Donald Trump and his pick of acolytes have proved what we always knew – that there are alternatives to democracy. Like his new bestie, Vlad, and quite a few others around the world, he has used the ladder provided by his nation’s democratic system to ascend to a summit from where to put those very democratic norms to the sword.
How extraordinary it has been to watch how his millions of followers and millions more opponents let this happen. “Elect me and I will deprive you of your rights” he might as well have said. Let his story be a lesson to the people of other democratic nations whom the lessons of 20th century history may have missed.
Land of the free
America, the land of the free where each shall have their chance of the American Dream, except now if you are a woman, black, gay, trans, Hispanic, a scientist, an artist or a Democrat. America, erstwhile champion against fascism, communism and now against liberal democracy. America, evangelist of free trade and free speech until power came into the wrong hands.
A successful, apparently egalitarian culture, decades in the making, cast aside at the whim of one immoral chancer and his gang of misfits while an ultra-conservative Christian Establishment acquiesces. It could not happen – but it has.
The power of the ‘change’ vote
Historically, dictators have won power using legitimate processes and with the backing of the people, albeit sometimes with some extreme persuasion. Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin were able to manipulate genuine grievances in their ascents.
Trump too was able to cite a need for change. In 2024 he won the popular vote through his attacks on the status quo. Americans were less happy than they had been accustomed and perhaps felt entitled to be. Welfare bills of an expanding population could be seen as unsustainably expensive for tax-payers.
The economic growth of China in particular had reduced advantages enjoyed by the USA since the war. Western democracy had started to look weaker. The familiar system offered no solutions. Elsewhere, more assertive, autocratic leaders were winning popularity.
Trump saw his opportunity in similar vein. What was so egregious was not so much his victory but the pathway he took. He, the unthinkable doing the unconscionable, was able to bypass all the conservatism, the religious rectitude, the democratic history with so little opposition, using the norms he despises. He had no gangs of black or brown-shirted thugs to terrify the electorate into submission.
No vision, just brass neck
He did not even have a particularly clear vision of what lay ahead, just the brass neck to place himself on the mountain top, ready to cast aside the tablets of stone handed down by his predecessors: Roosevelt and the foundation of the United Nations to promote peace; the Truman Doctrine of US support for “free people who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures”; and the Reagan Doctrine in which the West, led by USA, would “regard no area of the world as destined to forego its liberty simply because the Soviets claimed it to be within their sphere of influence….. We would give material support to those who fought to recover their nation from tyranny”.
These were the tenets under which generations of Americans grew up since WW2 but which at a stroke have been abandoned by Trump, disregarding the duty of statehood, historic alliances and the nation’s reputation.
Conflicts over solutions
Trump promised change, prosperity and peace. So far, only the first has arrived and it is not good. Aggression tends to make enemies of those who could be friends. A trade war is still a conflict rather than a solution.
The wholesale removal of public services and hard-won rights leaves people impoverished, without notice or time to prepare. Departure from democratic checks and balances may result in an autocrat no longer wanted but irremovable for 4 years. It seems improbable that any change of governing party would now be able to restore the old norms.
America has made its choice which, no matter if or when it can be changed, will leave a brutal legacy both domestically and internationally. He was the choice of the American people but not of the British, nor the scores of other trading nations and businesses now suffering from his arbitrary tariffs and anti-diversity dictats. It’s extraordinary that that choice was made in the face of Trump’s history of immorality, ego and anti-democratic track record.
Time for backbone
Pragmatism already seems to be defeating historic values and self-respect among world leaders desperate not to lose relations with the newly ruthless USA. Happily, some, such as Carney, Sheinbaum and Albanese, have shown more backbone. This has to play itself out for it is too late for regrets. Trump is there, seemingly untouchable.
But he was not untouchable en-route to the White House. He could and should have been stopped. Democrats the world over must take a lesson from this story and sharpen their defences against this happening in their countries. We must not believe it cannot happen here, especially when we can see Trump fan Farage climbing that same ladder. Democracy in the wrong hands offers the material for its own destruction.
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