There is a malignancy — a term I do not use lightly — plaguing this country, and it has spread throughout nearly every element of the superstructure, particularly amid our media landscape, law enforcement, civil society and the very heart of government. This malignancy is characterized by reactionary extremism, the rejection of scientific facts in favor of conspiracy theories, a penchant for political violence, disdain for political opposition and even democracy itself. Ideologically, it is expressed through chauvinism, religious and social conservatism and illiberalism. We may understand it not through pure ideology, but rather through the tendencies of those who are a part of it, and the consequences of the implementation of this malignant greater ideology.

In the sociopolitical landscape, this malignancy is known as “the culture war.” I believe that this “war” over what American society should look like has been the driving force in our politics since at least the 1970s with Nixon’s appeals to “the silent majority,” and is the key to understanding this upcoming election.

In American civil society, the culture war has its origins in the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, with the ascendance of the “new left,” a term used to describe the conglomeration of the social movements of the 1960s. This was a time of immense change in America as marginalized groups such as the African American, women’s and LGBTQ+ communities campaigned across the country for social and political justice. Although these movements may not have achieved all their goals, they had succeeded in bringing about immense cultural change. But with progress, there was also resistance, with many culturally conservative white Americans opposing of the transformation of what had once been a heteronormative, racially and culturally homogenous national culture.

So these white conservative voters resisted, forming an alliance with the Republican Party to hamper this progress, as exemplified by Nixon’s appeals to “the silent majority,” Reagan’s embrace of evangelical voters and Trump’s rejection of “political correctness,” with the values of social and religious conservatism codified in the Republican platform.

The Republican Party has come to represent an increasingly narrower demographic of white evangelical (or otherwise socially conservative) voters, seeking to promote a very specific concept of what the country should look like. This country is indeed polarized, but not between Democrat and Republican, or “left” and “right.” Instead, we are polarized culturally between largely white social reactionaries and the reality of multiculturalism. This is what makes the upcoming election so consequential, and the reactions to it so dangerous. This isn’t merely a referendum of Trump or the desire for a “return to normalcy,” this is a battle over what this country should look like culturally for decades to come.

Donald Trump’s economically populist rhetoric may have helped differentiate his campaign amid the Republican presidential primaries, and arguably pushed him over the edge in 2016. However, research conducted that same year found that populist voters in the United States and Western Europe are largely characterized by “anti-immigrant attitudes, mistrust of global and national governance, support for authoritarian values and left-right ideological self-placement” — characteristics which have been rationalized through the lens of the supposed economic interests of a nation and exemplified by populist voters’ opposition to “globalism” as opposed to specific aspects of the neoliberal program.

The same researchers who conducted the 2016 study, Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, recently published another study through their project the Global Party Survey, which “is designed to identify and compare the ideology, policy positions and rhetoric of political parties around the world.” In comparing the Republican Party to other dominant political parties in the developed world, they found that Republican Party to be among the most ideologically extreme parties internationally and more likely to undermine liberal democratic principles and oppose minority rights.

I use the term “malignancy” to describe this phenomenon not just because of its reactionary nature, but because of the violence it has inflicted, as recently seen in Kenosha, Wisconsin when 17-year old Kyle Rittenhouse murdered two Black Lives Matter protesters and in Michigan, where a group of extremists plotted to kidnap the governor and overthrow the state government. The most devastating statistic is the 225,000 people in this country who have died from COVID-19 because of Trump’s own inaction, a number that continues to rise.

What is also extremely frightening is that this malignancy is not just limited to the Republican base. In the wake of the most recent Black Lives Matter protests, the police of this country have made it clear whose side they’re on, with police departments across the country violently cracking down on overwhelmingly nonviolent protests. The Police Benevolent Association of New York City, one of the largest police unions in the country, has even endorsed Trump, with union president Patrick Lynch declaring “Police officers are under attack. Our neighborhoods are being ripped apart by violence and lawlessness … we still have one strong voice speaking up in our defense.”

In recent months, both the Republican base and their representatives in government have revealed their increasingly anti-democratic tendencies. Since 2016, the number of early voting locations has been cut by 20 percent. Trump has waged war on the U.S. Postal Service in an effort to suppress mail-in voting, and in California the Republican Party has set up fake state ballot boxes to harvest votes. Florida has effectively instituted a poll tax for convicted felons who have recently recovered their voting rights and has also seen armed men attempt to show up at polling stations, following Trump’s order for his supporters “to go into the polls and watch very carefully.” Even right now, the Senate successfully rushed to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court prior to the election, now causing the outcome of the election to possibly fall to the imbalanced Supreme Court. This would echo what happened in 2000 when the Supreme Court brought the ballot recount in Florida to a halt, effectively granting Florida’s electoral votes, and by extension the presidency, to George W. Bush.

Most recently, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) declared “Democracy isn’t the objective [of the political system]; liberty, peace and [prosperity] are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.” I could imagine Lee’s conception of “the human condition” is quite different from my own. For Lee, it seems that “liberty” is dictated by social conservative morality, “peace” is established through the imposition of “law and order” and “prosperity” is akin to unfettered capitalism.

I must stress that Donald Trump is not the source of this malignancy, he merely its most recent personification. Even if he loses the election and leaves office, there will remain this segment of the population determined to mold the country in their own image.

Joe Biden promises a return to normalcy, but what he, and by extension the Democratic Party, must be made to realize is that such a thing isn’t possible. There is no going back to the pre-Trump status quo ante. The presidency of Donald Trump has changed the political landscape of this country forever and has awoken its most reactionary elements.

Moreover, the underlying conditions which made the rise of Trump possible, namely political and socioeconomic alienation, have been ignored by the Democrats, and if Joe Biden’s career has shown us anything, it’s that if he is elected, he will continue to meet Republicans in the middle. He has done this in the past through passing the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and promoting the Iraq War. This will gradually push the country further right and alienate progressive voters with more neoliberal economic policies, and setting the stage for an eventual comeback of the populist right.

But on one issue, Biden is at least partially correct. That is this election is a battle for the “soul of America.” As president, Biden may not fight for racial or economic justice, but at least with this malignancy out of the White House and no longer in the position to fan the flames of the culture war, civil society will be able to return to a state of homeostasis.

I wish I could sit here and write that in spite of all this, I still have a sense of hope for the future. But I can’t and I don’t. There is a segment of this country that seeks to impose its vision of how things ought to be, and will stop at nothing to do so. This vision is one which has no room for the rights of women or minorities. The people who believe in this vision know they are in the political minority, and have thus come to reject democratic principles in order to achieve their vision, whether it be through manipulating public institutions, or through vigilantism. I don’t know what will happen on Nov. 3, but I don’t see this country getting through the year unscathed.

Colin Mangan is an sophomore double-majoring in philosophy and sociology.