If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the US election last night, it’s that Donald Trump was not a mistake. 

He might not win this year’s election, but he has taken it way closer than anyone predicted and - importantly - he has managed to convince 4 million more Americans to vote for him this time around than they did last election.   

Why? 

Because this shouldn’t have happened right?  We’re constantly told how unsuited Donald Trump is to the job, that he is corrupt, he is illegitimate as a President helped by Russia, that he is wrecking global institutions, he’s a racist, a misogynist, and something of an idiot. 

So why did that person manage to convince so many Americans to support him again?  

Alex Tabarrok is a professor of economics at George Mason University and last night he tweeted this:

My takeaway is that a large number of people HATE the cultural left (not the econ left) and are willing to put up with almost anything, including incompetence, chaos, corruption and bad policy, to signal their views loud and clear. 

My takeaway is that a large number of people HATE the cultural left (not the econ left) and are willing to put up with almost anything, including incompetence, chaos, corruption and bad policy, to signal their views loud and clear.

— Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok) November 4, 2020

That, I think, hits the nail right on the head. 

Four years ago I wrote an opinion piece for the Herald arguing that Donald Trump was the product of political correctness.  That there were people who voted for him because they were sick of being told what they couldn’t say, and how they were supposed to think and so they chose a person who did the exact opposite: who said and did what he wanted to and gave the middle finger to political correctness  

In the last four years, that hasn’t got any better. It’s got worse. There’s now a strong cancel culture that blacklists people who break their rules by saying the wrong thing and groups of people who tear down statues of historic figures who don’t meet today’s standards.    

Donald Trump symbolises the opposite of that. He is the most aggressive version of opposition. 

That is at least part of he’s drawn more votes this election. 

So, as long as that controlling cancel culture exists, Donald Trump’s voters will exist.  Even Trump loses this election, it might not be the end of politicians like him because he wasn’t a mistake.