One not-so-rare narrative regarding the possibility of Trump’s reelection indulges in spreading pessimism through portraying an extremely undemocratic, inegalitarian, and nonfunctional future for the United States. Many centrists share their concerns about the authoritarian regime Trump would seek after in his second term. You can find numerous opinion pieces in mainstream media which basically argue that the GOP itself is not a threat to democracy – Trump is. In fact, those people do not shy on saying that they believe having a conservative party alongside a liberal one is what makes American democracy strong. Their goal is to appeal “reasonable Republicans” to either stop such an extremist’s candidacy or not vote for him in the election. What I would like to discuss here is the complete misguidedness of this absurdly reductionist and limited way of political thinking.

I’ll talk about why scapegoating a single individual is not a good approach to politics in a bit. However, when that individual is Trump, it makes the position not only inaccurate but also ridiculous. Trump is a moron with no real-life skills, no intellectual capital, and no earned respect or validation from anyone he has ever interpersonally related with. Additionally, despite all the head start he got in life and all the privileges presented to him through economic, political, and social structures that are cultivated to serve people like him, he is at best a mediocre businessperson. With these in mind, it is really difficult for me to take anyone who thinks Trump can singlehandedly change a regime seriously. If such a buffoon is powerful enough to destroy the American democracy by himself, that democracy is already a shambles. People who think Trump is capable of all those things not only ridicule themselves but also paint an alarmingly inaccurate portrait of his which feeds into the illusion of him being a successful politician.

The problem with singling out Trump as the sole threat to democracy does not end with its hilarious inconsistency. Thinking that the political arena in the US would be participatory, people-oriented, and respectful of rights and liberties without Trump is naïve at best – it most probably is just purposefully deceiving. The United States has never been a safe, inclusive, or welcoming place for those who are marginalized, those whose calls for equality and justice left unanswered, and those whom the privileged ones owe to. Scapegoating Trump at the expense of vindicating immensely problematic political traditions, ideologies and values of the GOP is one of the evilest positions one can take in US politics. Any decent person with a sincere concern for the rights and well-being of women, minorities, immigrants, and working-class people would strongly oppose to not only Trump’s presence in the political arena but also to the presence of the Republican Party altogether. In fact, one also mustn’t forget that the Democratic Party’s DNA has a 99.9% match with the GOP’s – same right-wing policies, same imperialist aggression, same alliance with the Military-Industrial Complex, the Prison-Industrial Complex, and the ruling class in general.

Trump’s potential reelection will not singlehandedly make the state of American democracy worse than what it is right now. Nor, preventing him from claiming the office will save the democracy. Hundreds of millions of people in the US are experiencing exploitation, oppression, incarceration, homelessness, fighting preventable and/or treatable diseases, or even getting killed while the country’s natural resources are getting rapidly annihilated – all for desperately attempting to satisfy the unearthly greed of a handful of persons. This is the real threat to democracy and to people’s rights and liberties. And no election within this system can eliminate this threat anyways.