For the US, one could say, 2024 is a reminder of 1924. Yes, the nation held an election a century ago – and yes, it was a Republican who won the presidency. That was Calvin Coolidge, and like Trump, in an odd twist, he’d already served as the president. The circumstances were different.
Chosen as Warren Harding’s vice president in 1920, Coolidge took over after Harding died of a heart attack in 1923. Also worth noting, given Trump’s ominous plans for his second term, is the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924 (the Johnson-Reed Act), which Coolidge signed into law that year. It favoured Western and Northern Europeans, limited immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, and banned immigration from Asia. This exclusion lasted four decades.
But then there were big changes in the mid-1960s and the early 1990s, giving rise to the right-wing rage that has found fruition in Trump’s triumphant return to power. One could also mention the Forever Wars, especially the Iraq War, and the 2007-2008 financial meltdown – which led to the Great Recession – as catalysts that paved the way for a populist, demagogic strongman.