Trump can be lawless — Kamala must be flawless

Donald Trump is given unquestioned legitimacy because of his status and privilege — but Kamala Harris must do everything perfectly in order to be deemed legitmate, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.

THROUGHOUT THE U.S. ELECTION CAMPAIGN, it has been endlessly frustrating to watch mainstream news outlets give Donald Trump a free pass, while holding Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party to a much higher standard.

This bias is the reason Trump – a blatantly unfit political leader – rose to power in the first place.

This structural inequity in uneven expectations and standards is not just a Trump problem either – it’s evidence of a wider structural inequity across society.

Trump symbolises this inequity, and his followers love him for it.

The inequitable standards and critiques of Trump – as compared to Harris – were called out by CNN commentator Van Jones after Harris’ performance was assessed following her CNN Town Hall appearance.

Jones said:

“Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are not taking the same exam, and I think it bothers people... he gets to be lawless, she has to be flawless... she's talking about actual ideas that will help real people, and he's talking about people's penises”.

It is noteworthy that Harris was presenting at the televised town hall event on her own. This event was supposed to be a debate, but Trump refused to participate.

Trump found a great strategy to avoid scrutiny — not that he receives scrutiny even when he does debate.

Van’s comment came after fellow CNN host Dana Bash said “sources” had told her that Harris had failed to “close the deal” in her Town Hall performance, implying Harris lost a debate that wasn’t even a debate.

The high expectations placed on Harris leads to the expectation that she must do everything perfectly in order to be deemed legitimate.

This is this opposite of Trump, who has such unquestioned legitimacy that he can literally praise white supremacist nazis, rape a woman and be close friends with a paedophile, be charged as a felon and work to overthrow US democracy while still being treated as a credible candidate.

This problem is not just about Trump, it is about the seven privileged positions he holds in society as a right-wing, white, obscenely wealthy, upper class, old, straight male.

Through both conscious and unconscious bias towards these characteristics, Trump is afforded an automatic assumption that he is legitimate, even when facts prove otherwise.

This automatic, unearned legitimacy has been gifted to him by the mainstream media from the early days of his political career — beginning with the legitimisation of his racist disinformation campaign claiming former U.S. President, Barack Obama, was born overseas.

Despite everything that has happened since – all the proof against Trump’s credibility and legitimacy – these characteristics have been shown to be an unbreakable protective shield.

Trump is in a special position because he holds a full deck of seven privileged positions, each representing a hegemonic hierarchy above those without those characteristics; white ranks above non-white, rich above poor, upper class above working class, old above young, straight above LGBTIQ+, male above female, and right wing above left wing.

Once you understand that these traits are hierarchies of power, it becomes clear that even if Trump’s opponent holds six out of seven of the same traits, they will never be deemed as legitimate as Trump.

And, their illegitimacy will be emphasised in the media through much higher expectations on them.

Take, for example, Donald Trump versus President Joe Biden.

Biden, like Trump is white, rich, upper class, old, male and straight.

But he is not as rich as Trump, and crucially, represents the interests of working-class people as a left-wing Democrat, and thus is lower on the hierarchy of power than Trump.

This explains why, when Biden showed signs of old age, the mainstream media collectively called on him to resign.

Trump, meanwhile, constantly shows much more serious symptoms of cognitive decline, but has never been met with the same scrutiny on his fitness for the job.

Harris, of course, shares very few characteristics with Trump.

As a non-white, younger, female, who grew up middle class and is now rich and upper class, Harris has to work much harder to prove her legitimacy.

This explains the unconsciously high expectations on Harris that she must be flawless in order to win the presidency. It also explains why Harris received criticism for wearing an expensive necklace — whereas Trump has never received any criticism for his opulent, mega-rich lifestyle.

This criticism of Harris’ displays of wealth is born from unconscious – and possibly also overtly conscious – judgements that Harris is behaving “above her station” in wearing expensive jewellery.

It’s the same reason that Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was criticised for buying a multi-million-dollar home, when Liberal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton gets no such criticism for his much more expansive property empire.

Left wing politicians are held to different standards than right wing ones, even when all the other characteristics they have are on par.

Trump’s array of privileged positions and the automatic legitimacy afforded to them is the cause of his privileged media treatment. But that’s not the end of the story.

Trump’s supporters have seen how unaccountable he is – they have seen what he’s allowed to get away with because of his intersectional privileges – and they appreciate this display because that it is what they seek.

To understand why Americans support Trump – why they join Trump’s cult no matter how clearly unfit he is for President, or how little he cares about making their lives better - you need to understand how important it is to them that his privileges protect him in life.

This is what these people want in their lives too.

They want rich to be above poor, white to be above non-white, men to be above women, upper-class to be above working-class, straight and CIS to be above queer and gender diverse, old to be above young — and of course, right wing to be above left wing.

No matter which of their privileged characteristics, they want to hold onto its position of power over others.

This is particularly true if they only hold one or two of the characteristics – if they are not rich, and are working class, but are white and male – and their privilege – in their eyes is all they have left.

It also explains why such large numbers of white women support Trump — even when he is so aggressively misogynistic.

They accept his sexism because they appreciate his racism.

All of this also helps to explain why Trump supporters hate “liberals” or left-wing politicians so aggressively.

It is because left wing leaders promise to advance equity in society — and this equity threatens Trumps’ supporters’ innate privilege over others.

Trump’s MAGA voters’ behaviour is entirely about maintaining their privilege and fighting against equity.

This is why they adore Trump — because he symbolises the unaccountable spoils of privilege.

 

Dr Victoria Fielding is an Independent Australia columnist. You can follow her on Threads or Bluesky. 

 

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