What Trump’s Return Means — Is Authoritarianism Back in Vogue?

With President-Elect Donald Trump’s reelection as US President, many are beginning to worry that this has solidified a new era of authoritarianism, where democracies consistently reject the previous attractions of democracy.

Understandably, Trump’s win in all seven swing states — along with the popular vote, the Senate, and the House of Representatives — has raised alarm for good reason. That said, Trump also won Congress in 2016 and faced resistance from fellow Republicans.

But here I don’t want to present another doomsday account. Instead, I would like to reassure readers. That’s because I believe that this election was not necessarily a vote for Trump. Instead, the evidence points to the election primarily being a vote against inflation and the Democratic Party they associate it with.

This was a vote for an alternative to the lived experience of the economy (rather than the macro perspective of the US’ GDP performance), even if it incorrectly assumed that Trump would be able to do something the Democrats couldn’t. Indeed, most economists point to Trump making things much worse for the average American, if Republicans follow through on their campaign proposals.

“Democrats need to take seriously how much scarcity harms them. Housing scarcity became a core Trump-Vance argument against immigrants.

Too little clean…