitist friends to ruin the lives of those who dare disagree.  

Outside this bubble there is the local worker, who spends his days in the docks or at the plants to provide for his family through blood, sweat, and tears. The values of hard work, loyalty, and respect are central to his life and he imposes these values on his children. He looks up at the smugness of the elites who hold their noses at his values and feels as if they are always taking and taking and getting away with murder, while he has to walk the straight line to just scrape by. 

This man loves his country and does not want anything to change as he watches the elites cramming their views down his throat. He sees the elites as lazy and disrespectful to his country and his flag. He just wishes that someone in Washington would fight for his values and his way of life while also sticking it to those elites on both sides of the aisle who he feels despise everything about him. 

Which brings us to President Trump. For the past four years, no one has dominated almost every single aspect of American life, culture, and politics more than Donald Trump. His promise to be a fighter and a protector of the traditions and culture of the United States brought widespread adoration to the “common folk,” and confusion and annoyance to the elites. His use of Twitter to outrage the media and the elites (but I repeat myself) brings laughs and confidence among his supporters. His criticism of the media and their response to him and his followers brings back more anger and criticism from the president. The way Trump portrays himself as a fighter and as a winner speaks volumes to Middle America. They view Trump the way that they believe they are: a hard-working, tough guy, who gets his hands dirty working during the day and comes home to his family at night. A man who loves his country. 

Donald Trump is himself a McCarthy-like figure. Similar to the actual Joe McCarthy in the 1950’s, he brings out incredible passions on both sides of the aisle. Progressives hate him and Conservatives are divided on what to make of him. Or at least, that is how the journalists and Twitter-addicted political pundits think. But in Middle America, that is not the case. They love Donald Trump at the bewilderment of the elites. During the McCarthy hearings, Irving Kristol once remarked about Joe McCarthy, “For there is one thing that the American people know about Senator McCarthy: he, like them, is unequivocally anti-Communist. About the spokesmen for American liberalism, they feel they know no such thing. And with some justification.”

To paraphrase Irving Kristol for today’s Joe McCarthy: For there is one thing that the American people know about Donald Trump: he, like them, is unequivocally pro-America, and will do anything to protect this country and to keep it free. About his elitists opponents in Washington, they feel as if they know no such thing. And they are right.  

And who can blame them? Even before his inauguration, the Democrats and the media (but again I repeat myself) were already planning on taking Trump down. First, there was the promise of Russian collusion that Robert Mueller would find. When the Mueller Report did not have enough evidence to take Trump down, the elites moved on to the next scandal, the next hoax. 

No matter what Trump did, no matter if he tried to reach out across the aisle on a certain policy, elites doubled down and viciously continued their attacks on the president. Were they warranted? Sometimes, yes. But Americans want their leaders to work together, and working together they are not. The perception has become that the entire point of being a Democrat running for office is taking down Donald Trump. 

This perception of Donald Trump is why he will win in 2020. Despite what one thinks of impeachment, his poor character, or his tweeting, the fact of the matter is that the American people cannot stand how the elites are telling them what they can and cannot think or who they can or cannot support. The American people are tired of being force-fed a certain way of life that they do not think is right, and they feel as if the only person in the world that can protect them is a flawed character by the name of Donald Trump. 

And that is why Trump wins.